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- The (anticlimactic) first private moon landing đ
The (anticlimactic) first private moon landing đ
plus a look at the brightest object in the universe â
The ups and downs of the first private moon landing
Late last week, Houston-based Intuitive Machines teamed up with NASA to launch Odysseus, the worldâs first commercial moon landing spacecraft. The mission also marked the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the moon in over 50 years đ
As you might have heard, things didnât go according to plan.
đ Although the launch was successful, Odysseus pitched over while touching down on the moonâs south pole. It came in too fast and landed about a mile from its intended target.
đ Some of the antennas ended up pointing down, cutting off Odyssesusâs ability to send communications back home. The solar panels were also impacted, shortening the craftâs operation abilities from one week to 20 hours.
đ Flight controllers have been using the limited time to gather images and data.
But there is still some good news: Odysseus has ventured further south than any other vehicle to land on the moon đ
Intuitive Machines still has a contract with NASA for future moon landings. Homerâs Odysseus wasnât known for his navigation skills, so fingers crossed they choose a less prophetic name for the next mission đ¤
Meet the brightest object in the universe â¨
The most luminous object on record was observed last week: Quasar J0529-4351, a celestial body so far away, it took over 12 billion years for its light to reach us â
Quasars are centers of active galaxies powered by a supermassive black hole. Weâve come across them before, so what makes Quasar J0529-4351 so special?
⨠With a mass of 17 billion suns, this quasar is also the fastest-growing black hole known to date.
⨠The quasar consumes more than one sun per day.
⨠The quasarâs light comes from a disc measuring over seven lightyears in diameter. Thatâs 15,000 times the distance between the Sun and Neptune.
⨠The quasar emits so much energy, itâs over 500 trillion times more luminous than our sun.
⨠Although we only just now noticed it due to its distance, itâs been within our line of sight this whole time.
Cheers to Quasar J0529-4351 â weâre honored to have you in view đ
The âRussia is trying to put nuclear weapons in spaceâ elephant in the room
A flurry of headlines hit the news cycle last week about Russiaâs potential attempt to launch nuclear weapons into space. Hereâs what you should know:
đ Remember when some congressmen were warning of a vague ânational security threatâ earlier this year? This is what they were talking about.
đ The US government recently told allies that Russia could launch an âanti-satellite nuclear weaponâ sometime this year, confirming the legitimacy of the headlines.
đ However, the Russian government says it doesnât plan to plan to deploy nuclear weapons in space per se. Instead, the spacecraft would target other countriesâ communication satellites with a âmassive energy wave,â not people on Earth.
Weâre not sure if that makes us feel any better, but weâll take what we can get đ¤ˇ
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