Moon

The Russian and European space agencies agreed jointly to build a vehicle for six-person flights around the moon, where only the U.S. has landed. Roscosmos and the European Space Agency chose a conical rather than winged design for the planned spacecraft after six months of study, Roscosmos said this week. The vehicle is to be used in near-Earth and low-lunar orbits. Roscosmos agreed to prepare a delivery rocket for testing by 2015, with people expected to begin flying three years later.

As the World Health Assembly convenes in Geneva this week, one item on the agenda will be polio, or more specifically, how to finally deliver on an epic promise made a quarter-century ago: to liberate humankind from one of the world's most deadly and debilitating diseases. The world's war on polio has been as ambitious an undertaking as the successful campaign to eradicate another great public health menace, smallpox. Slowly but surely we have advanced on that goal. Polio, a highly preventable disease, today survives in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Nearly four decades after astronaut Neil Armstrong planted his boot on the surface of the moon, the U.S. is about to take the first small step toward colonizing Earth's tag-along satellite. On Wednesday, NASA is scheduled to launch a robotic mission aimed at finding the best site for Earth's first off-world colony, the centuries-old dream of science fiction writers and utopians.

A rare "ring" solar eclipse is coming to California on Sunday evening - the first of its kind to be visible from the continental United States since 1994. From our vantage point in Southern California, the moon will block about 85% of the sun's diameter, leaving behind a crescent-shaped sliver. But those farther north will see the moon nudge its way into the center of the sun, leaving a ring of fire visible around the moon's edge. Scientists call this an annular eclipse. ("Annulus" means "ring" in Latin.)

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

It's not difficult to imagine Elizabeth Barrial, 36, the chief perfumer for Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, as a sorceress of the night. Besides practicing her potion-making craft, the esoteric perfume house's matriarch appears otherworldly. She wears her black and red locks down to her waist, and her eyes sparkle as she takes a whiff of one of her bottled concoctions. She and business partner Brian Constantine typically work behind the scenes, with her wares available only online . But once a month, during the full moon, Barrial escapes her laboratory to peddle her wondrous and macabre scents at the horror shop Dark Delicacies in Burbank.

Greetings. My name is Orb Robinson from Tampa, Fla. I have in my possession a rare and multi-karat moon rock I'm trying to find a buyer for. The laws surrounding this type of exchange are known, so I will be straightforward and nonchalant about wanting to find a private buyer. If you, or someone you know would be interested in such an exchange, please let me know. Thank you. * On a balmy night in July 2002, a Jeep Cherokee drove up to an entrance at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

James May begins his new documentary, "James May on the Moon" (BBC America, 8 p.m. Tuesday), where he belongs: in a car, on the ground. He's a host of "Top Gear," the cheeky British automobile variety show, and on that show, he passes for unambitious, the lumbering turtle up against Jeremy Clarkson's fox and Richard Hammond's rabbit. But May, it turns out, wants to go faster than any "Top Gear" segment could allow. A space enthusiast, he's used his bully pulpit to film "James May on the Moon," about the Apollo moon landings and his fascination with Earth's satellite, where -- spoiler alert -- he does not in fact end up. This extravagant hourlong program is actually three documentaries in one, leaving what must certainly be a tremendous amount of footage unused.

New Year's Eve celebrations were a bit brighter this year with a blue moon shining in the sky Thursday night. A blue moon -- the second full moon in a month -- isn't really uncommon, occurring on average every 2 1/2 years. But "on New Year's Eve it is very rare," said Scott Kardel, a spokesman for the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County. The last one was in 1990. The name is a bit misleading -- the moon does not appear blue. Rather, the name refers to the expression "once in a blue moon."

The largest full moon of 2012 happens this Saturday, but it's OK if you don't really notice. The moon doesn't really get bigger, it just gets closer to Earth (but you knew that). At 8:40 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, according to the Griffith Observatory Sky Report , the moon will be at its closest point in its orbit to the Earth this year. (Accounting for the time zone difference, European moon-watchers will see it Sunday.) To be precise, Earth and moon will be just 221,801 miles apart -- more than 17,000 miles closer than average.

The biggest full moon of the year Saturday (tonight) will bring the highest and lowest of tides too. And, according to NASA Science News , dogs may howl and the bright glare of moonbeams may keep you up that night. (If you don't believe me, watch the video above that explains it.) In fact, the "perigree moon," as it's known, occurs at 8:40 p.m. Pacific time when the moon in its orbit comes closest to Earth -- and only super-keen observers will be able to distinguish it from a regular full moon.

