The Carruthers Legacy

Our Namesake 

The geocorona was first observed in 1972 during the Apollo 16 mission to the Moon with a telescope invented by Dr. George Carruthers. Dr. Carruthers developed a technique to observe the invisible UV glow from the exosphere that our new mission named in his honor still uses. Scientists were surprised by how large the exosphere was. It extended beyond the field of view of the Carruthers telescope. To see the whole geocorona we need a vantage point much farther away than the Moon. This is why there have only been three other images of the geocorona since Apollo 16.