Scientists grow plants in lunar soil for the first time

University of Florida scientists have grown Arabidopsis thaliana, belonging to the cauliflower family, in lunar soil known as regolith, collected from the Moon during the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions. NASA posted pictures of the experiment on Instagram with the caption: "To boldly go, we must boldly grow."

Arabidopsis seeds were added to moistened lunar soil along with a daily mix of nutrients. However, the plants in the regolith didn't grow as well as those grown in terrestrial soil. Some grew slowly and had stunted roots and leaves with a reddish colouring. They exhibited patterns seen in Arabidopsis under stress from growing in harsh environments, such as when there are too many heavy metals or salt in the soil. The plants grown in Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 regolith outperformed those grown in Apollo 11 soil, indicating that there could be pockets of richer regolith on the Moon.

The study demonstrates the possibilities of growing plants on the Moon. If plants could be a support system on the Moon or Mars, then future astronauts could grow their own food, thus River enabling them to stay for longer periods of time.

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CAN PLANTS GROW ON LUNAR SOIL?

 

Have you ever looked up at our moon and wondered if it was possible to grow plants there? According to a new study published in Communications Biology, the answer is maybe. Success in growing a plant on the moon, it seems, depends on where exactly the planting is done.

The research, performed by a team of two horticulturists and one geologist from the University of Florida, showed for the first time that plants could be grown in lunar soil. The results are an important step towards humanity's ambitions of making long-term stays on the moon possible.

Third-time lucky

The research has been in the making for a long time. This was the third time that these scientists had applied to NASA over the last 11 years for samples of soil brought back to the Earth by any or all of the six Apollo landing missions. Having been declined on the first two instances, the researchers got their wish this time around.

Probably because NASA themselves are planning longer excursions to our natural satellite, they parted with 12 grams of soil about 18 months ago. This soil was gathered by the crews of Apollos 11, 12, and 17 and were part of just 382 kg of lunar soil and rocks brought back during the Apollo missions.

The researchers chose the thale cress plant, both because of its hardiness and the fact that its genome has been fully sequenced. The planting was done in plastic plates with wells that are usually used to grow cell cultures. There were four wells apiece for each of the three Apollo missions, and they got a gram of soil each. Four more wells were used as a control, with simulated lunar soil prepared using earthly materials.

To their astonishment, researchers noticed that the seeds sprouted after two days. Regardless of whether they were growing in a lunar sample or in the control, they looked the same for the first six days. Differences began to emerge after that as the plants grown in lunar soil showed stress, developed slowly, and ended up being stunted.

Geological age factor

There were also differences within the lunar samples as the Apollo 11 plans grew most poorly, followed by Apollo 12 and then Apollo 17. The researchers concluded that the reason for this has to do with the age of the soil. While the samples brought back by Apollo 11 are older geologically than those brought back by Apollo 12, the samples from Apollo 17 are most recent in geological time.

The results from this research are very important as it helps us develop food sources for future astronauts who might live and operate in deep space for extended durations. Such plant growth research could also unlock innovations in agriculture that might allow us to grow plants under stressful conditions in places where food is scarce here on Earth.

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WHY SOMETIMES WE CAN SEE MORE THAN THE CRESCENT MOON?

Although we usually see only the brightly lit part of the moon during its crescent phase, we sometimes see the other part too, though dimly lit.

What's the reason?

Earth reflects the sun's light falling on it just like the  moon does. The earth, in fact, is a better reflector than the moon. The oceans which cover three-fourths of the earth's surface, reflect a lot of solar radiation back into space. So just as we have moonlight here, there is earthlight on the dark side of the moon. It is this earthlight which makes the moon beyond the crescent dimly visible to us.

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Where can you find the fallen astronaut sculpture?

A sculpture on the Moon commemorates fallen astronauts. The 8.5 cm Fallen Astronaut sculpture by artist Paul Van Hoeydonck commemorates those who have died in the name of space exploration. The small figure depicts an astronaut in a spacesuit. In 1971, the number of astronauts who lost their lives was 14, and in their honour, the crew of Apollo 15 placed the sculpture next to a plaque listing the names of the eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts who died in service.

The project was done in secrecy, and it wasn't until after Apollo 15 had landed safely back on Earth that the existence of the sculpture was revealed.

But Van Hoeydonck claims he didn't know that the statue would be used to commemorate astronauts, he didn't approve of the name Fallen Astronaut, and he didn't even intend for the statue to be left lying down.

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Who was the first person on the Moon?


