Q: What is the distance from the Earth to the moon, and how many days does it take to get there?
— Rick Brewer, Smyrna
A: The moon takes an elliptical path around Earth, but on average, it's 238,855 miles away, according to NASA. At its closest point, it's 225,623 miles away, and at the farthest distance, it's 252,088 miles away. It took Apollo 11 astronauts three days to reach lunar orbit after blasting off on July 16, 1969, in a craft powered by a Saturn V multistage rocket. NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto flew past the moon just eight hours and 35 minutes after leaving Earth in 2006, but it didn't slow down to enter lunar orbit, like missions to the moon.
Q: What is the purpose of the collar placed at the top of the large Georgia Power smokestack at Plant McDonough-Atkinson? How did they get it up there?
— Bob Andrews, Atlanta
A: The collar was installed at the top of the smokestack to "ensure no debris falls outside the stack" during the process to dismantle it, Georgia Power spokesman Mark Williams told Q&A on the News in an email. The smokestack was part of two recently decommissioned coal-fired generating units that have been replaced with three natural gas-fired combined cycle units, he said. Workers used rigging to hoist scaffolding and equipment to the top of the smokestack at the Smyrna plant, Williams wrote.
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