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The locations of lunar retroreflectors left by Apollo (A) and Luna (L) missions. Retroreflectors are devices which reflect light back to its source. Six retroreflectors were left at six sites on the Moon by three crews of the Apollo program, two by remote landers of the Lunokhod program, one by the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and one by the Chandrayaan program. [1]
The Moon is spiraling away from Earth at a rate of 3.8 cm/year. [24] [42] This rate has been described as anomalously high. [43] The fluid core of the Moon was detected from the effects of core/mantle boundary dissipation. [44] The Moon has free physical librations that require one or more stimulating mechanisms. [45]
The Moon is the largest natural satellite of and the closest major astronomical object to Earth. The Moon may be observed by using a variety of optical instruments, ranging from the naked eye to large telescopes. The Moon is the only celestial body upon which surface features can be discerned with the unaided eyes of most people.
The English proper name for Earth's natural satellite is typically written as Moon, with a capital M. [19] [20] The noun moon is derived from Old English mōna, which stems from Proto-Germanic *mēnōn, [21] which in turn comes from Proto-Indo-European *mēnsis 'month' [22] (from earlier *mēnōt, genitive *mēneses) which may be related to the verb 'measure' (of time).
(By the way, don't Google "Apollo 11 images" unless you're prepared to sort through pages of fake moon landing conspiracy websites.) The most famous one is this iconic picture of Aldrin below.
The Sun's gravitational effect on the Moon is more than twice that of Earth's on the Moon; consequently, the Moon's trajectory is always convex [26] [27] (as seen when looking Sunward at the entire Sun–Earth–Moon system from a great distance outside Earth–Moon solar orbit), and is nowhere concave (from the same perspective) or looped.
When the lunar phase is new as viewed from Earth, Earth would appear nearly fully sunlit from the Moon. Sunlight is reflected from Earth to the night side of the Moon. The night side appears to glow faintly, and the entire disk of the Moon is dimly illuminated. Earthshine reflected from the Moon, as seen through a telescope.
Ben Bussey and Paul Spudis, The Clementine Atlas of the Moon, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-81528-2. Antonín Rükl, Atlas of the Moon, Kalmbach Books, 1990, ISBN 0-913135-17-8. Ewen A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming the Moon, Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-62248-4.