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Lunar Composition Examined By X-Ray

Posted by timothy on from the cheese-tumors dept.

whovian writes "Chandra, the x-ray observatory launched by NASA in 1999, is being used to study the composition of Earth's moon, perhaps putting an end to the age-old question, "Is the moon really made out of cheese?" 'Nuff said. The original press release is starting to get noticed here(1), here(2) and here(3). A neat idea, if you ask me, but will this postpone any manned lunar missions?"

1 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. postpone manned missions?! by m00by · · Score: 5, Informative

    good god man, they're not taking a huge honking X-ray of the moon, chandra uses the background X-ray radiation in the universe as it's "X-ray" and it focuses that into useful data. it's a passive x-ray, not an active scan :)