Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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. 2020 October 2 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Biking to the Moon Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Susan Snow Explanation: [5]As you watched October's first Full Moon rise last night, the Full Moon closest to the northern autumnal equinox, you were probably asking yourself, "How long would it take to bike to the Moon?" Sure, Apollo 11 astronauts made the trip in 1969, from launch to [6]Moon landing, in about 103 hours or 4.3 days. But the Moon is 400,000 kilometers away. This year, the top bike riders in planet Earth's well-known [7]Tour de France race covered almost 3,500 kilometers in 21 stages after about 87 hours on the road. That gives an average speed of about 40 kilometers per hour and a lunar cycling travel time of 10,000 hours, a little over 416 days. While this bike rider's [8]destination isn't clear, his journey did begin around moonrise on September 27 near Cleeve Hill, Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, UK. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [9]< | [10]Archive | [11]Submissions | [12]Index | [13]Search | [14]Calendar | [15]RSS | [16]Education | [17]About APOD | [18]Discuss | [19]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [20]Robert Nemiroff ([21]MTU) & [22]Jerry Bonnell ([23]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [24]Specific rights apply. [25]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [26]ASD at [27]NASA / [28]GSFC & [29]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/IMG_7493Colour.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.facebook.com/SusanSnowPhotography/ 5. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/harvest-moon-2 6. https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.landing.html 7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Tour_de_France 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap981212.html 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201001.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 13. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 18. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=201002 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201003.html 20. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 21. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 22. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 23. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 25. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 26. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 27. https://www.nasa.gov/ 28. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 29. http://www.mtu.edu/