Ghostly Lunar Sunsets Shot by Private Lander

This handout photograph taken by Firefly Aerospace on March 16, 2025 and released on March 18, shows the lunar surface and the setting sun with Earth and Venus on the horizon, during the lunar mission of Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander. (Photo by HANDOUT / Firefly Aerospace / AFP)
This handout photograph taken by Firefly Aerospace on March 16, 2025 and released on March 18, shows the lunar surface and the setting sun with Earth and Venus on the horizon, during the lunar mission of Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander. (Photo by HANDOUT / Firefly Aerospace / AFP)
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Ghostly Lunar Sunsets Shot by Private Lander

This handout photograph taken by Firefly Aerospace on March 16, 2025 and released on March 18, shows the lunar surface and the setting sun with Earth and Venus on the horizon, during the lunar mission of Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander. (Photo by HANDOUT / Firefly Aerospace / AFP)
This handout photograph taken by Firefly Aerospace on March 16, 2025 and released on March 18, shows the lunar surface and the setting sun with Earth and Venus on the horizon, during the lunar mission of Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander. (Photo by HANDOUT / Firefly Aerospace / AFP)

A private US lander has captured eerie high-definition images of a lunar sunset, which NASA hopes will help unravel the mystery of a strange haze first observed on the Moon in the 1960s.

Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which published the pictures on Tuesday, became the first private company to land a robotic spacecraft upright on the Moon earlier this month, AFP reported.

Its Blue Ghost lander -- roughly the size of two rhinos side by side -- touched down on March 2 at Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature within Mare Crisium on the Moon's northeastern near side, and operated until March 16 when it powered down with the onset of the lunar night.

One of the new images shows the Sun glowing just above the horizon, its halo tinged with green.
Above it, a small dot marks Venus, while Earth's bright reflection appears almost as large as the Sun at the top of the frame. Another view reveals the setting Sun bathed in a green glow, as seen from a west-facing camera.

Earlier in the mission, Blue Ghost also captured high-definition imagery of a total solar eclipse from the Moon on March 14.

The mission was part of a NASA-industry collaboration aimed at cutting costs and supporting Artemis, the program to return astronauts to the Moon and use lessons learned there to go to Mars.

Firefly Aerospace's spaceflight program director, Ray Allensworth, said the company is already applying lessons to future flights, including Blue Ghost-2 and Blue Ghost-3.

"The lander is absolutely not designed to survive the extreme cold of lunar night, so I think the probability is very low that we will power back on -- but this lander has surprised me," she added.



Power Failures Cause Disruption on London Tube

 People walk at Waterloo station, after Transport for London (TfL) reported a power failure across the London Underground, London Overground and the Elizabeth line, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk at Waterloo station, after Transport for London (TfL) reported a power failure across the London Underground, London Overground and the Elizabeth line, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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Power Failures Cause Disruption on London Tube

 People walk at Waterloo station, after Transport for London (TfL) reported a power failure across the London Underground, London Overground and the Elizabeth line, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk at Waterloo station, after Transport for London (TfL) reported a power failure across the London Underground, London Overground and the Elizabeth line, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)

Power failures caused delays and disruption on London's Tube network on Monday, as several of its busiest lines were suspended.

The Bakerloo line was completely suspended as of 1715 local time (1615 GMT), while other services including the Jubilee, Elizabeth and Piccadilly lines were facing severe or minor delays following a power outage more than two hours earlier.

Transport for London (TfL) said it was working to get the whole network back to normal service as quickly as possible.

"Due to a brief interruption of the power supply to our network, several lines lost power for a short period earlier this afternoon," TfL Chief Operating Officer Claire Mann said in a statement.

Britain's National Grid confirmed that a fault on its transmission network had caused a power failure.

"The fault was resolved within seconds and did not interrupt supply from our network, but a consequent voltage dip may have briefly affected power supplies on the low voltage distribution network in the area," a spokesperson said.

The incident also caused a small contained fire which was brought under control, National Grid said.

The potential for power failures to cause major disruption came into sharp focus in March when London's Heathrow Airport was forced to shut for 18 hours due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation, stranding hundreds of thousands of air travelers.

Transport trade union TSSA called for an inquiry into the incident to ensure a similar power outage does not happen again.

"Safety for all is key at this moment, but in due course we will need a proper inquiry into what happened and the lessons to be learned," TSSA General Secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said.