News from space travel on Friday

The rocket carrying China's Tianwen-1 Mars rover is seen after launch in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China. Photo: EPA/St

The Japanese lunar probe landed with the front part down

Tokyo: When the Japanese probe “Slim” landed on the surface of the moon a few days ago, it landed somewhat crooked. The spacecraft is supposed to have eventually assumed an “almost vertical position with the main engine raised,” Japan's space agency JAXA said Friday in an English-language report on the landing maneuver. The agency relied on data from the investigation. So the front part is pointing down.

The unusual situation was evident in the images published by the agency, which were taken by cameras on a small, spherical lunar module after landing. Before landing, the exploration vehicle separated from the lander along with a second lunar module that was to be used to make measurements.

SLIM landed on the moon's surface on January 20, Japan time. However, the solar panels on the probe no longer provided electricity after landing. Then the landing gear was turned off. Before shutting down, the camera on board SLIM was still able to capture images of the lunar surface. According to JAXA, one of the two main engines failed due to irregularities during the landing approach.

On Thursday, the agency expressed its satisfaction with the project despite problems related to power supply, as the landing took place very close to the intended target. After the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, Japan is the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on an Earth satellite.

Searching for asteroid fragments – researchers are checking to find them

Nawin: A research team from Poland may have found parts of the small asteroid that fell over Brandenburg. Lutz Hecht of the Nature Museum in Berlin told the German news agency on Friday that a group of four meteorite hunters found three pieces. Spiegel first reported.

“We saw promising pictures,” Hecht said. “We assume this was a stroke of luck and that it is one of the larger pieces found in the sparse field.” It may have been an object that had split into three pieces. The museum team wanted to examine the find. A photo was previously circulated on Twitter.

The exact location was initially unclear. The researchers were traveling west of Nawin (Havilland area). Many researchers are looking for potential meteorites. A team from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Natural History Museum and the Free University of Berlin have been in the field since Sunday. The small asteroid 2024 BX1 burned up near Berlin on Sunday evening. The fireball can be seen from a distance in the sky. The US space agency NASA announced this on Sunday morning near Neynhausen in Haviland.