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https://www2.lpod.org/wiki/December_5,_2021

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Guru Purnima (Poornima) is a tradition dedicated to all the spiritual and academic Gurus, who are evolved or enlightened humans, ready to share their wisdom, based on Karma Yoga. It is celebrated as a festival in India, Nepal and Bhutan by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. This festival is traditionally observed to honour one's chosen spiritual teachers or leaders. It is observed on the Full Moon day (Purnima) in the Hindu month of Ashadha (June–July) as it is known in the Hindu Calendar

Information of this source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Purnima

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The Moon's Surface Has Enough Oxygen to Keep Billions Alive For 100,000 Years 

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The Moon's Surface Has Enough Oxygen to Keep Billions Alive For 100,000 Years 

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https://www.sciencealert.com/moon-s-surface-has-enough-oxygen-to-keep-billions-alive-for-100-000-years?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencealert-latestnews+%28ScienceAlert-Latest%29

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Earth and Sun from the Moon's South Pole

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Earth and Sun from the Moon's South Pole

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Part 2

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4944?utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=NASAArtemis&utm_campaign=NASASocial&linkId=136977552

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LRO image (left) and Apollo 17 photo of Shorty Crater from LRO Featured Image with annotations by LROC PI Mark Robinson.
The two white arrows mark the orange soil in the trench and the boulder in the Apollo image, and the words Color Pan show
where the Apollo image was taken.

Shorty Crater is one of the most famous small craters on the Moon. It is a dark halo crater, and back in the days when Apollo 17 was being planned, dark halo craters were all believed to be volcanic so there was excitement that Apollo 17 would sample a new type of explosive volcanism. Astronaut Schmitt did discover the famous orange soil at Shorty Crater that is indeed volcanic, the result of explosive eruptions. But Shorty isn't a volcanic crater, it is an impact crater that formed 19 million years ago, excavating 3.7 billion year old volcanic ash from below surface lavas. Mark Robinson has written more about these two images

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https://www2.lpod.org/wiki/October_30,_2021

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Earth and Sun from the Moon's South Pole

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Earth and Sun from the Moon's South Pole

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part 1 and in this post video will be post on second part 2

This visualization shows the unusual motions of the Earth and Sun as viewed from the South Pole of the Moon. The animation compresses three months (a little over three lunar days) into two minutes. The virtual camera is on the rim of Shackleton Crater, partially visible in the bottom right, and is aimed at the Earth. The mountain on the horizon, about 85 miles away, is unofficially known as Mons Malapert.

Here, the Sun glides around the horizon, never more than 1.5 degrees above or below it, while the Earth bobs up and down, never veering far from 0° longitude. The Earth appears to be upside-down and rotating backwards. The perpetually low Sun angle produces extremely long shadows that rotate across the rugged lunar terrain.

In the second month of the visualization, the Earth passes in front of the Sun, creating an eclipse. For observers on Earth, this is a lunar eclipse, in which the Moon passes through the shadow cast by the Earth. Viewed from the Moon, however, this is an eclipse of the Sun.

Information of this source :

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4944?utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=NASAArtemis&utm_campaign=NASASocial&linkId=136977552

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This visualization shows the unusual motions of the Earth and Sun as viewed from the South Pole of the Moon. The animation compresses three months (a little over three lunar days) into two minutes. The virtual camera is on the rim of Shackleton Crater, partially visible in the bottom right, and is aimed at the Earth. The mountain on the horizon, about 85 miles away, is unofficially known as Mons Malapert.

Here, the Sun glides around the horizon, never more than 1.5 degrees above or below it, while the Earth bobs up and down, never veering far from 0° longitude. The Earth appears to be upside-down and rotating backwards. The perpetually low Sun angle produces extremely long shadows that rotate across the rugged lunar terrain.

In the second month of the visualization, the Earth passes in front of the Sun, creating an eclipse. For observers on Earth, this is a lunar eclipse, in which the Moon passes through the shadow cast by the Earth. Viewed from the Moon, however, this is an eclipse of the Sun.

