As most of you probably heard, the Apollo 11 moon landing happened 35 years ago last Tuesday. Today I found a story at Science Blog about a science experiment left behind by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin that is still “running:” the “lunar laser ranging retroreflector array,” a “2-foot wide panel studded with 100 mirrors pointing at Earth.” Astronomers have been “pinging” this array of mirrors with lasers for 35 years, measuring the distance from the Earth to the Moon with a precision of “centimeters out of 385,000 kilometers (about 240,000 miles).” These measurements have allowed astronomers to precisely map out the Moon’s orbit, as well as verifying that “Newton’s gravitational constant G has changed less than 1 part in 100-billion since the laser experiments began” and that Einstein’s general theory of relativity “predict[s] the shape of the moon’s orbit as well as laser ranging can measure it.” Pretty cool for a 35 year old experiment…
I also came upon this amazing QTVR panoramic photo of the Apollo 11 lunar landing site at panoramas.dk.
Update: Slashdot noted that NASA has posted a slew of Apollo 11-related photos from its archive. The first gallery concentrates on astronaut training while the second one focuses on post-launch and lunar events. The Earthrise sequence from the Moon is particularly cool…
