Of all the planets in our solar system, Saturn is by far the mooniest. And that’s saying a lot. Sure, we’re here in our corner with our single friend, The Moon™, but Neptune wanders the universe with 16 known companions, Uranus boasts 28 of its own, and there are a whopping 95 moons in the … Read more
Friday, December 13The bright gibbous Moon passes 4° north of Uranus at 5 A.M. EST. At that time, the Moon sits in Aries the Ram, while Uranus is just over the border in far western Taurus the Bull. The two set together around 5 A.M. local time. You might have better luck spotting the ice … Read more
Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io doesn’t appear to have a subsurface ocean of magma, resolving some issues about how Io’s volcanoes erupt and raising broader questions about similar magma oceans within other moons and planets. Data from previous missions had made planetary scientists wonder whether, rather than just pockets of melt, Io contained a 31-mile (50-kilometer) … Read more
Artificial intelligence is being developed to provide a robotic brain for a future NASA mission to land on the icy surface of one of the solar system’s ocean moons, such as Europa or Enceladus. The autonomous software is being developed by teams of researchers who are making use of a robotic arm, mimicking that belonging … Read more
In 1865, pioneer of astronomical photography Lewis M. Rutherfurd captured some of the higher quality photos of the Moon at the time. Credit: Wikimedia commons In 1874, James Nasmyth and James Carpenter published a remarkable book: The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite. Lavishly illustrated with spectacular images of lunar features … Read more
Artemis 2 crewmembers Jeremy Hansen (from left), Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch will have to wait a few additional months before they fly around the moon and back. Credit: James Blair/NASA For the second time this year, NASA has pushed back its timeline to land the first Americans on the Moon since the … Read more
The Artemis moon landings are delayed again due to technical difficulties. This time, the problem is with the Orion spacecraft heat shield. NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced that the new landing dates are in April of 2026 for Artemis II and sometime in 2027 for the first human landing during the Artemis III mission. The … Read more
We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the first crewed moon mission since the Apollo era lift off. NASA announced today (Dec. 5) that it’s delaying the planned launch of Artemis 2, a flight that will send four people around the moon and back, from September 2025 to April 2026. And Artemis 3, … Read more