Astro Blog

By Heather Cox Richardson.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9-t8xqviM .

By Paul Voosen , Science.  Excerpt: ...the Moon formed some 65 million years after the start of the Solar System—and only tens of millions of years after Earth. The findings promise to resolve decades of debate about the Moon’s age, says Thorsten Kleine, a cosmochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research who  presented new work  here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). Several strands of research are converging on a new and older age for the Moon, he says: “It’s about 4.5 billion years.”...  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/impact-formed-moon-struck-practically-newborn-earth .

By MARCIA DUNN, Associated Press.  Excerpt: A  private lunar lander  carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a  string of companies  looking to kickstart business on Earth’s celestial neighbor ahead of  astronaut missions . Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge of the near side. ...An upright and stable landing makes Firefly — a startup founded a decade ago — the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon  without crashing or falling over . Even  countries have faltered , with only five claiming success: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. ...the lander carried 10 experiments to the moon for NASA. The space agency paid $101 million for the delivery, plus $44 million for the science and tech on board. It’s the third mission under N...

By Zexian Cui et al, Science.  Summary: Between 1969 and 1976, the Apollo and Luna missions collected samples from the ...near side of the Moon—the one that always faces Earth. Observations from lunar orbit have shown that the far side has very different geology from the near side, for unknown reasons. ...In June 2024, the Chang’e-6 spacecraft landed within an impact basin on the far side of the Moon, collected samples, then brought them back to Earth. In a new Science paper , researchers present early results from analyses of a Chang’e-6 sample, which contains volcanic basalt...the volcanic eruption occurred 2.8 billion years ago....  Paper at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt1093 . 

By Nathaniel Scharping , agu.  Excerpt: In 2009, NASA intentionally crashed a spacecraft into the Moon ...The  Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite  (LCROSS) was designed to search for frozen lunar water and other volatiles in the lunar regolith by knocking them off the Moon. ...The LCROSS impact kicked up a cloud of regolith containing plenty of water (5.6% by mass), ...But it did so in a permanently shadowed area of the Moon, leaving scientists unable to directly observe the crater after its formation. ... Fassett et al.  ...researchers ...see the LCROSS crater directly.... The LCROSS impact crater is about 22 meters across, the researchers report, slightly smaller than the LCROSS team  originally estimated . ...the volatiles themselves are young and came from outside the Moon—perhaps from comets, asteroids, or the solar wind—rather than from volcanic eruptions early in the Moon’s history. ...These data could be complemented by future missions, such ...

By Rebecca Schneid , Time.  Excerpt: Starting next week, the moon, Earth’s closest celestial body, will be joined by a new neighbor: a second moon. From Sept. 29 until Nov. 25, astronomers calculate that 2024 PT5— which is what scientists think is an asteroid but have dubbed a “mini-moon”—will be looping around Earth. It will eventually break free of the planet’s gravitational orbit. Sadly, at just about 10 meters, the mini-moon will be extremely hard to see from Earth, but its presence will be there nonetheless for almost two months. The asteroid, which was discovered on Aug. 7 by  NASA , originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt, where it will likely return once it leaves Earth’s orbit. “Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the Near-Earth object (NEO) population and pull them into orbit, making them mini-moons,” researchers Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos wrote in their  published research ....  Full article at https://time.com/7022535/...

By Yuri Amelin  and  Qing-Zhu Yin , Science.  Excerpt: Analyses of rocks and soils delivered by the Apollo and Luna missions have established that the Moon is ancient, dry, and depleted of volatile elements. Studies also have indicated that early in its history, the Moon was covered with molten rock. This magma ocean eventually cooled and produced a compositionally diverse surface crust ( 1 ). How long the Moon produced magma has been an open question. On page 1077 of this issue, Wang  et al . ( 2 ) report that volcanism on the Moon occurred as recently as 120 million years ago (Ma). This implies that the Moon may still be able to produce magma. ...Determining the time range of lunar volcanism can be expanded by studying volcanic glass beads produced by lava fountains (eruptions) and preserved in lunar regolith (surface rock and debris) ( 11 ). These beads, despite sizes of only a few tens of micrometers, can be dated with argon ( 40 Ar/ 39 Ar) and uranium-...

By Leonardo Carrer et al, Nature Astronomy.  Summary: Beneath the islands of Hawaii, there are systems of underground tunnels forged by fire: lava tubes or ‘pyroducts’ created by the islands’ volcanoes. ...New analyses suggest similar cavern networks born from moving magma exist on the Moon, and someday, ...may host life—ours. ...armed with newer analytical methods, researchers decided to re-examine data the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s miniature radio-frequency instrument collected a decade and a half ago. The pattern in the radar reflections from the Mare Tranquillitatis pit—one of the  best contenders for a cave entrance discovered to date  —indicate that a network of caves does indeed lie below. “The most likely explanation for our observations is an empty lava tube,” said co-author Leonardo Carrer  in a statement . ...Given that the lunar surface is blasted by solar and cosmic radiation, anyone spending time on the Moon will need a base that’s well-shielded—a...

