Space and Astronomy News for the 11th of April 2025

You've heard of a "Super Moon" - make sure you catch this weekend's "Micro Moon".

Have you ever heard of a "Super Moon"?  Because the Moon travels around the Earth not in a circular orbit, but rather along a slightly elongated or elliptical path, it's sometime closer to us than other times. These Full Moons occur a few times are year and often get a lot of attention. 

The Full Moon this Sunday, the 13th of April 2025 is the opposite - it's a "Micro Moon".

The Full Moon will be the furthest away from us this year and will be slightly smaller than at any other of the year. While the difference won't be huge, much like a Super Moon, it will be a fabulous view. This Full Moon also plays important part in setting the date of Easter this year and we'll touch on this in more detail next week.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 is not going to hit the Earth BUT it might impact the Moon - and it's HUGE!

I talked a few months ago about an asteroid, 2024 YR, which was headed in our general direction. You can read the article here. At the time, the chances of it whacking into Earth were low but not so low it could be ignored altogether.  I also mentioned that the chances of it hitting the Earth would likely diminish as more data was collected. It turned out that, yes, there's now next to no chance of it hitting the Earth, however there's an approx. 3.8% of it impacting the Moon in 2032. 

How long is a day on Uranus? A new figure, discovered by observing aurora on the ice giant.

We mentioned in a BINTEL blog post a couple of weeks ago that the JWST had observed aurorae on the furthest ice giant, the planet Neptune. The Hubble Space Telescope has been keeping a close eye on the aurora on the other ice giant closer to Earth, Uranus, for the last ten years or so.

Working out the rotation period of a planet can be tricky, especially where solid features aren't visible and only clouds or weather related features can be seen from Earth. Astronomers lead by Laurent Lamy came up with a clever solution - they kept track of aurora on Uranus, and this allowed them to measure the length of the planet's "day" with more accuracy.

Knowing this is critical when planning a trip to Uranus, such as NASA's Uranus Orbiter and Probe which might launch early next decade.

“Our measurement not only provides an essential reference for the planetary science community but also resolves a long-standing issue: previous coordinate systems based on outdated rotation periods quickly became inaccurate, making it impossible to track Uranus’ magnetic poles over time,” explains Lamy. “With this new longitude system, we can now compare auroral observations spanning nearly 40 years and even plan for the upcoming Uranus mission.”

More information here.

A day on Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 52 seconds.

Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for the Moon

The Lunar Gateway is a planned space station. Unlike the ISS (International Space Station) which is in low orbit around the Earth, this new space station will be in orbit around the Moon and a play key part in exploration missions to the Lunar surface and beyond to Mars.

An artist’s rendering of ESA’s Lunar I-Hab module in orbit around the Moon. Image via: NASA/Alberto Bertolin, Bradley Reynolds

One of the two main modules - the HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) - has now been delivered to the USA from Italy where it was manufactured. 

HALO will be connected another main Gateway Module, the Power and Propulsion Element, before launching onboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy sometime from 2027 onwards.

Read more here.

Cheers,

Earl White - BINTEL

11th of April 2025