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In celestial navigation, lunar distance, also called a lunar, is the angular distance between the Moon and another celestial body. The lunar distances method uses this angle and a nautical almanac to calculate Greenwich time if so desired, or by extension any other time. That calculated time can be used in solving a spherical triangle.
In contrast, the Lunar distance (LD or ), or Earth–Moon characteristic distance, is a unit of measure in astronomy. More technically, it is the semi-major axis of the geocentric lunar orbit . The lunar distance is on average approximately 385,000 km (239,000 mi), or 1.28 light-seconds ; this is roughly 30 times Earth's diameter or 9.5 times ...
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) is the practice of measuring the distance between the surfaces of the Earth and the Moon using laser ranging. The distance can be calculated from the round-trip time of laser light pulses travelling at the speed of light , which are reflected back to Earth by the Moon's surface or by one of several retroreflectors ...
Earth and the Moon orbit about their barycentre (common centre of mass), which lies about 4,670 km (2,900 miles) from Earth's centre (about 73% of its radius), forming a satellite system called the Earth–Moon system. On average, the distance to the Moon is about 384,400 km (238,900 mi) from Earth's centre, which corresponds to about 60 Earth ...
The New Shepard mission is far from the first to carry scientific payloads to the edge of space, but it was the first to mimic the moon's gravity.. The gravitational pull of the lunar surface is ...
Drawing on the observation that the distance to the Moon did not change as drastically as required by Ptolemy's lunar model, he produced a new lunar model that replaced Ptolemy's crank mechanism with a double epicycle model that reduced the computed range of distances of the Moon from the Earth.
A commercial lunar lander will soon be heading to the moon with a fleet of scientific instruments on board for a $93.3 million NASA mission to study the moon's environment before humans return.
The distance between the Moon and Earth varies from around 356,400 km (221,500 mi) to 406,700 km (252,700 mi) (apogee), making the Moon's distance and apparent size fluctuate up to 14%. [202] [203] On average the Moon's angular diameter is about 0.52°, roughly the same apparent size as the Sun (see § Eclipses).