Word: lunar
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What was a surprise was what else formed. In nine of the 27 trials, the computer impact produced not just one lunar satellite but a pair of them. "If the ring took shape far enough from Earth," says Canup, "the debris separated, creating an inner moon and a second, outer...
...this fashion. The researchers conducted 27 simulations which tracked up to 2,700 objects in orbit around the Earth. Two-thirds of the time, the computer produced one moon. What is odd is that other simulations showed two moons forming. So how come we aren't staring at two lunar discs today? If an extra one was created, say the researchers, it must have been pulled into Earth after drifting too close. But perhaps the most intriguing result was the time frame in which the moon formed ? about one year from impact to finished product. Not bad for such...
...mass moon watch, the professionals needed the dilettantes badly. When Aldebaran slipped behind the moon, it never slipped completely. Rather, it just arced around a bit of horizon, seeming to flicker as it passed behind mountains and peeked over valleys. The pattern of flashes allows astronomers to trace the lunar profile, refining surveys taken by past space probes. Since observers on different parts of the earth would see the star obscured by different parts of the moon, however, the more sightings scientists collected, the more lunar real estate they would cover...
...oxygen, the main components of rocket fuel. The team said its findings are more accurate than Clementine's, since the Arecibo Observatory has better resolution than the probe. But the existence of ice on the moon cannot be entirely ruled out, the team acknowledged, until scientists study the lunar surface up close...
...helped determine the timing of the Heaven's Gate suicides. They apparently began on the weekend of March 22-23, around the time that Hale-Bopp got ready to make its closest approach to Earth. That weekend also witnessed a full moon and, in parts of the U.S., a lunar eclipse. For good measure it included Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Christian Holy Week. Shrouds placed on the corpses were purple, the color of Passiontide, or, for New Agers, the color of those who have passed to a higher plane...