EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE REACHES BEYOND THE MOON

Hey Space Placers!

Here's some big news about our home planet - our atmosphere stretches way out beyond the Moon's orbit!

Not to scale depiction of Earth's atmosphere
CREDIT: ESA

What also makes this a very interesting story is that the discovery was made reviewing observations made TWO decades ago by a Sun observing spacecraft!

Apollo 16 astronauts Shepard and Mitchell  photographed this region of the Earth's atmosphere called the Geocorona using the first telescope on the Moon. The picture was taken in ultraviolet light.

The Earth and its hydrogen envelope, or geocorona, as seen from the Moon. This ultraviolet picture was taken in 1972 with a camera operated by Apollo 16 astronauts on the Moon.
CREDIT: NASA

This really shows the power of going back over archived data to make new discoveries.

Pretty amazing.....

Sky Guy in VA