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Moon

Parts of the Moon are older than we think

The “man in the moon” might be 200 million years older than we thought: ... solar system formed around 4.6 billion years ago and the Moon formed very shortly after. And this period of the solar ... the plane of all the material around the Sun. And so the Moon was formed by this Mars sized object hitting the Earth ...

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, LRO, Moon to Mars

LRO Role in NASA Moon to Mars Mission

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling the moon since 2009, taking pictures of the landscape and sending ... wants to head back. Why? They want to send people to the moon and beyond. What does a 10-year-old satellite in orbit around the moon have to do with NASA's planned Moon to Mars mission? ...

The moon taken by Appolo 12

Should humans return to the Moon?

Although unmanned trips to the moon are currently being planned, no human has visited the ... have led us to believe. So should people return to the Moon? Anita Heward, from the Google Lunar X Prize, Ian ... and so, I've never experienced seeing somebody walk on the Moon.  One of our goals with Google Lunar XPRIZE is to ...

The moon taken by Appolo 12

How the Moon was made

That the Earth's Moon owes its origins to a cosmic collision four-and-a-half ... lunar surface for analysis, the prevailing theory of the Moon's origins was that material had somehow "spun off" the ... This material, scientists speculated, is what formed the Moon. But, if this were the case, the material the Moon is ...

African elephant

Quiz: Who's faster: Usain Bolt or an African elephant?

... of Mount Everest or the separation of the Earth from the Moon? Eleanor - That is a great question which I’ve never ... Everest. Chris - Okay, you’re going for Everest. A: The Moon Everest is growing by 4 mm a year, the Earth and Moon are separating by about 4 cm a year. That’s because ...

Moon

What temperature is the moon?

... by NASA. We heard a couple of weeks ago all about the moon landings - and things - when we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the first moon landing. The answer is that it matters whether you're in ... radiation. That energy hitting a surface like the moon's surface or an astronaut spacesuit is enough to warm it ...

Full Moon

Can we terraform the moon?

... this question from Chad. Is it possible to terraform the Moon so humans could live there long term? Tamsin - We asked ... what they thought. User, diverjohn points out that the Moon is relatively close to Earth and suggest living in ... would be possible. We could even use solar panels on the Moon’s surface to supply our electricity. I spoke to ...

The moon taken by Appolo 12

GRAIL Settles In Around the Moon

A pair of new American spacecraft entered orbit about the Moon over the new year period, with the aim of measuring the Moon's gravitation field in unprecedented detail.  Called ... 90-day science mission.  Following one another around the Moon at a distance of around 200 km, they will use radar ...

Where Our Moon Came From

Chris - Where did the moon come from? Dana - The moon came from a collision between the earth and another ... than Saturn's rings so they condensed and formed the moon. Chris - How do you know that's true? Dana - There is ...

Moon

Why does the moon sometimes appear out-of-place?

... off of the Earth and you're looking at the Earth and the moon from space. So you have the Earth as the bigger of the two bodies sitting, let's say, in the centre and the moon is in orbit around the Earth. So the moon goes around the Earth, and the moon takes a month to do ...

How does the moon cause two tides every day?

Dominic - Mike's absolutely right that it's the pull of the moon on the water in the oceans that causes the tides, and the moon is only above one point on the Earth at any given time. It's not actually the direct pull of the moon on the water which is causing the tides. The Earth and ...

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin poses for a photograph beside the United States flag

What would happen if I peed on the moon?

... environment then the only difference between the moon and the Earth would be the gravity, which on the moon is 16% of the Earth’s. This gives the rather boring ... like on the surface of large objects such as the Earth and moon, the trajectory of an object (in our case each unit of ...

Full moon over a forest

How does the moon affect tides?

... to this question from Tom.  Matt - A great question. The Moon and the Earth interact through gravity and it’s what ... the outside and then you’ve got all these oceans… the Moon can try and pull that crust but it’s not going to go ... there’s a bulge of water which tracks the motion of the Moon. In a supermoon, we have the Moon being as close as ...

