Physics Buzz

July 20th, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, a small step for man, but a giant leap for humankind. In the past 50 years we’ve learned so much more about our planetary satellite neighbor, and to celebrate this anniversary, we’re sharing some OUT OF THIS WORLD facts about the moon:   1. Our moon is the 5th largest moon in the Solar System 2. The moon is not part of Mars.  3. The moon used to be part of the Earth, until a Mars-sized planetesimal hit our planet, sending a cloud of hot rock into space that eventually cooled, consolidated, and turned into our moon .  Image Credit: Joe Tucciarone (via NASA) 4. Earth’s tilted axis is likely a result of this collision.  5. Katherine Johnson , one of only a few black “human computers” employed by NASA for 33 years, calculated the Apollo 11’s trajectory to the moon and many other missions involving human space travel. Image Credit: NASA 6. The moon used to look much, much bigger, because it was c

The impact of the Apollo space program runs deep. Aside from the vast technological and scientific advancements it brought to life, footsteps on the moon left a legacy of hope, wonder, inspiration, and unity. The Apollo astronauts took humanity on a crazy journey of discovery. Now it seems that, even in death, Apollo astronauts are helping us prepare for future journeys that involve deep space travel. The emblem of the Apollo program. Image Credit:  NASA

Hurry back guys! Time to head to Pluto. We recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, we're airing a special edition of Fermi Problem Friday in honor of Buzz, Neil, and Mike (you know, Michael Collins, the guy who drew the short straw and had to stay in lunar orbit). Here is the problem: It took the Apollo 11 crew four days to reach the moon, blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969 and arriving at the moon on July 20. What planet would they be closest to today, about 40 years later, if they'd decided to skip the moon and head out into the solar system? Extra credit: How many Swedish Fish would it take to form a ring around Saturn that the astronauts could see as they flew by, if they made it that far? Share the problem with friends, try it out on your blind date tonight, and remember, all you need is your common sense, intuition, and a vague idea of how fast our intrepid crew was traveling.

I think I'll always regret not being alive during the moon landing, forty years ago today. If the Beatles form Exhibit A in the case for me being born in the wrong decade, Apollo 11 is exhibit B. I can't remember it, so what I remember is my dad describing the moon landing as a near-psychedelic experience, forever bound to the bad classic rock song he happened to be listening to at the same time. Figures. It was 1969, and he was 21 years old, living in his parents' basement in Queens, which was lined with those slender, acid-yellow paperbacks that formed the Old and New Testaments of his childhood: Heinlein, Kornbluth, Verne, Asimov. "I was jumping up and down in that basement cave with all the science fiction books that I'd grown up with, and it was actually happening," he recalls. A ghostly Neil Armstrong stepping off a ladder 240,000 thousand miles away flickered on the old black-and-white, while WBAI FM simulcast Lothar and the Hand People's "

In just a few weeks, the world will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. Even for those of us too young to have witnessed the original event, the ghostly images of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon seem to be ingrained in our collective memory. So whether you were one of millions of people glued to the tube for the original July 20, 1969 broadcast, or the lunar landing captured your imagination when you learned about it decades later, take advantage of the dozens of activities throughout July that can help you relive the excitement of the Apollo 11 mission and humankind's first step on the moon. If 1969 or your sixth-grade science class seem pretty far away, jog your memory with the CBS broadcast . Why the terrible video? The lunar camera beamed the footage back to three tracking stations on Earth, two in Australia and one in California. The video was further compressed, degrading the quality, before being sent on to monitors at Mission Co