Tag Archives: Moon

Astronomy News

China space probe returns with rare Moon rocks

China space probe returns with rare Moon rocks

By Laura Bicker & Kelly Ng, in Beijing and Singapore
Full story with video:

China’s lunar probe has returned to Earth with the first ever samples from the Moon’s unexplored far side.

The Chang’e-6 landed in the Inner Mongolia desert on Tuesday, after a nearly two-month long mission which was fraught with risks.

Scientists are eagerly awaiting the Chang’e-6 as the samples could answer key questions about how planets are formed.

China is the only country to have landed on the far side of the Moon, having done so before in 2019.

The far side – which faces away from Earth – is technically challenging to reach due to its distance, and its difficult terrain of giant craters and few flat surfaces.

Scientists are interested in this less-explored side as it is hoped it may contain traces of ice, which can be harvested for water, oxygen, and hydrogen.

The Chang’e-6 mission is a source of pride for a nation which has stepped up its missions to the Moon – drawing attention from its rival, the US.

State media showed officials planting the Chinese flag with a flourish just after the Chang’e-6 capsule landed in the desert of Inner Mongolia.

China’s President Xi Jinping has called to congratulate those at the command centre of the Chang’e-6 mission.

Mr Xi said he hopes they can carry on exploring deep space and “reaching new heights in unravelling the mysteries of the universe… to benefit humanity and advance the nation”.

Astronomy News

The Moon’s farside has sticky soil

The Moon’s farside has sticky soil, Yutu-2 finds

The dirt tends to get stuck to the rover’s wheels in clods, but hasn’t hindered the rover yet.
By Mark Zastrow  |  Published: Thursday, January 20, 2022
RELATED TOPICS: MOON | CHINA
Yutu-2 rolls off the Chang'e 4 lander onto the lunar surface in January 2019.
Yutu-2 rolls off the Chang’e 4 lander onto the lunar surface in January 2019. CNSA

The farside of the Moon is a far different place from the nearside. It has a more rugged surface, chock-full of craters. It’s nearly devoid of the smooth, solidified-lava oceans that dot the side that faces us. And it has a different composition, with fewer radioactive elements.

Now, you can add “stickier soil” to that list.

In a paper published Jan. 19 in Science Robotics, Chinese researchers give an update on the Yutu-2 rover, which touched down on the Moon in 2019 with Chang’e 4, the first ever mission to land on the lunar farside.

The team says that one of the most striking things Yutu-2 has encountered is how clumpy, or “cloddy,” the lunar soil has been. Images taken by the Chang’e 4 lander and the rover of its wheels show that much of its fine metal mesh is covered in dirt that it has picked up as it rolled across the lunar surface.

READ MORE

Space Travel / Exploration

Canada to launch moon rover by 2026

Canada to launch moon rover by 2026

By

The project will be a partnership with NASA.

Canada’s moon plans keep getting more ambitious.

The nation will develop a robotic lunar rover in partnership with NASA and launch it by 2026, François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced on Wednesday (May 26).

“The rover will be carrying at least two science instruments, Canadian and American. The mission will aim to gather imagery and measurements and data of the surface of the moon, as well as to have the rover survive an entire night on the moon,” Canadian Space Agency (CSA) officials said in a statement Wednesday. (One lunar night lasts about 14 Earth days.)

READ MORE

Astronomy News

There might be remnants of an ancient planet buried inside Earth

There might be remnants of an ancient planet buried inside Earth

An ancient impactor called Theia hit Earth to create the Moon. New research suggests the rest of that planet may still be inside Earth.

By Anna Funk  |  Published: Wednesday, April 14, 2021
RELATED TOPICS: EARTH | MOON
Jurik Peter/Shutterstock
Jurik Peter/Shutterstock

Researchers are fairly certain that we gained our favorite satellite, the Moon, after a planet, Theia, collided with the proto-Earth 4.5 billion years ago. What’s not certain are the details surrounding Theia’s fate. Was it a hit-and-run, or did the mantles of the two planets merge?

