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Credit & Copyright: John Sarkissian
(ATNF Parkes Radio Observatory)
Explanation:
Murriyang, the CSIROÁs Parkes radio telescope
points toward a nearly Full Moon in this image
from New South Wales, Australia, planet Earth.
Bathed in moonlight, the 64 meter dish is
receiving weak radio signals from Odysseus,
following the
robotic
lander's February 22
touch down some
300
kilometers north of the Moon's south pole.
The landing of Odysseus represents
the first U.S. landing on the Moon since the
Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Odysseus' tilted orientation
on the lunar surface prevents its high-gain antenna
from pointing toward Earth.
But the sensitivity of the large, steerable Parkes dish
significantly improved
the reception of data from the experiments delivered to the
lunar surface by the robotic moon lander.
Of course the Parkes Radio Telescope dish
became famous for its superior
lunar
television reception
during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969,
allowing denizens of planet Earth to watch
the first moonwalk.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Moon - radiotelescope
Publications with words: Moon - radiotelescope
See also: