Scientists Use Mirrors, Lasers to Measure Earth’s Distance From Moon
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From Times staff and wire reports
In a feat one astronomer describes as a “scientific slam-dunk,” scientists have pinpointed how many inches separate the Earth and its moon--about 15 billion. Scientists used mirrors on the moon and telescopes that fired lasers from Earth to come up with what University of Michigan astronomer Richard Teske called one of the most accurate scientific experiments ever undertaken. Teske says it measured the distance at 15,134,310,000 inches, almost 239,000 miles.
The work, published in several journals, used mirrors placed on the moon’s Earth-facing hemisphere by Apollo astronauts and by one of the unmanned Soviet missions.
