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.

                               2020 February 1

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

   Explanation: When leaving lunar orbit in February 1971, the crew of
   Apollo 14 watched this Earthrise from their command module Kittyhawk.
   With Earth's sunlit crescent just peaking 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 the Earth hung stationary in the sky over Fra Mauro Base,
   their landing site on the lunar surface. Rock samples brought back by
   the Apollo 14 mission included a 20 pound rock nicknamed Big Bertha,
   later determined to contain a likely fragment of a meteorite from
   planet Earth.

                    Tomorrow's picture: shocking infrared
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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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