The sky is not the limit! | Supermoon, spacecraft, lunar temperature, and more

During the last week of August, we learned about the last supermoon of 2023 and some scientific discoveries. If you missed any of the major astronomical news, see a summary below com. canaltech.

Let’s go!

Giant blue moon

On Wednesday (30), the second supermoon of August occurred, which is when the moon is at perigee during its full phase. This means that our natural satellite has been a little closer to Earth, and it seems to have gotten a little bigger and brighter.

As usual, many recorded the event with their cameras and the pictures circulated on the Internet. to make it easier, com. canaltech Choose the best photos of the supermoon and you can check them out right now.

Environmental damage caused by spacecraft

A new report details the environmental damage caused by SpaceX’s Starship during the test flight that failed to reach Earth orbit. According to Fish and Wildlife Service officials, there were chunks of concrete up to 800 meters from the launch pad and craters 30 centimeters deep.

In addition, an area of ​​more than 16,000 square meters in a nearby park was burned, and a group of wild crabs and quail eggs were also burned by the explosion.

Temperature differences on the moon

One of the experiments carried by the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the moon, from India, collected data from temperature measurements on the moon. At the landing site of the spacecraft there is a variation between 40°C and 60°C, while at 80 mm depth the temperature drops -10°. percentage.

The Indian space agency said this was the “first-ever view of the lunar south pole”. However, this data is preliminary, and more detailed observations are underway.

Crew 7 arrives at the International Space Station

Crew-7 astronauts have already arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). It was sent aboard the Crew Dragon capsule launched by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last Saturday (26). The International Space Station was reached on Sunday (27).

Four astronauts from different countries are part of Crew 7, one German for NASA, one Danish for the European Space Agency, one Japanese for JAXA, and one Russian for Roscosmos.

Beads located in the Pacific Ocean

The globules found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by the Galileo project could be the remnants of an interstellar object. This is at least what the preliminary analyzes of some samples found, in which an unconventional proportion of chemical elements was found.

The principal investigator of the project, Avi Loeb, does not doubt that the meteor that fell into the ocean came from another star system, that is, from outside the solar system, and even speculated that it could be something made by some alien civilization. But the debate about these findings in the scientific community is just beginning.

The new image of the Whirlpool Galaxy

The James Webb Telescope took another picture of a galaxy, and the result was once again impressive. This time, the target was NGC 5194, better known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, a spiral galaxy located about 27 million light-years from Earth.

This object has been studied a lot because it is in the process of colliding with another galaxy, dwarf galaxy NGC 5195. Webb’s observations have been made to help astronomers understand how the energy of stars affects the environment in which they form.

Supernovae that helped form the solar system

The Shish 002 meteorite, found in 2020 in Algeria, reveals that some elements of the solar system came from supernovae far from the sun, and the element in question is the aluminum isotope 26, whose signature was found in a larger amount in this rock than in other meteorites. .

If the amount of aluminum-16 was greater in a single meteorite, it was likely unevenly distributed in the nebula where the Sun formed. Moreover, this element is normally produced in supernovae, so it is possible that it may have sent some of these particles outward in the first few thousand years of the sun’s life.