[ad_1]
China’s Chang’e-5 probe, sent to an unexplored area of the moon, has finished collecting rock samples and the lunar soil is preparing to take them to Earth, the national space agency announced on Thursday (03.12.2020) .
“The scientific prospecting operation has proceeded as planned,” the space agency said without going into details.
This is the first lunar sample collection mission since the 1970s.
The goal is to bring about 2 kilos of rocks extracted after drilling the ground up to two meters deep.
The intention is that once analyzed by scientists it will help explain the lunar history. The ambitious operation will also allow the Asian giant to test new technologies, essential for sending astronauts to the Moon until 2030.
The rocks are expected to reach Inner Mongolia (northern China) before mid-December.
If the return to Earth goes smoothly, China will become the third country to bring back samples from the Moon, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, which carried out the last mission in 1976.
Chang’e 5 was launched on November 24 from the tropical island of Hainan (southern China).
rrr (afp / reuters)
-
“Astronomy Photographer of the Year”: spectacular images of our cosmos
The birth of a planet
Photographer Martin Pugh was completely excited when he transported his CDK 17 telescope to Chile in May 2019. During the endless clear nights he collected data and made precise light measurements. The Australian exposed swirling hydrogen for 23 hours, documenting the birth of a new planet.
-
“Astronomy Photographer of the Year”: spectacular images of our cosmos
Australian sky art
In this photograph, the sober gaze of an astronomer makes an artistic alliance with a photographer and leads through a disused blast furnace to the galactic core of the Milky Way. The Lithgow Blast Furnace Building is an icon of the Australian steel industry. Australian Jay Evans tested a very high resolution megapixel camera here for the first time.
-
“Astronomy Photographer of the Year”: spectacular images of our cosmos
Solar eclipse with Venus
The clear air that day at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile made these extraordinary lighting conditions possible. Using a complex procedure, photographer Sebastian Voltmer depicted a solar eclipse along with a perfectly illuminated Venus: a total of 96 individual images were calibrated, stacked on top of each other and merged into one shot.
-
“Astronomy Photographer of the Year”: spectacular images of our cosmos
Northern lights in the Lofoten Islands
This snapshot was taken by the German photographer Andreas Ettl on the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The remote area is under the Arctic Circle. Here the chances of experiencing such a spectacular Northern Lights are quite high. “Lights of Hamnøy” is the title with which Ettl presented his photography in this year’s competition for the best astronomical photographs.
-
“Astronomy Photographer of the Year”: spectacular images of our cosmos
Galactic symmetry
With incredible technical precision, photographer Andy Casely captured this supernatural moment, thanks to a telescope. Saturn orbits the Moon and appears behind its surface relief. On this summer day of 2019, the moon’s semicircle obscured the optically much smaller planet for several minutes. Casely had been waiting for this galactic moment for years.
-
“Astronomy Photographer of the Year”: spectacular images of our cosmos
The moon over London
After three unsuccessful attempts, British photographer Mathew Browne managed to take this full moon photo from the heart of the British capital. The Earth’s satellite passes over this architectural icon. Art meets nature, moonlight meets filigree on the facade of the Shard skyscraper.
-
“Astronomy Photographer of the Year”: spectacular images of our cosmos
Arctic color show
Nature makes it easy for photographers from this Arctic region in Iceland’s Arctic Circle. British photographer Ben Bush combines an artistic point of view with a professional approach to wildlife photography. A picture like a painting, taken kneeling on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, at six degrees below zero.
Author: Heike Mund
.
[ad_2]
Source link
