Chandrayaan-3 Moon Mission

On this week’s news update:

Moon Mission

The Chandrayaan-3 Moon Mission makes history,

African Wild Dogs

African wild dogs under threat from rising temperature,

Life Under Vents

and animals discovered living beneath vents on the ocean floor.

Chandrayaan-3

First up, India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon mission has made history becoming the first mission to land successfully near the Moon’s south pole.

India’s space agency, ISRO, previously attempted a landing there in 2019, but a computer glitch caused the landing craft to crash on the Moon’s surface.

Vikram

This time, the mission went to plan.
The landing craft called Vikram completed its soft landing and released a rover called Pragyan, which is now exploring the surface of the Moon’s south pole.

This success comes 15 years after India’s first moon mission, Chandrayaan-1. It studied the Moon’s south pole from orbit, and found evidence of water in the form of ice.

Now, scientists hope that the Pragyan rover will uncover further evidence of water on the Moon’s surface…

Water that might one day be used to support people living on the Moon!

African wild dog

Up next, for more than 16 years, researchers at the Zoological Society of London have been studying African Wild Dogs in Kenya. Now, they’re using their data to predict the impact that rising global temperatures will have on the species.

The researchers warn that if temperatures rise by more than 5.4ºF, it will drastically increase the risk of extinction and could cause African wild dog populations to collapse as soon as 2070.

Hotter temperatures could impact the species in a number of ways.
For example, the researchers observed that African wild dogs are less active when it’s hot, which could lead to them hunting less often.
That would reduce the amount of food they have to eat, making it harder for them and their pups to survive.

If this were allowed to continue, eventually there might not be enough pups surviving to adulthood to maintain the population. Researchers hope that by revealing the potential impacts of climate change on species like the African wild dog, they can encourage people around the world to take action to tackle the growing climate crisis.

Hydrothermal Vents

And finally, the sea floor off the west coast of Central and South America has many hydrothermal vents.

Hydrothermal vents are cracks in the seafloor through which volcanic jets of water emerge. It has long been known that the areas around these vents are home to many rare and unusual animals. Now, for the first time ecologists have explored what lies underneath the vents.

Using a remote operated vehicle, or ROV, they lifted up a nearby section of the sea floor and discovered tube worms and other animals living in dark hollows beneath the vents. This remarkable discovery is the first time that animals have been found living below hydrothermal vents.

That’s all for this week, we’ll see you next time!