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Earth and Sun from the Moon's South Pole

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This visualization shows the unusual motions of the Earth and Sun as viewed from the South Pole of the Moon. The animation compresses three months (a little over three lunar days) into two minutes. The virtual camera is on the rim of Shackleton Crater, partially visible in the bottom right, and is aimed at the Earth.

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Scientists have been reconstructing the history of the moon by scouring its surface, mapping its mountains and craters, and probing its interior. What are they learning about our own planet's beginnings? Decades ago, we sent astronauts to the moon as a symbol of confidence in the face of the great cold war struggle. Landing on the moon was a giant leap for mankind. But it's what the astronauts picked up from the lunar surface that may turn out to be Apollo's greatest legacy. When the astronauts of Apollo stepped out of their landing craft, they entered a world draped in fine sticky dust, strewn with rocks, and pocked with craters. They walked and rambled about, picking up rocks that they packed for the return flight. Back in earth-bound labs, scientists went to work probing the rocks for clues to one of the most vexing questions in all of science. Where did the moon come from? The answer promised to shed light on an even grander question. Where did Earth come from? And how did it evolve into the planet we know today? The nature of the moon began to come into focus four centuries ago. Galileo Galilei had heard of an instrument built by Dutch opticians capable of "seeing faraway things as though nearby." Galileo, in many ways the first modern scientist, saw this new instrument as a tool to help settle a long standing question. What was the nature of the heavens, and how did the world of men fit within it? To some philosophers, the moon was a perfect, crystalline sphere of divine substance, free of Earth's imperfections. Galileo, with his telescope, saw a more familiar reality. He noted mountains and valleys on the moon, features like those of Earth. The astronauts of Apollo lifted off on a series of missions to get a close up look at the moon and perhaps settle the debate. Because there's no atmosphere there, the astronauts entered landscapes that are nearly frozen in time. They could scour the lunar surface for evidence of events going back almost to the time of its birth. Indeed, eons of impacts had opened up the Moon's interior, leaving a wealth of information strewn about their landing sites. Scientists had already noticed that some large old craters were surrounded by concentric rings. You can see one of the most pronounced examples in this image of the Mare Orientale, captured recently by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. The colors show differences in elevation. The old view was that the impact had melted the rock below. A newer view held that the impactor had actually splashed down on a molten surface. That gave rise to the radical notion that, early in its history, the moon's surface was covered in a vast ocean of magma. When the astronauts arrived, they found relatively light rocks known as anorthosites. Their presence suggested that heavier material had sunk toward the moon's interior, forcing lighter material to the surface. The rocks they brought back were found to be strikingly similar to those on Earth, in part because they share forms of oxygen, called isotopes, that scientists regard as "blood types" for solar system bodies. Then there was this. The moon appeared to be completely, utterly, dry, with no evidence that water was ever present on its surface.

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Lunar photo of the day 29th October ,2021

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Lunar photo of the day 29th October ,2021

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Having an inquisitive mind, David marked lines along some of the prominent rays from yesterday's LPOD of Tycho. As his diagram shows, some rays (red lines) converge onto two spots (red dots) inside the crater. This is interesting and likely. It may be that ejecta was sent out in different directions from these sources. Two other lines (yellow) - a small sample - converge (yellow dot) just outside Tycho's rim. This is peculiar because material was presumably not ejected from there. But it has been known for a long time that some rays from Tycho, Copernicus and other craters are tangential to their rims. Of course, the details of why are not certain, but it happens. What David has done is explore a new method of looking more closely at the places of origins of rays. I think Shoemaker did this is the early 60s for Copernicus, but with better images and processing it may be possible to learn more. Perhaps David or others will plot many more rays to confirm and extend this investigation. There are, in fact, enough ray craters to go around.

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https://www2.lpod.org/wiki/October_29,_2021

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The Moon (or Luna) is the Earth’s only natural satellite and was formed 4.6 billion years ago around some 30–50 million years after the formation of the solar system. The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth meaning the same side is always facing the Earth. The first uncrewed mission to the Moon was in 1959 by the Soviet Lunar Program with the first crewed landing being Apollo 11 in 1969.

