31 december 2002:
uranian moons imaged with vlt
31 december 2002:
uranian moons imaged with vlt
Astronomers using the the massive 8m Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile have captured an astonishing image of Uranus and seven of its moons. Two of the moons, Puck and Portia, are so small that they were only discovered by the flyby of the Voyager 2 space probe in 1985-6.
Full story from BBC News
20 december 2002:
moon's youngest crater found?
Scientists believe they have found the only lunar crater known to have been formed in recorded history. Dr Bonnie Buratti of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Dr Lane Johnson of Pomona College have examined the photograph of an apparent flash on the lunar surface taken in 1953 by amateur astronomer Leon Stuart. Comparing it with images from the 1994 Clementine lunar mission they found a crater with a bright ring of ejecta which, they claim, corresponds exactly in terms of location and appearance.
Full story from BBC News and Sky & Telescope
26 november 2002:
iau names eleven moons of jupiter
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), which officially governs the naming of astronomical objects, has named eleven of the Jovian satellites found by Scott Sheppard and his team at the University of Hawaii. Most of the moons were discovered by Scott's team in 1999-2000, but one - now called Themisto - was rediscovered after being first seen by Charles Kowal at Palomar in 1975. By convention, the IAU names planets and moons (unlike asteroids which are named by their discoverers and comets which are named after their discoverers). Jovian moons are named after the lovers of the Roman god Jupiter, and their descendents. The new names are Callirrhoe, Themisto, Megaclite, Taygete, Chaldene, Harpalyke, Kalyke, Iocaste, Erinome, Isonoe and Praxidike. Fortunately, given the rate of discoveries, there is no shortage of names!
Full story from Sky & Telescope
8 november 2002:
nasa moon hoax challenge aborted
NASA has cancelled its proposed book debunking Moon Landing hoax claims. It is thought to be in response to criticism that the book would display lack of confidence and so lend weight to the claims. Author Jim Oberg will still write the book independently without NASA funding or official endorsement.
Full story from BBC News
7 november 2002:
nasa to challenge moon hoax claims
NASA has commissioned aerospace writer James Oberg to write a book debunking Moon Landing conspiracy theories. Misunderstandings of the conditions on the lunar surface have lead to many sensational claims that the agency faked the Apollo Moon landings in the 1960s and 70s. The book is to be aimed at the general public and teachers, and will explain, for instance, why no stars appear in the dark lunar sky, why the flag appeared to wave without wind and why shadows are cast in apparently contradictory directions.
Full story from BBC News
4 october 2002:
new moon for uranus
A new moon discovered orbiting the ice giant Uranus, its 21st, is one of the faintest solar system objects ever discovered. The satellite, found by Dr J Kavelaars and his team using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) facility in Chile, is so faint that even the ESO's massive 8m telescopes have difficulty tracking it.
Full story from BBC News
1 october 2002:
extreme tides predicted
The highest tides for four years could hit the south coast of England on 7-8 October. The high tides will occur because the combined gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon, which is at its most effective at the time of the new or full moon when they align with the Earth, is further enhanced by a close approach of the Moon to the Earth. However, the weather at the time will have a greater effect than the Moon's proximity.
Full story from BBC News
12 september 2002:
earth's "new moon" probably apollo rocket
The mysterious object recently found in Earth orbit, J002E3, is probably a spent Apollo 12 rocket stage. Analysis of the object's path suggests that it orbited the Sun until April 2002 when it was captured by Earth's gravity, but probably originally escaped from Earth orbit back in the early 1970s or very late 1960s.
Full story from BBC News
11 september 2002:
new moon orbiting earth?
A mysterious object found in orbit around the Earth may be a new Moon. The object, discovered by amateur Bill Yeung in Arizona, was at first thought to be a near-Earth asteroid, but then was found to be locked in a 50 day orbit around the Earth. The position of the object, currently designated J002E3, does not match that of any known satellite or piece of space junk, and must have been recently captured by Earth's gravity or it would have been noticed easily. If it turns out to be natural, it would be Earth's third Moon after Cruithne, the small object found in a complicated Earth orbit on 1986.
Full story from BBC News and Sky & Telescope
12 august 2002:
vlt targets the moon
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to image the Moon. The image of the region to the north of the crater Taruntius, taken by the VLT's 8.2m Yepun telescope, used state-of-the-art adaptive optics and may be the highest-resolution image of the Moon ever taken from Earth.
