this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
17 points (100.0% liked)
Space, the final frontier
2248 readers
1 users here now
c/space Rules
- Submissions must be related to Space
- No sensationalist/ misleading/ unscientific content
- No spam
- No low-effort or meme images
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Within just over 48 hours, China's Chang'e-6 lunar touched down on the far side of the Moon, successfully scooped up samples, and kicked off once again.
And the device didn't spare any time, kicking into action and immediately detecting the presence of negative ions, the result of solar wind buffeting the lunar surface.
Unlike positively charged particles, however, they never make it back into orbit, forcing scientists to study them on the surface instead.
Before making its observations, the NILS instrument went through cycles of reboots and blackouts as it adjusted to the extreme conditions on the lunar surface.
The observations could have considerable implications for our understanding of what goes on in other spots in our celestial neighborhood that aren't protected by a magnetic field either.
"These observations on the Moon will help us better understand the surface environment and act as a pathfinder to explore negative ion populations in other airless bodies in the Solar System," NILS principal investigator Martin Wieser explained in the statement, "from planets to asteroids and other moons."
The original article contains 335 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 48%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!