This chart, prepared by NASA illustrates comparisons among the driving distances by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of the planetary bodies other than Earth (as of February 13, 2019, only the moon and Mars). Opportunity rover, which declared dead after record-breaking 15-years on the Martian surface also holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles) of driving on Mars.
Continue reading Driving Distances on Mars and the Moon: Out-of-This-World-RecordsTag Archives: Moon
LRO spots Chang’e 4 from the Moon orbit
Exciting new images from NASA’s robotic spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which is orbiting the Moon since 2009. China’s lunar lander Chang’e 4 which achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon and its surroundings in Von Kármán crater can be seen in the images
A 1992 Family Portrait of Earth and the Moon
On December 16, 1992, eight days after its final encounter with Earth, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft looked back and captured this remarkable view of Earth and the moon.
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Moon Drawings of Galileo Galilei
Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, and polymath Galileo Galilei’s (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) moon drawings. These were the first
The crescent Earth rises above the lunar horizon
An amazing NASA photo: the crescent Earth rises above the lunar horizon in this spectacular photograph taken from the Apollo 17 spacecraft in lunar orbit during final lunar landing mission in the Apollo program.
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Watch: The shadow of the Moon during a solar eclipse
This… is… amazing!
Astrophotographer Martin Junius recorded this stunning video of the total solar eclipse on March 20, 2015, during the E-Flight AB 1000. In the video, you can see the shadow of the moon moving across the clouds below. The plane was 35,000 feet (10,600 meters) above the Northern Atlantic / Norwegian Sea when the video was recorded.
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Earth without Moon – what would it be like?
The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite. It is also the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits. It formed about 4.51 billion years ago from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia (this is known as the Giant Impact Hypothesis and is the most widely accepted explanation of the formation of the Moon). This impact happened not long after the Earth has been formed. But, what if that giant impact never happened? What would the Earth without Moon be like?
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Earth’s oldest rock has been found… on the Moon!
According to research published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Earth’s oldest rock (which is 4.1 billion years old) has been found in an Apollo 14 sample from the Moon. If confirmed, it’s an amazing discovery.
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Dinosaurs were already doomed as the frequency of Asteroid Impacts increased 290 million years ago
By studying lunar craters, scientists have discovered that the asteroid impacts became more frequent about 290 million years ago. So was just a matter of time for dinosaurs to becoming extinct.
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Speed of Light – See how torturously slow it is
The speed of light is the Universal speed limit – nothing can travel faster than light. In the vacuum (commonly denoted c), its exact value is 299,792,458 meters per second (around 186,000 miles per second). In other words, if you could travel at the speed of light, you could go around the Earth 7.5 times in one second.
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