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Interesting article here concerning the potential for storms that follow the lunar terminator. (The terminator is the dividing line between light and dark.)

The next time you see the moon, trace your finger along the terminator, the dividing line between lunar night and day. That’s where the storm is. It’s a long and skinny dust storm, stretching all the way from the north pole to the south pole, swirling across the surface, following the terminator as sunrise ceaselessly sweeps around the moon.

Never heard of it? Few have. But scientists are increasingly confident that the storm is real.

The evidence comes from an old Apollo experiment called LEAM, short for Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites. “Apollo 17 astronauts installed LEAM on the moon in 1972,” explains Timothy Stubbs of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It was designed to look for dust kicked up by small meteoroids hitting the moon’s surface.”

Very cool, of course, that old Apollo-era data is still providing new and useful science. It also helps illustrate the point that the only way for us to move forward as a species lies…..(cue Shatner voice)….out there.

In astronomy, light pollution refers to the fact that typical city lights happen to drown out the night sky, since they often share the same wavelengths, and the proximity of the polluting city light is much closer.

This picture demonstrates the phenomenon very clearly: [link]

For the first time, astronomers have gotten an idea of how black holes can propel stars entirely out of galaxies.

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There’s a bright comet in the morning and evening skies, dropping by for a limited-time engagement, so get out of your la-z-boys, grab a pair of binoculars, and check it out. [link]
Parents, this is a great time to get your kids interested and involved in the sciences, or specifically in astronomy, which can be a great hobby for a kid. (And a better one as an adult!) Continue reading…