Relive Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Listen 07:50Follow a replay of the NASA lunar exploration events from 49 years ago online. http://www.firstmenonthemoon.com/ replays the actual audio communications between ground control and the astronauts from about 15 minutes before landing.
The playback is augmented with video tapes of what was seen by the astronauts as they descended to land. Three Americans left on this date and landed 4 days later on the 20th; they stayed about 21 hours, walked around for 3.5 hours, then left the next day, returning safely to Earth on July 24th.
New studies based in data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft that flew by Pluto two summers ago suggest one scenario for Pluto’s creation could be the coalescence of a billion comets. Pluto is the largest object in the Kuiper Belt – a ring of icy objects orbiting around the sun, beyond Neptune. This idea was prompted by the amount of nitrogen ice observed at the left lobe of the heart-shaped region on Pluto’s surface. Much more work has to be done, but this possibility indicates Pluto’s origin is a much more complex story than originally imagined.
The moon slides through Venus July 15, Jupiter July 20, Saturn July 24, Mars July 27.
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