Lets travel back a few months in time when India’s grand Chandrayaan-3 moon mission was all set to be the first to touch down on the Moon’s South Pole. Right around the same time Russia sent out its Luna-25 mission, kicking off a race to the Moon.
Russia’s ambitious lunar mission didn’t go according to plan. It actually ended in a crash landing. And just recently Russia’s space agency spilled the beans on how it all went wrong.
Roscosmos recently shared that a problem with a part on the Luna-25 spacecraft led to it crashing into the moon in August. This unfortunate incident marked the conclusion of Russia’s initial moon mission in nearly five decades.
Luna 25 Crash Site// Credit: NASA
The part that was supposed to stop the engine from running didn’t work properly. This made the engine go on for much longer than it should have while the spacecraft was heading to the moon.
According to reports, because of this Luna-25 started spinning uncontrollably and on August 19 and eventually crashed on the moon.
This was disappointing for Russia because they wanted to reach the unexplored south pole of the moon before India did with its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Gear up for the last and best meteor shower of the year. The Geminid meteor shower will peak on December 13-14 bringing shooting stars to the night skies. Under the right conditions, skygazers could get to witness over 120 meteors per hour as Geminids are considered the brightest of the year.
The Geminid meteors originate from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon. According to NASA, this asteroid takes about 1.4 years to orbit the Sun once. Scientists think Phaethon is a “dead comet” or a new kind of object being discussed by astronomers called a “rock comet.”
This month, enjoy views of Venus, Jupiter at its brightest during opposition, and Mars doubling in brightness. The Geminid meteor shower peaks under challenging moonlight conditions, but you might get lucky and catch a shooting star! https://t.co/hI25MXkxX5pic.twitter.com/eci6YwoPGw
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) December 2, 2024
This hypothesis is fuelled by the asteroid’s highly elliptical orbit around the Sun which is very comet-like.
When Earth, while orbiting the Sun, passes through its trail of debris left behind, its atmosphere interact with it and we get the meteor shower. Notably, the Geminid meteor shower usually peaks mid-December but is active through December 21-22.
The conditions this time are not exactly favourable as the Moon will be nearly full. According to NASA, the meteors will peak under the nearly full Moon and its illumination might wash out the meteoric brightness reducing visibility. The Moon will be full on December 15.
But you can still spot it in relatively lower numbers before dawn. The meteors will appear like specks of dust streaking through the morning sky.
Try finding the Gemini constellation as this is where the meteors appear to be originating from. This constellation is also what inspired the name Geminids.
A space probe is heading toward Earth for a gravity assist. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will make its closest approach to our planet at 9:45 am IST on December 13 from a distance of just 360 kilometres. It will pass over the United States which will be in darkness.
“This close flyby will result in a “gravity assist,” putting the spacecraft on a new trajectory that travels through the main asteroid belt and out to the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids, small bodies that orbit the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter,” NASA said in a statement.
The #LucyMission will perform its 2nd Earth-gravity assist on Dec. 12, putting it on a new course toward its first Trojan asteroid encounter in 2027. On the way, Lucy will pass through the main asteroid belt, flying past asteroid “Donaldjohanson” in 2025. pic.twitter.com/hyYazOsGJW
— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) December 10, 2024
This will be the second gravity assist Lucy will need in its 12-year voyage to Jupiter’s trojan asteroids. The first successful flyby which put it on a two-year orbit, occurred on October 16, 2022. After the first flyby, it flew past the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam.
NASA says the next flyby will put Lucy on a six-year orbit sending it through the main asteroid belt where it will fly past the asteroid Donaldjohanson. Lucy will then fly into the Trojan asteroid swarm that leads Jupiter in its orbit. It’s first trojan asteroid encounter is set for 2027. The purpose of the Lucy mission is to understand the formation of planets and ultimately the solar system.
You can watch Lucy’s flyby during a livestream hosted by the Virtual Telescope Project. It has scheduled a webcast at 10 am IST on YouTube which you can access below.
NASA says that Lucy will approach Earth from the direction of the Sun, meaning it will be lost in the solar glare. However, observes in the Hawaiian islands may be able to catch a glimpse before it passes into Earth’s shadow. It may also be visible to telescopes in west Africa and eastern regions of South America when Lucy emerges from Earth’s shadow 20 minutes after the closest approach.
Lucy will be travelling at speeds over 53,000 km per hour at the time of flyby, NASA said.
Scientists in India recently observed the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer called corona using the Aditya-L1 observatory and made significant discoveries. ISRO says that the observation was carried out after a coronal mass ejection (CME) event that occurred on July 16.
The Sun’s corona is very mysterious and scientists don’t know much about what makes it hotter than the solar surface. The corona is about a million degrees Celsius whereas the surface is just about 5,600 degrees Celsius. It is also believed to hold secrets about the Sun’s activity and how it affects the space weather.
The Aditya-L1 observatory. Image: ISRO
From the corona, emerges coronal mass ejections (CMES) which is the expulsion of plasma or highly charged particles. These particles, when interact with Earth’s atmosphere and magnetosphere create auroras but can also disrupt satellite communications, GPS systems, and power grids.
The researchers detailed in ‘The Astrophysical Journal Letter’ the findings that were made using the Aditya-L1’s Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC).
According to experts, they observed a phenomenon called ‘coronal dimming’ which is the reduction in the brightness of the corona after the July 16 CME. “The brightness in that area dropped by about 50%, a decrease caused by the ejection of solar material. This reduction in brightness lasted for about 6 hours,” ISRO said in a statement.
Coronal structures (left) disappeared in the image after the CME (right). Image: ISRO
Aditya-L1 also discovered that the temperature around the region of CME is enhanced by about 30 percent and this region becomes more turbulent during the event. Besides, the Sun’s dynamic magnetic field also gets more active during such eruptions and is the cause for more turbulence. ISRO says that the velocity of plasma was recorded at nearly 25 km per second during the CME.
Lastly, the experts also discovered that the plasma moves away from the observer during the CME event, a result of its deflection due to the solar magnetic field.
“This finding shows that solar magnetic forces can influence the direction of propagation of the ejected plasma as it moves in the inter-planetary space,” ISRO stated.
It added that the understanding of such deflections of the ejected plasma is important for the prediction of how CME evolves upon leaving the Sun and travelling through the solar system.
