Space fans who have been following the Chinese Chang'e 4 mission might have thought they knew everything about the mission at this point. Some don't know that the lander had a payload of six organisms on board to test out on the lunar far side. Among those organisms aboard the lander are seeds that could be the foundation for human settlement.
China successfully put a lander and rover combo onto the surface of the moon becoming the first nation to explore the far side of the moon from its surface. China shared the first images taken from the far side of the moon earlier this month. Now China has shared video footage of the landing of Chang'e 4 showing the first time that man put a vehicle on to the lunar far side.
Little is known about the far side of the moon as it always faces away from Earth preventing study using Earth-based telescopes. What is known about the lunar far side is that it is very different from the near side of the moon that the US put men on during the Apollo era. China successfully placed a lander and rover on the far side of the moon with its Chang'e-4 lander.
China launched the Chang'e-4 mission to land on the far side of the moon back in December. We later learned that the lander/rover combo was set to touch down on the surface of the moon some time between January 1 and 3. Chinese state media has now announced that the lander-rover touched down on the far side of the moon at 10:26 Bejing time on January 3, 2019.
Chinese state media is reporting that China's Chang'e 4 robotic probe is expected to land on the far side of the moon tonight. Previous reports estimated the probe would land some time between January 1 and 3, but officials may have narrowed it down to a more precise time frame. Over the weekend, the Chang'e 4 successfully entered an elliptical path around the moon.
It's the middle of winter today, and from now on, the days get a little bit longer as we continue our trip around the sun. There's a bit of a special winter solstice event up on Google, and a very rare moon event to look forward to as well. Our rotation axis may remain 23.5-degrees away from the sun, but we'll have a very special moon to keep us company this weekend!
The samples of moon dust and rocks on the Earth now mostly came from NASA's Apollo missions in the '60s and '70s. At the time the humans were on the moon, it was known that lunar dust was hard on spacesuits, rovers, and humans. More research on moon dust has proven that it is worse for humans than previously thought.
Late last month we talked a bit about the Sotheby's auction that would see one of the only confirmed real pieces of the moon sold to the highest bidder. These Russian samples were fitted inside a fancy case with lenses for inspection. Russia brought the samples to Earth in September 1970 via the Luna-16 mission.
Sotheby's is holding an auction in New York that will have a unique item as the big draw for the show. The item is the only known lunar soil samples in private hands with documented provenance. This soil sample isn’t from NASA, but from Russia. The soil samples were obtained in September 1970 by the Luna-16 mission to the moon.
A new study suggests that life on Earth is far older than science once suspected. The scientific world's been relying on the oldest known fossils to date the start of life on this planet - they've been doing this for ages. This sort of science works, but because its source material changes, it's not entirely accurate. A study published this week combines both fossil and genome science to date our ancestors well beyond what's been found in the ground.
If you're located anywhere in North America, you won't be able to see tomorrow's total lunar eclipse...at least not by stepping outside. The celestial event won't be visible in the US, Canada, or Mexico, which is disappointing due to its uniqueness: this will be the longest lunar eclipse of the century. This doesn't mean that you're without options, however.
The blood moon is upon us, and right now we're going to discuss how and when not to view it best. While we've got the times ready, unfortunate for most likely readers of this article, this eclipse won't be visible from most of North America! If you'll have a peek at the map of the world as provided this week by NASA, you'll find the extreme unluckiness with which the United States and Mexico and Canada have been cursed for this particular event.