Thursday, July 16, 2009
MOON LANDING
On its way to Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of Earth's moon. Galileo captured this composite on Dec. 7, 1992. The distinct bright ray crater at the bottom of the image is the Tycho impact basin. The dark areas are lava rock filled impact basins: Oceanus Procellarum (on the left), Mare Imbrium (center left), Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis (center), and Mare Crisium (near the right edge). The colors in this image are "enhanced," in the sense that the camera Galileo used to photograph the moon was sensitive to near infrared wavelengths of light beyond human vision. Credit: NASA
On July 20, 2009, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon. The mission was Apollo 11.
1 -- NASA has a brief history of the landing (this is a good place to start):
and lots of science about the moon, planets, and all things space:
2 -- There is a massive website devoted to recreating the voyage:
3 -- There are several stories about the moonlanding on space.com
4 -- The New York Times devoted the Tuesday (7/14/2009) Science Section to the moon.
5 -- CNN is planning, I think, extended programming about the moon on the 20th (but I couldn't find any programming information on their rather poor web site). Try:
6 -- For more about the moon, check out planetariums around the country. In New York,
7 -- And finally, for a complete, detailed history of moon missions... from Wikipedia:
Labels: Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, The moon