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As the full moon shines in the night sky this weekend, take a moment to enjoy its beauty and search for a large dark plain.
The surface feature is Mare Tranquillitatis, or Sea of Tranquility, where the Apollo 11 mission landed on the evening of July 20, 1969.
The full moon won’t peak until 6:17 a.m. Sunday, but the silvery orb will still be visible at its best on Saturday, the 55th anniversary of NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin leading the first moonwalk.
Now, as NASA and other space agencies plan for a more established human presence on the moon through the Artemis program, it turns out that the Sea of Tranquility may hold an unexplored treasure worth revisiting.
Lunar update
Scientists have discovered an underground cavity under the Sea of Tranquility, and it could provide shelter for future lunar astronauts in the form of a cave.
Moon caves, or underground passages created by volcanic processes during the moon’s early history, are connected to pits that cover the moon’s surface.
The long, wide cave, discovered by reviewing NASA archival data, could be used to protect astronauts from harsh radiation and extreme temperature swings as well as provide a new way to study lunar rocks.
Other life
Astronomers have detected an exoplanet with an orbit shaped like a cucumber that could be turning into another form of life.
The unusual orbit, which varies temperatures on TIC 241249530 b from a hot summer day to hot enough to melt titanium, may be a sign that the planet is moving closer to its star.
Astronomers estimate that, in hundreds of millions of years, the planet will take only a few days, rather than six months, to orbit its star and become a hot version of Jupiter.
Separately, the European Space Agency plans to send a spacecraft named Ramses to catch up with the asteroid Apophis as it makes a safe, close approach to Earth – 10 times closer to the moon – in April 2029. D the spacecraft could capture earthquakes and landslides in space. rock because it is affected by the Earth’s gravity.
Amazing creatures
If pets have flat faces, such as French and Persian bulldogs, or puffy cheeks like Maine coons, squint and show behavioral problems, they may have a painful condition: eyelid disease.
Some breeds of dogs and cats are genetically more likely to have genetic problems with malformed eyelashes, causing the eyelashes to scrape against the corneas.
But what people would call cosmetic surgery is helping pets like Hamilton, a 4-year-old English bulldog, overcome the pain of misshaped eyelids.
“These nibbles and sweets are not cosmetic; they are vital to the health of the animal,” said Dr. Dana Varble, chief veterinary officer for the North American Veterinary Community.
The surprise
The Curiosity rover was about to settle into a new exploration site on Mars when it bumped over a rock – and happened to make the “most unexpected” discovery of its 12-year mission so far, according to mission scientists.
Curiosity’s wheels revealed that inside the rock was something never before seen on the red planet: yellow-green sulfur crystals. And it turns out that they have an entire field within an ancient channel carved into the side of Mars’ Mount Sharp.
But scientists do not know how, when or why the sulfur formed on Mars, which created new measurements for the rover team to solve.
Meanwhile, the newly established African Space Agency is launching satellites to improve the quality of life on Earth, such as monitoring water quality and preventing illegal mining and fishing.
Long long ago
While dinosaurs roamed the Earth during the Cretaceous Period, sharks with extraordinary teeth swam the seas.
Sharks in the genus Ptychodus had rows of large rounded humps that crushed shell prey. But scientists could not speculate on what the predators looked like after only finding teeth.
Palaontologists have recently discovered an almost complete skeleton of the ancient shark in the Mexican state of Nuevo Léon, solving the mystery of the prehistoric fish’s appearance.
Separately, cut marks on the fossilized remains of a giant armadillo-like creature in Argentina show that humans butchered the animal more than 20,000 years ago – and that the earliest humans in the Americas settled there earlier than thought.
Explorations
Explore these unexpected stories:
— Experts in New Zealand are determining whether a stranded creature is a toothed whale – a species considered almost mythical because scientists have never recorded a live sighting.
— NASA transmitted Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” about 158 million miles to Venus, marking the first time a hip-hop song was sent to space.
— In Cambodia, a record number of Siamese crocodile eggs have hatched in the wild, giving hope to a critically endangered and nearly extinct species.
— A famous meteor passed over New York City this week and separated over New Jersey, and sky watchers captured video of the rare event.
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