36 votes

Why is the lunar relief not visible in photographs of solar eclipses?

In short, you would need a very high resolution photo -- most likely taken through a telescope -- to identify any surface features on the moon by their effect on the limb (that is, the edge of the ...
Darth Pseudonym's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Had Earth lost the Moon early, would we be able to determine it once had a companion?

The collision between the Proto-Earth and "Theia", the hypothetical planet responsible for the Moon's formation, is thought to have given us the essential elements for life to form, since it ...
4NT4R3S's user avatar
  • 889
7 votes

Why is the lunar relief not visible in photographs of solar eclipses?

The picture in the OP is most likely a drawing. You can tell by a cartoon-like look of the corona as well as a similarly sterile solar flare on the right. If you search for actual high-resolution ...
Ruslan's user avatar
  • 967
6 votes
Accepted

Doesn't the moon actually make asteroid impacts on Earth more likely?

A reasonable line of thinking, but one that doesn't quite work out in practice for non-obvious reasons. The first thing to note is that Moon is about 80 times less massive than the Earth, so it really ...
ScienceSnake's user avatar
2 votes

Why is the lunar disk completely black during solar eclipses?

It's not, but it is much dimmer than the solar corona. And your eyes perceive the disc as being completely black. Careful photography can image the moon's disc during a total eclipse. This composite ...
James K's user avatar
  • 119k
2 votes
Accepted

Details of the Moon's night photographed in a total solar eclipse

In short, this photo was created by combining several different images from several different cameras. As noted by asdfex in the comments, the one that captured the earthshine was using 1/25 second ...
Bumptious Q Bangwhistle's user avatar

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