TORONTO – Despite a government shutdown, NASA’s latest satellite to the moon is still on the job.
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) safely reached orbit on Monday.
LADEE lifted off from Wallops Air Force Base, Va., on Sept. 6 on a mission to further investigate the lunar atmosphere and environmental influences on lunar dust.
Watch: Watch: Far side of the moon viewed in hi-res
Though it was once believed that the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere, Apollo missions as well as satellites, found that our nearest neighbour does, indeed have one, albeit an extremely thin one.
To compare, at sea level on Earth, every cubic centimetre of air we breathe contains 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules; on the moon it’s only 1,000,000. This thin atmosphere is called a surface boundary exosphere and scientists believe that this may be one of the most common atmospheres in our solar system.
To see real-time animation of LADEE, click here.
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