By Katrina Miller , The New York Times.  Excerpt: China brought a capsule full of lunar soil from the far side of the moon down to Earth on Tuesday, achieving the latest success in an ambitious schedule to explore the moon and other parts of the solar system. The sample, retrieved by the China National Space Administration’s Chang’e-6 lander after a 53-day mission, highlights  China’s growing capabilities in space  and notches another win in a series of lunar missions that started in 2007 and have so far been executed almost without flaw....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/science/change-6-china-earth-moon.html . 

By DANIEL CLERY , Science.  Excerpt: Astronomers suspect an unusual near-Earth rocky object is not a typical escapee from the Solar System’s asteroid belt, but is instead a chunk of the Moon blasted into space eons ago by a spectacular impact. Now, a team of researchers has modeled what sort of lunar impact could have ejected such a gobbet of Moon and deposit it in a stable, nearby orbit. Surprisingly, only one strong candidate emerged: the asteroid strike that created the famous Giordano Bruno crater, the youngest large crater on the Moon, the  group reports today  in Nature Astronomy. ...The odd asteroid, known as 469219 Kamo‘oalewa, was discovered in 2016 ...measures between 40 and 100 meters across and rotates particularly fast—once every 28 minutes. It follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun that moves in sync with Earth, giving the impression that the asteroid orbits Earth, even though it is outside the planet’s gravitational influence. The asteroid’s curiou...

https://www.science.org/content/article/number-known-moonquakes-tripled-discovery-apollo-archive By  PAUL VOOSEN , Science Excerpt:  THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS— The Moon suddenly seems more alive. From 1969 to 1977, seismometers left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts detected thousands of distinctive “moonquakes.” Now, half a century later, a new analysis has cut through the noise in the old data and nearly tripled the number of moonquakes, adding more than 22,000 new quakes to 13,000 previously identified ones.  The finding,  presented  last week here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, shows “that the Moon may be more seismically and tectonically active today than we had thought,” says Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna, a geophysicist at the University of Arizona unaffiliated with the work, which is  in review  at the  Journal of Geophysical Research . “It is incredible that after 50 years we are still finding new surprises in the data.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/04/science/moon-landing-sideways-gravity.html By Kenneth Chang , The New York Times.  Excerpt: When the robotic lander  Odysseus last month became the first American-built spacecraft to touch down on the moon  in more than 50 years, it toppled over at an angle. ...Just a month earlier, another spacecraft, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, sent by the Japanese space agency, had also tipped during landing,  ending up on its head . ...people pointed to the height of the Odysseus lander — 14 feet from the bottom of the landing feet to the solar arrays at the top — as a contributing factor for its off-kilter touchdown. ...Philip Metzger, a former NASA engineer who is now a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida, explained  the math and the physics  of why it is more difficult to remain standing on the moon. ...“The side motion that can tip a lander of that size is only a few meters per second...

https://www.science.org/content/article/seeking-clear-skies-and-quiet-astronomers-put-telescopes-u-s-moon-lander By DANIEL CLERY , Science. Excerpt: Small scopes on IM-1 mission would be first optical and radio observatories on the lunar surface. ...Astronomers have long eyed the Moon as  a good spot to do their work . Its far side, protected from Earth’s hectic radio noise, is perfect for picking up faint signals from the distant universe. To see infrared signals ... Put the telescope into one of the deep craters at the lunar poles that never receive any sunlight and its sensors will benefit from the crater’s permanent chill....

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/japans-sniper-mission-pinpoints-landing-on-the-moon/ By DAVID DICKINSON , Sky & Telescope.  Excerpt: Today, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA  Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM)  spacecraft pitched over in its lunar orbit, and began its long descent to the Moon's surface. Touchdown occurred at 10:20 a.m. EST / 15:20 UT; NASA’s  Deep Space Network  in Madrid picked up the lander's signal shortly afterward, but problems have ensued. ...SLIM was designed to test the innovative “smart eyes” landing technology, which involves image-matching to aid navigation. The mission was also designed to demonstrate a pinpoint landing, that is, within 100 meters of the target, on a 6- to 8-degree slope. SLIM has a Multi-Band Camera camera on board and, if it is able to, it will deploy two baseball-size rovers on the lunar surface named Lunar Exploration Vehicle 1 and 2. These will hop and roll along the luna...

