The Moon still holds mysteries that leave scientists in awe. A massive, heat-radiating object beneath its surface has sparked new questions about its origins.

This discovery offers a glimpse into the Moon’s hidden history, challenging what we thought we knew about our celestial neighbor.

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The Moon, long considered a cold and barren landscape, has just revealed a fascinating new secret. Hidden beneath its far side lies a massive heat-emitting feature that has scientists buzzing with questions. This isn’t just any ordinary discovery—it involves a rare geological phenomenon typically associated with Earth.

How could a body with no plate tectonics or water create something so unexpected? What does this mean for the Moon’s history and its volcanic past? As researchers dig deeper into this puzzling find, they’re uncovering clues that could reshape our understanding of the Moon and perhaps even other rocky worlds in the solar system. Curious?

In a groundbreaking revelation, scientists have identified a substantial heat-emitting granite mass beneath the Moon’s surface, specifically near the Compton and Belkovich craters on its far side. This discovery was made possible through data collected by both Chinese and American lunar orbiters, which utilized microwave frequency observations to detect subsurface temperatures. Dr. Matt Siegler of the Planetary Science Institute explained, “We used an instrument that observes microwave wavelengths, longer than infrared, sent to the Moon on both the Chinese Chang’E 1 and 2 orbiters. We found that one of these suspected volcanoes, known as Compton-Belkovich, was absolutely glowing at microwave wavelengths.”

Sky gazers will get a peek at what has been called a “parade of planets,” where this time around, up to seven planets may appear to line up.

New observations reveal the challenges of detecting planetary atmospheres.

Recent measurements with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cast doubt on the current understanding of the exoplanet Trappist-1 b’s nature. Until now, it was assumed to be a dark rocky planet without an atmosphere, shaped by a billion-year-long cosmic impact of radiation and meteorites. The opposite appears to be true. The surface shows no signs of weathering, which could indicate geological activity such as volcanism and plate tectonics. Alternatively, a planet with a hazy atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide is also viable. The results demonstrate the challenges of determining the properties of exoplanets with thin atmospheres.

Trappist-1 b is one of seven rocky planets orbiting the star Trappist-1, located 40 light-years away. The planetary system is unique because it allows astronomers to study seven Earth-like planets from relatively close range, with three of them in the so-called habitable zone. This is the area in a planetary system where a planet could have liquid water on the surface. To date, ten research programmes have targeted this system with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for 290 hours.

In case you forgot it was still up there.

When a magnetar within the Milky Way galaxy belched out a flare of colossally powerful radio waves in 2020, scientists finally had concrete evidence to pin down an origin for fast radio bursts.

A mind-blowing new study has now narrowed down the mechanism. By studying the twinkling light of a fast radio burst detected in 2022, a team of astronomers has traced its source to the powerful magnetic field around a magnetar, in a galaxy 200 million light-years away.

It’s the first conclusive evidence that fast radio bursts can emerge from the magnetospheres of magnetars.

Carl Sagan famously said, “We are made of star-stuff,” but even he didn’t realize just how far that star stuff traveled before it got to us.

New Hubble data has shown at least some of the carbon that now makes up our bodies may once have drifted hundreds of thousands of light-years out of the galaxy and back.

Elements heavier than helium are forged in the hearts of stars, eventually released into the cosmos when those stars explode as supernovae. These ingredients are then fed into the next generation of stars and planets.