NEWS IN BRIEF

Earth finds and loses new moon

Astronomers briefly

discovered we had a new mini-moon, only for Earth to lose it a few weeks later. The moon, 2020 CD3,

was first discovered by

the Catalina Sky Survey on 15 February, though it could have been orbiting our planet for as long as three years. Alas, it was only discovered just as it was leaving, drifting into solar orbit around 7 March.

Human test for Crew Dragon

The first human test flight

of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon

spacecraft is due to fly to

the ISS as soon as the end of May. The test will carry two NASA astronauts on a brief sojourn to the ISS. If successful, NASA will begin using the Crew Dragon full-time to ferry astronauts to and from the station.

Jupiter’s thick Red Spot

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may be shrinking in diameter, but it’s still as thick as ever. Recent computer simulations – which recreated the giant storm’s evolution over many decades – found that no matter the fluctuations in

its size, the Red Spot’s depth through the atmosphere remains constant.