Astronomy Picture of the Day
There's a new lander on the Moon. Yesterday Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost executed the first-ever successful commercial lunar landing. During its planned 60-day mission, Blue Ghost will deploy several NASA-commissioned scientific instruments, including PlanetVac which captures lunar dust after creating a small whirlwind of gas. Blue Ghost will also host the telescope LEXI that captures X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosphere. LEXI data should enable a better understanding of how Earth's magnetic field protects the Earth from the Sun's wind and flares. Pictured, the shadow of the Blue Ghost lander is visible on the cratered lunar surface, while the glowing orb of the planet Earth hovers just over the horizon. Goals for future robotic Blue Ghost landers include supporting lunar astronauts in NASA's Artemis program, with Artemis III currently scheduled to land humans back on the Moon in 2027.
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Image Credits: Firefly Aerospace.
Shouldnโt Earth seen from the moon appear substantially larger than the moon appears from Earth? Just a weird perspective I guess?
It would seem bigger, but this is imaged with a wide angle lens. The lander has a lot more cameras, I'm sure we'll get some better shots of Earth and a nice panorama of the lander's surroundings in the coming days It's mission will only last 60 days, so they have a lot to do in a short time.