Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2021 February 5

                          Apollo 14 Heads for Home
      Image Credit: Apollo 14, NASA, JSC, ASU (Image Reprocessing: Andy
                                  Saunders)

   Explanation: Fifty years ago this Sunday (February 7, 1971), the crew
   of Apollo 14 left lunar orbit and headed for home. They watched this
   Earthrise from their command module Kittyhawk. With Earth's sunlit
   crescent just peeking over the lunar horizon, the cratered terrain in
   the foreground is along the lunar farside. Of course, while orbiting
   the Moon, the crew could watch Earth rise and set, but from the lunar
   surface the Earth hung stationary in the sky over their landing site at
   Fra Mauro Base. Rock samples returned from Fra Mauro included a 20
   pound rock nicknamed Big Bertha, determined to contain a likely
   fragment of a meteorite from planet Earth. Kept on board the Kittyhawk
   during the Apollo 14 mission was a cannister of 400-500 seeds that were
   later grown into Moon Trees.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.
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