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 October 2

                             Biking to the Moon
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Susan Snow

   Explanation: As you watched October's first Full Moon rise last night,
   the Full Moon closest to the northern autumnal equinox, you were
   probably asking yourself, "How long would it take to bike to the Moon?"
   Sure, Apollo 11 astronauts made the trip in 1969, from launch to Moon
   landing, in about 103 hours or 4.3 days. But the Moon is 400,000
   kilometers away. This year, the top bike riders in planet Earth's
   well-known Tour de France race covered almost 3,500 kilometers in 21
   stages after about 87 hours on the road. That gives an average speed of
   about 40 kilometers per hour and a lunar cycling travel time of 10,000
   hours, a little over 416 days. While this bike rider's destination
   isn't clear, his journey did begin around moonrise on September 27 near
   Cleeve Hill, Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, UK.

                      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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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.


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