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China’s Yutu 2 rover has made yet another curious discovery during its travels on the far side of the moon, this time turning up a pair of translucent glass globules. The rover’s panoramic camera spotted the two glass spheres as it drove across the surface of Von Kármán crater on the far side of the … Read more
The Harvest Moon will be full on Saturday Sept. 10 at 5:59 a.m. Eastern Time (0959 Universal Time), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory — two days after making a close approach to Saturn. From New York City, the officially full moon will be visible just before it sets at 6:29 a.m. and rise that … Read more
The moon is Earth‘s closest celestial neighbor, but the two bodies are worlds apart in terms of temperature. The moon’s temperature can reach a boiling 250° Fahrenheit (120° Celsius or 400 Kelvin) during lunar daytime at the moon’s equator, according to NASA. Lunar daytime is roughly two Earth-weeks long, since the moon takes a little … Read more
You may be able to watch the moon cluster up with ringed Saturn and fleeting Mercury on Monday (Feb. 28), but it will be a considerable challenge. The three worlds will be clustered extra-close to the southeastern horizon as the sun is rising. Saturn is at magnitude 0.7 and Mercury at a brighter -0.1. (For … Read more
Bright Venus, red Mars and the crescent moon are all lining up for a sky show early in the morning Sunday (Feb. 27). If you’re up and available after 4 a.m. local time, be sure to head outside and look to the southeast. By the time the sun rises in New York City at 6:14 … Read more
It’s the brightest object in our night sky, but how far is the moon from Earth? The moon‘s distance from Earth affects the strength of ocean tides and the appearance of solar eclipses in our skies. The average distance between the blue planet and its only natural satellite is about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers), according … Read more
A meteor that exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013 could have also been somehow involved in the giant impact that formed the Moon. This tantalizing finding comes thanks to a new way of dating collisions between rocks in space, based on microscopic analysis of minerals within meteorites. Although further investigation is warranted, … Read more
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Humans 23 February 2022 Josie Ford First hands on the moon Oh, what fun it must be to sit in a tank, and think! It is a thought that strikes Feedback with full vigour as we sit in our stationery … Read more
A doomed rocket stage that’s expected to crash into the moon on March 4 will do so out of view of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The collision is set to take place on the far side of the moon, out of range of Earthbound telescopes. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) does have the ability to … Read more
NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission may end up being a summertime affair. An April launch is no longer possible for Artemis 1, which will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon using a huge Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, agency officials said today (Feb. 24). And May could be difficult to hit as well. … Read more