Moon Transiting Earth!
I was watching the moon again last night , but only briefly. It had already gone on to its full and brightest spot in the night sky. A casual glance at the brightly lit surface will show the distinctive Tycho crater down southwest of the Moon. This crater has a ray-like system emanating from it, forming long spokes that reach as long as 1,500km.
Speaking of the Moon, NASA's EXPOXI mission has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) away.
EPOXI is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: a search for alien (extrasolar) planets during the cruise to Hartley 2, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI).
Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. "Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for EPOXI.
Speaking of the Moon, NASA's EXPOXI mission has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) away.
EPOXI is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: a search for alien (extrasolar) planets during the cruise to Hartley 2, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI).
Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. "Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for EPOXI.
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