Technologies

A Dead Rocket Is About to Crash Into the Moon, and Scientists Can’t Wait

Our natural satellite has never experienced space junk quite like this before.

The strange story of a hunk of space junk on a collision course with the moon comes to an explosive end Friday, and astronomers are excited to view the fallout.

An old rocket booster once thought to be the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9, but now believed to be from the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 mission (although China denies this), will slam into the moon’s far side at over 5,000 miles per hour.

Bill Gray, an amateur astronomer and software developer in Maine, first noticed the terminal trajectory. His software picked up the impact in an orbital model and Gray worked with observatories around the world to gather additional data and increase his confidence in the prediction.

Gray believes he misidentified the booster as a Falcon 9 years ago. He and other researchers have since confirmed it to be the Chinese rocket part instead.

«I am astounded that we can tell the difference between the two rocket body options — SpaceX versus Chinese — and confirm which one will impact the moon with the data we have,» Adam Battle, a planetary science graduate student at the University of Arizona said in a statement in February. «The differences we see are primarily due to type of paint used by SpaceX and the Chinese.»

In a blog post, Gray wrote that «with all the data, we’ve got a certain impact at March 4 12:25:58 Universal Time (4:25 a.m. PT).» Jonathan McDowell, a leading watcher of orbit and everything near Earth in space, confirmed the prediction.

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The rocket will crash into the lunar surface in a crater named Hertzsprung that’s a little larger than the state of Iowa. The location is remote enough that the impact doesn’t pose any threat to the Apollo mission or other space program landing sites.

«The upcoming rocket impact will provide a fortuitous experiment that could reveal a lot about how natural collisions pummel and scour planetary surfaces,» University of Colorado Boulder planetary scientist Paul Hayne writes for The Conversation. «A deeper understanding of impact physics will go a long way in helping researchers interpret the barren landscape of the Moon and also the effects impacts have on Earth and other planets.»

Hayne expects the impact will obliterate the rocket instantly and create a white flash that could be visible if any spacecraft were in place with a vantage point. That doesn’t seem likely, however. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter won’t be in a position to start taking photos of the impact site until mid-March.

«It will be the moon’s newest archaeological site,» writes space archaeologist Alice Gorman. «We’ll learn something about the geology of the location from the color differences and distribution of the ejected material. It’s an opportunity to learn more about the moon’s mysterious far side.»

Besides adding a new feature to the dark side of the moon, there’s some concern it could also introduce tiny hitchhikers to our natural satellite.

«So I’m not bothered by one more crater being made on the moon,» David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at the UK’s Open University, wrote in The Conversation. «It already has something like half a billion craters that are 10 meters or more in diameter. What we should worry about is contaminating the moon with living microbes, or molecules that could in the future be mistaken as evidence of former life on the moon.»

The European Space Agency issued a statement last month raising its concern that not enough is being done to track space junk, as NASA and others hope to establish a permanent presence on the moon.

«The upcoming lunar impact illustrates well the need for a comprehensive regulatory regime in space, not only for the economically crucial orbits around Earth but also applying to the moon,» said Holger Krag, head of ESA’s space safety program.

This won’t be the first time a spacecraft has slammed into the moon, although Gray thinks it might be the first time it’s happening unintentionally. As recently as 2009, NASA slammed its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (Lcross) into the surface in a search for water (it found some).

«In essence, this is a ‘free’ Lcross,» Gray says. «Except we probably won’t see the impact.»

Technologies

Tinder Users Must Start Logging In With Their Faces, Starting Nationwide

The social app now has new US requirements including face identification to help quell longstanding problems with catfishing and more.

US Tinder users will find a new feature when they open up the dating app starting Wednesday: A mandatory Face Check on their phones will be required before they can log into their profiles.

The Face Check step will begin with a new request to record a video of your face, a more casual version of setting up Apple’s Face ID login. Tinder will then run checks comparing your face data to your current profile pics and automatically create a small face badge for your profile. We already know how it works, because Tinder has already launched the feature in Canada and California before the full US rollout.

The technology, powered by FaceTec, will keep biometric data of the user’s face in encrypted form but discard the scanning video for privacy. Tinder will be able to use the face data to detect duplicate accounts, in an effort to cut down on fake profiles and identity theft.

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Tinder’s facial recognition rollout is also made to prevent catfishing, or people pretending to be someone else on Tinder to scam or blackmail them. But that also points to a deeper problem on the rise in dating apps — a growing number of bots, many controlled by AI, are designed to glean personal information or fool users into scammy subscriptions, among other problems.

Tinder’s working against these bots on several fronts, including this Face Check push as well as ID Check, which requires a government-issued ID and other types of photo verification.

The dating app also recently released a feature in June to enable double-dating with your friends, which Tinder reports is especially popular with Gen Z users. If you’re worried about the latest hazards on Tinder, we have guide to safety practices.

A representative for Tinder did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Oct. 23

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 23.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Like some weather, memories and I.P.A.s
Answer: HAZY

5A clue: Statement that’s self-evidently true
Answer: AXIOM

7A clue: Civic automaker
Answer: HONDA

8A clue: What fear leads to, as Yoda told a young Anakin
Answer: ANGER

9A clue: Foxlike
Answer: SLY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Verbal «lol»
Answer: HAHA

2D clue: Brain signal transmitter
Answer: AXON

3D clue: Hits with a witty comeback
Answer: ZINGS

4D clue: Sing at the top of a mountain, maybe
Answer: YODEL

6D clue: Name of the famous «Queen of Scots»
Answer: MARY

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 23 #599

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 599.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be Halloween-themed, as the answers are all rather dangerous. Some of them are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Please don’t eat me!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Remember Mr. Yuk?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

POND, NOON, NODE, BALE, SOCK, LOVE, LOCK, MOCK, LEER, REEL, GLOVE, DAIS, LEAN, LEAD, REEL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: