Related topics: nasa , lcross , spacecraft , lunar surface , lunar crater
Moon
hideThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system (the barycentre) is located about 1,700 km—a quarter the Earth's radius—beneath the surface of the Earth. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days (the orbital period), and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the phases of the moon, which repeat every 29.5 days (the synodic period).
The Moon's diameter is 3,474 km, a little more than a quarter of that of the Earth. Thus, the Moon's surface area is less than a tenth that of the Earth (about a quarter the Earth's land area, approximately as large as Russia, Canada, and the United States combined), and its volume is about 2 percent that of Earth. The pull of gravity at its surface is about 17 percent of that at the Earth's surface.
The Moon is the only celestial body to which humans have traveled and upon which humans have performed a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna program was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the NASA Apollo program by the United States achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972- the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. Human exploration of the Moon temporarily ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although a few robotic landers and orbiters have been sent to the Moon since that time. The U.S. has committed to return to the moon by 2018.
For more information about Moon, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with moon
Titan's lakes could be explored by boat
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
6 hours ago |
5 / 5 (4) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- If a suggestion to be made to NASA comes to fruition, vast lakes thought to be filled with liquid hydrocarbons near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, may one day be explored by boat.
Avatar's moon Pandora could be real
Dec 17, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (27) |
10
In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable - and inhabited - alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the Star Wars forest moon of Endor are a staple of science fiction. ...
Top US lawmaker skeptical of new space funding
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 17, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (6) |
4
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was personally skeptical of manned space missions and warned that NASA's future funding could depend on whether it was likely to create jobs.
Scientists discover fog on Titan
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 18, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
2
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system—aside from our home planet, Earth—with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. ...
Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 17, 2009 |
5 / 5 (13) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, ...
Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (16) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists once thought that life could originate only within a solar system's "habitable zone," where a planet would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. ...
Pioneering images of both martian moons (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 11, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (17) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- For the very first time, the martian moons Phobos and Deimos have been caught on camera together. ESA's Mars Express orbiter took these pioneering images last month. Apart from their ‘wow’ ...
NASA unveils latest results from lunar mission
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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NASA's current mission in orbit around the moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has been providing crucial insights about our nearest celestial neighbor since its launch in June. At a scientific ...
Scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 29, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
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Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane ...
Magnetic Dance of Titan and Saturn To Be Main Attraction during Flyby
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 14, 2009 |
not rated yet |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- When it flies by Saturn's largest moon, Titan, this weekend, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will study the interactions between the magnetic field of Saturn and Titan. The flyby will take place ...
STAR TRAK for December: Geminid meteors flash in December skies
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 03, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The annual Geminid meteor shower, which will reach its maximum on the night of Dec. 13-14, usually offers the best show of the year, outperforming even the Perseid shower of August. This year ...
NASA puzzled why parachutes failed in rocket test
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 03, 2009 |
3.4 / 5 (5) |
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(AP) -- NASA still isn't sure why two parachutes failed during a test flight of its prototype moon rocket just over a month ago.
China to launch second lunar probe: state media
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 27, 2009 |
5 / 5 (6) |
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China will launch its second moon orbiter next October, state media reported Friday, as it powers ahead with a space programme that has sparked concerns abroad.
Cassini Sends Back Images of Enceladus as Winter Nears
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 23, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (7) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sailed seamlessly through the Nov. 21 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus and started transmitting uncalibrated temperature data and images of the rippling terrain. ...
Partial lunar eclipse will take place on 31st December
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 03, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a lunar eclipse, the Earth, Sun and Moon are almost exactly in line and the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun.
