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– Two lunar craters visible in the photo of an Earth astronaut rising above the Moon were named in honor of the 50th anniversary of the historic mission that captured this view from now on iconic.
The Working Group on the Planetary Systems Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved "Anders" Earthrise "and" 8 Homeward "as the new official names of the two craters. The working group is the internationally recognized authority responsible for naming the planetary features of our solar system.
On December 24, 1968, NASA astronaut William "Bill" Anders, Frank Borman and James Lovell, members of his crew for the Apollo 8, became the first humans to gravitate around the moon. When they came out from the other side of the moon aboard their Apollo control module, they saw the crescent of the Earth rise above the lunar surface for the first time .
Anders, equipped with a 70-millimeter color camera, photographed the scene, known as "Earthrise". The image then appeared on the cover of magazines, newspapers and books and was reproduced on a 1969 US postage stamp.
"This is undoubtedly the most famous photo taken by Apollo 8. It has become iconic and has been credited with launching the environmental movement," said IAU.
"We have come all the way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is to have discovered the Earth," Anders said.
The crew of Apollo 8 made 10 orbits of the moon before returning to Earth on December 27, 1968.
"Anders & # 39; Earthrise", who previously called "Pastor T" for the large crater of impact in which it sits, is 25 km (40 km) in diameter. It is clearly visible in the foreground of Anders' photograph Earthrise, hence its new name.
"8 Homeward" is smaller in size, measuring about 12 km and is visible on the moon's horizon in the photo "Earthrise". Originally designated "Ganskiy M", "8 Homeward" is intended to represent the safe return of Apollo 8 astronauts.
The names are based in part on the references of two books: "Earthrise: How did man see the earth?" From Robert Poole (Yale University Press, 2010) and "Apollo 8: The Exciting Story of the First Mission on the Moon" by Jeffrey Kluger (Henry Holt and Company, 2017), according to the IAU.
"Anders & # 39; Earthrise" & "8 Homeward" are not the first craters on the moon named in honor or as a result of the Apollo 8 mission.
In 1970, IAU named three lunar craters according to the three astronauts. "Borman", "Lovell" and "Anders" lie on the other side of the moon, near three craters of the group Apollo 1, tragically died, killed in a fire during a test conducted on January 27, 1967 on the launching pad.
The Apollo 8 astronauts also appealed to IAU to officially recognize the feature names they invented to designate landmarks they identified during their training and then visited from an orbit lunar.
"If it's not been named in advance or it's not well identified by a name, it should be named by the people who see it, who recognize it and have relationships with it, "said Lovell in a 2013 interview with collectSPACE.
Lovell specifically referred to "Mount Marilyn", a triangular mountain used by Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 crews as a descent marker. Lovell named the feature film after his wife and for 49 years, IAU refused to recognize him.
This changed on July 26, 2017, when the Planetary Systems Nomenclature Working Group officially recognized "Mount Marilyn", as well as two other feature names from the Apollo 11 landing site.
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