Lunar Litter Used to Reveal Moon's Love Number

nickynicky9doors writes: "NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has an article on the Moon's Love number. A planet's Love Number is a measure of ... 'how much a planet's surface and interior move in response to the gravitational pull of nearby bodies.' To measure the Moon's Love Number Laser pulses are directed off discarded retroreflectors leftover from missions thirty years ago."

Excellent

[CheshireCatCO]

It's very hard to get these parameters for planets and moons. Earth's is pretty well quantified and the Moon's was actually not bad before this (my Solar System Dynamics text has 0.03, which is close to the value in the article).

We also are reasonably confidence in the other planets' Love numbers. But we are just guessing on, say, Io and Europa. And those are cases where it'd be truely nice to know what the Love numbers are, since that helps determine the heating rates.

not litter!

[Mr. Slippery]

These reflectors are neither litter, nor discarded. They were set there quite deliberately, for the exact purpose for which they are being used - precise measurements of distance via laser pulses.

Not Fair!

[Jester998]

They even have matchmaking for planets now (one would presume that planets with similar Love Numbers would be "compatible"), but I don't see them doing any research to find ME a girlfriend...*sigh*

Wait a damn minute!

[Bossofall]

Wouldn't we have had to have landed on the moon in order to bounce laser light off the "junk" left behind. Lets wait till that Japanese lunar probe verifies that we actually landed there before buying into this one. Lasers sheeeesh what next nuclear rockets? Get a grip.

Love is in the air

[.sig]

Looks like the editors dropped the ball on this one, should have posted it on thursday. NASA's next project will probably involve setting our moon and one of Saturn's moons up on a blind date.