Wallpaper: Moon | Universe Today

Written by Fraser Cain

It's time to update your computer's desktop wallpaper. Here's a good wallpaper: Moon. Click on any picture you want to get a bigger version. Then right-click on the image and choose "Set as Desktop Background".

Buzz Aldrin with the American Flag

Here's an image of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon with the American Flag. You can see one leg from the Eagle lander on the left-hand side of the image.

Lunar Orbiter

This is a computer illustration of NASA's Lunar Orbiter mission. This was a spacecraft sent before the Apollo landings to help study and map the surface of the Moon.

Footprints on the Moon

Here's one of the most iconic images in all of space exploration: the image of the Apollo 11 astronaut footprints on the Moon. More than a billion people watched this event live on television.

Moon - North Polar Mosaic, Color

The destination for NASA's Galileo spacecraft was Jupiter, but it took a bunch of pictures before it left the neighborhood. Here's a picture of the Moon captured by Galileo as it was speeding away from Earth.

Moonrise

This is an image of the Moon rising above the atmosphere of the Earth. It was captured by the crew of the space shuttle Columbia during its ill-fated journey back from orbit. The shuttle broke up on re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all 7 astronauts on board.

We've written many articles about the Moon for Universe Today. Here's an article about the discovery of water on the Moon, and here's an article about the Moon compared to Earth.

If you'd like more info on the Moon, check out NASA's World Book on the Moon, and here's a link to NASA's Lunar and Planetary Science page.

We've also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about the Moon. Listen here, Episode 113: The Moon, Part 1.

Filed under: Astronomy