The Impossible Shot: 5 Scientific Reasons Why Stephen Curry Shooting From The Moon Would Take 453 Days

The legend of Stephen Curry's shooting range has transcended the basketball court, the arena, and even the planet. The "Curry Shooting From The Moon" meme is a viral phenomenon, a hyperbolic tribute to the Golden State Warriors star's limitless range, depicting him launching a basketball from the lunar surface toward a hoop on Earth. As of December 11, 2025, this meme continues to dominate social media, prompting a fascinating question: Is this ultimate long-distance shot even possible? The answer lies in a deep dive into orbital mechanics, escape velocity, and the sheer, mind-boggling distance.

The hypothetical shot is more than just a joke; it’s a brilliant thought experiment that pits the greatest shooter in NBA history against the immutable laws of space-time and gravity. The physics involved reveal that even with Curry’s superhuman precision, the shot would be a multi-year cosmic journey, requiring an initial velocity that would turn the basketball into a hyper-speed projectile. Here is the definitive breakdown of the five scientific and logistical challenges of the "Curry Moon Shot," including the shocking calculation for the ball's travel time.

Stephen Curry: The Ultimate Shooter's Profile

Before analyzing the cosmic shot, it’s essential to understand the unparalleled skill of the man at the center of the meme, Stephen "Steph" Curry. His career is defined by revolutionary shooting precision and range, which is the very reason this meme exists.

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• Full Name: Wardell Stephen Curry II
• Born: March 14, 1988 (Age 37 as of late 2025)
• Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
• Weight: 185 lb (84 kg)
• NBA Draft: 2009 / Round 1 / Pick 7 (Golden State Warriors)
• Career Highlights (Selected): 4x NBA Champion, 2x NBA MVP (first unanimous MVP), NBA Finals MVP, NBA All-Star Game MVP, NBA 3-Point Contest Champion.
• NBA Record: All-time leader in made 3-point field goals.
• Longest Career Shot (Made): Approximately 55-60 feet (from the opposing free-throw line).
• Release Speed (Typical Shot): An MIT physicist calculated a typical Curry release speed at approximately 23.8 mph.

Curry's mastery is not just about making shots; it’s about the speed and accuracy of his release, a combination that has fundamentally changed the game of basketball. However, the distance from the Moon to Earth presents challenges that no human strength or skill can overcome.

1. The Insane Velocity Required: Overcoming Moon Escape Velocity

The first, and most significant, hurdle is getting the basketball off the Moon. The average distance from the Moon to the Earth is approximately 384,400 kilometers (238,900 miles).

To launch a basketball from the lunar surface and have it travel toward Earth, Curry would first need to overcome the Moon's gravitational pull. This requires reaching the Moon escape velocity.

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• Moon Escape Velocity: Approximately 2.38 kilometers per second (km/s).
• In Miles Per Hour: This translates to roughly 5,300 miles per hour (mph), or over 8,500 km/h.

For context, the fastest recorded speed for a thrown object by a human is around 105 mph (a baseball pitch). Curry's typical release speed is around 23.8 mph. The required speed of 5,300 mph is the speed of a high-powered rifle bullet, not a basketball shot. Curry would need a specialized, high-velocity launch mechanism—not his hands—to even begin the shot. The ball would need to be accelerated to this speed in a fraction of a second, likely destroying it in the process.

2. The Astronomical Travel Time: 453 Days to the Hoop

Assuming the basketball is somehow launched at the precise escape velocity of 5,300 mph, the next question is: How long would it take to reach Earth?

A hypothetical calculation by physicists, assuming the ball just barely escapes the Moon's sphere of influence (reaching a velocity of 1 m/s at the gravitational neutral point), gives a shocking result. The journey would not be a quick, arcing shot, but a months-long, slow-motion fall toward Earth's gravity well.

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• Calculated Travel Time: 453 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes, 5.6 seconds.
• The Shot's Nature: The ball would spend most of its time in a near-zero-gravity state, slowly gaining momentum as it approaches the point where Earth's gravity becomes dominant over the Moon's. This point is known as the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1 (L1).

This means that if Stephen Curry took the shot today, December 11, 2025, the ball would not even get close to the Earth until March 2027. This epic, year-and-a-half-long journey completely redefines the concept of a "slow-motion replay."

3. The Precision Challenge: Hitting a Moving Target

Curry is known for his incredible precision, often making shots accurate to within half of one percent. However, the Moon shot introduces variables on a cosmic scale that make that level of accuracy impossible.

The target—the hoop on Earth—is not stationary. The shot must account for three critical, constantly changing movements:

1. Earth's Rotation: The Earth is spinning at approximately 1,000 mph at the equator. The hoop would be moving thousands of miles during the 453-day flight.
2. Earth's Orbit: The Earth is orbiting the Sun at about 67,000 mph.
3. The Moon's Orbit: The Moon is orbiting the Earth, and its distance is constantly fluctuating between perigee (closest) and apogee (farthest).

To score, Curry would need to aim at a point in space where the hoop *will be* 453 days in the future, factoring in the gravitational influence of the Earth, the Moon, and even the Sun. The required launch angle would have to be accurate to an infinitesimal degree, a feat of calculation more suited to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory than a human basketball player.

4. The Trajectory and Atmosphere Problem

The shot requires a perfect trajectory that not only overcomes the Moon's gravity but also successfully navigates Earth’s atmosphere for a clean entry into the hoop. The shot is essentially a controlled re-entry vehicle.

• Atmospheric Entry: As the ball approaches Earth, it would slam into the atmosphere at a massive speed, generating extreme heat and drag. A standard NBA basketball would likely burn up or disintegrate due to aerodynamic heating long before it reached the surface.
• The Hoop's Location: Even if the ball survived re-entry (perhaps by being made of tungsten or ceramic), it would then need to perfectly arc down into a 45-centimeter-wide hoop. The drag from the atmosphere would unpredictably alter its final path, making the last few miles the most difficult part of the entire 238,900-mile journey.

The ideal shot would have to be a "swish"—a clean shot that avoids the rim—because any slight deviation from the center line would be amplified by the atmospheric drag, causing a miss.

5. The Lunar Environment and Shooting Form

Even the act of shooting on the Moon presents insurmountable logistical challenges to Stephen Curry's signature form.

• Gravity: The Moon's gravity is only about 1/6th of Earth's. This means a standard jump would send Curry soaring dozens of feet into the air. Maintaining balance and a consistent shooting motion would be nearly impossible.
• The Suit: Curry would be wearing a bulky, pressurized spacesuit. This suit severely restricts movement, making the fluid, precise wrist-snap and follow-through that defines his shooting mechanics impossible to execute. The shot would have to be a stiff, two-handed heave, completely unlike his natural shot ready posture.
• The No-Dribble Rule: Playing basketball on the Moon is difficult. Dribbling is virtually impossible as the ball would bounce too high and too slowly due to the low gravity, eliminating the possibility of a rhythm shot.

The "Curry Shooting From The Moon" meme is the ultimate compliment to the greatest shooter of all time, a testament to his mythical range and precision. While a standard basketball would take over 453 days to complete the journey and would likely burn up on re-entry, the thought experiment solidifies Stephen Curry's place in the pantheon of sports legends. He may not be able to conquer the laws of physics, but he has certainly conquered the game of basketball.