CELESTIAL OBJECTS COME AND GO FROM OUR VIEW IN THE NIGHT SKY, as they fling by or orbit around the Sun. Whether it be the full moon or a meteor shower or just the best night to see Mars, we're here to direct your eyes skyward and tell you to look up and appreciate the wonders of space from Earth.
This week, we're asking you to marvel at the beauty of the elusive Black Moon as Earth's only natural satellite embarks on a new lunar cycle on Tuesday night.
Were you following this:
Moon lander startup ispace raises $28 million and launches a new lunar data platform –
Ispace, one of the startups working on putting a private lunar lander on the moon sometime in the next few years, has raised a $28 million Series B funding round, which will be used to help it continue to develop its commercial lander ahead of planned 2022 and 2023 launches.
The lunar data business that ispace is developing, which is called “Blueprint Moon,” anticipates increasing investment in human presence on and near the moon. The commercialization of space thus far has focused on Earth’s own orbital environment, with NASA planning a spate of lunar missions, as well as an orbital lunar space station and sustained human surface activities, as well as interest and investment from many other space agencies globally.
What Is A 'Black Moon?' The Truth About This Week's New Moon
Like any other New Moon, it will be invisible. At the exact time of New Moon our satellite will be roughly between Earth and the Sun. Only its far side will be lit (there is no "dark side" of the Moon!) so, from Earth, it's invisible. As always, a New Moon occurs once every 29 days.
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Wednesday's New Moon is called a "Black Moon" because it's the third New Moon in a season with four New Moons. It's a traditional name, not an actual astronomical event. It occurs about every 32 or 33 months, depending on what time-zone you're in.
When Is The Next Full Moon? Your 2020 Calendar
The lunar energy is believed to be at a high point during a full moon, which can subsequently cause us to feel more energized. Research has shown that people may take longer to fall asleep , sleep fewer hours, and sleep less deeply during a full moon — and once you do fall asleep, you may be more likely to have intense dreams or nightmares .
Full moons illuminate the sky with their bright, bold appearance — but astrologically, they're believed to illuminate our minds , too . Prepare for information, ideas, and feelings to come bubbling up to the surface under the light of the full moon, and use it as a chance to put faith in your intuition.
This may worth something:
Surprising Objects That Have Been to Space—Some to the Moon—and Back - Atlas Obscura
For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage…? Second, were we truly men of judgment … ? Third, were we truly men of integrity … ?
Astronauts have left lots of things in space. On the Moon, for example, there are dozens of spacecraft and probes, no fewer than three lunar buggies, a tiny sculpture , and two golf balls. Most material was left behind to free up weight for the return trips. Each lunar astronaut was allowed only two pounds of personal items that they could bring back, so the items they chose can be curious, odd, and personal—and bewitching enough for Pyke to photograph.
Astronomers bounced a laser off a spacecraft whirling around the moon | Space
But hitting a laser in orbit around the moon is a much trickier task. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has orbited the moon with a mirror on its back since 2009. But nearly a decade went by without a single successful laser bounce. In an Aug. 6 paper in the journal Earth, Planets and Space , a team of researchers report the first successful laser contact: Twice on Sept. 4, 2018 and twice again between Aug. 23 and Aug.
To make sure that the light bouncing off the LRO returns in the direction from which it came, the mirror on its back is more complicated than the one in your bathroom. Like the older mirrors on the lunar surface, it's a "corner cube" — a series of three-dimensional mirrors, each literally shaped like the inside of one corner of a cube. When a laser hits it, the light bounces three times before the geometry of the mirror returns it in the precise direction from which it came.
Lava tubes on the Moon and Mars could be homes for space travelers – BGR
With the upcoming return of humans to the surface of the Moon and plenty of chatter about a crewed mission to Mars happening within the next couple of decades, it’s hard not to let you mind wander and imagine human colonies being set up on other worlds. The reality, of course, is much more complicated, and if we plan on “setting up shop” on another planet or the Moon, it probably won’t be something we can easily build once we get there.
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Sending a mission to the Moon is difficult on its own, but sending building supplies and equipment to construct a lunar base is, at this point, out of the question. But there may be some natural features of both the Moon and Mars that space travelers can take advantage of when searching for shelter.
Entire cities could fit inside the moon's monstrous lava tubes | Space
Mars is pockmarked with absolutely massive lava tubes, with ceilings as high as the Empire State Building, new research shows. And the moon hosts even more gargantuan tubes, with heights that dwarf Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, and "skylights" as big as football fields.
These yawning, subterranean caverns, which are shielded from punishing solar radiation, could be used as sites for future human bases, scientists argue.
Here's why: These lava tubes are truly enormous, and might offer safer habitats than the lunar or Martian surfaces.
Happening on Twitter
Black Moon 2020: What it is (and why you can't see it) https://t.co/yRjVeDucZ7 https://t.co/k6dAh4hbsv SPACEdotcom (from NYC) Tue Aug 18 16:00:33 +0000 2020
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