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The Moon is our planet’s constant celestial companion, and is only hidden from view once a month when its orbit takes it between Earth and the Sun.
Earth’s largest satellite has long been a source of awe and wonder. Inspiring the imagination of artists and writers for thousands of years. The Moon’s gravity is also the driving force behind ocean tides, and partly why our planet has a 24-hour day.
Be sure to look up Saturday evening, when the Hunter’s Moon will shine in the night sky. Lucky skygazers in Europe, Africa, most of Asia and Western Australia will do so as well Seeing a partial lunar eclipseWhen the Earth’s shadow appears to take a “bite” from the Moon.
Although the Moon is Earth’s closest neighbor, many mysteries remain, mysteries that can be solved by visiting the Moon’s surface.
NASA
Geologist and astronaut Harrison Schmidt used an adjustable sampling scoop to recover lunar samples during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
When Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt collected rocks and dust from the moon’s surface in 1972, they inadvertently answered one of the biggest questions about the moon: its age.
More than 50 years after collecting the sample, scientists discovered crystals in lunar dust that revealed the presence of alien life The moon is 40 million years older than previously thought.
The Moon was formed when a Mars-sized object collided with Earth, ejecting a large piece of rock into space that entered orbit around our planet. Zircon crystals formed when the moon cooled 4.46 billion years ago, and new analysis has traced them in Apollo 17 samples.
“It’s amazing to be able to get evidence that the rock it holds is the oldest part of the moon we’ve yet discovered,” said Jenica Greer, a research associate in Earth sciences at the University of Glasgow.
The beginnings of human life remain largely a mystery to scientists.
When sperm fuses with egg, complex processes give rise to tiny cells that divide and multiply enough to form a human body containing more than 30 trillion cells.
But the early development of human embryos, especially during the first month, poses a big question mark that scientists want to answer.
Advances in stem cells are used for Creating embryo-like structuresOr cells that mimic an embryo but do not produce an embryo. But these discoveries raise ethical questions about how embryos are used in the name of science and women’s health.
JBA Consulting/Environment Agency
Dinosaur footprints were discovered on a beach next to a cafe, car park and bus station on the Isle of Wight, England.
Engineers Discovering 125 million year old dinosaur footprints Next to a seaside café along the Isle of Wight while researching ways to reduce coastal erosion and flooding.
The three-toed prints were likely made by Mantelisaurus, a herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period.
Nick Gray, Regional Director for Floods and Coastal Hazards at the UK Environment Agency, said: “The dinosaurs where our team works bring the old and the new together – the modern challenges of fighting climate change in a time period we can only imagine.”
Separately, the ruins of a 5,000-year-old Neolithic cemetery were discovered in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The site contained more than a dozen skeletons of men, women and children, including a married couple Which seems to be embracing.
Multiple telescopes witnessed a massive cosmic explosion that released a wave of light brighter than our entire Milky Way galaxy.
The explosion, called a kilonova, occurred when two neutron stars collided, releasing the neutron star An energetic burst of light.
The James Webb Space Telescope, too Signature detection of rare chemical elements In the aftermath of the explosion, such as tellurium, which is used to color glass, and iodine, essential for much of life on Earth.
NASA
The ancient landscape has been discovered under the ice, within the Denman Glacier in East Antarctica shown here.
An ancient landscape has been discovered beneath the ice sheet in East Antarctica, thanks to ice-penetrating radar.
The area, about the size of Belgium, was made up of rivers and likely resembled the hills and valleys of North Wales before that. It was covered by permafrost layers more than 14 million years ago.
“The land beneath the East Antarctica ice sheet is less known than the surface of Mars,” said Stuart Jamieson, a professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
Understanding these hidden, well-preserved landscapes could help scientists predict the evolution of the ice sheet and how it might improve as temperatures rise in the climate crisis.
At the same time, declassified images taken by Cold War-era US spy satellites have been revealed Hundreds of previously unknown Roman era forts Throughout Iraq and Syria, but many buildings may have already been destroyed.
These new findings may surprise you:
– Spy Telescope Webb A An unprecedented high-speed jet stream Race around Jupiter’s equator.
– Bittersweet tunes may be just what the doctor ordered Reduce perception of painaccording to new research.
— Volcanic rocks found on one of the world’s largest islands contain evidence that the Earth may have had a core Old helium leak For millions of years.
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