https://eos.org/articles/mapping-the-moon-to-shield-astronauts-from-radiation By Sierra Bouchér , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In October 1989, the Sun spit a blast of high-energy particles into the solar system. Earth’s protective magnetic field kept us safe, but the Moon received an intense dose: More than 8 times the radiation received by plant workers during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster scorched the barren lunar surface. As NASA’s Artemis III mission prepares to return explorers to the Moon in 2025, scientists are working to protect them from this kind of unpredictable outburst from the Sun and other radiation from deep space. To do this, they’re turning to the Moon’s natural barriers. By mapping the topography of the lunar surface, researchers have calculated the shielding potential of each mountain range, crater wall, and shadowed slope near the south pole—Artemis III’s target. Their work will guide decisionmaking for the landing location of this mission and beyond.... 

https://eos.org/articles/the-moon-is-even-older-than-scientists-thought By Matt Hrodey , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Thanks to one of the slowest-ticking clocks in the universe, scientists have determined the Moon is about 40 million years older than previously thought. That means the Earth was a young 100 million years old when an object about the size of Mars slammed into it, slinging magma out into Earth’s orbit. ...As the Moon’s mantle cooled, it formed tiny zircon crystals, ...sometimes contain other elements, such as uranium ...can be used to date when the crystal originally formed, going back billions of years, if necessary. ...the researchers obtained lunar dust collected by Apollo 17 in 1972 and analyzed the tiny zircon crystals and uranium contained inside. ...Radioactive isotopes of uranium (such as Uranium-238) contain unstable combinations of protons and neutrons in their nuclei and will eventually break down into lead... Scientists determined the age of the Moon by counting th...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/realestate/nasa-homes-moon-3-d-printing.html By Debra Kamin , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...NASA is going to build houses on the moon — ones that can be used not just by astronauts but ordinary civilians as well. They believe that by 2040, Americans will have their first subdivision in space. Living on Mars isn’t far behind. Some in the scientific community say NASA’s timeline is overly ambitious, particularly before a proven success with a new lunar landing. But seven NASA scientists interviewed for this article all said that a 2040 goal for lunar structures is attainable if the agency can continue to hit their benchmarks. The U.S. space agency will blast a 3-D printer up to the moon and then build structures, layer by additive layer, out of a specialized lunar concrete created from the rock chips, mineral fragments and dust that sits on the top layer of the moon’s cratered surface and billows in poisonous clouds whenever disturbed — a moonsho...

https://www.science.org/content/article/india-makes-history-landing-spacecraft-near-moon-s-south-pole By SANJAY KUMAR , Science.  Excerpt: “India is on the Moon!” declared Sreedhara Somanath, chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), today to a packed mission control room. At 6:04 p.m. local time, the Chandrayaan-3 mission softly deposited the Vikram lander on the Moon’s surface, making India the fourth nation to succeed at the task after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. India also becomes the first nation to land near the lunar south pole, an uncharted territory thought to contain frozen water that could support future human exploration.... 

https://www.fraknoi.com/astronomy/eclipsed-earth-rise-from-the-moon/ Source:    Andrew Fraknoi blog Excerpt:  On April 20, the Japanese Hakuto-R spacecraft took a remarkable image of the Earth from orbit around the Moon, showing a total eclipse of the Sun in progress near Australia. Unfortunately, the spacecraft, which would have been the first commercial mission to land on the Moon, appears to have crashed on the Moon when the controllers attempted touch down on April 25. Still, this beautiful image, showing our colorful Earth on the limb of the Moon will stand as a testament to the mission. (They are not the first to fail to land a capsule on the Moon, and they probably won’t be the last.) Click the little arrow on the side of the photo and you will be taken to a closer-up image of the Earth that shows more clearly the dark shadow of the Moon during the April 20th eclipse. That view is from DSCOVR, a climate-monitoring satellite (belonging the National Oceanic and Atmo...

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/does-earth-have-new-quasi-moon/ By David Chandler, Sky & Telescope Magazine.  Excerpt: Recently discovered asteroid 2023 FW 13  has created a bit of a stir among asteroid watchers. It turns out to be on an orbit that is not only in a 1:1 resonance with the Earth, but follows a path that actually circles Earth — albeit on an orbit that is so eccentric that it sweeps out halfway to Mars and in halfway to Venus. There’s no formal definition for objects such as this, which are sometimes called quasi-moons or quasi-satellites. They follow a path around Earth, but usually for no more than a few decades. Perhaps the best known of these objects, known as Kamoʻoalewa, was  found in 2016 , and is considered the smallest, closest, and most stable known quasi-satellite. It has an orbit that has been in a stable resonance with Earth for almost a century, and will remain so for centuries to come, according to calculations by Paul Chodas (J...