Moon News

October 21, 2024

Top Headlines

Oct. 3, 2024 — Deposits of ice in lunar dust and rock (regolith) are more extensive than previously thought, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) mission. Ice would be a valuable resource for future lunar expeditions. ...

Hidden Magmatism Discovered at the Chang'e-6 Lunar Landing Site

Aug. 27, 2024 — Lunar igneous activities including intrusive and extrusive magmatism, and their products contain significant information about the lunar interior and its thermal state. Their distribution is asymmetrical on the nearside and farside, reflecting the ...

Scientists Pin Down the Origins of the Moon's Tenuous Atmosphere

Aug. 2, 2024 — Scientists say they have identified the main process that formed the moon's atmosphere and continues to sustain it today. The team reports that the lunar atmosphere is primarily a product of 'impact ...

Scientists Devise Method to Secure Earth's Biodiversity on the Moon

July 31, 2024 — New research led proposes a plan to safeguard Earth's imperiled biodiversity by cryogenically preserving biological material on the moon. The moon's permanently shadowed craters are cold enough for cryogenic preservation without the need for ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:05pm EDT

Out-of-This-World Simulation Key to Collecting Moon Dust

Oct. 16, 2024 — Teleoperated robots for gathering moon dust are a step closer, according to new ...

Moon 'Swirls' Could Be Magnetized by Unseen Magmas

July 3, 2024 — Mysterious, light-colored swirls on Moon's surface could be rocks magnetized by magma activity underground, laboratory experiments ...

Geologists Expect Chang'e-6 Lunar Surface Samples to Contain Volcanic Rock and Impact Ejecta

June 24, 2024 — On June 25, China's Chang'e-6 (CE-6) lunar probe is set to return to Earth, carrying the first surface samples collected from the farside of the ...

In New Experiment, Scientists Record Earth's Radio Waves from the Moon

June 7, 2024 — Odysseus, a tenacious lander built by the company Intuitive Machines, almost didn't make it to the moon. But an experiment aboard the spacecraft managed to capture an image of Earth as it might look ...

Olivine Unlocks the Secrets of the Moon's Interior

June 5, 2024 — New partitioning coefficients of first-transition row elements, Ga and Ge between olivine and silicate melt have been reported. New high-temperature experiments have investigated the effects of ...

New Technique Offers More Precise Maps of the Moon's Surface

May 29, 2024 — A new study may help redefine how scientists map the surface of the Moon, making the process more streamlined and precise than ever ...

Robotic 'SuperLimbs' Could Help Moonwalkers Recover from Falls

May 15, 2024 — SuperLimbs, a system of wearable robotic limbs, can physically support an astronaut and lift them back on their feet after a fall, helping them conserve energy for other essential ...

How the Moon Turned Itself Inside out

Apr. 8, 2024 — Linking analyses of the moon's gravity field with models of its earliest evolution, scientists tell a story of the moon turning itself inside out after it solidified from a primordial magma ocean. ...

Could Fiber Optic Cable Help Scientists Probe the Deep Layers of the Moon?

Feb. 29, 2024 — An increasing number of seismologists are using fiber optic cables to detect seismic waves on Earth -- but how would this technology fare on the Moon, and what would it tell us about the deep layers ...

New Realistic Computer Model Will Help Robots Collect Moon Dust

Feb. 22, 2024 — A new computer model mimics Moon dust so well that it could lead to smoother and safer Lunar robot ...

Understanding the Moon's History With Chang'e-5 Sample

Feb. 6, 2024 — China's Chang'e-5, the first lunar sample return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, delivered 1.73 kilograms of regolith from the Oceanus Procellarum, a plane named for ...

Moon Rocks With Unique Dust Found

Jan. 18, 2024 — A research team has for the first time discovered anomalous meter-sized rocks on the lunar surface that are covered in dust and presumably exhibit unique properties -- such as magnetic anomalies. ...

Discovery Changes Understanding of Water's History on the Moon

Jan. 16, 2024 — New research shows the early lunar crust which makes up the surface of the Moon was considerably enriched in water more than 4 billion years ago, counter to previously held ...

Research Sheds New Light on Moon Rock Formation Solving Major Puzzle in Lunar Geology

Jan. 15, 2024 — New research has cracked a vital process in the creation of a unique rock type from the Moon. The discovery explains its signature composition and very presence on the lunar surface at all, ...

