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In addition to observations from Earth, current space missions such as NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been collecting data on the moon since 2009, help enhance our understanding ...
A waxing gibbous Moon, rising over mountains with coniferous trees. The Moon's position relative to Earth and the Sun determines the moonrise and moonset time. For example, a last quarter rises at midnight and sets at noon. [5] A waning gibbous is best seen from late night to early morning. [6]
Best visible shortly before or after a new moon (during the waning and waxing crescent phases respectively), Earthshine is the faint glow of the non-illuminated (night) side of the Moon caused by sunlight reflecting off the surface of Earth (which would appear nearly full to an observer situated on the Moon at this time) and onto the night side ...
The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959, by the Soviet probe Luna 3. Though vague by today's standards, the photos showed that the far side of the Moon almost completely lacked maria. The first American probe to fly by the Moon was Pioneer 4 on March 4, 1959, which occurred shortly after Luna 1. It was the only ...
Experts recommend stargazing on the nights surrounding the new moon as it is the time when the sky is the darkest. In 2025, the new moons during summer fall on July 10, Aug. 9 and Sept. 7.
The locations of lunar retroreflectors left by Apollo (A) and Luna (L) missions. Retroreflectors are devices which reflect light back to its source. Six were left at six sites on the Moon by three crews of the Apollo program, two by remote landers of the Lunokhod program, and one by the Chandrayaan program. [1]
Because of the Moon's lack of water, atmosphere, and tectonic plates, there is little erosion, and craters are found that exceed two billion years in age. The age of large craters is determined by the number of smaller craters contained within it, older craters generally accumulating more small, contained craters.
The object orbits the Sun but makes slow close approaches to the Earth–Moon system. Between 29 September (19:54 UTC) and 25 November 2024 (16:43 UTC) (a period of 1 month and 27 days) [4] it passed just outside Earth's Hill sphere (roughly 0.01 AU [1.5 million km; 0.93 million mi]) at a low relative velocity (in the range 0.002 km/s (4.5 mph) – 0.439 km/s [980 mph]) and will become ...