The largest full moon of 2012 happens this Saturday, but it's OK if you don't really notice. The moon doesn't really get bigger, it just gets closer to Earth (but you knew that). At 8:40 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, according to the Griffith Observatory Sky Report , the moon will be at its closest point in its orbit to the Earth this year. (Accounting for the time zone difference, European moon-watchers will see it Sunday.) To be precise, Earth and moon will be just 221,801 miles apart -- more than 17,000 miles closer than average.

BEIRUT - Syria and the United Nations reached a preliminary agreement Thursday on a monitoring mission to supervise a shaky cease-fire, as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized the government of President Bashar Assad for failing to uphold the truce. "Despite the government's agreement to cease all violence, we still see deeply troubling evidence that it continues," Ban said at a news conference in New York. Since the cease-fire began a week ago, government forces have continued to shell cities and towns and open fire on protesters, and some rebel groups are fighting back as an uprising that has racked Syria for 13 months showed no sign of ending.

BEIRUT - The United Nations Security Council is expected to authorize deploying a full mission of 250 monitors to Syria after it takes up the issue Wednesday, but Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon questioned whether even that number would be sufficient. "I think this is not enough, considering the current situation and considering the vastness of the country, and that is why we need very efficient mobility of our observer mission," he said Tuesday. He said he had discussed with European Union leaders whether the EU could provide helicopters and airplanes for that mobility.

"Horrible Harry Moves Up To 3rd Grade" Suzy Kline This story's main characters are Harry, Sidney and Doug. Doug and Harry look for their new classroom. They're going to have the same teacher. They go on a field trip to an underground mine, Doug is scared but he makes it back alive. Then what happens? Reviewed by Cindy, 5 Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary Burbank A to Z Mysteries: "The Orange Outlaw" Ron Roy Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose go to Dink's uncle's house.

The Iron Lady/Albert Nobbs Available on VOD April 10 Oscar veterans Meryl Streep and Glenn Close squared off in the lead actress category this year, both nominated for roles that saw them radically altering their appearances and voices. Streep won the statuette for "The Iron Lady," a biography of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that skips through decades of the stateswoman's life in breezy flashbacks. Given how controversial Thatcher's administration was — and how much the conservative-liberal divide continues to be a major story around the world — "The Iron Lady" is something of a missed opportunity by director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan, as they take more of a Wikipedia approach to their subject than one that's relevant to today's headlines.

A total eclipse of the moon will be visible throughout North and Central America from 11:41 p.m. PST Monday until 12:53 a.m. Tuesday, the first such eclipse in almost three years. Weather permitting, observers will see the moon enter the Earth's inner shadow, or umbra, at 10:33 p.m., with a red-brown shadow creeping across the bright moon. This shadow has a curved edge, a fact that was taken as proof to at least some ancients that the Earth is round. The sky will get darker as the shadow progresses across the moon, and more stars will be visible as sunlight reflected from the moon fades.

In the predawn hours Friday, while those on the West Coast still snooze, a rocket is scheduled to punch a 13-foot-deep hole in a crater at the moon's south pole that hasn't seen sunlight in billions of years. The purpose: to find out whether ice lies hidden there. NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which set out for the moon in June, made a late-course correction Tuesday to better position itself to steer the rocket into the 2-mile-deep crater Cabeus at 4:30 a.m. PDT on Friday.

If he could have, William Shakespeare would have tweeted it himself: Beware the Ides of March . Instead, others are handling that duty for him today on Twitter . The Bard actually issued his warning in "Julius Caesar," Act 1, Scene 2. The phrase refers to a dark day that turned Rome on its ear and whose repercussions were felt widely and for a long time. Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC.  But "Ides," says About.com, refers to a lunar phase rather than to the 15th specifically.

A giant crater at the moon's south pole may hold the answer to a long-standing mystery about why portions of the lunar crust have a magnetic field and other parts don't. After running sophisticated computer models, a trio of researchers is suggesting that mysterious magnetic material detected on the surface was delivered by a 120-mile-wide asteroid that crashed into the moon about 4.5 billion years ago. The collision left behind a gaping hole on the far side of the moon that is one of the largest-known impact craters in the solar system.