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moon

SPACE: The Moon is Rusty, And It’s Earth’s Fault

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moon - pixabay

The moon is turning ever so slightly red, and it’s likely Earth’s fault. Our planet’s atmosphere may be causing the moon to rust, new research finds. Rust, also known as an iron oxide, is a reddish compound that forms when iron is exposed to water and oxygen. Rust is the result of a common chemical reaction for nails, gates, the Grand Canyon’s red rocks — and even Mars. The Red Planet is nicknamed after its reddish hue that comes from the rust it acquired long ago when iron on its surface combined with oxygen and water, according to a statement … Read more

SPACE: Are We Going to Mine the Moon?

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earth from moon - deposit photo

Private industries have helped drop the cost of launching rockets, satellites and other equipment into space to historic lows. That has boosted interest in developing space – both for mining raw materials such as silicon for solar panels and oxygen for rocket fuel, as well as potentially relocating polluting industries off the Earth. But the rules are not clear about who would profit if, for instance, a U.S. company like SpaceX colonized Mars or established a moon base. At the moment, no company – or nation – is yet ready to claim or take advantage of private property in space. … Read more

SPACE: Chaos Reigns On Europa

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Europa chaos

Scientists have gotten their best look to date at three chaotic patches on the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa thanks to decade-old images from a long-defunct spacecraft. NASA’s Galileo spacecraft spent eight years touring the Jupiter system, between 1995 and 2003, and during that time it made 11 flybys of the icy moon Europa. On Sept. 26, 1998, during one such maneuver, Galileo captured particularly detailed black-and-white images of the moon’s crackled surface. Now, scientists have revisited those images to prepare for future missions to the intriguing world. “We’ve only seen a very small part of Europa’s surface at … Read more

SPACE: The Moon in High Contrast

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moon

Shadows creep down the banks of every crater on the near-side of the moon, highlighting the pockmarked face of Earth’s gravitationally-bound buddy with a clarity never before seen. According to photographer Andrew McCarthy, who posted the stunning image to his Instagram in April, there’s a simple explanation for the unprecedented level of detail in his work — this lunar view is actually “impossible.” “This moon might look a little funny to you, and that’s because it is an impossible scene,” McCarthy wrote on Instagram. “From two weeks of images of the waxing moon, I took the section of the picture that has the … Read more

SPACE: China Wants to Bring back a Piece of the Moon

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moon - pixabay

A glimpse into China’s readiness to handle samples from the moon reveals steps to be taken for storage, processing and preparation of the specimens. China’s Chang’e 5 robotic moon mission is scheduled to launch later this year. That venture represents the third phase of China’s Chang’e lunar exploration program: returning samples from the moon. The reported candidate landing region for Chang’e 5 is the Rümker region, located in the northern Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”). The area is geologically complex and known for its volcanic activity. The Chang’e 5 mission has four main parts: an orbiter, ascender, lander and Earth … Read more

SPACE: Chinese Moon Rover Checks Out the Far Side

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Chinese Moon Rover

China’s far-side moon mission has turned its history-making gaze underground. The Chang’e 4 spacecraft touched down on the floor of the 115-mile-wide (186 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater on Jan. 2, 2019, becoming the first probe ever to ace a soft landing on the moon’s mysterious far side, which forever points away from Earth. A rover called Yutu 2 (“Jade Rabbit 2”) rolled off the stationary Chang’e 4 lander just hours after touchdown. These two solar-powered craft have now been taking the measure of their exotic surroundings for more than a year with a variety of science gear, giving us unprecedented … Read more

SPACE: Titan’s Possibility of Life Takes a Hit

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Saturn’s most Earth-like moon looks a bit less likely to host life, thanks to quantum mechanics, the weird rules that govern subatomic particles. Titan, the second largest moon in our solar system after Jupiter’s Ganymede, is unique in two ways that have convinced some researchers that this moon might host extraterrestrial life: It’s the only moon in our solar system with a dense atmosphere, and it’s the only body in space, besides Earth, known to definitely have pools of liquid on its surface. In Titan’s case, those pools are frigid lakes of hydrocarbons, closer to the gasoline in a car … Read more

SPACE: What Does It Take to Be a Moon?

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Phobos - NASA

From Earth’s rocky, pockmarked satellite to ice-covered ocean worlds, our solar system is chock-full of moons. Some planets have dozens of them; others don’t have any. Astronomers find these satellites very interesting — geologically and, potentially, astrobiologically — and are eager to send probes to visit lunar destinations, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. So it might surprise you to discover that, currently, there is no scientific definition of a moon. The scholars in charge of such an undertaking would be the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which approves and certifies the names of celestial objects, planetary scientist … Read more

space: Landing on the Moon is HARD!

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moon - pixabay

Space is hard. That was the takeaway on Sept. 7, when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with its Vikram lunar lander during an attempt to touch down at the moon’s south pole. India was poised to become the fourth nation to ever successfully touch down softly on the lunar regolith, doing so in a place that no other country has previously reached. Though the space agency is still scrambling to revive communication with Vikram — which has been spotted from lunar orbit — the unhappy landing sequence seemed like a painful echo of the situation earlier this … Read more

SPACE: Who Owns the Moon?

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moon landing - NASA

Most likely, this is the best-known picture of a flag ever taken: Buzz Aldrin standing next to the first U.S. flag planted on the Moon. For those who knew their world history, it also rang some alarm bells. Only less than a century ago, back on Earth, planting a national flag in another part of the world still amounted to claiming that territory for the fatherland. Did the Stars and Stripes on the moon signify the establishment of an American colony? When people hear for the first time that I am a lawyer practicing and teaching something called “space law,” … Read more