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Keyword: asteroid

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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Tagging Bennu

    09/21/2023 12:47:11 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 14 replies
    NASA ^ | 21 Sep, 2023 | Image Credit: OSIRIS-REx, University of Arizona, NASA, Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio
    Explanation: The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's arm reached out and touched asteroid 101955 Bennu on October 20, 2020, after a careful approach to the small, near-Earth asteroid's boulder-strewn surface. Dubbed a Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling event, the 30 centimeter wide sampling head (TAGSAM) appears to crush some of the rocks in this close-up recorded by the spacecraft's SamCam. The image was snapped just after surface contact some 321 million kilometers from planet Earth. One second later, the spacecraft fired nitrogen gas from a bottle intended to blow a substantial amount of Bennu's regolith into the sampling head, collecting the loose surface material. And...
  • An asteroid sample is about to land on Earth. Here’s what to expect

    09/21/2023 12:16:08 PM PDT · by DallasBiff · 28 replies
    CNN ^ | 9/21/23 | Ashley Strickland
    When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft swings by Earth on Sunday, it is expected to deliver a rare cosmic gift: a pristine sample collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will release a capsule containing an estimated 8.8 ounces of asteroid rocks and soil from space toward a landing zone in the Utah desert. NASA will provide a live stream of the sample delivery beginning at 10 a.m. ET Sunday. The capsule is expected to enter Earth’s atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. ET, traveling about 27,650 miles per hour (44,498 kilometers per hour). It will land...
  • NASA predicts large asteroid could smash into Earth in 159 years

    09/20/2023 2:52:46 AM PDT · by Eleutheria5 · 46 replies
    NY Post ^ | 19/9/23 | Patrick Reilly
    NASA scientists have predicted there is a chance that a massive asteroid they have been tracking could smash into earth in the year 2182, potentially devastating an area the size of Texas. Bennu, a Near-Earth Object (NEO), orbits the earth roughly every six years and has been on the space agency’s radar since 1999 when it was first discovered. There have been three close encounters involving Bennu in 1999, 2005, and 2011, scientists said. On September 25, 2135, Bennu will make a close fly-by past Earth and has a miniscule chance through a pass through a “gravitational keyhole” that would...
  • Asteroid NASA Hit In Diversion Mission Is Acting So Mysteriously, An Investigation Was Launched

    09/11/2023 5:56:49 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 36 replies
    Daily Caller ^ | September 08, 2023 10:45 AM ET | KAY SMYTHE
    An asteroid hit during NASA’s successful DART mission in Sept. 2022 is acting mysteriously, and it’s not clear why. Back in 2022, NASA tested their DART mission to see if we’re capable of altering the trajectory of an asteroid. To do so, NASA crashed a probe into the target, Dimorphos, and successfully changed its trajectory. Dimorphos’s orbit around the larger asteroid, Didymos, was shortened by 33 minutes within weeks of the impact. But then, something else started happening. High school teacher Jonathan Swift at California’s Thatcher School and his students used an observatory at the institution to keep track of...
  • Send Us Thine Asteroid, O Lord ...

    08/01/2023 9:43:55 PM PDT · by hiho hiho · 21 replies
    Youtube ^ | March 4, 2022 | Joseph Murray
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkTgYiMDRHY Short and sweet!
  • Astronomy Picture pf the Day - Chemicals Glow as a Meteor Disintegrates

    07/24/2023 6:15:12 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 14 replies
    Nasa ^ | 24 Jul, 2023 | Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Kleinburger
    Explanation: Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured here is a fireball, a disintegrating meteor that was not only one of the brightest the photographer has ever seen, but colorful. The meteor was captured by chance in mid-July with a camera set up on Hochkar Mountain in Austria to photograph the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. The radiant grit, likely cast off by a comet or asteroid long ago, had the misfortune to enter Earth's atmosphere. Colors in meteors usually originate from ionized chemical elements released as the...
  • 'Swarm of boulders' in space shows the gory aftermath of NASA's asteroid-smashing DART mission

    07/23/2023 7:04:06 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 33 replies
    Live Science ^ | July 22, 2023 | Ben Turner
    The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the gory aftermath of the first-ever intentional collision between a spacecraft and an asteroid, revealing a debris field of at least 37 "boulders" flung thousands of miles into space.On Sept. 26, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft disintegrated as it smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos, which is 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth, successfully changing the asteroid's trajectory.Now, by using Hubble to study the impact, astronomers have found that DART's roughly 14,540 mph (23,400 km/h) impact on the asteroid produced a "swarm of boulders." The rocks, which range from 3 to...
  • Massive lava outburst may have led to Snowball Earth...Eruption dates suggest chemical weathering of rocks triggered plunging temperatures

