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The entirety of the lower 48 states, the greater Americas, and some regions beyond will witness — weather permitting — a total lunar eclipse the night of March 13 and into the early morning of March 14. This special cosmic event occurs when the moon, Earth, and sun are aligned. Long, red wavelengths of light pass through Earth's atmosphere and are projected onto the moon in majestic rusty or crimson colors. The coming total lunar eclipse, now less than a month away, is the first to grace Earth since 2022.

Stone pillars, moon’s 18.6-year cycle and ancient structures tell a story.. The major lunar standstill northern moonrise is visible between Chimney and Companion rocks once per month for a period of about 24 months, every 18.6 years.. To archaeo-astronomers, the stone pillars that give Chimney Rock National Monument its name and the structures there built by ancestral Puebloan people send a message. .... And something did happen at the monument Tuesday night: The moon rose between Chimney Rock and Companion Rock, demonstrating a rare celestial occurrence called the major lunar standstill. The event occurs monthly over the course of about...

First lady Jill Biden imposed a strict “no dancing” rule on her husband after dragging President Biden up on stage during a Lunar New Year celebration at the White House Thursday night. The first couple had just finished watching a performance of a traditional Chinese lion dance from the front row in the East Room, when Jill took on the role of the MC and led her husband by the hand onstage. “Are we going to dance?” the 80-year-old commander-in-chief joked as he mounted a short flight of stairs. “No, you’re not going to dance, believe me,” Jill replied through...

Fifty years after his Apollo 16 mission to the moon, retired NASA astronaut Charlie Duke says he's ready for the U.S. to get back to lunar exploration. Part of that effort, Duke said Friday, will come in the form of the Artemis program, which includes NASA's upcoming flight to the moon using its new Space Launch System rocket. The first of the huge rockets is supposed to blast off without crew later this year, with crewed flights planned subsequently. "With Artemis, NASA is going to be focused on deep space, to the moon and beyond, and I'm excited about...

Newly discovered temperature data from the 1970s moon landings, released in the Journal of Geophysical Research in April, reveals that NASA astronauts probably warmed up the moon's surface temperature by as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit by walking around and poking into the lunar surface. The data comes from so-called heat-flow experiments that were installed on the moon in 1971 and 1972 during the Apollo 15 and Apollo 17 missions. For the experiments, astronauts on each mission drilled two holes into the surface of the moon at depths ranging from 3.2 feet to 7.5 feet deep. The astronauts inserted fiberglass...

What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower? The 2021 Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak on the evening of Tuesday, May 4, through the early morning of Wednesday, May 5, according to AccuWeather. The month of May starts off with the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Mercury will be visible in the middle of the month, and some parts of the U.S. will see a super total lunar eclipse on the 26th. What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower?...

For Christmas Eve:Apollo 8's Christmas Eve Message

Russia has set its sights on the moon as it prepares to send a lunar lander into space next year. "The Luna-25 space project opens a long-term Russian lunar program, which includes missions to study the moon from orbit and surface, the collection and return of lunar soil to Earth, as well as, in the future, the construction of a visited lunar base and full-scale development of our satellite," a statement from Roscosmos officials says, according to Scientific American. The outlet reported that Russia is working in a partnership with the European Space Agency. The launch is slated for October...

If you need a reason to get out of the house and see a show in our own backyard, tonight’s the night. A pink supermoon will rise tonight, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. The moon will also be the closest to the Earth at about 221,772 miles away, Space.com said. Not only does it have a colorful name, but it also is a supermoon and the first full moon of spring. You will be able to see it just after sunset with it making its peak illumination at 10:35 p.m. EDT, according to the almanac. But the show you...

British start-up Spacebit. It has sensors that can take measurements and collect exploration data for researchers to analyze. The robot also comes equipped with cameras — one of which can take “robot selfies” — and can withstand big swings in temperature, from 130 degrees Celsius (266 degrees Fahrenheit) in the day to minus 130 degrees Celsius at night. It will also eventually be able to navigate through so-called lunar lava tubes, which are tunnels beneath the surface of the moon thought to have once been filled with lava. Spacebit says this is something that hasn’t been achieved before. The company...

