A lunar crater has been named after 19th-century Korean astronomer Nam Byeong-Cheol, marking a historic first for Korean scientists. The naming was confirmed by the International Astronomical Union following research by the Kyung Hee University team using South Korea’s first lunar orbiter, Danuri.
A speedy asteroid orbiting in time with Earth is likely to be a wayward chunk of the Moon. Scientists speculate they know exactly from which lunar crater it came from. A new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy reveals that when a mile-wide (1.6 kilometers) space rock hit the Moon, the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamo’oalewa may have been flung into space, creating the Giordano Bruno crater. Kamo’oalewa’s size, age, and spin all match up with the 13.6-mile-wide (22 km) crater. Additionally, its light reflectance matches that of weathered lunar rock, and its crater sits on the far side of the Moon.
