“Look at the moon!” How many times have I said that when it surprised me, rising huge and orange at the end of the street, scudding behind icy winter clouds or floating serenely in the evening sky? I know I’m not alone in the joy I feel each time its nocturnal show stops me in my tracks. How something so constant and predictable continues to enchant us is an enduring mystery. In the course of our work to create this special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I learned that the moon has many more surprises in store.
For starters, scientists are still discovering new things from the rocks that astronauts scooped from the lunar surface so many years ago. Astronomy writer Lisa Grossman traveled to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, suited up and entered the laboratory that protects the lunar samples. She reports on recent discoveries including that the moon, contrary to its parched appearance, is actually wet.