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 March 3

                         Apollo 13 Views of the Moon
   Video Credit: NASA, LRO; Data Visualization: Ernie Wright (USRA); Video
                  Production & Editing: David Ladd (USRA);
      Music: Visions of Grandeur, Universal Production Music, Fredrick
                                  Wiedmann

   Explanation: What if the only way to get back to Earth was to go around
   the far side of the Moon? Such was the dilemma of the Apollo 13 Crew in
   1970 as they tried to return home in their unexpectedly damaged
   spacecraft. With the Moon in the middle, their perilous journey
   substituted spectacular views of the lunar farside for radio contact
   with NASA's Mission Control. These views have now been digitally
   recreated from detailed images of the Moon taken by the robotic Lunar
   Reconnaissance Orbiter. The featured video starts by showing Earth
   disappear behind a dark lunar limb, while eight minutes later the Sun
   rises around the opposite side of the Moon and begins to illuminate the
   Moon's unusual and spectacularly cratered surface. Radio contact was
   only re-established several minutes after that, as a crescent Earth
   rose into view. With the gravity of the Moon and the advice of many
   industrious NASA engineers and scientists, a few days later Apollo 13
   opened its parachutes over the Pacific Ocean and landed safely back on
   Earth.

                     Tomorrow's picture: galaxies dance
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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