Items tagged with moon
It's now or never, dear readers—the final so-called "micro" full Moon this year will be culminating tonight. The Moon will technically be furthest away from Earth today at 251,939 miles, but when viewed this evening near the horizon, our little planetary satellite will still appear larger than usual due to a human perception phenomenon called
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Attention all stargazers, dust off your DLSR camera and adjust your weekend plans accordingly, because you're about to be treated to the first full moon of spring. Otherwise known as the Pink Moon, Paschal Moon, and Passover Moon, there's some interesting trivia afoot to be the life of the moon watch party, should you bring along less celestial-savvy
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Next week, Earth will be lined up between the Sun and the Moon, creating a total lunar eclipse. North Americans, at least, haven't seen such an eclipse, otherwise known as a "blood moon," in several years—since November 2022—so this is a great opportunity to catch this special event. Unlike a solar eclipse, no special...
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Firefly has announced that its "Blue Ghost" spacecraft has captured a stunning video showing the dark side of the moon while it was preparing to land on the lunar surface. Firefly is one of the private companies selected via NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, the purpose of which is to transport...
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If you've seen photos of the far side of the moon, specifically of two long canyons within what is called the Schrödinger basin and wondered what created them, look no further—researches have determined that ejecta from an ancient asteroid strike carved out the grand canyons (Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck) in...
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As a part of its grand plans for outer space domination, China intends on sending another Chang'e probe into space next year. The mission this time is to search for water potentially frozen in the far side of the moon after previous Chinese probes had found potential for further exploration. Discovering frozen water...
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Chinese researchers have had their first look at rock samples brought back from the far side of the Moon by its Chang’e-6 mission. The mission was China’s second excursion to the Moon’s far side, after the Chang’e-4 mission in 2019.
The Chang’e-6 spacecraft landed on the Moon’s far side in June of this year, touching...
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Be sure not to miss the last supermoon of the year, known as the Beaver Moon, this week. This will be the last of four consecutive supermoons, and will be slightly brighter than the first of the four in mid-August.
The term supermoon, coined in 1979, refers to when a full moon coincides with the Moon’s closest...
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Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, which was viewed up close by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986, has been the focus of more than a few studies over the last few decades. One of the more recent studies included planetary scientists clearing up a perplexing problem surrounding the planet’s weaker-than-anticipated...
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The devil may wear Prada, but NASA is taking it to the moon, and possibly Mars. Axiom Space revealed the first flight design of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit, which will be worn by astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis III mission, at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, this...
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October’s full moon will be a “Supermoon,” also known as the Hunter’s Moon, and is the third of four consecutive supermoons this year. Other names for the upcoming Supermoon are the Travel Moon, the Dying Grass Moon, or the Sanguine or Blood Moon.
According to NASA, the name Hunter’s Moon goes as far back as the...
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As NASA gets closer to returning humans to the Moon, the space agency is also looking at ways of providing shelter for future astronauts on the lunar surface for long-term missions. One idea that is regaining momentum involves feeding fungal species to build materials that would be stronger than concrete and provide...
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The 2024 annular solar eclipse is happening tomorrow and will include a ring of fire. While the path of the eclipse will take it mainly through the Southern Hemisphere, those north will still be able to watch via livestream.
Back in early April of this year, many across North America took time out of their busy day...
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ATLAS, an asteroid impact early warning system in Hawaii, spotted a small asteroid that will temporarily orbit Earth for the next two months. Asteroid 2024 PT5 is a 10-meter (33-feet) wide space rock that is expected to come as close as 1 million kilometers of Earth in an orbital path that resembles a...
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The month of September is chock full of celestial goodness, with a partial lunar eclipse highlighting the festivities. September’s full moon, also called the Harvest moon, will also be a Supermoon, meaning it will appear ever so slightly bigger and brighter than the average full moon.
As NASA and the US government...
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As NASA and other space agencies continue working toward sedning humans back to the moon, the agency’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program is leading efforts to create a coordinated lunar time standard. The goal is to enable a future lunar ecosystem that could be scalable to other locations in our solar...
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A Kobe University researcher has confirmed that an asteroid which struck Jupiter’s moon Ganymede was about 20 times larger than the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs on Earth. According to the new study, when the asteroid struck Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, its axis shifted because of the...
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Intuitive Machines will receive $116.9 million to deliver six NASA payloads to the Moon’s South Pole in 2027. The new set of science experiments and technology demonstrations are part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, including support for missions with crew on the lunar surface.
The lunar...
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New findings by India’s Chandrayaan lunar probe seem to validate an idea called the Lunar Magma Ocean theory concerning how the Moon formed. Scientists have hypothesized that when the Moon formed some 4.5 billion years ago, it started to cool and a lighter mineral called anorthosite rose to the top, forming the Moon’s...
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Next week’s full Moon is a rare Supermoon, also referred to as a Blue Moon, Sturgeon Moon, or Dog Moon, among other names. The term “supermoon” was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, referring to either a new or full Moon that occurs when the Moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth.
While the...
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Space company Honeybee has proposed a 100 meter tall tower that will potentially light the path for future NASA Artemis astronauts on the moon. The LUNARSABER (Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution) tower is a deployable structure that integrates solar...
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New research by scientists at the Smithsonian Institute are proposing a plan to safeguard Earth’s endangered biodiversity by cryogenically preserving biological material on the moon. According to the research, the permanently shadowed craters on the moon's surface, or perhaps lunar underground caves, are cold enough...
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