Why didn't the Apollo astronauts return with pictures of stars and galaxies taken from the Moon's surface? Are stars visible from the surface of the moon?
1 Answer
Feb 2, 2016
Comparing distances of Moon and the Earth from nearby stars and neighboring galaxies, the advantage in luminosity is very little.
Explanation:
The utmost advantage ( if any ) is when Moon is in-between a star and the Earth. The apogee distance of Moon from Earth is less than 4.1E+05 km. Stars' distances are in light years and galaxies' distances are in tens of thousands of light years. The distance of nearest star Alpha Centauri is 4.22 light years (LY). 1 LY = 9.4 E+12 km, nearly. So, for Alpha Centauri, the maximum distance-advantage over luminosity is 1 in trillion. This is my justification for my answer.
