Related papers: Micro moon versus macro moon: Brightness and size
On January 20th, 2019, a total lunar eclipse was possible to be observed in Santiago, Chile. Using a smartphone attached to a telescope, photographs of the phenomenon were taken. With Earth's shadow on those images, and using textbook…
Laser pulses fired at retroreflectors on the Moon provide very accurate ranges. Analysis yields information on Earth, Moon, and orbit. The highly accurate retroreflector positions have uncertainties less than a meter. Tides on the Moon show…
The Moon is traditionally thought to have coalesced from the debris ejected by a giant impact onto the early Earth. However, such models struggle to explain the similar isotopic compositions of Earth and lunar rocks at the same time as the…
Giant planets in the habitable zone may host exomoons with conditions conducive to life. In this paper we describe a method by which the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) could detect such moons: broadband reflected-light lunar eclipses…
It has been posited that lunar eclipse observations may help predict the in-transit signature of Earth-like extrasolar planets. However, a comparative analysis of the two phenomena addressing in detail the transport of stellar light through…
The Moon is our future. It may seem like a chimera with a projected cost in excess of 100 billion\$, and counting, dispensed on ARTEMIS with little to show to date. However it is the ideal site for the largest telescopes that we can dream…
The main general relativistic effects in the motion of the Moon are briefly reviewed. The possibility of detection of the solar gravitomagnetic contributions to the mean motions of the lunar node and perigee is discussed.
The classical method for measure the Earth-Sun distance is due to Aristarchus and it is based upon the measure of the angle Moon-Earth-Sun when the Moon is exactly in quadrature. Such an angle is only 9 arcminutes smaller than 90 degrees,…
If stars at the lower end of the main sequence are responsible for the microlensing events observed in the Galactic bulge, then light from the lensing star contributes to the observed brightness. The background and lensing stars generally…
It is straightforward to determine the size of the Earth and the distance to the Moon without making use of a telescope. The methods have been known since the 3rd century BC. However, few amateur or professional astronomers have worked this…
In this work, the nutation momentum acting upon the Earth from the Moon's perigee mass that has not been taken into account in the Earth's precession-nutation theory was revealed. This missing momentum exhibits itself in the so-called…
The Moon's optical characteristics in visible and long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) have long been observed with our eyes or with instruments. What the mid-infrared (MIR) Moon looks like is still a mystery. For the first time we present…
A new analysis of extended data records collected with the Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) technique performed with improved tidal models was not able to resolve the issue of the anomalous rate $\dot e$ of the eccentricity $e$ of the orbit of the…
We study here what it means for the Universe to be nearly flat, as opposed to exactly flat. We give three definitions of nearly flat, based on density, geometry and dynamics; all three definitions are equivalent and depend on a single…
It has long been claimed that novae reaching the highest luminosity at the peak of their eruptions appear to fade the fastest from maximum light. The relationship between peak brightness and fade rate is known as the Maximum-Magnitude,…
Possible explanations of the recently reported anomalous increase of the eccentricity of the lunar orbit are sought in terms of classical Newtonian mechanics, general relativity, and long-range modifications of gravity.
Both the recently reported anomalous secular increase of the astronomical unit, of the order of a few cm yr^-1, and of the eccentricity of the lunar orbit e_ = (9+/-3) 10^-12 yr^-1 can be phenomenologically explained by postulating that the…
The fields of occultation and microlensing are linked historically. Early this century, occultation of the Sun by the Moon allowed the apparent positions of background stars projected near the limb of the Sun to be measured and compared…
The lunar surface is a compelling location for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. The serious development of mission concepts is timely…
The Arago spot is an intensity maximum at the center of a shadow created by constructive interference of diffracted waves around a spherical object. While the study of diffraction patterns usually concerns visible light, de Broglie's wave…