First person on the Moon



One of the greatest adventures in history took place on July 20, 1969. A human being visited Earth’s closest neighbour in space. After a voyage of almost 386,000 kilometres across space, American astronaut Neil A. Armstrong became the first person to set foot and walk on the moon.



Four days earlier, the spacecraft Apollo 11 had been launched. On board were Michael Collins, the pilot, and two astronauts, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Neil Armstrong.



On July 20, Apollo 11 reached the moon and circled it in orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin entered the lunar module section of the spacecraft, called the Eagle, and separated it from Apollo 11. A blast of the Eagle’s engine sent it speeding down towards the moon’s surface.



There is no air on the moon, so the Eagle could not fly down like an aeroplane. It had to fall, at a speed of more than 3 kilometres per minute. Bursts from the engine slowed it down enough so that it landed gently. Apollo 11, with Collins on board, continued orbiting the moon.



That evening, Armstrong radioed to Earth, “The Eagle has landed.” Armstrong descended the ladder first. As he set foot on the moon, he said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” After collecting rocks and soil samples, the two men rocketed part of the Eagle back up to Apollo 11.



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What would it be like to live on the Moon?


Life on the moon would be dark, quiet, and uncomfortable. But living there would definitely improve your high jump!



Earth’s sky looks blue during the day because the air on Earth scatters blue light from the sun in all directions. But there is no air on the moon to scatter sunlight, so its sky is pitch-black. On Earth, air carries sound. On the moon, no sound can be heard.



During the day, the moon’s surface gets hotter than boiling water. During the night, the moon is colder than the coldest place on Earth.



We are held on the surface of Earth by the pull of Earth’s gravity. When we weigh ourselves, we are really measuring how hard the gravity is tugging on us.



The moon’s gravity is weaker than Earth’s gravity. On the moon, you would weigh one-sixth as much as you weigh on Earth. If you weigh 27 kilograms on Earth, you would weigh only 4.5 kilograms on the moon! You could also jump six times higher on the moon than you could on Earth. And you could lift very heavy objects that you couldn’t even budge at home on Earth.



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What is the Moon like?


The surface of the moon is not the same all over. In some areas, it has broad, flat plains covered with powdery rock dust. In other areas, it has rugged mountains. It also has billions of round holes in the ground called craters.



Some of the craters are no bigger than a pencil point. Some are the size of a car tyre. And some are really enormous. The biggest crater on the moon is over 1,000 kilometres across.



What formed the moon’s craters and mountains? Chunks of rock called meteoroids move around the sun, just as Earth and the moon do. Sometimes these meteoroids crash into the moon. The moon and the meteoroids are moving so fast that the meteoroids make craters in the moon’s surface when they crash.



When meteoroids strike, they usually form walls of rock around the craters they make. Many of the moon’s mountains are really walls made by meteors.



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What is an eclipse of the Moon?


An eclipse of the Moon



The night is clear, and a bright, full moon is shining. Slowly, a dark shadow begins to fall across the face of the moon. The shadow seems to move along until it completely covers the moon.



This event is called an eclipse of the moon, or a lunar eclipse. It takes place when Earth comes between the moon and the sun. The shadow creeping across the moon is the shadow of Earth!



What is Phases of the Moon? The moon seems to change from a thin crescent to a full circle. Each time the moon looks different, we say it is in a new phase. A phase is a change in the moon’s shape as it is seen from Earth.




  1. In the moon’s first phase, it can’t be seen at all. That is because the moon is between Earth and the sun. The sun is shining on the side of the moon that faces the sun, but there is no sunlight on the side that faces us. So all we see is darkness.

  2. After a day or two, the moon moves to one side of us. Then we can see a tiny bit of the side that is lit by the sun. We call this phase a crescent moon.

  3. After about seven days, we can see half of the moon’s sunlit side. This phase is called a half moon.

  4. After about two weeks, the moon is halfway around Earth from where it started. Now we can see the whole side of the moon that the sun is shining on. We call this phase a full moon. The moon keeps moving, and the part we can see gets smaller and smaller. Finally, the moon is between Earth and the sun again.



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Why does the Moon shine?


The moon is made of cold, hard rock. It is not a ball of hot, glowing gas like the sun. Yet, somehow, the moon shines.



But the moon doesn’t give off its own light. It reflects light from the sun. That means light from the sun bounces off the surface of the moon and some of that light reaches us on Earth.



The moon does not really reflect sunlight very well. Most of the rock on the moon is rough and dark grey, not smooth and shiny like a mirror. But the sun’s light is so bright that even the tiny bit that is reflected from the moon makes the moon appears to be glowing.



