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Stories about: moon


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Outstanding Lunar Maps Revealed by CNSA

This week saw the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) reveal new maps of the Moon. Thus far, nothing unusual, except maybe for the amazing resolution and level of detail these products contain. CNSA is indeed beginning to catch up with Russia, Europe and the US in space exploration.The data used to compile t...

11 February 2012
06:51 GMT

Space Base on the Far Side of the Moon: A Possibility

A group of scientists at NASA is strongly considering the possibility of constructing what they refer to as a waypoint tended by humans on the far side of the Moon. This structure would serve as a relay and resupply base for space missions probing deeper within the solar system. Top NASA officials say that the cons...

10 February 2012
08:45 GMT

Far Side of the Moon Revealed in New Video

Experts managing the Ebb lunar orbiter have just released the first video the spacecraft made of regions on the far side of the Moon. The probe arrived in orbit around Earth's natural satellite on December 31, 2011, and is scheduled to begin its full science mission next month. Ebb is one of the twin NASA Grav...

2 February 2012
03:16 GMT

Moon Had Own Dynamo Effect

In a paper published in the January 27 issue of the top journal Science, experts propose that the Moon's magnetic field in fact endured for a lot longer than previously estimated. At the same time, its strength may have been underrated in past investigations, the same team indicates. But the most important con...

27 January 2012
16:31 GMT

Lyman Alpha Emission Analyses Reveal Water-Ice in Lunar Craters

In order to be able to observed some of the most interesting (and obscured) areas of the Moon, a team of astronomers recently decided to use Lyman Alpha Emission (LAE) investigations to see permanently shadowed regions (PSR) on the lunar surface. These areas are interesting precisely because they remain obscured at a...

20 January 2012
09:51 GMT

Russia, US and Europe To Build Orbital Lunar Colony

Representatives from NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are currently discussing the prospect of establishing manned research stations around the Moon. These facilities would operate continuously, requiring permanent crews. What this means is that we may be witnessi...

20 January 2012
08:18 GMT

GRAIL Spacecraft Renamed by Students in Montana

Officials at the American space agency announced yesterday, January 17, that they now have new names for the two GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon. The probes arrived in lunar orbit on December 31, 2011 and January 1, 2012, respectively. Their new names were subm...

18 January 2012
02:55 GMT

Lunar Mineral Found in Australian Rock Sample

In a paper published in the January issue of the journal Geology, experts describe the discovery of a mineral that was thought to exist only on the Moon. The rock sample in which the material was discovered is more than a billion years old, and was found in Australia. Astronauts with NASA's Apollo 11 mission t...

6 January 2012
06:34 GMT

GRAIL Successfully Makes Its Way into Lunar Orbit

Both GRAIL spacecraft are now in lunar orbit, officials from the American space agency announced. The two probes managed to achieve orbital insertion in time, on December 31, 2011 and January 1, 2012, respectively. The purpose of the Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) is to create the most detailed ma...

3 January 2012
01:31 GMT

Apollo-Era Lunar Images Turned into 3D Mosaics

Experts at the NASA Ames Research Center, in Moffett Field, California, have recently created a new series of image processing algorithms that allow them to process photos collected by the Apollo missions to the Moon in a way that was not even thought possible before. Using the grayscale pixels in the photos as a s...

29 December 2011
07:28 GMT

Twin GRAIL Spacecraft Ready to Enter Lunar Orbit

Two NASA spacecraft currently on their way to the Moon are getting ready to enter lunar orbit in just a couple of days. The first will carry out this maneuver on December 31, New Year's Eve, while its companion will arrive on January 1, 2012. The mission, called Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)...

29 December 2011
02:50 GMT

Aliens May Have Left Artifacts on the Moon or Mars

Experts from Arizona and Pennsylvania propose that the Moon and Mars may represent excellent places to start searching for alien artifacts. These objects may have been left behind by space probes or other spacecraft that may have visited our solar system a long time ago. Both these celestial bodies have surfaces th...

