Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite.It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.
The far side of the Moon provides a good environment for radio astronomy as interferences from the Earth are blocked by the Moon. In February 2020, Chinese astronomers reported, for the first time, a high-resolution image of a lunar ejecta sequence, as well as direct analysis of its internal architecture.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. [6][7] Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions to the Moon. [8] Its detailed mapping program is identifying safe ...
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Moon: Moon – Earth 's only permanent natural satellite. It is one of the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits (its primary). It is the second- densest satellite ...
See photos of Harvest supermoon, partial lunar eclipse ... This year, the full moon is also a supermoon, which occurs when a full moon coincides with the satellite's closest approach to Earth in ...
The Blue Marble is a photograph of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by either Ron Evans or Harrison Schmitt aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon.Viewed from around 29,400 km (18,300 mi) from Earth's surface, [1] a cropped and rotated version has become one of the most reproduced images in history.
With a diameter of about 5,270 kilometres (3,270 mi) and a mass of 1.48 × 10 20 tonnes (1.48 × 10 23 kg; 3.26 × 10 23 lb), Ganymede is the largest and most massive moon in the Solar System. [45] It is slightly more massive than the second most massive moon, Saturn's satellite Titan, and is more than twice as massive as the Earth's Moon.
For the orbit of the Moon around the Earth, see Orbit of the Moon. Orion capsule of Artemis 1 above the Moon in December 2022. In astronomy and spaceflight, a lunar orbit (also known as a selenocentric orbit) is an orbit by an object around Earth's Moon. In general these orbits are not circular.