Our Moon

Where We Once Walked...and Will Again

Earth's companion is so large and fascinating that geologists count the Moon as one of the solar system's "terrestrial planets." In fact, it was probably born from Earth, after a Mars-sized body collided with the proto-Earth, in a collision so violent that the Moon that coalesced from the leftover fragments was entirely (or almost entirely) molten. We can tell this story of Earth and the Moon's creation thanks to our analysis of the rocks returned to Earth by the Apollo astronauts, Luna landers, and chance discoveries of lunar meteorites. New laboratory techniques yield new discoveries every year even though no samples have been collected from the surface of the Moon since 1972.

In the years since the end of the space race between the United States and Russia, many other nations have sent robotic spacecraft to orbit the Moon as a first step in their planetary exploration: Japan, the European Space Agency, India, and China. Likewise, many people see a staging station on the Moon as a necessary first stepping stone toward sending humans on missions to asteroids or Mars. Thanks to the combined data from lunar orbiters from all nations we know that there is water stored in lunar soil and that there are permanently sunlit peaks at the lunar poles, providing for two basic needs of human settlements: water and power. We can go back to the Moon; but who will make the effort?

Recent Blog Articles About the Moon

Watch a Live Webcast of the Lunar Eclipse

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2011/12/09 06:44 CST | 0 comments

Watch a Live Webcast of the Lunar Eclipse

Total lunar eclipse tomorrow

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/09 11:41 CST | 0 comments

Information about viewing the December 10, 2011 lunar eclipse.

Pretty picture: Earth and Moon from JunoCam

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/30 11:53 CDT | 0 comments

Pretty picture: Earth and Moon from JunoCam

New views of Lunokhod 1 and Luna 17 from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/14 08:47 CDT | 0 comments

It is always thrilling to see relics of human exploration out there on other worlds. Today, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team posted some new photos of two defunct spacecraft: the Luna 17 lander and the Lunokhod 1 rover. I've posted images of the two craft before, but the ones released today are much better.

Apollo 12 site as seen by LRO (thumbnail)

New Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos show Apollo sites in sharpest detail yet

Posted by Jason Davis on 2011/09/08 11:58 CDT | 0 comments

On September 6, NASA released new high-resolution photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) showing the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites from vantage points as close as 21 kilometers.

Guest Blog: Phil Stooke: Comparing Chang'e 2 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter maps of the Moon

Posted by Phil Stooke on 2012/02/13 10:23 CST | 0 comments

How does the LRO lunar map compare with the new Chinese product from Chang'e 2?

GRAIL MoonKAM's first (released) video of the Moon

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/01 03:49 CST | 0 comments

The first release from�MoonKAM, tiny cameras included on both GRAIL spacecraft whose only purpose is public outreach. Classrooms can sign up for opportunities to propose sites to image.�

Anahita's first eclipse

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/13 10:29 CST | 0 comments

Emily wakes up her 5-year-old daughter to experience her first lunar eclipse.