2023/04/21 by James Battat, E. G. Adelberger, Battat, James B. R. +17
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Planetary Science and Exploration
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2304.11128
openalex publication_date 2023/04/21 · openalex created_date 2023/04/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present data from the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO) covering the 15-year span from April 2006 through the end of 2020. APOLLO measures the earth-moon separation by recording the round-trip travel time of photons from the Apache Point Observatory to five retro-reflector arrays on the moon. The APOLLO data set, combined with the 50-year archive of measurements from other lunar laser ranging (LLR) stations, can be used to probe fundamental physics such as gravity and Lorentz symmetry, as well as properties of the moon itself. We show that range measurements performed by APOLLO since 2006 have a median nightly accuracy of 1.7 mm, which is significantly better than other LLR stations.