    07/12/2023 1:02:27 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 24 replies
    Science.Org ^ | BY MAYA WEI-HAAS | 12 JUL 20232:30 PM
    Some 717 million years ago, glaciers covered the globe. Earlier eruptions may have triggered the event. CLAUS LUNAU/SCIENCE SOURCE ***************************************************** About 717 million years ago, a climate catastrophe struck the planet, as temperatures plunged and glaciers enveloped the globe. The cause of this “Snowball Earth” episode has been mysterious, but it took place around the same time as a massive outburst of volcanism. Many researchers thought there might be a connection. But the timing was uncertain. Now, more precise dates, reported last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters (EPSL) and in November 2022 in Science Advances, show the eruptions...
  • Have We Found Fragments of a Meteor from Another Star?

    07/05/2023 8:20:44 AM PDT · by bitt · 38 replies
    scientificamerican.com ^ | 7/5/2023 | By Amir Siraj
    Tiny spheres of once-molten metal magnetically dredged from the seafloor could be pieces from IM1, a potential interstellar meteor that struck Earth in 2014 Over the past two weeks, I have circumnavigated the globe by land, air and sea. The reason? A kitchen sink–sized chunk of interstellar material that my colleagues and I believe collided with the Earth at 100,000 miles per hour nearly a decade ago. After years of effort, we may have finally found pieces of this elusive object on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, about a mile beneath the waves. The story began In April 2019,...
  • NASA’s Lucy Mission Prepares for Launch To Study “Fossils” of Planet Formation

    09/29/2021 5:43:13 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 6 replies
    scitechdaily.com ^ | SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 | NASA
    NASA has tested the functions of Lucy, the agency’s first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, filled it with fuel, and is preparing to pack it into a capsule for launch Saturday, October 16, 2021. Named after characters in Greek mythology, these asteroids circle the Sun in two swarms, with one group leading ahead of Jupiter in its path, the other trailing behind it. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to visit these asteroids. By studying these asteroids up close, scientists hope to hone their theories on how our solar system’s planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and why they...
  • Earth has a new 'MOON', scientists reveal - and it's here to stay for at least 1,500 years

    05/29/2023 3:08:41 PM PDT · by Libloather · 32 replies
    Daily Mail ^ | 5/29/23 | Jonathan Chadwick
    Earth has a new moon - or at least a 'quasi-moon', a new study has revealed. A quasi-moon is a space rock that circles the Earth, but is gravitationally bound by the sun. This quasi-moon, called 2023 FW13, was discovered by experts using the Pan-STARRS telescope at the top of the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii, and is one of a handful of known quasi-moons. Experts think the ancient cosmic companion has been in Earth's vicinity since 100 BC and will keep circling our planet for at least another 1,500 years, until AD 3700. Thankfully, neither 2023 FW13 or a similar...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon

    05/28/2023 3:41:40 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 5 replies
    https://apod.nasa.gov/apod ^ | 28 May, 2023 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Galileo Mission
    Explanation: This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo on route to Jupiter in 1993 encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage. The second minor planet it photographed, 243 Ida, was unexpectedly discovered to have a moon. The tiny moon, Dactyl, is only about 1.6 kilometers across and seen as a small dot on the right of the sharpened featured image. In contrast, the potato-shaped Ida is much larger, measuring about 60 kilometers long and 25 km wide. Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered -- now many asteroids are known to have...
  • Saturn reclaims 'moon king' title with 62 newfound satellites, bringing total to 145

    05/12/2023 1:02:40 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 18 replies
    Space ^ | May 12, 2023 | By Robert Lea
    Sorry, Jupiter. Astronomers have discovered 62 new moons orbiting the ringed planet Saturn. The satellite haul brings the planet's total number of moons to over 100 and also means the gas giant takes back the crown as the solar system's "moon king" from Jupiter. Prior to this discovery, Saturn had 83 moons recognized by the International Astronomical Union(opens in new tab), so the new batch brings the total number to an incredible 145. The discovery marks another milestone for Saturn, with the planet becoming the first world in the cosmos known to be orbited by more than 100 moons. The...
  • See Mars’ mysterious moon Deimos from just 68 miles away...The first close-ups of the tiny moon suggest we were wrong about its origin.

