There may have been two windows of habitability for the Moon, according to new research by University of London’s Professor Ian Crawford and Dr. Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University.
The last US mission to the Moon, Apollo 17, blasted off shortly before midnight on 7 December 1972. Its crew spent three days on the lunar surface, collecting samples and conducting experiments.
Around 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth lasted approximately 18.7 hours, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And this is at least in part because the Moon was closer and changed the way our planet spun around its axis.
Watery remains of meteorites could be trapped in craters
A new explanation for the moon’s origin suggests it actually formed inside our Earth – when our planet was still a seething, spinning cloud of rock, shaped like a doughnut. Previously, scientists believed that the moon formed as a result of a glancing blow between the early Earth and a Mars-size body, commonly called Theia.
A team of planetary scientists from Brown University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has mapped the mineralogy of the South Pole-Aitken basin, a vast impact structure on the far side of the Moon. Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the findings could help guide future exploration of the basin.
When you look up at the moon, it’s hard to believe this mystical glowing orb floating among the stars was once in the throes of chaos.
A new analysis of data from two lunar missions finds evidence that the Moon’s water is widely distributed across the surface and is not confined to a particular region or type of terrain.
In our case, a February Black Moon occurs about every 20 years, when there is either no new moon or no full moon over the course of the month.
Scientists at Japan’s space agency have discovered a huge moon cave that could one day house a base that would shelter astronauts from dangerous radiation and wild temperature swings, officials said Thursday.
