During its 1997 flight, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of the Moon. This color picture is a mosaic assembled from 18 images taken by Galileo’s imaging system through a green filter.
NASA/JPL/USGS
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NASA/JPL/USGS
During its 1997 flight, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of the Moon. This color picture is a mosaic assembled from 18 images taken by Galileo’s imaging system through a green filter.
NASA/JPL/USGS
All summer long, Short Wave has been on a 10-episode odyssey through the changing universe. We’ve covered planets, stars, life in space and even the possible ends of the universe.
But there was one big set of objects that we skipped over: moons.
So now we’re back, with a special guest appearance from Radiolab‘s Latif Nasser, to talk about yes, our moon — and the many moons and quasi-moons beyond it. Where did our Moon come from? How many moons are out there? What’s this “quasi-moon” of which we speak and why is it “dancing” around space?
Also, Latif tells us about Radiolab‘s quasi-moon naming contest. Read all the details and submit a name here!
Lunar questions or otherwise celestial musings you think we should cover? We’d love to hear about it! You can reach us by emailing shortwave@npr.org.
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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. It was fact checked by Regina, Hannah, and Emily. Maggie Luthar was the audio engineer. Julia Carney is our Space Camp project manager. Beth Donovan is our senior director. Collin Campbell is our Senior Vice President of Podcasting Strategy.
Special thanks to our friends at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Home of Space Camp®.