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The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
An unmanned lunar spacecraft has captured and transmitted data analyzing 10 lunar rocks, a greater-than-expected achievement that could help provide clues about the origin of the moon, a Japan ...
Lunar nearside with major maria and craters labeled Earthshine reflecting off the Moon. The bright region at left is directly illuminated by sunlight, while the rest of the Moon is faintly lit by sunlight reflected off the Earth. Generally, the Moon can be viewed even with the naked eye, however it may be more enjoyable with optical instruments.
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]
Sunlight reflects off objects on the moon the same way it does here on Earth. So all of these images and videos include light reflecting from Earth, the lunar module, and from the dust on the surface.
The orbits of the Moon and planets are integrated numerically along with the orientation of the Moon called physical libration. [ 23 ] At the Moon's surface, the beam is about 6.5 kilometers (4.0 mi) wide [ 24 ] [ i ] and scientists liken the task of aiming the beam to using a rifle to hit a moving dime 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) away.
Artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between Earth and a Mars-sized object likely formed the Moon.. The giant-impact hypothesis, sometimes called the Theia Impact, is an astrogeology hypothesis for the formation of the Moon first proposed in 1946 by Canadian geologist Reginald Daly.
Oceans reflect the least amount of light, roughly 10%. Land reflects 10–25% of sunlight, and clouds reflect around 50%. Thus, the part of Earth where it is daytime and from where the Moon is visible determines how bright the earthshine on the Moon appears at any given time. Earthshine reflected from the Moon during conjunction with Venus (left)