AND TALKING OF THE MOON ...

MYSTERIOUS MOON SWIRLS POWERED BY MAGNETS

Light patterns in the moon dust have been explained. Astronomers think the swirls occur because solar wind particles are affected by local magnets formed 3+ billion years ago, when the Moon had active volcanoes. High temperatures made minerals release iron, that was magnetized by the Moon’s magnetic field.

NEW TELESCOPE TO SEARCH FOR MOON SIBLINGS

As asteroids speed past us, some of them are captured by gravity as a type of tiny temporary moons, of which. one or two are always orbiting Earth. Astronomers aim to examine their make-up and origin using the LSST telescope in Chile. The tiny moons could become the first targets of mining in space.

MOON DUST IS HAZARDOUS TO HUMAN CELLS

New experiments show that moon dust is hazardous to us, probably because the particles are so tiny that they can cross barriers in our tissue. Scientists have subjected human lung cells and brain cells from mice to artificial moon dust – i.e. dry particles of a few micrometres – and about 90 % of the cells died.