The first rover to visit the far side of the moon, China's Yutu-2, has found stark differences between there and the near side. These include stickier, more supportive soil on the far side and a greater abundance of small rocks and impact craters.
China's Yutu-2 rover has discovered several mysterious, translucent glass globules on the far side of the moon, which scientists say are unlike any mineral they had previously discovered on the lunar surface.
Scientists found a single crystal of a new phosphate mineral while analyzing lunar basalt particles, which were collected from the moon two years ago by the Chang'e-5 mission. Sign up for Science Times Get stories that capture the wonders of nature, the cosmos and the human body.
It was found in lunar basalt particles being examined in laboratories in China. The discovery was made by researchers at the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology who found a single crystal of Changesite–(Y) using X-ray diffraction while studying particles collected on the moon.
Yutu-2 Finally Took Closer Pictures. China's mysterious "Moon cube" is a mystery no longer. The big reveal: It's a rock that's not even shaped like a cube. The nation's Yutu-2 rover discovered the object – which appeared to be a gray cube looming on the lunar horizon – in early December.
(AP) — Scientists have discovered a new and renewable source of water on the moon for future explorers in lunar samples from a Chinese mission. Water was embedded in tiny glass beads in the lunar dirt where meteorite impacts occur.
The rover's panoramic camera spotted the two glass spheres as it drove across the surface of Von Kármán crater on the far side of the moon. The Apollo astronauts previously collected similar glass globules of about the same size, but those examples were mostly dark or opaque.
A recent discovery has rekindled interest in our nearest neighbor in space. The moon, it turns out, has more water in its soil than previously believed. Two studies, one from China and one from the United States, have found evidence of water molecules and hydroxyls in lunar soil samples and shadows.
So why haven't astronauts been back to the moon in 50 years? "It was the political risks that prevented it from happening," Bridenstine said. "The program took too long and it costs too much money." Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station.
An ancient legend says the girl named Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband.
“It is probable that sun and moon were early held to be deities and that they were the first visible objects of worship,” according to the book “Sketches of the History of Man.” To the most ancient ancestors of the Chinese, the sun and the moon were considered the “chief objects of veneration,” according to records ...
According to ancient Chinese myth, the goddess of the moon, Cháng'é, lives with an immortal white rabbit called the Jade Hare on the Moon. Cháng'é is also immortal, although she had once been mortal. Her legends likely go back four thousand years to the Xia Dynasty.
Lunar Formation Process: When the Moon formed about 4.53 billion years ago, it was created from the debris of a massive impact between Earth and a Mars-sized celestial body. During this process, some gold from Earth and/or the impacting body may have been incorporated into the Moon's composition.
Some of these protons interact with oxygen molecules in the lunar soil to produce water. This water isn't anything like what you could drink, though: it's in such small amounts that the lunar soil is still hundreds of times drier than Earth's deserts.
On 18 August 1976, the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed at Mare Crisium, took samples from the depths of 118, 143, and 184 cm of the lunar regolith, and then took them to Earth. In February 1978, it was published that laboratory analysis of these samples shown they contained 0.1% water by mass.
A heavy object (a 1.32-kg aluminum geological hammer) and a light object (a 0.03-kg* falcon feather) were released simultaneously from approximately the same height (approximately 1.6 m) and were allowed to fall to the surface.
Water, water everywhere—and not a drop to drink. In 1972, scientists were astonished to see pictures from NASA's Mariner 9 mission as it circled Mars from orbit. The photos revealed a landscape full of riverbeds—evidence that the planet once had plenty of liquid water, even though it's dry as a bone today.
Confirmation of Moon Water – Sunlit Surface (2020)
Data from the Strategic Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), revealed that in Clavius crater, water exists in concentrations roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water within a cubic meter of soil across the lunar surface.
Recent unmanned missions to the moon have discovered a few remnants of water ice trapped in sheltered craters around the poles, but much of the moon's surface is now dry.
One of the mission's objectives is to study any exposed material from the mantle present at the landing site. This would provide insights into the internal structure and history of the Moon. Indeed, data from orbiting spacecraft show that the composition of the basin is different from the surrounding lunar highlands.
' COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — NASA's goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2025 has long been part of a long-term plan to build a sustainable base on the lunar surface. But that plan may include more moon bases than you might expect.
Chang'e, Wade-Giles romanization Ch'ang O, the Chinese moon goddess whose loveliness is celebrated in poems and novels. She sought refuge in the moon when her consort, Hou Yi (the Lord Archer), discovered she had stolen the drug of immortality given to him by the gods.
In feudal times, Chinese emperors prayed to Heaven for a prosperous year. They chose the morning of the 15th day of the second lunar month to worship the sun and the night of the 15th day of the eighth lunar month to hold a ceremony in praise of the moon.
In Māori myth Rona was carrying water in hue (water gourds), when the moon went behind a cloud, causing her to stumble. She cursed the moon, which snatched her up along with the gourds and a tree that she clung to. Māori were able to see her in the features of the moon.