The dark side of the moon is a myth.
In reality both sides of the Moon see the same amount of sunlight however only one face of the Moon is ever seen from Earth. This is because the Moon rotates around on its own axis in exactly the same time it takes to orbit the Earth, meaning the same side is always facing the Earth. The side facing away from Earth has only been seen by the human eye from spacecraft.

The rise and fall of the tides on Earth is caused by the Moon.
There are two bulges in the Earth due to the gravitational pull that the Moon exerts; one on the side facing the Moon, and the other on the opposite side that faces away from the Moon, The bulges move around the oceans as the Earth rotates, causing high and low tides around the globe.

The Moon is drifting away from the Earth.
The Moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm away from our planet every year. It is estimated that it will continue to do so for around 50 billion years. By the time that happens, the Moon will be taking around 47 days to orbit the Earth instead of the current 27.3 days.

A person would weigh much less on the Moon.
The Moon has much weaker gravity than Earth, due to its smaller mass, so you would weigh about one sixth (16.5%) of your weight on Earth. This is why the lunar astronauts could leap and bound so high in the air.

The Moon has only been walked on by 12 people; all American men.
The first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969 was Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, while the last man to walk on the Moon in 1972 was Gene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission. Since then the Moon has only be visited by unmanned vehicles.

The Moon has no atmosphere.
This means that the surface of the Moon is unprotected from cosmic rays, meteorites and solar winds, and has huge temperature variations. The lack of atmosphere means no sound can be heard on the Moon, and the sky always appears black.

The Moon has quakes.
These are caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth. Lunar astronauts used seismographs on their visits to the Moon, and found that small moonquakes occurred several kilometres beneath the surface, causing ruptures and cracks. Scientists think the Moon has a molten core, just like Earth.

The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was Luna 1 in 1959.
This was a Soviet craft, which was launched from the USSR. It passed within 5995 km of the surface of the Moon before going into orbit around the Sun.

The Moon is the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System.
At 3,475 km in diameter, the Moon is much smaller than the major moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Earth is about 80 times the volume than the Moon, but both are about the same age. A prevailing theory is that the Moon was once part of the Earth, and was formed from a chunk that broke away due to a huge object colliding with Earth when it was relatively young.

During the 1950’s the USA considered detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon.
The secret project was during the height cold war was known as “A Study of Lunar Research Flights” or “Project A119” and meant as a show of strength at a time they were lagging behind in the space race.

Information of this source :

https://space-facts.com/the-moon/

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Earth and the Moon Might Have Captured an Old Upper Stage Rocket

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Earth and the Moon Might Have Captured an Old Upper Stage Rocket

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Back in September, the Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope noticed an object that followed a slight but distinctly curved path in the sky, a telltale sign that it was captured by Earth's gravity. Initially, this object was thought to be a near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) and was given a standard designation by the Minor Planet Center (2020 SO). However, the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA JPL had another theory.

Based on its orbit and the way solar radiation appeared to be pushing it off course, NASA scientists have since concluded that the object might actually be the spent upper stage booster of the Centaur rocket that launched the spacecraft towards the Moon in 1966. This finding could have implications for future surveys that pick up mysterious objects near Earth ('Oumuamua occur).

The first hints were the highly unusual orbit of the object, which was at about the same distance as Earth is to the Sun, in a similar orbital plane, and nearly circular. But the decisive clue came when astronomers at Pan-STARRS and around the world made additional observations of 2020 SO that revealed the degree to which solar radiation was altering its trajectory.

Animation of 2020 SO's orbit on Nov. 8, 2020. Its motion has been speeded up a million times faster than real-time. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Spent rocket stages are essentially empty tubes once they discarded in orbit, that have a low density and a high surface area. As a result, they are pushed around by solar radiation pressure more than a solid, high-density object (like an asteroid). As Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA JPL who analyzed 2020 SO's trajectory for CNEOS, explained:

"Solar radiation pressure is a non-gravitational force that is caused by light photons emitted by the Sun hitting a natural or artificial object. The resulting acceleration on the object depends on the so-called area-to-mass ratio, which is greater for small and light, low-density objects."

