Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Earthrise from Moon Orbiting Kayuga

Click on image to enlargeCredit & Copyright: SELENE Team, JAXA, NHK

Explanation: What does the Earth look like from the Moon? A new version of this space age perspective was captured by the robotic Kaguya spacecraft currently in orbit around Earth's Moon. Launched two months ago by Japan, the scientific mission of the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), nicknamed Kaguya, is to study the origin and evolution of the Moon. Last month Kaguya reached lunar orbit and starting transmitting data and images. This frame is from Kaguya's onboard HDTV camera. An astronaut standing on the lunar surface would never actually see the Earth rise, since the Moon always keeps the same side toward the Earth. This Earthrise as well as the famous Earthrise captured 40 years ago by the crew of Apollo 8, only occurs for observers in lunar orbit.

2 comments:

SouthLoopScot said...

I saw this on Boing,Boing.
Very cool! I wonder how the flat earth people view this?
;)

Tommykey said...

T&A, it was obviously staged.

Believe it or not, over at Shalini's blog sciencianatura.blogspot.com, there is actually a troll arguing for a geocentric universe. Either he's pulling everyone's leg or he is batshit crazy.