Across the solar system, asteroids and comets crash into moons and planets every day. The rocket collision will provide researchers with important data on how these collisions work.
With about 200 orbital launches scheduled and ambitious missions on everything from lunar bases to the search for life in the works, there’s a lot to watch in 2022. An astronomer explains the highlights.
Penguins will have the best seat in the house as a total solar eclipse passes over Antarctica on December 4. Australia and New Zealand will experience a minor partial eclipse, but not a noticeable one.
Activities in space today are far more numerous and complicated compared to 1967, before humans had landed on the moon or Elon Musk had been born. Two experts explain the need for better laws to keep space peaceful.
A partial lunar eclipse during moonrise will let viewers in most Australian capitals see the Moon partly shrouded in Earth’s shadow, while the “Moon illusion” makes it look larger than life.
A new tool to detect hidden layers of the surface of the far side of the Moon could provide vital information about what lies beneath and how Earth’s satellite evolved.
There are vast quantities of water ice on the moon that represent the potential for extraction and use in rocket fuel. But there are no practical reasons to mine this water.
The Binar-1 mission is the first in a series that will hopefully culminate in a mission to the Moon, with satellites developed using know-how gained from designing tough instruments for the WA outback.
Joseph Cabosky, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
According to a new poll, people across political and demographic lines think the private space race is good for the future but still just an ego trip for the billionaires involved.
Without a magnetic field, the Moon’s surface is exposed to solar wind. These could have been depositing resources like water and potential rocket fuel on the Moon’s surface for billions of years.
Mark Gibbs, Australian Institute of Marine Science
The triple whammy of the moon’s wobble, sea level rise and more intense storms will bring worse tidal floods into coastal communities in the 2030s. This includes in Australia.