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As the full moon shines in the night sky this weekend, take a moment to revel in its beauty and look for a large, dark plain.
The surface is the Mare Tranquillitatis, or Sea of Tranquility, where the Apollo 11 mission landed on the afternoon of July 20, 1969.
The full moon won’t peak until 6:17 a.m. ET on Sunday, but the silver orb will still appear at their best Saturday, 55th birthday of NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin conducting humanity’s 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 untapped treasure worth revisiting.
Lunar update
Scientists have discovered a underground cavity beneath the Sea of Tranquilityand could provide shelter for future lunar astronauts in the form of a cave.
Lunar caves, or underground passages formed by volcanic processes during the Moon’s early history, are connected to shafts that cover the lunar surface.
The long, wide cave, found through NASA’s review of 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 worlds
Astronomers have detected a exoplanet with cucumber-shaped orbit which may be turning into another kind of world.
The unusual orbit, which changes temperatures in TIC 241249530 b from a hot summer day to hot enough to melt titanium, could be a sign that the planet is getting closer to its star.
Astronomers estimate that, in hundreds of millions of years, the planet will take just 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 called Ramses to track the asteroid Apophis as it makes a safe, close approach to Earth – 10 times closer than the Moon – in April 2029. The spacecraft could capture earthquakes and landslides on space rock as it is affected by Earth’s gravity.
Fantastic creatures
If pets with flat faces, like French and Persian bulldogs, or puffy cheeks like Maine Coons, squint and exhibit behavioral problems, they may have a painful condition: eyelid disease.
Some breeds of dogs and cats are genetically more likely to have problems with malformed eyelids, which cause the eyelashes to scratch the corneas.
But what humans would call cosmetic surgery is helping pets like Hamilton, a 4-year-old English bulldog, overcome the pain of deformed eyelids.
“These nips and tucks are not cosmetic; they are essential to the animal’s health,” said Dr. Dana Varble, chief veterinarian at the North American Veterinary Community.
The wonder
The Curiosity rover was about to set up shop at a new exploration site on Mars when it hit a rock — and made the “most unexpected” discovery during its 12-year mission to date, according to mission scientists.
Curiosity’s wheels revealed that the rock’s interior was something never seen before on the red planet: yellowish-green sulfur crystals. And it turns out there is a their whole field inside an old canal carved into the side of Mars’ Mount Sharp.
But scientists don’t know how, when or why sulfur formed on Mars, creating a new puzzle for the rover team to solve.
Meanwhile, the recently opened African Space Agency is launching satellites to improve the quality of life on Earthsuch as monitoring water quality and preventing illegal mining and fishing.
A long time ago
While dinosaurs roamed the Earth during the Cretaceous period, sharks with unusual teeth swam the seas.
Sharks of the genus Ptychodus had rows of large, rounded chompers that crushed shelled prey. But scientists were only able to speculate about the predators’ appearance after finding only the teeth.
Paleontologists recently unearthed a nearly complete skeleton of the ancient shark in the Mexican state of Nuevo Léon, unveiling the mystery of the appearance of prehistoric fish.
Separately, cut marks on the fossilized remains of a giant armadillo-like creature in Argentina reveal that humans massacred the animal more than 20,000 years ago – and that the first people of the Americas settled there earlier than expected.
Explorations
Immerse yourself in these unexpected stories:
– Experts in New Zealand are determining whether a creature that washed ashore is a shovel-toothed whale – a species considered almost mythical because scientists have never recorded a live sighting.
– NASA broadcast Missy Elliott “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” about 158 million miles to Venusmarking the first time a hip-hop song has been sent into space.
— In Cambodia, a record number of Siamese crocodile eggs that have just hatched in the wild, providing hope for a critically endangered species that was nearly driven to extinction.
– A burning meteor passed over New York City this week and disintegrated above New Jersey, and Sky watchers captured videos of the rare event.
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