                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 November 19

                             Artemis 1 Moonshot
                    Image Credit & Copyright: John Kraus

   Explanation: When the Artemis 1 mission's Orion spacecraft makes its
   November 21 powered flyby of the Moon, denizens of planet Earth will
   see the Moon in a waning crescent phase. The spacecraft will approach
   to within about 130 kilometers of the lunar surface on its way to a
   distant retrograde orbit some 70,000 kilometers beyond the Moon. But
   the Moon was at last quarter for the November 16 launch and near the
   horizon in the dark early hours after midnight. It's captured here in
   skies over Kennedy Space Center along with the SLS rocket engines and
   solid rocket boosters lofting the uncrewed Orion to space. Ragged
   fringes appearing along the bright edge of the sunlit lunar nearside
   are caused as pressure waves generated by the rocket's passage change
   the index of refraction along the camera's line of sight.

                   Tomorrow's picture: ripples over Tibet
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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