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Public Lecture & DVD

The Past, Present, and Future of Moon Exploration

Recently NASA launched a new spacecraft called LADEE that’s currently on its way to the Moon. The probe will study the Moon’s very thin atmosphere and some long-standing mysteries about lunar dust. At the end of the month, China will launch a rover called Chang’e-3 to the Moon to explore beneath its surface using special radar equipment. To celebrate these exciting missions, Astronomy Ireland is holding a special lecture to be delivered by a space scientist who has handled Moon rock brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts!

The Moon has been the subject of great fascination for thousands of years, but it wasn't until the 1950s and 1960s, when we sent orbiting and landing spacecraft to explore its surface, that we made giant leaps forward to understand its origin and evolution. In 2013 our knowledge is still growing with state of the art cameras capturing photographs of geological features down to only a few metres in size, and geophysics missions measuring the state of the lunar crust in never before seen detail. This renewed interest in the Moon is on-going with two more lunar missions being launched in the next year by the USA and China, and the race is on between nations and commercial enterprises to continue the exploration of our nearest neighbour.

Astronomy Ireland is flying in Dr Katherine Joy from the University of Manchester to give a public lecture tonight to talk about the history of lunar science, what’s happening now, and how future missions to the Moon will advance our understanding of our companion in space. A DVD of the lecture will be produced for people around the country.

The Past, Present, and Future of Moon Exploration will take place in Trinity College Dublin tonight, Monday, September 16th at 8pm.

For tickets and DVDs of the lecture, please visit:

www.astronomy.ie

or call (01) 890 11 11.

Astronomy Ireland

The world's most popular astronomy club

www.astronomy.ie

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