For the past ten years or so, scientists from the American Aerospace Agency (NASA) have launched laser beams from Earth onto a lunar reflector. They announced on Monday have received a feedback signal for the first time, an encouraging result that could improve laser experiments used to study the physics of the Universe.
The reflector, a device placed on the Moon to measure the distance between it and the Earth using a laser beam, is mounted on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a spacecraft that has been studying the Moon since 2009.
Scientists have been using reflectors on the Moon since the Apollo era (1961 – 1972) to learn more about our nearest neighbor. Decades of making this single measure have led to major discoveries.
One of the biggest revelations is that the Earth and the Moon are separating by 3.8 centimeters per year. This widening gap is the result of gravitational interactions between the two bodies, NASA said.
–
