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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2025 March 3
   A dark sky is shown above a bright desolate landscape. The landscape is
    the Moon and large shadows appear, with one being the shadow of lunar
    lander. A bright dot appears over the horizon that is distant planet
      Earth. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                           Blue Ghost on the Moon
                       Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

   Explanation: There's a new lander on the Moon. Yesterday Firefly
   Aerospace's Blue Ghost executed the first-ever successful commercial
   lunar landing. During its planned 60-day mission, Blue Ghost will
   deploy several NASA-commissioned scientific instruments, including
   PlanetVac which captures lunar dust after creating a small whirlwind of
   gas. Blue Ghost will also host the telescope LEXI that captures X-ray
   images of the Earth's magnetosphere. LEXI data should enable a better
   understanding of how Earth's magnetic field protects the Earth from the
   Sun's wind and flares. Pictured, the shadow of the Blue Ghost lander is
   visible on the cratered lunar surface, while the glowing orb of the
   planet Earth hovers just over the horizon. Goals for future robotic
   Blue Ghost landers include supporting lunar astronauts in NASA's
   Artemis program, with Artemis III currently scheduled to land humans
   back on the Moon in 2027.

                   Tomorrow's picture: quadruple alignment
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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