All told, more than 170 detailed measurements were made of 2020 SO's position over the last three months. This included observations conducted by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Optical Ground Station in Spain. These showed how much of an effect solar radiation pressure was having, which confirmed the low-density nature of 2020 SO.

The next step was to determine where the suspected rocket booster could have come from. To do this, CNEOS Director Paul Chodas ran the object's orbit in reverse, which showed that 2020 SO had made some relatively close approaches to Earth a few times over the decades. However, the analysis showed that the object's closest approach (in late 1966) was close enough to Earth that it might have originated here.

This 1964 photograph shows a Centaur upper-stage rocket before being mated to an Atlas booster. A similar Centaur was used during the launch of Surveyor 2 two years later. Credit: NASA

This coincides with the launch of the Surveyor 2 lunar lander, which was launched toward the Moon on Sept. 20th, 1966, on an Atlas-Centaur rocket. The mission was designed to reconnoiter the lunar surface in advance of the Apollo missions to scout possible landing sites. However, a day after it separated from its upper stage booster, one of the spacecraft's three thrusters failed to ignite, throwing the spacecraft into a spin.

The spacecraft lost control and on Sept. 23th, 1966, it crashed into the moon just southeast of the Copernicus crater. Meanwhile, the spent Centaur upper-stage rocket sailed past the Moon and disappeared into an unknown orbit about the Sun. As Chodas said, it's likely that it never escaped the gravity of the Earth-Moon system:

"One of the possible paths for 2020 SO brought the object very close to Earth and the Moon in late September 1966. It was like a eureka moment when a quick check of launch dates for lunar missions showed a match with the Surveyor 2 mission."

The orbital path that 20202 SO has since brought it back to Earth for another approach. On Nov. 8th, 2020, it slowly drifted into Earth's Hill Sphere, a region of gravitational influence that extends about 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) around Earth. This is where it will remain for another four months, making its closest approach on Dec. 1st. This will allow astronomers to get a closer look at it and a chance to confirm its identity.

Artist's impression of the interstellar object, `Oumuamua, experiencing outgassing as it leaves our Solar System. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser

This discovery is also significant because of the way it demonstrates how low-density, high surface area objects can be accelerated by solar radiation pressure. This same principle is what informs the design of solar sails and was even observed when the interstellar object 'Oumuamua departed our Solar System in 2017. Despite an absence of outgassing, the object accelerated from exposure to solar radiation.

This behavior and unresolved questions about its shape led Dr. Shmuel Bialy and Prof. Abraham Loeb to famously suggest in 2018 that 'Oumuamua might be artificial in origin. Whereas Bialy is a postdoc with the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC), Prof. Abraham Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and the founder of the ITC. As Loeb told Universe Today via email:

"The discovery of 2020 SO by Pan STARRS in September 2020 lends credibility to the notion that artificial objects can be distinguished from natural objects based on the fact that sunlight is pushing them. `Oumuamua was detected by Pan STARRS in October 2017 and the subsequent monitoring of its orbit indicated that just like 2020 SO, it experienced an excess push away from the Sun without showing a cometary tail." "The fact that 2020 SO is a relic of our civilization, strengthens the case that `Oumuamua could have been artificial, made by another civilization. The situation resembles the activity I enjoy most on vacation with my family, namely walking on the beach and looking at seashells. Every now and then, we tend to find a plastic bottle that is a relic of civilization. The newly discovered object 2020 SO is such a relic from our civilization. Perhaps `Oumuamua is a relic from another civilization."

An artist's illustration of a light-sail powered by a radio beam (red) generated on the surface of a planet. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

Loeb delves into the peculiar properties of `Oumuamua and the possibility that it was a "message in a bottle" from an extraterrestrial civilization in his forthcoming book " Extraterrestrial," which will be available for purchase on January 26th, 2021.

By March 2021, 2020 SO will leave Earth's orbit and assume a new orbit around the Sun. As NASA nears its long-awaited return to the Moon, it's nice to be visited by an artifact from the early Space Age, a reminder of a time when humans were struggling to get to the Moon for the first time.