Potential Solvents Identified for Building on Moon and Mars

Jan. 11, 2024 — Researchers have taken the first steps toward finding liquid solvents that may someday help extract critical building materials from lunar and Martian-rock dust, an important piece in making ...

Scholars Say It's Time to Declare a New Epoch on the Moon, the 'Lunar Anthropocene'

Dec. 8, 2023 — According to anthropologists and geologists, it's time to acknowledge humans have become the dominant force shaping the moon's environment by declaring a new geological epoch for the moon: ...

Hydrogen Detected in Lunar Samples, Points to Resource Availability for Space Exploration

Nov. 21, 2023 — Researchers have discovered solar-wind hydrogen in lunar samples, which indicates that water on the surface of the Moon may provide a vital resource for future lunar bases and longer-range space ...

Researchers Probe How a Piece of the Moon Became a Near-Earth Asteroid

Oct. 23, 2023 — Two years after the striking discovery that a near-Earth asteroid could be a chunk of the moon, another UArizona research group has found that a rare pathway could have enabled this to ...

The Moon Is 40 Million Years Older Than Previously Thought

Oct. 23, 2023 — By analyzing tiny lunar crystals gathered by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, researchers recalculated the age of the Earth's Moon. Although previous assessments estimated the Moon as 4.425 billion ...

Removal of Magnetic Spacecraft Contamination Within Extraterrestrial Samples Easily Carried Out, Researchers Say

Oct. 11, 2023 — By demonstrating that spaceflight doesn’t adversely affect the magnetism of moon rocks, researchers underscore the exciting potential of studying the magnetic histories stored in these ...

New Findings Suggest Moon May Have Less Water Than Previously Thought

Sep. 18, 2023 — A team recently calculated that most of the Moon's permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) are at most around 3.4 billion years old and can contain relatively young deposits of water ice. Water ...

Electrons from Earth May Be Forming Water on the Moon

Sep. 14, 2023 — Planetary scientists have discovered that high energy electrons in Earth's plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on the Moon's surface and, importantly, the electrons may ...

Despite Doubts from Quantum Physicists: Einstein's Theory of Relativity Reaffirmed

July 13, 2023 — One of the most basic assumptions of fundamental physics is that the different properties of mass -- weight, inertia and gravitation -- always remain the same in relation to each other. Although all ...

Why the Day Is 24 Hours Long: Astrophysicists Reveal Why Earth's Day Was a Constant 19.5 Hours for Over a Billion Years

July 5, 2023 — Astrophysicists have revealed how the slow and steady lengthening of Earth's day caused by the tidal pull of the moon was halted for over a billion years. They show that from approximately two ...

Large Sub-Surface Granite Formation Signals Ancient Volcanic Activity on Moon's Dark Side

July 5, 2023 — A large formation of granite discovered below the lunar surface likely was formed from the cooling of molten lava that fed a volcano or volcanoes that erupted early in the Moon's history -- as ...

Liquid Nitrogen Spray Could Clean Up Stubborn Moon Dust

Feb. 28, 2023 — A liquid nitrogen spray can remove almost all of the simulated moon dust from a space suit, potentially solving what is a significant challenge for future moon-landing ...

Space Dust as Earth's Sun Shield

Feb. 8, 2023 — Dust launched from the moon's surface or from a space station positioned between Earth and the sun could reduce enough solar radiation to mitigate the impacts of climate ...

Liftoff! NASA's Artemis I Mega Rocket Launches Orion to Moon

Nov. 16, 2022 — Following a successful launch of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket in the world, the agency's Orion spacecraft is on its way to the Moon as part of the Artemis ...

Researchers Create Lunar Regolith Bricks That Could Be Used to Construct Artemis Base Camp

Oct. 25, 2022 — As part of NASA's Artemis program to establish a long-term presence on the moon, it aims to build an Artemis base camp that includes a modern lunar cabin, rover and mobile home. This fixed ...

Collision May Have Formed the Moon in Mere Hours, Simulations Reveal

Oct. 4, 2022 — Most theories claim the Moon formed out of the debris of a collision between the Earth and an object about the size of Mars, called Theia, coalescing in orbit over months or years. A new simulation ...