Editing Luna 4 (section)

==Results and status==

The spacecraft transmitted at 183.6 [[Hertz|MHz]] until 15 April.<ref name=rsp>{{cite book|title=Russian Space Probes: Scientific Discoveries and Future Missions|author1=Brian Harvey|author2=Olga Zakutnyaya|date=2011|publisher=Springer Praxis Books|pages=166–167|location=Chichester,UK|oclc=1316077842}}</ref> French and Italian astronomers reported reception of pictures of the Moon taken by Luna 4. A {{convert|2.6|m}} telescope in Russia photographed Luna 4 early in its flight when it appeared as a 14th magnitude object.<ref name=avweek1963b/> Though Luna 4 did not land on the Moon, it did return data on the radiation environment in [[cislunar space]]. The spacecraft reported variations in the radiation flux over time comparable to those measured by previous missions, but with smoother transition times. Because Luna 4, unlike its predecessors, was launched during the [[solar minimum|least active part of the solar 11 year cycle]], it was conjectured that, rather than being caused by sporadic solar outbursts, that the more gentle variations detected by Luna 4 might instead be caused by changes in local magnetic field effects—normally undetectable in more active times.<ref name=study/> Luna 4 also discovered that the Earth's [[Magnetosphere#Magnetotail|geomagnetic tail]] seeped out at least as far as lunar orbit.<ref name=rsp/>

Luna 4's path appears to have been perturbed such that it now orbits the Sun rather than the Earth.<ref name=nssdc/> The Ye-6 program was ultimately successful, with the 12th in the series, [[Luna 9]], landing on the Moon on 3 February 1966.<ref name=ranp3/>{{rp|373}}