    05/01/2023 12:56:50 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 28 replies
    FreeThink ^ | May 1, 2023 | By Kristin Houser
    a grey, lumpy moon in front of the red surface of Mars Credit: Emirates Mars Mission The United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) has just produced the best images ever taken of Mars’ moon Deimos — and they suggest the tiny satellite isn’t what we thought it was. Mars’ moons: Mars has two moons. The larger of them, Phobos, is 14 miles wide and orbits the planet from a distance of just 3,700 miles, while the smaller one, Deimos, is only 9 miles in diameter and circles it from 14,580 miles away. “We expect to … advance our fundamental understanding...
  • Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) Lights January Skies, Won’t Return for 8,000 Years

    01/06/2015 4:10:54 PM PST · by Jack Hydrazine · 33 replies
    Indian Country Today Media Network ^ | 6JAN2015 | ICTMN Staff Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/01/06/comet-lovejoy-lights-j
    It’s being called the New Year’s Comet, a fuzzy green ball named Comet Lovejoy that is cruising past Mother Earth as we speak and is scheduled to become visible to the naked eye starting midweek. The name Comet Lovejoy may ring a bell; one of its namesakes was last in Earth’s vicinity three years ago, when it survived a death plunge into the sun in 2011, then emerged to grow a new tail. That was C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). The latest entry into our field of vision is the fifth comet discovery for amateur astronomy Terry Lovejoy of Australia, according to...
  • Asteroid mining startup AstroForge readies first mission

    04/15/2023 7:52:20 AM PDT · by Twotone · 16 replies
    Mining.com ^ | April 13, 2023 | Cecilia Jamasmie
    AstroForge, a startup with plans to mine asteroids, is getting ready to launch the first of its two missions on Friday, of which the main objective is to test the firm’s technique for refining platinum from a sample of asteroid-like material. The startup has placed a payload on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, pre-packed with elements similar to those found in asteroids. Working in Earth’s orbit, the OrbAstro-built cubesat will attempt to vaporize and sort the materials into their elemental components. Sign Up for the Battery Metals Digest AstroForge says its vehicle Brokkr-1 aims to demonstrate the company’s refining capabilities in...
  • COULD EARTH BE AT GREATER RISK FROM A DEADLY ASTEROID IMPACT THAN WE REALIZE?

    03/30/2023 10:10:26 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 67 replies
    The DeBrief ^ | Micah Hanks
    One of the most concerning things about the Chelyabinsk event has to do with the ease at which the asteroid evaded our detection systems in use at the time. On the same day the Chelyabinsk asteroid exploded over eastern Russia, NASA had been tracking... 2012 DA14, as it passed within just 17,200 miles from Earth. March 2023...chief scientist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, presented new findings on impact features at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at Johnson Space Center. Based on recent satellite data, Garvin thinks previously hidden features of ancient impact features could indicate they are much...
  • Mysterious Space Object ‘Oumuamua Not Alien, Scientists Say...New study suggests a natural origin for unusual movement of the interstellar body

    03/23/2023 5:34:08 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 50 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | March 22, 2023 12:00 pm ET | By Aylin Woodward
    Nearly six years ago, a space object roughly the size of a football field baffled scientists as it zipped through our solar system. The irregular shape and motion of the object, dubbed ‘Oumuamua, led to one of the most controversial astronomical mysteries, with theories that ranged from asteroid to alien probe. But a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature offers another answer: ‘Oumuamua is a typical comet that expelled gas in an odd way as it traveled through our solar system. “We’ve gone through every weird, crazy, possible theory—ideas that stretch the imagination to match all of these observed...
  • Asteroid to Come 'Extraordinarily Close' to Earth: NASA

    01/26/2023 1:10:23 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 24 replies
    Channel News Asua ^ | 26 Jan 2023
    A truck-sized asteroid will pass near Earth on Thursday (Jan 26) in one of the closest approaches to our planet ever recorded, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said, emphasising that it poses no danger. Asteroid 2023 BU, which was recently discovered by an amateur astronomer, will zoom by the southern tip of South America at around 4.27pm PST (8.27am, Friday, Singapore time) on Thursday (Jan 26), according to NASA. It will pass just 3,600km from Earth's surface, much closer than many geostationary satellites orbiting the planet.
  • House-size asteroid discovered this week will fly past Earth on Friday

    03/16/2023 2:25:52 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 33 replies
    NY Post ^ | 03/16/2023
    The near-Earth object, called 2023 EY, has been posted on NASA’s asteroid database and listed as one of the next five asteroid approaches. Scientists estimate it is about 54 feet wide. A near-Earth object is classified as any space object that can come within 30 million miles of Earth. This asteroid’s closest Earth approach is roughly 149,000 miles.