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Galileo [9] [10] discovered the Galilean moons. These satellites were the first celestial objects that were confirmed to orbit an object other than the Sun or Earth. Galileo saw Io and Europa as a single point of light on 7 January 1610; they were seen as separate bodies the following night. [11] Callisto: Jupiter IV o: 8 January 1610 p: 13 ...
The first picture of another world from space and of the Moon's far side, photographed by Luna 3 in 1959 Museum replica of Luna 1 and Luna 2 Scale model of Luna 3 First image of the Moon taken by a U.S. spacecraft, [26] Ranger 7 in July 1964 Block III Ranger probe First photo ever taken from the surface of the Moon, by Luna 9 in February 1966 ...
On September 20, 2003, after 14 years in space and 8 years in the Jovian system, Galileo 's mission was terminated by sending the orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of over 48 kilometers per second (30 mi/s) to eliminate the possibility of contaminating the moons with bacteria.
For 40 years Armstrong's and Aldrin's space suits were displayed in the museum's Apollo to the Moon exhibit, [242] until it permanently closed on December 3, 2018, to be replaced by a new gallery which was scheduled to open in 2022. A special display of Armstrong's suit was unveiled for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in July 2019.
The first direct evidence of water vapor near the Moon was obtained by the Apollo 14 ALSEP Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment, SIDE, on March 7, 1971. A series of bursts of water vapor ions were observed by the instrument mass spectrometer at the lunar surface near the Apollo 14 landing site. [24] Luna 24
In 2018 the far side of the Moon was for the first time landed on by the Chang'e 4 mission at the Aitken basin on 3 January 2019 and deployed the Yutu-2 rover. Five years later, China followed with Chang'e 6 sample return mission to the far side whose lander successfully landed in Apollo crater on 1 June 2024 and collected lunar samples.
It was originally thought they had found a piece of the Moon's primordial crust, but later analysis would show that the rock was only 4.1 ± 0.1 billion years old, which is younger than the Moon itself, and was formed after the Moon's crust solidified. But it was still an extremely old sample, and was from the pre-Imbrian era.
The Apollo 15 Particles and Fields Subsatellite (PFS-1) was a small satellite released into lunar orbit from the SIM bay just before the mission left orbit to return to Earth. Its main objectives were to study the plasma, particle, and magnetic field environment of the Moon and map the lunar gravity field.