In the hunt for a second Earth, look to small planets, says new research
Scientists around the world are constantly on the hunt for planets outside our solar system that could potentially provide a habitable environment for life.
Scientists around the world are constantly on the hunt for planets outside our solar system that could potentially provide a habitable environment for life.
Planetary Sciences
Jun 18, 2024
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Nocturnal bull ants can use low-level moonlight to navigate at night, according to new research.
Plants & Animals
Jun 12, 2024
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On Feb. 22, a lunar lander named Odysseus touched down near the moon's South Pole and popped out four antennas to record radio waves around the surface—a moment University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jack Burns hails ...
Space Exploration
Jun 7, 2024
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China said its lunar spacecraft unfurled the country's red and gold flag for the first time on the far side of the moon before part of the vehicle blasted off early Tuesday with rock and soil samples to bring back to Earth.
Space Exploration
Jun 4, 2024
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A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.
Space Exploration
Jun 2, 2024
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A new study by Brown University researchers may help redefine how scientists map the surface of the moon, making the process more streamlined and precise than ever before.
Space Exploration
May 29, 2024
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It's time for the start of summer—with a full moon to boot.
Planetary Sciences
4 hours ago
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In a world-first experiment, JCU researchers have been using the pelts of dead rats to test if the glow-in-the-dark fur of mammals is being used for secret nocturnal communication. The results are published in the Australian ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 18, 2024
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NASA has set its sights on the moon, aiming to send astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2026 and establish a long-term presence there by the 2030s. But the moon isn't exactly a habitable place for people.
Space Exploration
Jun 13, 2024
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The first ESA instrument to land on the moon has detected the presence of negative ions on the lunar surface produced through interactions with the solar wind.
Space Exploration
Jun 6, 2024
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The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system (the barycentre) is located about 1,700 km—a quarter the Earth's radius—beneath the surface of the Earth. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days (the orbital period), and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the phases of the moon, which repeat every 29.5 days (the synodic period).
The Moon's diameter is 3,474 km, a little more than a quarter of that of the Earth. Thus, the Moon's surface area is less than a tenth that of the Earth (about a quarter the Earth's land area, approximately as large as Russia, Canada, and the United States combined), and its volume is about 2 percent that of Earth. The pull of gravity at its surface is about 17 percent of that at the Earth's surface.
The Moon is the only celestial body to which humans have traveled and upon which humans have performed a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna program was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the NASA Apollo program by the United States achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972- the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. Human exploration of the Moon temporarily ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although a few robotic landers and orbiters have been sent to the Moon since that time. The U.S. has committed to return to the moon by 2018.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA