Enlarge / Ligeia Mare, the second largest amount of liquid hydrocarbons on Titan. During its T85 Titan flight on July 24, 2012, the Cassini spacecraft recorded an unexpectedly bright reflection on the surface of Lake Kivu Lacus. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) data was interpreted as a roughness on the methane-ethane lake, which … Read more
Hong-Kong CNN — China’s Chang’e-6 lunar module returned to Earth on Tuesday, successfully completing its historic mission to collect the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon, marking a major step forward for the country’s ambitious space program. According to state broadcaster CCTV, the reentry module “landed successfully” in a designated zone in … Read more
China has made space history again. The country’s robotic Chang’e 6 mission sent material from the mysterious far side of the moon to Earth on Tuesday (June 25) – something that had never been done before. The milestone moment occurred at 2:07 a.m. EDT (6:07 a.m. GMT; 2:07 p.m. Beijing time) on Tuesday, when the … Read more
On Tuesday, a capsule carrying soil from the far side of the moon will parachute into the desert in China’s Inner Mongolia region. The sample, collected by China’s National Space Administration’s Chang’e-6 lander, is expected to be the latest achievement in a string of near-flawless performances by China’s lunar exploration missions since 2007. Here’s what … Read more
After another Chinese spacecraft reached the lunar surface earlier this month, this time to retrieve samples from the far side of the moon, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated a country that is challenging the United States’ long-held dominance in space. He said he was impressed by the fourth successful moon landing. “I made it clear … Read more
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question that you would like an expert to answer, please send it to Curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Why do some planets have moons and others don’t? – Siddharth, age 6, Texas On Earth, you can look up at night and see the moon shining … Read more
In 1974, the late Princeton University professor and space visionary Gerard O’Neill proposed using electromagnetic rail guns to capture payloads from the moon. O’Neill proposed using “mass drivers”, based on a coil gun design, to accelerate a non-magnetic object. One application for mass drivers was launching lunar-derived materials into lunar orbit for production in space. … Read more
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) amid bright noctilucent clouds in July 2020. (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VW … [+] PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Every Monday I pick North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to northern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere), but don’t forget … Read more
HELSINKI – The Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-6 is on its way to Earth to deliver samples collected on the far side of the moon. The Chang’e-6 service module likely fired its engines for a trans-terrestrial injection around June 21. The spacecraft is now on the final leg of its complex, 53-day journey that includes a moon … Read more
The Standard Model of particle physics says that protons are stable and live forever, but it still has some shortcomings, especially in reconciling quantum mechanics with Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, which describes gravity. The proton decay hypothesis was first described by Andrei Sakharov in 1967, but despite experimental efforts, all means of finding evidence … Read more