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Earth and the Moon Might Have Captured an Old Upper Stage Rocket - Universe Today

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Back in September, the Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope noticed an object that followed a slight but distinctly curved path in the sky, a telltale sign that it was captured by Earth's gravity. Initially, this object was thought to be a near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) and was given a standard designation by the Minor Planet Center (2020 SO).

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Over five decades ago, Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth a wide variety of rocks from the Moon. Analysis of these rocks gave rise to a set of ideas describing the origin of the Moon called the Giant Impact Theory. In the last decade, scientists like Robin Canup have been testing a number of predictions of this theory using a new generation of powerful supercomputers. In this video, Dr. Canup showcases her recent results. The visualization is a work in progress produced for the upcoming giant screen fulldome film "Birth of Planet," with funding from the National Science Foundation.

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The Moon has drawn out our sense of wonder since before we were fully human. Where did it come from? What secrets are written in its rocks? For most of our history, its story was cloaked in myth and mystery. Only now are the vivid details coming into focus. This video takes you back 4.5 billion years to witness the dramatic ways which the moon could have formed, according to the latest mind-blowing theories. By reading the clues written in Moon rocks, we are closer than ever to knowing its full story. But the Moon still holds its secrets close. What else is it hiding?

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Information about Evolution of the Moon in this video from NASA

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Information about Evolution of the Moon in this video from NASA

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Volcanism on the Moon Ended About 2 Billion Years ago

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Volcanism on the Moon Ended About 2 Billion Years ago

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According to the most widely accepted theories, the Moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago after a Mars-sized object (Theia) collided with Earth. After the resulting debris accreted to create the Earth-Moon system, the Moon spent many eons cooling down. This meant that a few billion years ago, lakes of lava were flowing across the surface of the Moon, which eventually hardened to form the vast dark patches (lunar maria) that are still there today.

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According to the most widely accepted theories, the Moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago after a Mars-sized object (Theia) collided with Earth. After the resulting debris accreted to create the Earth-Moon system, the Moon spent many eons cooling down. This meant that a few billion years ago, lakes of lava were flowing across the surface of the Moon, which eventually hardened to form the vast dark patches (lunar maria) that are still there today.

Thanks to the samples of lunar rock brought back to Earth by China's mission, scientists are learning more about how the Moon formed and evolved. According to a recent study led by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CGAS), an international team examined these samples to investigate when volcanism on the Moon ended. Their results are not only filling in the gaps of the Moon's geological history but also of other bodies in the Solar System.

The study, which recently appeared in the journal , was led by Xiaochao Che of the Beijing Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Micro Probe Center, located at the CGAS Institute of Geography. He was joined by researchers from the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Shandong Institute of Geological Sciences, and several universities from the US, UK, and Australia.

Mons Rümker is visible in Oceanus Procellarum in this image taken from the Apollo 15 mission in lunar orbit. Credit: NASA

The samples obtained by the Chang'e-5 rover are the first to be returned to Earth since the Apollo era (45 years ago) and were obtained from the volcanic plain known as Oceanus Procellarum (Latin for "Ocean of Storms"). This lunar region is unique among lunar terrae, as it is believed to have hosted the most recent basalt lava flows on the Moon. Jim Head, a research professor in Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, was a co-author on the new study.

The Chang'e-5 spacecraft landed in this region on Dec. 1st, 2020, and managed to collect about 1,730 g (61.1 oz) of lunar rock from this region, including a core sample obtained from a depth of ~1 m (3.3 ft) beneath the surface. As he explained in a recent News from Brown press release:

"These samples come from a region of the Moon that's been largely unexplored by landed spacecraft. Previous samples from the Apollo missions and the Soviet Luna missions all come from the central and eastern part of the Moon's near side.
" But it became clear as we collected more remote sensing data that the most recent volcanism on the Moon was absolutely in that western portion, so that region became a prime target for sample collection. Specifically, the samples came from near Mons Rümker, a volcanic mound in the largest of the lunar maria, Oceanus Procellarum."