Qian Yuan, Earth scientist at Arizona State University, and his colleagues recently suggested a new line of evidence to support the latter hypothesis, suggesting that Theia not only merged with Earth, but we might know right where the remnants of its mantle reside in Earth.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Astronomy News

Astronomers want to plant telescopes on the Moon

Astronomers want to plant telescopes on the Moon

The lunar surface offers advantages for infrared and radio astronomy, despite the challenges.

By Ramin Skibba, Inside Science | Published: Tuesday, January 19, 2021

(Inside Science) — For decades, even before the iconic Hubble telescope took flight, astronomers have been launching spacecraft into orbit in the hopes of avoiding atmospheric effects that blur images taken by telescopes on Earth. But to catch clear signals of some cosmic objects, even those orbits aren’t high enough.

A group of astronomers now make the case for assembling and planting telescopes on the Moon. In a series of newly published papers, they argue that our lunar neighbor, especially its far side, makes an excellent place for telescopes in the radio and infrared range. These telescopes could discover and study potentially life-friendly planets outside our solar system and explore the little-understood “dark ages” of the young universe, around a million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars formed.

“This is the time to start discussing projects on the Moon. There’s a huge international focus on returning to the Moon, and we wanted to make sure that science gets considered as a priority,” said Joseph Silk, a University of Oxford astrophysicist who authored multiple papers in the series.

Read More Here:

Corona meetings from home

Meeting of October 17: all the posts in order

All the posts in order! Enjoy the meeting, and don’t forget to leave comments. There will be participation prizes drawn for all who contribute to the meeting.

 

Virtual Meeting 07 – Intro

Welcome to the meeting! The panellists introduce themselves.

Post 1 of 6: October 17 DIY, Virtual MonSFFA Meeting

 Keith opens the meeting

      • 28 Days Later
      • Introduction
      • Meeting Agenda
      • A Coronavirus Parody Song for Halloween
      • 19 Basic Rules for Surviving Halloween!
      • A Second Parody Song!

Post 2 of 6: October 17 DIY, Virtual MonSFFA Meeting

Presentation by Sylvain: The Many Faces of the Moon

Post 3 of 6: October 17 DIY, Virtual MonSFFA Meeting
  • An important announcement from our programmer
  • Display table
  • pictures of the prizes on offer

There are two more prizes, view them on our website

Joe presents: The Mad Scientists!

http://www.monsffa.ca/?p=13663


​

 

http://www.monsffa.ca/?p=13522

 

 A full moon, a Saturday night…. Should have been a great Halloween!
http://www.monsffa.ca/?p=14098
  • Another Coronavirus Parody Song
  •  Remembering “The Aurora 13” (Classic Monster Model Kits)!
  • Still Another Coronavirus Parody Song
  • Condolences
  • Thank-You!
  • Final Parody Song

Astronomy News

Spot every planet and take part in International Observe the Moon Night

Spot every planet and take part in International Observe the Moon Night this week from September 25 to October 2.

It’s supposed to be clear tonight, so do get out there under the sky and look at the moon and planets. A pair of binoculars will easily show you the planets, and if you can put them on a tripod, or steady them on a railing, you can see the moons of Jupiter.

Lunar observing, look for Clavius in the south. There is a beautiful arc of little craters within with larger one that looks like a necklace.

The Sky This Week: Solar system bonanza

Spot every planet and take part in International Observe the Moon Night this week from September 25 to October 2.
By Alison Klesman  |  Published: Friday, September 25, 2020
The Moon on September 26, 2020
Observe the Moon September 26 is International Observe the Moon Night. Our satellite will have plenty on display, from dark seas to bright craters and rugged mountains. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
Friday, September 25
The Moon passes 1.6° south of Jupiter at 3 A.M. EDT this morning; our satellite then passes 2° south of Saturn at 5 P.M. EDT. You can still see the Moon near the two giant planets after dark this evening. Look south to find the Moon, now 10° southeast of Jupiter and nearly 4° southeast of Saturn. All three are readily visible to the naked eye, but binoculars or a telescope will reveal more detail on the planets, including Saturn’s rings and the alternating colored cloud bands of Jupiter.

Jupiter’s intriguingly icy moon, Europa, begins to transit the planet’s disk from the east starting at 10:07 P.M. EDT. Its shadow slips onto the disk 2.5 hours later, just 14 minutes before the moon passes off the planet’s western limb. Europa’s shadow slowly crosses Jupiter over the next 2.5 hours, disappearing by 3:30 A.M. the morning of the 26th.