27 December 2011
08:26 GMT

Scientists: Earth Has Two Moons

A group of scientists proposed in a new scientific paper that Earth has two moons, the familiar one we see in the sky at night, influencing our planet's tides, and another one, only as big as a very small car. The asteroid is not always the same, the team behind the paper believes. They say that there is a spac...

23 December 2011
10:35 GMT

Presidential Hopeful Newt Gingrich Wants to Mine the Moon

Newt Gingrich, who is hoping to run for president as a candidate from the Republican Party, proposed on December 10 that America should definitely mine the Moon for precious resources. He was not in agreement with the other person at the table, former front-runner Mitt Romney. While the latter said that he would opp...

14 December 2011
10:59 GMT

Boulder-Climbing on the Moon

Today, December 13, NASA released this image of astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt walking on the surface of the Moon to mark the 39th anniversary of the extravehicular activity (EVA). The walk took place during Apollo 17. The snapshot is in fact a composite of two different images, both of which were snapped by Apollo ...

13 December 2011
08:36 GMT

Tomorrow's Meteor Shower May Be Obscured by the Full Moon

Usually one of the most visible and amazing meteor showers of the year, the 2011 Geminids may be obscured and made less visible by the full Moon. The meteor shower peaks tomorrow, December 13. Even officials at NASA joked about this issue, saying that it would be nice if we could somehow turn off the Moon for just t...

12 December 2011
07:39 GMT

NASA Loses Track of Large Batch of Lunar Samples

Officials at the American space agency admitted recently that numerous Moon rocks, and meteorite and gas samples, cannot be accounted for, after being loaned to various research groups, museums and universities around the country. An internal report compiled by NASA Inspector General Paul Martin revealed that 517 s...

9 December 2011
10:01 GMT

Solar Storms Can Erode the Lunar Surface

According to the conclusions of a new simulation conducted by NASA experts, it would appear that solar storms – and the coronal mass ejections (CME) they produce – are enough to literally erode the lunar surface. This primarily happens because the Moon has no protective atmospheric layers. The discovery...

6 December 2011
10:54 GMT

NVIDIA Tegra Powers Rover That Will Land on the Moon

Anyone thinking that the Tegra platform wasn't going to make a name for itself anywhere outside the smartphone and tablet market would be dreadfully wrong. In fact, that would be particularly wrong to say since the technology might end up going beyond the confines of our little planet. Some may have heard of...

6 December 2011
08:06 GMT

Partial Solar Eclipse to Take Place This Friday

A small group of people living precisely in the required area will be able to enjoy a partial solar eclipse this Friday, November 25. This will be the fourth time this happens this year alone, but the maximum number of eclipses that can take place in a single year is five. The eclipse will mostly be visible from th...

22 November 2011
02:41 GMT

Highly-Detailed Topographical Map of the Moon Created

A new high-resolution image of the lunar surface was just released by investigators in charge of the imaging cameras aboard the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The view includes only a year's-worth of data, and covers nearly the entire surface of Earth's natural satellite. Astronomers say that th...

17 November 2011
02:28 GMT

Why the Moon Had a Magnetic Field

Previous studies of the Moon have concluded that it once had a magnetic field, a discovery that threw scientists completely off-balance. Now, two research team provide separate explanations for this phenomenon, and their theories are not necessarily mutually-exclusive. In fact, it may be that their explanations are...

10 November 2011
17:11 GMT

Iconic Lunar Rover Image of Apollo Module

The latest entry to NASA's Image of the Day series, posted on November 8, shows an image that was collected from the Lunar Roving Vehicle, during the Apollo 16 flight to the Moon. The mission's Lunar Module, called Orion, can be seen in the background. The photo also shows the tracks that the rover vehicle...

8 November 2011
10:50 GMT

LRO Sees Weird Fissures in Lunar Crater

The latest images sent back by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) reveal interesting fissures on the bottom of the Aitken Crater, on the lunar surface. The landscape feature is located at 16.8°S, 173.4°E, for those of you who want to investigate it for yourselves. The crater itself is rather large,...

2 November 2011
10:13 GMT

Moon Rock to Be Displayed at Arizona State University

Representatives from the Arizona State University (ASU), in Tempe, announce that a rock brought back from the Moon by the Apollo 15 mission will be displayed in the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Visitor Gallery, inside the Interdisciplinary A building on campus, starting November 5. The rock is loaned t...