Mons Rümker, a volcanic construct in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon. Mosaic of photos by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, made with Wide Angle Camera. Credit: NASA

The Oceanus Procellarum region is characterized by high concentrations of radioactive elements such as potassium, uranium, and particularly thorium. These generate heat through long-lived radioactive decay and are believed to have played a role in prolonging magmatic activity on the near side of the Moon. After examining the samples through radiometric dating, the team concluded that they were (on average) 2 billion years old.

"However, in these samples, we didn't actually see an elevated radioactive element composition," said Head. "If these radioactive elements are driving the volcanism in this region, we expect to see enhanced radioactivity in the samples. But we didn't. Instead, the composition was similar to mare basalts from older deposits. So that casts some doubt on that hypothesis for long-lasting volcanism."

Essentially, their examination revealed that alternative explanations are needed for why the Oceanus Procellarum region experienced a prolonged period of lunar magmatism. However, the most significant takeaway from this study is how it managed to constrain the age of some of the most recent basaltic lava samples from the Moon. This not only establishes an endpoint for the Moon's most active volcanic period but is critical to modeling its thermal evolution and geological history as well.

And as Head indicated, it also serves as a means for calibrating the timing of other events in the Moon's geological history and on other bodies in the Solar System:

"When we look at a surface or a feature on the Moon from which we don't have samples for radiometric dating, we try to estimate its age through the size-frequency distribution of impact craters. Basically, as time goes by, larger impacts become more rare. So by counting craters of different sizes, we can establish a relative age of a surface.

Understanding the Moon's geological history will help to reconstruct the history of our Solar System. Credit: Hernán Cañellas/Benjamin Weiss

Last but not least, these examinations allow scientists to fill critical gaps in our understanding of the Moon's history. "But between about one billion and three billion years ago, we don't have many good data points to tell us what the impact flux looks like," Head added. "So having an absolute radiometric date for this surface helps us to calibrate the flux curve, which helps us to date other surfaces. And that's not true only for the Moon. This helps us calibrate ages for Mars, Venus, and elsewhere."

The samples obtained by the Chang'e-5 rover are also the first to be returned to Earth since the Apollo era (45 years ago). You might say that the results of this research are a preview of how our renewed lunar exploration efforts will yield new and valuable insights into how the Earth-Moon system formed and evolved. These, in turn, could shed light on how habitable conditions emerged and lasted on Earth but no other bodies in the Solar System.

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Volcanism on the Moon Ended About 2 Billion Years ago - Universe Today

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According to the most widely accepted theories, the Moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago after a Mars-sized object (Theia) collided with Earth. After the resulting debris accreted to create the Earth-Moon system, the Moon spent many eons cooling down.

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Upside down, rotating backwards: How Earth looks like from Moon's South Pole | Watch

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Upside down, rotating backwards: How Earth looks like from Moon's South Pole | Watch

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As Nasa prepares to launch the Artemis Mission to the Moon, engineers have visualised how Earth will look from its polar caps. The lunar polar caps are speculated to have a wide variety of rare-Earth metals that could be harnessed in the future to move from the Moon to Mars and beyond.

With the Artemis mission, Nasa aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

The visualisation shows an unusual movement of the Earth and Sun as viewed from the South Pole of the Moon. The scientific visualisation studio of Nasa has compressed three months of footage into two minutes recorded through a camera placed on the rim of Shackleton Crater aimed at Earth.

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The Earth as seen from the Moon's South Pole. (Photo: Nasa)

As Nasa prepares to launch the Artemis Mission to the Moon, engineers have visualised how Earth will look from its polar caps. The lunar polar caps are speculated to have a wide variety of rare-Earth metals that could be harnessed in the future to move from the Moon to Mars and beyond.

With the Artemis mission, Nasa aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

The visualisation shows an unusual movement of the Earth and Sun as viewed from the South Pole of the Moon. The scientific visualisation studio of Nasa has compressed three months of footage into two minutes recorded through a camera placed on the rim of Shackleton Crater aimed at Earth.

Nasa said from the South Pole, it appeared that the Sun glides around the horizon, never more than 1.5 degrees above or below it, while the Earth bobs up and down, never veering far from zero-degree longitude.