Sunrise*: 6:51 A.M.
Sunset: 6:51 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:57 P.M.
Moonset: 12:25 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (67%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.

Saturday, September 26
Tonight is International Observe the Moon Night. Click over to NASA’s official page at http://moon.nasa.gov/observe for more information about the event and how you can participate simply by stepping outside and looking up.

With our satellite a well-lit waxing gibbous today, much of its terrain will be on display, as well as many of the Apollo landing sites. Several maria, or seas, appear as dark splotches against the brighter surrounding terrain. These darker areas never held water but are instead ancient lava flows, left over from when our Moon was much younger. Their relatively smooth floors made them ideal targets for manned landings. Easily visible tonight are Mare Serenitas, Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Crisium, Mare Fecunditatis, and Mare Nectaris. Just peeking out from the terminator is Mare Imbrium, bordered by the rugged Apennine mountains, named after the mountain range in Italy.

Astronomy News

Ideas for future lunar telescopes

Full article with historical context is here.

NasaTelescopeOnTheMoonBase
Astronomers’ hopes for lunar scientific observatories have typically been tied to future Moon bases, which have remained far-fetched. NASA

Capturing previously inaccessible radio waves has been a dream of astronomers for decades. Some 40 years ago, scientists started seriously considering what different types of lunar telescopes might be able to discover, as well as how they could be built.

Even then, according to a NASA document titled “Future Astronomical Observatories on the Moon,” scientists realized that the Moon offered a unique vantage point that could open up “the last window in the electromagnetic spectrum at very low frequencies.”

By the early 1980s, the Apollo missions were a decade in the rearview, but the burgeoning Space Shuttle Program was looking like a success. This led to renewed talks of returning to the Moon. Researchers hoped these developments might eventually lead to Moon bases that would enable the infrastructure for sustained scientific studies.

“The only way we could conceive of putting scientific instruments on the Moon was with astronauts,” says University of Colorado Boulder astronomer Jack O. Burns. He serves as director of the NASA-funded Network for Exploration and Space Science, and for decades has been the lead crusader for building telescopes on the Moon.

Now, for the first time — thanks to modern robotics and the emergence of private spaceflight companies — Burns thinks this once-crazy idea can actually become a reality. His students now routinely work with remotely operated robots and machine learning algorithms — things that would have been unimaginable in the 1980s, he says. “Technology has caught up, and maybe that’s what we needed.”

Due to these technological advancements and more, lunar telescopes no longer require astronaut construction crews and $100 billion space programs. Instead, they could be built using rovers sent on privately built rockets that are already under development.

Astronomy News

SUNSET SKY SHOW–TONIGHT!


Tonight, Venus, the crescent Moon, and the Pleiades will form a beautiful triangle in the western sunset sky.

[]
Space Weather News for March 28, 2020
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com

SUNSET SKY SHOW–TONIGHT! Tonight, Venus, the crescent Moon and the Pleiades will form a beautiful triangle in the western sunset sky. The event kicks off a slow-motion conjunction between Venus and the Pleiades that will grow even more beautiful in the nights ahead. Visit Spaceweather.com for sky maps and observing tips.

Aurora alerts: Sign up for Spaceweather Alerts and receive a text message when auroras appear in your area.
[] 
Above: Venus, the Moon, and the Pleiades converge on March 27th–the prelude to an even prettier conjunction on March 28th. Photo credit: Ruslan Merzlyakov of Nykøbing Mors, Denmark. [photo gallery]


Astronomy News

VENUS-MOON CONJUNCTION

Space Weather News for Dec. 28, 2019
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com

VENUS-MOON CONJUNCTION: Tonight, Dec. 28th, the two brightest objects in the night sky are getting together for a beautiful display. Venus and the Moon are in conjunction, less than 2 degrees apart over the Americas. Look for them in the southwest just after sunset. The Moon is exquisitely slender and is going to look great beside the brilliant Goddess of Love. Sky maps and photos are highlighted on today’s edition of Spaceweather.com.

[] 
Above: Venus and the Moon will be close together in the constellation Capricornus on Dec. 28, 2019.