Earth shines, too! It reflects some of the sunlight that falls on it.



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What ancient people had stories about the moon?


Myths about the Moon



Imagine that you lived in the world more than 2,000 years ago. Every night the moon appeared, but you had no idea what it was or why it seemed to change shape. Would you make up a story to explain it? Many ancient people did. Some early people thought the moon was a powerful god or goddess. The ancient Romans called their moon goddesses Luna and Diana. Diana was also the goddess of the hunt. The crescent moon was her bow, and the moonbeams were her arrow.



Some ancient people had stories about the moon and the sun together. Some Native Americans believed that the moon and the sun were brother and sister gods.



Some sky gazers saw figures like a cat, a frog, or a rabbit in the moon’s markings. Others saw the face of a man. Legends of various lands told how the “man in the moon” had been put in prison for stealing or for breaking religious rules.



Was there once life on the moon? Some people believed there was. A Greek writer named Plutarch told of moon demons that lived in caves. A German astronomer in the 1800’s, F. P. Gruithuisen, told of seeing a city on the moon through a telescope.



Even today, some people use stories to explain why the moon seems to change shape.



The San people of southern Africa tell one story that explains why the moon seems to change its shape. This story says that each month the moon almost dies. But it is reborn just in time to start life all over again. When this happens, it is seen as a thin sliver. For 13 nights, it grows until it becomes a full moon. The San celebrate this with three nights of dancing.



Then the moon begins to die again. For the next 13 nights, the sun, which the San see as the great hunter, battles the moon. Slowly the great hunter slices at the moon, until there is no moon left. For a few days, the moon seems to be dead. But soon it is reborn, and it begins growing again.



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What is the Moon?

The Moon



The moon is the brightest object in our night sky. On some nights, the moon looks like a huge shining circle of light. On other nights, it looks like a thin, silver fingernail. But the moon does not really change its size or shape. And it does not make its own light. The light we see comes from the sun and bounces off the moon.



The stars are trillions of kilometres away. The sun is millions of kilometres away. But the moon is only about 384,000 kilometres away. As Earth moves through space, the moon is always beside it. The moon moves around Earth.



The moon is smaller than most planets and stars. If Earth were the size of a basketball, the moon would be about the size of a tennis ball.



The moon is a ball of grey rock. Some of it is covered with dust. It has no air and no water. Most living things that we know of could not survive on the moon.



Long ago, many groups of people in different places worshipped the moon. The ancient Romans named the moon Luna. Our word lunar means “of the moon”.



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How long do footprints last on the Moon?



Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin were the first humans to step foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969, and naturally, they left behind their footprints.



But do these still exist? Yes, they do!



How long will they last?



The first footprints, rather, all the footprints left on the Moon between 1969 and 1972, when the last human mission to the Moon happened, will still be there.



They might actually be there for years and years together, and if we are lucky, probably as long as the Moon lasts.



Why?



This is because unlike Earth, there is no erosion by water or wind on the Moon as it has no atmosphere and all the water on its surface is frozen. Also, there is no volcanic activity on the Moon which can change the lunar features. So, nothing really gets washed away from the Moon’s surface.



It may or may not last forever



The reason there is no guarantee that the footprints will remain permanently on the Moon is because of meteorites and solar wind.



Like the planets and other objects in the solar system, the Moon too is prone to bombardment by meteorites. Even one little space rock that lands anywhere near any of the footprints can wipe them off.



Due to the lack of atmosphere on the Moon, it is exposed to solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles coming from the Sun. Over time, this solar wind can act like the weather on Earth and scour the surface of the Moon, wiping away all footprints.



The good news though is that this process is very, very slow. So, footprints on the Moon are likely to remain there for a really long time.



 



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What were major Moon Missions?


THE MOON MISSIONS



After the former Soviet Union launched the first man into orbit in 1961, American President John E Kennedy announced that the USA would land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. A new spacecraft specially designed for the mission, called Apollo, was built. It consisted of a Command Module, from where the astronauts controlled the craft, a Service Module, which contained a rocket engine and life-support systems, and a Lunar Module, the only section that was to descend to the Moon’s surface. A new launch vehicle, the giant Saturn V, was also built. During a series of missions in Earth and Moon orbit throughout the 1960s, Apollo was thoroughly tested and astronauts trained for the Moon landing.