"The Earth appears to be upside-down and rotating backwards. The perpetually low Sun angle produces extremely long shadows that rotate across the rugged lunar terrain," Nasa said.

The visualisation rendered by Ernie Wright shows the Earth passing in front of the Sun, creating an eclipse in the second month. The phenomenon is known to humans as a lunar eclipse. When viewed from the Moon, it is an eclipse of the Sun.

Researchers have identified the lunar South Pole as a prime location that could harbour these materials and resources while hiding some of the biggest secrets of Earth's natural satellite, including answers to how it was formed in the first place and how other worlds in the solar system evolved. The answer can be in the pieces of the Moon's interior scattered on the surface.

Ahead of humans, Nasa has planned to launch rovers to the lunar South Pole led by its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) near the edge of the Nobile Crater in 2023. The rover will explore the region's surface and subsurface for water and other resources. The rover will hitch a ride on the SpaceX Falcon-Heavy rocket to the lunar pole.

The Moon's South Pole is one of the coldest areas in our solar system and scientists have so far only studied the region using remote sensing instruments, including those on Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.

Scientists aim to study the origin and distribution of water on the Moon and prepare to harvest the resources 2,40,000 miles from the Earth that can be used to safely send astronauts farther into outer space.

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Upside down, rotating backwards: How Earth looks like from Moon's South Pole | Watch

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The Earth as seen from the Moon's South Pole. (Photo: Nasa) As Nasa prepares to launch the Artemis Mission to the Moon, engineers have visualised how Earth will look from its polar caps. The lunar polar caps are speculated to have a wide variety of rare-Earth metals that could be harnessed in the future to move from the Moon to Mars and beyond.

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Will NASA’s Moon rover find enough of the ice it seeks?

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Will NASA’s Moon rover find enough of the ice it seeks?

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NASA plans to land its next lunar rover beside a crater, named Nobile, near the Moon’s south pole, the agency has announced. But some scientists question whether the mission, set to launch in 2023, will efficiently find the lunar ice that it’s looking for.

The mission, known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), aims to study ice on the lunar surface that could serve as a resource, for instance as a rocket-fuel ingredient for future astronauts. The Moon's south pole has so far not been visited by any spacecraft, but holds great scientific promise: it receives little sunlight, so it has reserves of ice containing information about the origin and evolution of the Solar System, preserved for billions of years. VIPER will hunt for the ice in the lunar soil using various methods, including drilling up to 1 metre deep.

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NASA plans to land its next lunar rover beside a crater, named Nobile, near the Moon's south pole, the agency has announced. But some scientists question whether the mission, set to launch in 2023, will efficiently find the lunar ice that it's looking for.

The mission, known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), aims to study ice on the lunar surface that could serve as a resource, for instance as a rocket-fuel ingredient for future astronauts. The Moon's south pole has so far not been visited by any spacecraft, but holds great scientific promise: it receives little sunlight, so it has reserves of ice containing information about the origin and evolution of the Solar System, preserved for billions of years. VIPER will hunt for the ice in the lunar soil using various methods, including drilling up to 1 metre deep.

Lunar exploration is ramping up globally, with China, South Korea, India and Russia among the nations working on Moon missions. Amid these efforts, NASA aims to regain the glory of its 1969 crewed Moon landing by sending astronauts to the lunar surface somewhere near the south pole. The goal is to do so by the end of 2024, but that deadline will probably slip given budgetary and other constraints.

Ahead of the astronaut landing, NASA will send a fleet of robotic spacecraft to the Moon. Among them is VIPER, which will be the first-ever mission to provide on-the-ground measurements of lunar polar ice. VIPER will cost NASA around US$433 million to build and operate. Another $226 million will go to a private company, Astrobotic Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to deliver it to the Moon's surface. If all goes well, after the rover touches down at its landing site near Nobile Crater, it will travel 25 kilometres or more over 100-plus days while mapping ice and drilling into it in a number of places.