2 November 2011
04:02 GMT

New Test for NASA Robotic Landers Scheduled for November 4

Officials at the American space agency announce that a new test flight of the newest generation of robotic landers it is currently developing has been scheduled for November 4. The Robotic Lander Project seeks to develop spacecraft that could land autonomously on the Moon and Mars. The reason why the November 4 test ...

29 October 2011
07:02 GMT

Flyby of Large Asteroid Expected for November 8

Officials at the American space agency say that an asteroid about four football fields in diameter will zip past Earth on November 8. While not dangerous during its current path, the space rock may pose a risk to Earth in the far future. Dubbed 2005 YU55, this object is no less than 1,300 feet (400 meters ) wide. W...

28 October 2011
01:52 GMT

The Moon Was a Special Guest at Steve Jobs’ Celebration Event

In celebration of Steve Jobs’ life, Apple has posted a photo showing CEO Tim Cook giving a heart-warming speech in front of everyone important within Apple at a planned gathering that took place on the company’s Cupertino campus yesterday, October 19th, 2011. The building at 1 Infinite Loop was covered i...

20 October 2011
03:29 GMT

Moon Reveals Vast Titanium Deposits

On Friday, October 7, scientists Mark Robinson and Brett Denevi held a presentation at the joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences, revealing the presence of vast titanium deposits on the Moon. The discovery was made usi...

8 October 2011
04:33 GMT

GRAIL Probes Complete Flight Correction Maneuvers

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) mission controllers announce that both spacecraft in the American space agency's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) have successfully completed the first flight path correction maneuvers in their long trek to the Moon. Apollo astronauts made their way to Eart...

7 October 2011
03:46 GMT

How the Moon's Shadow Affects the Upper Atmosphere

In a paper published in the September 14 issue of the esteemed journal Geophysical Research Letters, investigators at the National Central University in Taiwan explained how the shadow the Moon casts on Earth produces atmospheric waves that travel at high speeds above the planet. The NCU investigators determined ...

4 October 2011
17:01 GMT

NASA Calls on Students to Rename GRAIL Probes

Students in the United States have been called upon by the American space agency to come up with a new name for the twin probes currently heading towards the Moon. At this time, the endeavor is known only by its NASA designation, GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory). The mission features two identical,...

4 October 2011
01:48 GMT

Earth-Moon Systems Form Relatively Frequently

A group of investigators at the University of Zürich, in Switzerland, working together with colleagues at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, recently determined that as many as 1 in 12 terrestrial extrasolar planets may harbor a Moon-like natural satellite. UZ experts Sebastian El...

19 September 2011
11:04 GMT

GRAIL Is On Its Way to the Moon

The twin spacecraft making up the GRAIL mission successfully lifted off to space on Saturday, at 9:08 am EDT (1308 GMT), after a couple of days of delays caused by bad weather and a possible glitch affecting the carrier rocket. After all issues were taken care of, NASA officials were able to take advantage of a 1...

12 September 2011
02:45 GMT

Moon's North Pole Revealed in Amazing Details

Using data from a spacecraft in orbit around Earth's natural satellite, researchers at the American space agency announce the creation of the first high-resolution, highly-detailed map of the lunar north pole. The area, now visible in a manner that cannot be observed from the surface of the planet directly, has ...

9 September 2011
11:02 GMT

GRAIL Will Launch This Saturday

The American space agency should have launched the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission by now, but a set of unfortunate circumstances have delayed the attempt until Saturday, September 10, at the earliest. Originally, the two spacecraft making up this mission were supposed to take off on Thur...

9 September 2011
03:14 GMT

GRAIL Is All Set for Today's Launch

As the hours count down to T-0, scientists and mission controllers involved with the NASA Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) twin spacecraft project are trembling with anticipation. This mission will reveal a wealth of knowledge about Earth, the Moon and the solar system. There are only two, 1-second...