The Lunar Module of Apollo 11, called Eagle, landed on the Moon on 20th July 1969. A few hours after touchdown, watched by millions on live television, Neil Armstrong clambered down a ladder and stepped on to the surface to become the first human on the Moon. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin followed him. The third astronaut on the mission, Michael Collins, orbited above in the Command Module. Armstrong and Aldrin gathered samples of Moon rock and soil and planted a flag before lifting off in the upper section of the Lunar Module to dock with the Command Module. There they rejoined Collins, jettisoned the Lunar Module and began the return trip to Earth. Five more Apollo Moon missions followed the last in 1972.



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HOW DOES THE MOON AFFECT EARTH?


Despite being much smaller than the Earth, the Moon still has a great deal of influence on its parent planet. Its gravity is constantly pulling on Earth’s surface. This is not noticeable in relation to solid ground, but can clearly be seen in the movement of Earth’s tides. Twice a day, the oceans on Earth rise and fall. This is because the Moon’s gravitational pull is strongest on the side of Earth that is facing the Moon. Oceans on this side will be pulled into a bulge — high tide. Water on the opposite side is least affected by the Moon’s gravity, so it flows away from Earth in another bulge, resulting in another high tide. Areas of Earth at right angles to the Moon will have low tide.



A bigger instant effect would be on the ocean’s tides. But to understand the impact we need to know about how tides work. Tides are the result of the gravitational tug from the Moon and Sun that the Earth feels. If we disregard the Sun for now, the Earth’s oceans facing the Moon bulge up in response to the lunar gravitational force: a high tide. The difference in gravitational attraction on the near and far sides of the Earth means that, at the same time, there is also a high tide on the side furthest from the Moon. And because the ocean is liquid, between these two high tides there are two low tides. As the Earth is spinning, these high and low tides move across the globe over 24 hours, meaning each coastal location experiences two high tides and two low tides every day.



In reality, it is a little more complicated. The Moon’s 27-day orbit of the Earth means the times at which high and low tides occur change. You have to wait 12 hours plus 25 minutes between each high tide. And the Sun plays its part too. The Sun’s influence on tides is just under half as strong as the Moon’s.



When the Sun, Moon and Earth are all lined up, the Sun and Moon work together to produce ‘spring’ tides (though confusingly they don’t have to happen in spring). During spring tides, high tides are a little higher and low tides a little lower than normal. In contrast, when the Sun and Moon are at right angles to one another, the tides from the Sun partially cancel those from the Moon and we have the opposite: ‘neap’ tides. Here, high tides are a little lower and low tides a little higher than average.






WHAT HAPPENS DURING A LUNAR ECLIPSE?


          A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth comes directly between the Sun and the Moon. As the Moon moves through Earth's shadow, the planet prevents direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the Moon. The Moon does not disappear but turns red because Earth's atmosphere bends the Sun’s rays. A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to either node of its orbit.



          During a total lunar eclipse, Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. The only light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. This light appears reddish for the same reason that a sunset or sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light. Due to this reddish color, a totally eclipsed Moon is sometimes called a blood moon.



          Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly 2 hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only up to a few minutes at any given place, due to the smaller size of the Moon's shadow. Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions, as they are dimmer than the full Moon.



          Earth’s shadow can be divided into two distinctive parts: the umbra and penumbra. Earth totally occludes direct solar radiation within the umbra, the central region of the shadow. However, since the Sun's diameter appears about one-quarter of Earth's in the lunar sky, the planet only partially blocks direct sunlight within the penumbra, the outer portion of the shadow.



          A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through Earth's penumbra. The penumbra causes a subtle dimming of the lunar surface. A special type of penumbral eclipse is a total penumbral lunar eclipse, during which the Moon lies exclusively within Earth's penumbra. Total penumbral eclipses are rare, and when these occur, the portion of the Moon closest to the umbra may appear slightly darker than the rest of the lunar disk.



          A partial lunar eclipse occurs when only a portion of the Moon enters Earth's umbra, while a total lunar eclipse occurs when the entire Moon enters the planet's umbra. The Moon's average orbital speed is about 1.03 km/s (2,300 mph), or a little more than its diameter per hour, so totality may last up to nearly 107 minutes. Nevertheless, the total time between the first and the last contacts of the Moon's limb with Earth's shadow is much longer and could last up to four hours.



          The relative distance of the Moon from Earth at the time of an eclipse can affect the eclipse's duration. In particular, when the Moon is near apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, its orbital speed is the slowest. The diameter of Earth's umbra does not decrease appreciably within the changes in the Moon's orbital distance. Thus, the concurrence of a totally eclipsed Moon near apogee will lengthen the duration of totality.



          A central lunar eclipse is a total lunar eclipse during which the Moon passes through the centre of Earth's shadow, contacting the anti-solar point. This type of lunar eclipse is relatively rare.