Reflectors placed on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts 50 years ago continue to provide fresh lunar laser ranging data
Release Date: 07/31/2019Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins left behind arrays of prisms that reflect light back toward its source; the Apollo 14 and 15 astronauts also did so. Four telescopes at observatories in New Mexico, France, Italy and Germany fire lasers at them, measuring the time that it takes for a laser pulse to bounce off the reflectors and return to Earth. This allows the distance to be measured to within a fraction of an inch (a few millimeters), and scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyze the results. Lunar laser ranging measurements have deepened our understanding of the dance between the Moon and Earth.

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