Orbit of the Moon the Moon varies as it orbits Earth and hence is not always equal to the Moon's rotational velocity. When the Moon is at its perigee, its rotation is slower than its orbital motion, and this allows us to see up to eight degrees of longitude of its eastern (right) far side. Conversely, when the Moon reaches its apogee, its rotation is faster than its orbital motion and this reveals eight degrees of longitude of its western (left) far side. This is referred to as "longitudinal libration". Because the lunar orbit is also inclined to Earth's ecliptic plane by 5.1°, the
Near-Earth object smaller than about in diameter (i.e. H = 22.0 with assumed albedo of 14%), are not considered PHAs. NASA's catalog of near-Earth objects also includes the approach distances of asteroids and comets (expressed in lunar distances). The first near-Earth objects to be observed by humans were comets. Their extraterrestrial nature was recognised and confirmed only after Tycho Brahe tried to measure the distance of a comet through its parallax in 1577; and the periodicity of some comets was recognised in 1705, when Edmond Halley first published his orbit calculations for the returning object now known as Halley's Comet. The 1758–1759