But some researchers worry that the landing site, announced on 20 September, isn't guaranteed to have an abundance of ice. So far, scientists have only been able to estimate polar-ice concentrations on the basis of data from orbiting spacecraft. According to that information, Nobile Crater does have ice in and around it, including inside several permanently shadowed regions that never see the Sun's rays,. "We do have a lot of data that there is water ice there - we're not going in blind," says Amy Fagan, a planetary scientist at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

But some point out that lunar polar ice appears to be distributed in patches - with frost on the surface in some places and ice frozen more deeply in others, inaccessible even to VIPER's drill. "It's not like water ice is everywhere," says Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The details matter in terms of where we go."

It's possible that VIPER might not even come across water, adds Clive Neal, a geoscientist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana - although even that information could help future ice-hunting missions find better target sites.

The search for ice

Since 2017, when then-president Donald Trump tasked NASA to return astronauts to the Moon, many lunar scientists have been working to identify areas around the south pole, where robotic spacecraft or astronauts might have the best chance of finding ice or other geologically interesting terrain to explore.

NASA chose Nobile Crater for VIPER partly because it offers a variety of locations where ice can be studied in the lunar soil. Other factors in the decision included that VIPER could easily travel across the terrain, that enough sunlight is available for the solar-powered rover to recharge its batteries regularly, and that the crater has a good line of sight to Earth, so engineers can communicate directly with the spacecraft.

The agency acknowledges that VIPER does not yet have a detailed map of where the ice is around Nobile, named after an Italian explorer who developed airships for Arctic exploration. "This is exactly why we're going," says Anthony Colaprete, VIPER's project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. "Any new information is going to be enlightening beyond what we have right now."

But some scientists say VIPER would be better off if NASA launched a different planned spacecraft, a small, $55-million satellite called Lunar Trailblazer, first. Lunar Trailblazer's mission is to map water on the Moon. Researchers say the VIPER team could use these maps to plot which parts of Nobile the rover could efficiently travel to as it prospects for ice during its fast-paced, 100-day mission. "Not having Trailblazer launched at the same time or before VIPER is an opportunity missed," says Neal.

NASA, however, plans to keep Lunar Trailblazer in storage until 2025, when it is scheduled to ride to space alongside an unrelated spacecraft. Ehlmann, who is the principal investigator for Lunar Trailblazer, says it will be ready for launch in February 2023, well before VIPER, and could make advance maps for VIPER if NASA finds an earlier launch opportunity.

US lunar scientists discussed the issue last month at a meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, which provides input to NASA on lunar activities. They supported launching Lunar Trailblazer as soon as possible but recognized that VIPER will still be successful without it, says Fagan, who is the group's chair.

NASA defends its choice to launch VIPER first. "We absolutely have sufficient knowledge to fly the VIPER mission" before Trailblazer, says Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division in Washington DC. And Neal argues that both missions should be viewed as just the start of a long-term search for lunar polar water, in which NASA and space agencies from other countries can coordinate to map and mine the ice in an ongoing programme of space exploration.

Despite concerns, VIPER will provide scientists' best look yet at where ice might be around the lunar south pole. The rover can detect very low levels of ice in the soil, under one-tenth of a per cent by weight. Because of that sensitivity, says Kevin Cannon, a planetary scientist at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, "I think there's a pretty good chance of finding detectable ice."

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Will NASA's Moon rover find enough of the ice it seeks?

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NASA plans to land its next lunar rover beside a crater, named Nobile, near the Moon's south pole, the agency has announced. But some scientists question whether the mission, set to launch in 2023, will efficiently find the lunar ice that it's looking for.

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more information will be updated in next time

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The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. At about one-quarter the diameter of Earth 

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The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. At about one-quarter the diameter of Earth (comparable to the width of Australia), it is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System overall, and is larger than any known dwarf planet. Orbiting Earth at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), or about 30 times Earth's diameter, its gravitational influence slightly lengthens Earth's day and is the main driver of Earth's tides. The Moon is classified as a planetary-mass object and a differentiated rocky body, and lacks any significant
atmosphere, hydrosphere, or magnetic field. Its surface gravity is about one-sixth of Earth's (0.1654 g); Jupiter's moon Io is the only satellite in the Solar System known to have a higher surface gravity and density.
[ The Moon with its fully illuminated near side (north is at top) ]