The first confirmed lunar cave could provide shelter for future astronauts

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As a full moon shines in the night sky this weekend, take a moment to admire its beauty and look for the great dark plain.

The surface feature is the Mare Tranquillitatis, or Sea of ​​Tranquility, where the Apollo 11 mission landed on the afternoon of July 20, 1969.

The full moon won’t peak until Sunday at 6:17 a.m. ET, but the silvery orb will still make its best appearance Saturday, the 55th anniversary of when NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made humanity’s first moonwalk.

Now that NASA and other space agencies are planning for a more permanent human presence on the moon through the Artemis program, it appears that the Sea of ​​Tranquility may have an unexplored treasure worth revisiting.

Scientists have found an underground cavity beneath the Sea of ​​Tranquility that may provide a cave-like shelter for future lunar astronauts.

Lunar caves or underground passages formed by volcanic processes during the early history of the Moon are associated with pits covering the lunar surface.

The long, wide cave, found in a review of NASA archive data, could be used to protect astronauts from harsh radiation and extreme temperature swings, and could also provide a new way to study lunar rocks.

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet with a cucumber-shaped orbit that may be turning into a different type of world.

An unusual orbit that changes temperatures at TIC 241249530 bz from a warm summer’s day to hot enough to melt titanium could be a sign that the planet is approaching its star.

Astronomers estimate that in hundreds of millions of years, the planet will take just a few days, rather than six months, to orbit its star and become a hot version of Jupiter.

Separately, the European Space Agency plans to send a spacecraft named Ramses to accompany asteroid Apophis on a safe and close approach to Earth — 10 times closer than the Moon — in April 2029. The spacecraft could pick up earthquakes and landslides in space. rock because it is affected by Earth’s gravity.

If pets with flat faces like French bulldogs and Persians, or puffy faces like Maine coons, squint and exhibit behavioral problems, they may have a painful condition: eyelid disease.

Some dog and cat breeds are genetically more likely to have problems with deformed eyelids, which causes the eyelashes to scrape against the cornea.

But what people would call cosmetic surgery is helping pets like Hamilton, a four-year-old English bulldog, overcome the pain of disfigured eyelids.

“These grips are not cosmetic; they are essential for the animal’s health,” said Dr. Dana Varble, Chief Veterinary Officer of the North American Veterinary Community.

The Curiosity rover was about to settle into a new exploration site on Mars when it crunched against a rock — and made the “most unexpected” discovery of its 12-year mission, according to mission scientists.

Curiosity’s wheels revealed that inside the rock was something never before seen on the red planet: yellow-green sulfur crystals. And it turns out there’s a whole field of them inside an ancient channel carved into the side of Mars’ Mount Sharp.

But scientists don’t know how, when and why sulfur formed on Mars, creating a new puzzle for the rover team to solve.

Meanwhile, the newly launched African Space Agency is launching satellites to improve the quality of life on Earth, such as monitoring water quality and preventing illegal mining and fishing.

While dinosaurs roamed the earth during the Cretaceous period, sharks with unusual teeth swam in the seas.

Sharks of the genus Ptychodus had rows of large, rounded chompers that crushed captured prey. But scientists could only speculate about the appearance of the predators after they found only teeth.

Paleontologists recently discovered a nearly complete skeleton of an ancient shark in the Mexican state of Nuevo Léon, unraveling the mystery of the prehistoric fish’s appearance.

Separately, cut marks on the fossilized remains of a giant armadillo in Argentina reveal that humans killed the animal more than 20,000 years ago — and that the first humans in the Americas settled there earlier than expected.

Immerse yourself in these unexpected stories:

— Experts in New Zealand are investigating whether a creature that washed ashore is a spade-toothed whale — a species considered almost mythical because scientists have never recorded a live sighting.

— NASA carried Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” some 158 million miles to Venus, marking the first time a hip-hop song has been sent into space.

— A record number of Siamese crocodile eggs have just hatched in the wild in Cambodia, offering hope for a critically endangered species that was nearly eradicated. driven to extinction.

— A flaming meteor soared over New York this week and disintegrated over New Jersey, and sky watchers captured videos of the rare event.

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