8 September 2011
05:49 GMT

GRAIL Will 'Dissect' the Moon Starting in 2012

NASA officials are eager to see their latest mission blast off to space. If all goes according to current plans, the two space probes making up the agency's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory will reach the Moon by New Year's Eve, and start conducting scientific studies in March 2012.The main goal of ...

7 September 2011
11:01 GMT

LRO Snaps Detailed Photos of Lunar Landing Sites

Officials at the American space agencies have just released several new high-resolution photos of a number of Apollo landing sites. The batch of images was made available yesterday, September 6, and many of them show the disposition of equipment that was left behind on the Moon. The datasets were collected by the...

7 September 2011
02:56 GMT

GRAIL Mission to the Moon Launches This Thursday

Officials with the American space agency say that the twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar probes are ready for their scheduled launch date, on Thursday, September 8. The mission is meant to decipher the riddles the Moon's interior still poses. One of the primary science objectives of t...

5 September 2011
09:47 GMT

GRAIL Probes Integrated with Their Rocket

NASA representatives from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, announce that the two spacecraft of the American space agency's GRAIL mission have been successfully integrated with their delivery system.The mating procedure was carried out yesterday, August 18, at the Space Launch Complex...

19 August 2011
03:49 GMT

Theories on the Moon's Formation May Be Wrong

According to the conclusions of a new scientific study, it would appear that the Moon is younger than researchers first calculated. It's either that, or it evolved in different patterns over the past few billion years. It may even be that it collided with another Moon.The widely-accepted hypothesis at this point...

18 August 2011
03:05 GMT

NASA GRAIL Mission Ready to Launch

Engineers in Florida carried out final tests and assessments on the twin GRAIL spacecraft that NASA built for lunar exploration. The probes are now ready for take off, and launch is scheduled to take place about a month from now. The mission is dubbed the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), and features...

12 August 2011
03:42 GMT

Earth Could Sustain Life Even Without the Moon

According to the conclusions of a new scientific study, it would appear that our planet would still be able to support life even if the Moon was not there. This result goes up against decades of scientific thinking which holds that without the stabilizing effects of the Moon, Earth would be uninhabitable.What the pla...

10 August 2011
09:16 GMT

Earth May Have Had Two Moons

According to the conclusions of a study published in the August 4 issue of the top scientific journal Nature, it would appear that our planet had two moons when it first formed. These objects then collided with each other to form the Moon as we know it now, the team behind the research argues. The second moon would h...

4 August 2011
05:36 GMT

Moons Like Our Own Are Extremely Rare in the Universe

The results of a new in-depth analysis conducted on Earth's natural satellite revealed that a moon such as our own may be extremely rare throughout the entire Universe. In our solar system, there is no other body to behaves quite like it. Though largely ignored by many, the Moon played an absolutely critical rol...

29 July 2011
10:14 GMT

Magma Volcano Found on Far Side of Moon

Scientists announce the discovery of a volcano on the far side of the Moon, at a location that has been baffling astronomers for several years. The area was known as a curious hot spot, but its position prevented experts from conducting in-depth studies.The latest images of the structure reveal it to be a volcanic pr...

25 July 2011
03:31 GMT

Second ARTEMIS Probe Enters Lunar Orbit

Officials at the American space agency announce that the second ARTEMIS spacecraft managed to insert itself into lunar orbit, after a prolonged trip through space. The probes were originally a part of a mission to study Earth. At one point, experts decided that there is no reason to let the five-satellite constellati...

20 July 2011
02:56 GMT

New Chief Named for Google Lunar X Prize

A private space race to put robots on the Moon received a new chief recently. The announcement was made yesterday, July 11, by the X-Prize Foundation. The Google Lunar X Prize will from now on be led by Alexandra Hall, who is a space science veteran. The expert will act as the senior director of the initiative, w...

12 July 2011
02:50 GMT

LRO Captures Sunrise View of Tycho Crater

Officials at the American space agency announce that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was recently able to capture a series of breathtaking images of a massive lunar crater. The views depict the entire area in exquisite detail, allowing investigators to get more insight into what helped shape it. Mission contro...

30 June 2011
04:22 GMT


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