Our nearest celestial neighbor revolves around Earth every 27 days at a distance of roughly 240,000 miles. Formed billions of years ago alongside our planet, the moon has played a major role in world religion and culture, and it is the only celestial body humanity has visited—so far. Discover the fascinating facts about the moon in our collection of the internet's best resources.
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And why is the next cohort headed there? The geological conditions in Flagstaff, Arizona, can easily echo those of the moon, making the area a prime spot to train astronauts. This article explains how scientists crafted these training grounds and why astronomers are drawn to the nearly century-old city.
NASA's Artemis mission—the first to return humans since 1972—aims to explore the moon's water-rich south pole. Finding water is a crucial goal of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a permanent, sustainable human habitat on the moon. NASA also hopes to create a refueling station by using water as a rocket propellant as well as nuclear reactors and solar farms to sustain astronauts. Obviously, significant challenges remain. This article captures the current status of plans to build a lunar base.
Moon phases are caused by the sun's light illuminating different portions of the moon's surface. The moon has a day side and a night side, which change as it rotates. The phases—from new moon to waning crescent—occur as the moon travels through its orbit, with each phase revealing a different amount of the illuminated side. The moon's orbit and Earth's tilt contribute to additional motions and phenomena, such as libration and earthshine. Additionally, the moon can be visible during the day, particularly during the first and last quarter phases. This illustrated article accessibly explains this basic celestial phenomena.
Is there water on the moon? In 2020, NASA's SOFIA mission confirmed the existence of water on the sunlit area of the lunar surface. Early astronomers mistook the dark spots on the Moon for oceans, but they are actually plains of dark, lava-produced...
Earth's colorless, lifeless moon is often portrayed as devoid of an atmosphere. However, this fascinating article describes the very thin layer of gases floating above the surface of our celestial neighbor, a layer so thin it's technically known as...
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From roughly 60 miles above the Earth's surface to farther than light has traveled during the entire age of the universe, space has captured human imagination for millennia. Explore the final frontier with the best resources curated from across the internet.