2019 will have all the same race-to-the-bottom politics as the last few years, but at least it's starting with a lot of spacey goodness. That's space spacey. Not Kevin Spacey.
China says it has successfully landed a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, the first ever such attempt and landing. At 10:26 Beijing time (02:26 GMT), the unmanned Chang'e-4 probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, state media said. It is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region's geology, as well to conduct biological experiments.
"This huge structure is over 2,500km (1,550 miles) in diameter and 13km deep, one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System and the largest, deepest and oldest basin on the Moon," Andrew Coates, professor of physics at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, told the BBC.
The event responsible for carving out the SPA basin is thought to have been so powerful, it punched through the Moon's crust and down into the zone called the mantle. Researchers will want to train the instruments on any mantle rocks exposed by the calamity.
The lander carries a 3kg (6.6lb) container with potato and arabidopsis plant seeds - as well as silkworm eggs - to perform biological studies. The "lunar mini biosphere" experiment was designed by 28 Chinese universities.
"They're farming on the Moon,
They'll grow potatoes soon,
And there ain't no whales
So they tell tall tales
Of minerals on the Moon."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46724727
This will basically show the contents of the Earth mantle, good job China. Should have played "The Dark Side of the Moon" during landing, just to annoy Elon Musk with stolen idea.
ReplyDeleteChris Hatfield said the “near side” of the moon always faces earth because there is more mass on one side. Which isn’t really a full explanation. It’s usually explained as “tidal locking” meaning the moon can’t rotate independently because the more massive side is held be a kind of terrestrial “tractor beam” if you will. But is it possible that mass from one side of the moon (deep within and near the surface) would have gradually accumulated one one side more than the other due to the gravitational attraction of the earth? In others words, the moon is tidally locked because there is more mass one one side, and there is more mass on one side because it is tidally locked? Kind of a feedback loop. Also the surface geology on the near and far sides of the moon are quite different. The near side having more ancient features and the far side featuring more recent cratering because it is more exposed to incoming debris. Is anyone still reading this?
ReplyDeleteI'm loathe to disagree with an astronaut, but I don't think the mass distribution has anything much to do with tidal locking. It will have (or there will be) some effect but I don't think it's the major factor. Simple distance is enough for tidal locking :
ReplyDeleteforbes.com - Why Does The Earth Pull On One Side Of The Moon More? Is The Moon Lopsided?
Rhys Taylor I don't understand this explanation. The moon must have been rotating at one time, so the near and far sides would be closer to the earth an equal amount of time. This article explains that the far side of the moon is 2,159 miles farther from the earth, and so there is less gravitational pull from the earth, but it's already tidally locked. The moon's rotation slowed down over time due to tidal friction, and it has also been moving farther and farther away from earth since its formation. The fact that one side is farther away than the other doesn't explain why the moon stopped rotating. Because, to reiterate, at one time both sides spent and equal amount of time facing earth. I imagine the moon's rotation would have slowed down to the point where, instead of rotating, it was rocking back and forth and eventually stopped. Unless, of course, it was always tidally locked. The only thing that makes any sense to me is if there is more mass on one side of the moon than the other.
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