Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Shooting The Moon
Messenger, the Mercury-bound spacecraft NASA launched last August to explore the solar system's first planet, has delivered an unexpected gift.
On May 11, it snapped a fascinating picture of the Earth and the Moon. The shot, taken from some 18.4 million miles away, is a wonderful exhibit of the huge distance between us and our rocky satellite. The image comes as a surprise, considering that a full moon hanging over the horizon often looks like you could hit it with a rock.
In this picture, the distance between the Moon and the Earth is some 400,000 kilometers (248,000 miles), putting the Moon near its apogee at 405,000 kilometers. Apogee is the maximum distance the moon can reach away from the Earth. (The minimum distance, called perigee, is 363,000 kilometers.)
Expect more shots to come. Messenger will keep snapping away, testing its instruments, until August, when it's due for a fly-by around the Earth. Our planet's gravity will sling it towards Venus and then on to Mercury, which it will keep studying until 2011.
On May 11, it snapped a fascinating picture of the Earth and the Moon. The shot, taken from some 18.4 million miles away, is a wonderful exhibit of the huge distance between us and our rocky satellite. The image comes as a surprise, considering that a full moon hanging over the horizon often looks like you could hit it with a rock.
In this picture, the distance between the Moon and the Earth is some 400,000 kilometers (248,000 miles), putting the Moon near its apogee at 405,000 kilometers. Apogee is the maximum distance the moon can reach away from the Earth. (The minimum distance, called perigee, is 363,000 kilometers.)
Expect more shots to come. Messenger will keep snapping away, testing its instruments, until August, when it's due for a fly-by around the Earth. Our planet's gravity will sling it towards Venus and then on to Mercury, which it will keep studying until 2011.
