The Earth Has a Second Moon, And No One Noticed All This While

Researchers have discovered that an object, now dubbed 2020 CD3, has been gravitationally bound to earth for about three years now. And it is only now that we have discovered it. It was on February 19 that astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona spotted a dim object moving quickly across the sky somewhere close to earth. The same object was then observed by researchers at six more observatories around the world who confirmed the presence of what can now be considered a minimoon. The researchers say the new and perhaps temporary minimoon is probably between 1.9 meters and 3.5 metres across, which is around the same size as a mid-size car.

Astronomers say that the new minimoon orbit isn’t stable, and the 2020 CD3 could eventually catapult itself away from Earth. “It is heading away from the Earth-moon system as we speak,” says Grigori Fedorets at Queen’s University Belfast in the UK, told the New Scientist. Incidentally, this isn’t the first-time earth has had an additional moon, albeit temporarily. In 2006, the 2006 RH120 remained within the earth’s gravitational pull between September 2006 and June 2007 before it managed to wriggle free. Chances are, this minimoon will too.

Who Needs $20 Million? Moon Race Still On Without Google's Prize

Google called off its race to the moon weeks ago, when it became clear no private explorer would complete the trip by the March 31 deadline. That won't stop at least three teams from Israel, Japan and the U.S., who say their missions are a still a go, with or without the contest's $20 million prize.

"We are full steam ahead," said Yigal Harel, program director at SpaceIL, the Israeli team that plans a soft-landing on the moon later this year.

When the Lunar XPrize was introduced in 2007, interest in moon exploration was at a low. No government had landed there since the 1970s and no businesses had seriously contemplated it. But the contest has had its intended effect, jump-starting a cottage industry of would-be space explorers, even if no one emerged to take Google's money. Last year, overall investment in space startups by venture capitalists climbed to a record $2.8 billion, according research firm CB Insights

Alien Life In Our Solar System? Study Hints At Saturn's Moon

The icy orb known as Enceladus may boast ideal living conditions for single-celled microorganisms known as archaeans found in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, they reported in the science journal Nature Communications.

Giant Replica Of Moon Unveiled At Kolkata's Victoria Memorial

The 'Museum of the Moon' is a project of the British Council, supported by the Ministry of Culture. It has been put on display at the Victoria Memorial Hall in the city for the weekend visitors. The 23-feet-wide replica of the moon is half a million times smaller than the real moon.

Last Weekend's Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse Pictures:Seen in a composite picture taken from Sweden on Saturday, the moon emerges from the last total lunar eclipse for three years.

The entire lunar eclipse was visible from East Asia, Australia, and the far western part of North America that includes Alaska and Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories.

In Sweden and the rest of northern Europe, the full moon emerged from Earth's shadow as the natural satellite rose on Saturday night.

Pass Out the Cigars! Pluto Is a Papa By Michael D. Lemonick

An image of the Pluto system taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 ultraviolet visible instrument with newly discovered fourth moon P4 circled, taken on on July 3, 2011.
NASA / ESA / M. Showalter (SETI institute)

The image that popped up in Hubble's gallery on June 28 didn't show any rings — but it did show that Pluto has a moon nobody knew about.
Tiny P4 should have a real name. "We're tossing around some ideas," says Showalter, "but the name has to come out of Greek mythology associated with Hades and the underworld." That's according to the International Astronomical Union, which has to formally approve the names of heavenly objects — and which has strict and sometimes arcane guidelines for what's permitted. Underworld myths are the rule for moons of Pluto; for moons of Uranus, it's got to be characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope — specifically Pope's poem "The Rape of the Lock." That required Showalter to learn the verses well. "I'm the discoverer of two moons of Uranus," he says. "We named them Cupid and Mab."