Full story from BBC News and Sky & Telescope
27 july 2002:
moon missions set to escalate
Wordlwide interest in lunar exploration is reaching a level not known since the Apollo era. As China contemplate its own Moon project, both Europe and the US are keep to find clues to the origins of life that the Moon may hold.
Full story from BBC News
23 july 2002:
fbi presses moon rock theft charges
Four people, three of them students with summer jobs at NASA, have been arrested for attempting to sell stolen Moon rocks on the Internet. FBI agents also recovered a safe containing over a million dollars worth of lunar rock samples.
Full story from BBC News
11 june 2002:
millions enjoy eclipse spectacle
Parts of eastern Asia and central America have witnessed an annular solar eclipse. Similar to a total eclipse, the Moon is slightly further away than average, so the Sun appears as a "ring of fire" around the Moon.
Full story from BBC News
5 june 2002:
european space programme to include moon mission
The European Space Agency has announced its plans for the remainder is this decade. Although budgetary constraints have resulted in some project casualties, the programme will include the Smart 1 mission to survey the Moon and test new technologies.
Full story from BBC News
22 may 2002:
still more moons for jupiter
The prodigious team led by Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy have announced the discovery of another 11 irregular satellites orbiting Jupiter. This brings the total to 39, reinforcing Jupiter's status as having the largest number of moons in the solar system.
Full story from BBC News
21 may 2002:
chinese deny reports of manned moon mission
China has "clarified" news reports in the Chinese media that it intends to put a man on the Moon by 2010. Although it does plan to launch a sample-return probe and ultimately tap lunar mineral resources, there is no target date and no intention to send a man.
Full story from BBC News
20 may 2002:
china to aim for the moon
Boosted by the success of their recent orbital missions, China has announced that it intends to launch a manned space flight by 2005, send a mission to the Moon by 2010, and ultimately set up a mining base on the Moon.
Full story from BBC News
12 may 2002:
russian moon programme building collapses
A section of the roof of a space vehicle assembly and testing building at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome has collapsed, injuring at least eight people. The complex has been in service since the 1950s, and was the launch site for Sputnik 1. It now serves as Russia's main commercial launch site, but in recent years has been the victim of considerable pressure on its funding.
Full story from BBC News plus comment
1 may 2002:
doubts cast on medieval lunar impact theory
The theory, proposed by Dr Jack B Hartung, that the a 12th century English monk named Gervaise documented an eye witness account of an impact forming a large lunar crater, has been cast strongly in doubt. Paul Withers of the University of Arizona has calculated that some 10 million tonnes of material ejected by the formation of the candidate crater, Giordano Bruno, would have fallen into the Earth's atmosphere. The resulting meteor storm would have been a spectacular, week-long event seen by the whole world... and there is no record of this at all.
Full story from BBC News
1 april 2002:
chinese space capsule returns
China's latest unmanned spacecraft, Shenzhou III, has returned to Earth after it's week-long mission. China aims to launch a manned mission by 2005, and to put a man on the Moon by 2010. However, the success of the mission, which carried a dummy covered in sensors to monitor onboard life support systems, has prompted speculation that the timescales could be shortened dramatically.
Full story from BBC News
25 march 2002:
china launches space capsule
China has launched a prototype man-rated space capsule. The Shenzhou III mission lifted off from Jiuquan Space Launch Centre on a Long March 2F rocket, watched by Chinese President Jiang Zemin. China aims to be the third nation to put astronauts - or "Taikonauts" - into space, and eventually intends to land a man on the Moon.
Full story from BBC News
12 march 2002:
does moon have titanium core?
As scientists continue to probe the Moon's internal structure, an intriguing new proposal has been made. In an attempt to reconcile the generally accepted evidence that the Moon has a small metallic core with the seismic indications that its core has a density too low for a primarily iron composition, Mark Wieczorek and Maria Zuber of MIT suggest that a core of molten titanium-rich silicates could provide a solution.
Full story from Sky & Telescope
13 february 2002:
moon has molten core
An experiment left on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts is giving remarkable insights into the Moon's structure. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are using the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment to calculate Love numbers (named after an Oxford mathematician) which measure how gravitational pull affects a planet's surface and interior. Results suggest that the Moon has a partially-molten region around its core.
Full story from NASA JPL
16 january 2002:
measuring the moon
Scientists have already measured the distance between the Earth and the Moon down to about two centimetres. Now a US research team hopes to use laser ranging to narrow the measurement down to the millimetre. Together with highly sensitive gravity experiments, it is hoped that the five year project will help resolve some fundamental issues in cosmology.
Full story from BBC News