All articles tagged with #moon
On May 26, the waxing Moon (about 83% illuminated) will pass near Spica, the blue-white star in Virgo. Spica is a binary giant-star system with a combined luminosity of more than 12,000 suns. The Moon will be roughly 40° high at sunset and drift toward Spica through the night, setting on May 27; the week also features a Blue Moon later in the month.
NASA and the Department of Energy signed an MoU to develop a 100+kW fission surface power reactor for deployment on the Moon by 2030, with DOE providing fuel and regulatory oversight while NASA funds and leads the program; a parallel SR-1 Freedom nuclear-electric propulsion track aims to demonstrate Mars missions by 2028. The initiative seeks to overcome decades of space-nuclear delays by tying explicit mission needs, fixed-price contracting, and formal interagency leadership to the effort, though whether it will deliver a working reactor and a practical Mars transfer by the target dates remains uncertain. Geopolitically, the plan notes potential 'keep-out zones' if rivals beat the U.S. to the Moon, underscoring a broader strategic dimension to the push. The project is estimated around $3 billion over five years.
Around the first-quarter Moon on May 23–24, sunlight will carve out large X and V shapes along the terminator due to clair-obscur lighting, visible with a small telescope or binoculars.
NASA’s Artemis II mission coverage earned four 2026 Telly Awards, recognizing its live global storytelling, 24/7 livestreams and geologic training footage, plus a craft-writing award for a telescope documentary, as Artemis II marked the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo and reached hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide.
Scientists confirm the Moon is slowly moving away from Earth at about 1.5 inches per year. Laser-ranging measurements to lunar mirrors show the average distance of roughly 239,000 miles, with small variations as the Moon’s orbit drifts outward due to tidal forces that transfer Earth's rotational energy to the Moon. This gradual recession has lengthened Earth’s days over billions of years and affects tides; in the long term it will reduce the frequency of total solar eclipses, with some estimates suggesting the last such eclipse could occur about 600 million years from now. The Moon formed around 4.5 billion years ago after a colossal impact, and its ongoing drift reflects the long-term evolution of the Earth–Moon system.
New James Webb Space Telescope data suggest Neptune’s moon Nereid may be the sole survivor of an ancient collision that destroyed Neptune’s original moon system. Its surface appears highly water-rich and CO2-bearing, unlike many Kuiper Belt objects, challenging a captured-origin scenario. Computer simulations indicate Triton’s arrival over 4 billion years ago would have disrupted the system, but Nereid could have endured on a distant, eccentric orbit, potentially rewriting ideas about how moons around ice giants form.
Look west after sunset on May 21 to spot a crescent Moon near the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44) in Cancer, with Jupiter nearby to the lower right and Venus and Mercury forming a diagonal line beyond; Mercury will be very close to the horizon, so a clear view is needed. Binoculars will reveal the Beehive cluster, and a small telescope can show lunar craters along the terminator as the Moon drifts away and sets in the early hours of May 22.
Researchers used a functional-connections-based method to simulate 30 million Earth–Moon routes and found a previously hidden gravity-assisted trajectory that saves about 58.8 m/s of delta-v over the prior cheapest path, enabling cheaper Moon travel and uninterrupted Earth communication; further work could include solar gravity to push costs even lower.
A new study suggests Neptune's enigmatic moon Nereid may be a primordial satellite that formed with Neptune, rather than a captured body, shedding light on the planet’s early history.
A maker project by Karsten Mueller uses a circular display, an ESP32-S3, and a 3D-printed case to show a locally accurate moon phase that accounts for your time and location, with NASA imagery as an optional source; the project is documented in German and English on Hackaday.io and the code is available on GitHub.
On May 20, 2026, a rare western-sky pairing brings the waxing crescent Moon into close view with Jupiter after sunset, with Venus also visible near the horizon; a small telescope can reveal Jupiter's cloud bands and its four Galilean moons, while the Moon's craters line up along the terminator. Timings are location-dependent, so check local sunset guides—nearly in the northeastern U.S. Venus sets about 2.5 hours after sunset, followed by Jupiter, with the Moon visible until around midnight.
NASA chief says China is expected to perform a crewed circumlunar flight around the Moon in 2027, a development echoed by Jared Isaacman who warned the next Moon mission will be taikonauts. The comments underscore a perceived space-race dynamic between the U.S. and China, while Isaacman has pushed to accelerate Artemis—now reframed as a 2027 low-Earth-orbit test (Artemis 3) followed by a 2028 lunar landing (Artemis 4)—and Congress has signaled support with increased exploration funding. All crewed lunar missions to date have been NASA missions.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is testing the 66-pound Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS), a suitcase-sized seismometer designed to endure the Moon’s two-week polar night using an advanced multi-layer insulation blanket and a reworked lithium-ion battery charging method; if successful, LEMS would become the first American instrument to survive at the lunar south pole through darkness and operate for up to two years, providing seismic data to better map the Moon’s interior and supporting future Artemis missions.
New simulations indicate Earth's moon-like co-orbital Kamo'oalewa is more likely a fragment from the asteroid belt than lunar debris, with about 21% odds of a Moon origin; a future sample-return mission could settle the question.
Artemis 2 astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen captured a stunning view of swirling stars from the Orion capsule during NASA’s 10-day lunar flyaround aboard the spacecraft Integrity, a shot that highlights the program's goal of returning humans to the Moon and establishing a longer-term lunar presence (the crew splashed down on April 10).