TIANGONG-1 RE-ENTRY UPDATE: China's 8-ton space station, the Tiangong-1, will disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere on April 2nd at 00:18 UTC ± 2 hours, according to re-entry experts at the Aerospace Corporation. Stay tuned for updates.
THE REAL BLUE MOON: Last night's full Moon was a "Blue moon"--so-called because it was the second full Moon in a calendar month. Everyone knows the Moon is really gray. However, when Talha Zia of Karachi, Pakistan, took a closer look, he found blue and many other colors as well:
No filter was required to produce this image. The colors are naturally present and only need a bit of boosting with Photoshop to see. "I stacked 92 single images to enhance signal to noise ratio," says Zia, "then I enhanced the colors deliberately to create the final photo." The method is described here.
What do the colors mean? Blue denotes areas rich in titanium, while orange is titanium poor. The titanium-rich zones are particularly interesting because lunar titanium is bound to oxygen. The common lunar mineral ilmenite, for instance, is rich in titanium oxides. This oxygen may be easily extracted, providing future explorers a source of air to breath and oxidizer for rocket engines.
So the Moon is blue after all. And orange ... and pink ... and purple. Scratching the lunar surface reveals a great deal more than gray, after all.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
MOTHER'S DAY IS ONLY 6 WEEKS AWAY:On March 5, 2018, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere, more than 94,000 feet above Earth's surface. This sterling silver Mother's Day pendant went along for the ride:
You can have it for $119.95. The students are selling these pendants as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray monitoring program. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation measurements and hands-on STEM education.
Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again. Mom-satisfaction guaranteed.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education