Clearly, I refer to nothing in the political sphere. But think of the milestones (kilometer stones?)
science and
technology reached this week. From closest to farthest, we've got:
"
China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft makes historic landing on far side of the Moon."
|
The lunar far side |
The Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4 has landed on the far side of the Moon
and has begun relaying data and images back to Earth. It is the first
mission to operate on the far side, which is the hemisphere of the Moon
that always faces away from Earth. This half of the Moon has a much
more rugged and varied landscape than the hemisphere that is visible
from Earth and studying its geology could provide important information
about how the Moon and the rest of the solar system formed.
Also, NASA's "
OSIRIS-REx probe goes into close orbit around asteroid Bennu and sets a record."
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Artist rendering |
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft today maneuvered into an orbit that
takes it within 4,000 feet of the surface of Bennu, a diamond-shaped
asteroid that’s 70 million miles from Earth.
The orbit sets a record for interplanetary travel. The
quarter-mile-wide asteroid is now the smallest body ever orbited by a
spacecraft, and the spacecraft is tracing the closest sustained orbit
around a celestial body.
And (IMO, the most awesome of all) in the distant Kuiper Belt,
Nasa's New Horizons: 'Snowman' shape of distant Ultima Thule revealed."
|
4 billion miles away |
"[Ultima's] only really the size of something like Washington DC, and
it's about as reflective as garden variety dirt, and it's illuminated by
a Sun that's 1,900 times fainter than it is outside on a sunny day here
on the Earth. We were basically chasing it down in the dark at
32,000mph (51,000km/h) and all that had to happen just right," the SwRI
scientist said.
We Homo saps actual
can accomplish great things when we cooperate and focus.
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