Science does not know exactly how these phenomena occur on the moon. But it has attempted to explain them: the impact of a meteor, for example, should cause a brief glow. Such flashes could also occur when electrically charged particles of the solar wind react with moon dust. "Seismic activities...would explain the luminous phenomena, some of which last for hours," says Hakan Kayal, Professor of Space Technology...in Bavaria, Germany. Kayal's team built a lunar telescope and put it into operation in April 2019. It is located in a private observatory in Spain, about 100 kilometres north of Seville in a...

Just a wish, for a Happy New Year.

An explorer's adage says to "take only photos, leave only footprints." But it seems the footprints of NASA's Apollo astronauts had unintended consequences for the surface of the moon after they landed there nearly 50 years ago. Newly discovered temperature data from the 1970s moon landings, released in the Journal of Geophysical Research in April, reveals that NASA astronauts probably warmed up the moon's surface temperature by as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit by walking around and poking into the lunar surface. The data comes from so-called heat-flow experiments that were installed on the moon in 1971 and 1972 during...

For nearly half a century, America has led some of the most complex missions with robotic landers throughout our solar system, including bold landings on Mars and asteroids. But most Americans are surprised to hear that since 1972 we haven’t had a crewed or robotic lander conduct science and exploration on the moon. Although NASA has placed the occasional orbiter around the moon and even intentionally impacted a spacecraft into the surface, the nation has not had a lander capable of advanced surface science and exploration since Apollo. In retrospect, it’s striking that the global leader in space exploration went...

Op-ed | Moon Direct: How to build a moonbase in four yearsby Robert Zubrin — March 30, 2018SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which made its debut Feb. 6, is the foundation of author Robert Zubrin’s “Moon Direct” plan for affordably returning humans to the moon within four years. Credit: SpaceX This op-ed originally appeared in the March 26, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine.The recent amazing success of the Falcon Heavy launch offers America an unprecedented opportunity to break the stagnation that has afflicted its human spaceflight program for decades. In short, the moon is now within reach.Here’s how the mission plan...

After its launch from Sriharikota, it will take one or two months time for the orbiter to reach moon's orbit, the ISRO chief said. While Chandrayaan-I was launched aboard the PSLV rocket, the carrier choice for Chandrayaan-II – a 3,290 kg spacecraft – will be the heavy-payload lifter GSLV Mk II. "The rover has been designed in such a way that it will have the power to spend a lunar day or 14 Earth days on the moon's surface and walk up to 150-200 km. It will do several experiments and on-site chemical analysis of the surface," Dr Sivan said....

The eclipse will take place during the middle of the night, and the Pacific Ocean will be turned toward the moon at the time. Central and eastern Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand and most of Australia will get a fine view of this moon show in the evening sky. Heading farther west into western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the eclipse will already be underway as the moon rises. To the east, Alaska, Hawaii and northwestern Canada will see the eclipse from start to finish. Moonset will intervene for the rest of North and Central America,...

Japan says lunar chasm measuring 50km long and 100 metres wide could be used as a base for astronauts and their equipment.Scientists have fantasised for centuries about humans colonising the moon. That day may have drawn a little closer after Japan’s space agency said it had discovered an enormous cave beneath the lunar surface that could be turned into an exploration base for astronauts. The discovery, by Japan’s Selenological and Engineering Explorer (Selene) probe, comes as several countries vie to follow the US in sending manned missions to the moon. Using a radar sounder system that can examine underground structures,...

48 years ago today life on Earth made a visit, for the first time, to another world. On July 20 , 1969 , Neil Armstrong made a small step for a man upon the lunar surface. The last such momentous event in the history of life was 240 million years ago when animals emerged from the sea to walk upon land. Unlike that ancient walk after this giant leap mankind meekly went back to Earth to concentrate instead on other ways of redistributing income.

Those who think the political war on carbon will cool the globe or keep climate stable need to study climate history. Temperatures on Earth dance to a cyclic rhythm every hour, every day, every month, every season, every year, and to every beat of the sun-spot and glacial cycles. The daily solar cycle causes continual changes in temperature for every spot on Earth. It produces the frosts at dawn, the mid-day heat and the cooling at sunset. It is regulated by rotation of the Earth. Superimposed on the daily solar cycle is the monthly lunar cycle, driven by the orbit...