Earth's moon

Moon magnetism mystery solved

... what would happen if you went for a similar walk on the Moon? Does it have a magnetic field? Some claimed that - at ... University’s John Tarduno has analysed samples of Moon rock brought back by the Apollo missions and confirmed that the Moon never did have a magnetic field. Instead, he’s shown, ...

Moon

Why go to the moon?

... in the next decade, America would land astronauts on the moon. He set the task; “before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” But WHY was there this giant push to shoot for the moon? And were America really at the forefront for this ...

a photo taken from the surface of the moon, looking at Earth as it rises

The Moon's meteor history

... into us. The product of this latter collision was the Moon! And the Moon can reveal a lot more about what’s hit the Earth than the planet itself can, because, unlike Earth, the Moon doesn’t have weather, tectonic plates, or Ice Ages ...

Full Moon

Why is the moon white?

... several different aspects to this answer. One is that the Moon doesn't have life on it. The Earth has oceans and has different landmasses. The other thing is the Moon is composed of various elements, like oxygen and silicon that contribute to the grey colour of the Moon that we see. Then you have this volcanic activity where ...

Earth from the moon

Luna 25: Russian mission to the moon

... launch of Luna 25, which is Russia's first mission to the moon in almost half a century, Moscow's gonna become the ... David - It’s the first Russian mission to land on the moon for 50 years. It's been a long time coming. There are ... at Boguslawsky crater, which is near the South Pole of the moon, just two days before the Indians put their craft in a ...

How far away is the Sun from the moon?

Chris - The Moon is pretty close. It's about a quarter of a million miles to the moon and it's about 100 million miles to the Sun, give or take. But, it's important to remember that the Moon orbits the Earth, taking about a month to complete each ...

cordless drill

Down to Earth: The cordless drill

... Earth, the technology to help astronauts dig holes in the moon makes its way down to earth in the form of the cordless ... how developing an astronaut’s drill to dig holes in the moon helped lead to the development of cordless vacuums. In ... launched the first of the Apollo programme missions to the moon. As well as the ultimate goal of being the first to put ...

Earth's moon

Why the two sides of the Moon look so different

... questions in planetary science is why the side of our Moon that faces us has been extensively re-surfaced with ... it a relatively smooth appearance; the far side of the moon on the other hand - also known misleadingly as “the dark side of the moon” (nothing to do with Pink Floyd) - is absolutely ...

The moon taken by Appolo 12

Does the moon cycle affect human physiology?

... us feel sleepy at night. Hannah - Aha! So, could the moon cycle or atmospheric pressure changes affect our ... Hannah - That's disappointing. Okay, well what about the moon? Is there any data linking the lunar cycle to Martin's ... comes to lunar cycle, beyond the historical folklore, the moon very much continues to influence modern day human ...

What would happen if the moon was destroyed?

... - Okay. There are two questions there. If a meteor hit the moon and blew it in to thousands and thousands of pieces, ... us, would it?Dave - If it hit hard enough to blast the moon into millions of pieces, then there would be enough energy that a significant portion of the moon would land on our atmosphere. You'll get huge amounts of ...

An astronaut standing on the Moon's surface

Landing: One giant leap for mankind

... Aldrin and Neil Armstong, navigated their way towards the moon. After an intensive hunt for a landing site, NASA ... One of the darker patches you see when you look up at the Moon, with the lunar module touching down on the evening of ... made his way out of the lunar module, towards the moon’s surface. It was nineteen minutes later that Buzz ...

Moon landing

Did we really land on the moon?

... definitely fact, I’m afraid. We did go back to the Moon a few times. There was the whole Apollo programme which sent several people to the moon. It definitely did happen. I think the reason we didn’t go back is because the reason we went to the Moon in the first place was because of this cold war space ...