Mars has been a playground for NASA’s various robots and missions, and it was back in March that the Curiosity rover found evidence of conditions for habitable life, something that has cropped up in various degrees since then. According to some US researchers, it is possible that rocks containing life could have been blasted, so […]
Scientist have made an amazing discovery in the Chesapeake Bay. A team of researchers were drilling into the center of an ancient asteroid impact crater in the bay. The carter is known as the Chesapeake Bay impact crater and was formed when an asteroid hit the Earth about 35 million years ago. The outer ring […]
This past summer, NASA announced the beginning of its Grand Asteroid Challenge with something it calls Grand Challenges, a push by the Obama Administration to further innovations and increase new discoveries. Today the agency has announced its first partnership under this challenge, with NASA penning an agreement with Planetary Resources in Washington state to crowdsource […]
The Japanese space agency known as JAXA has announced that it has conducted a test of its space cannon that will be used to remotely fire a 4-pound metal projectile into the surface of an asteroid. The space cannon will eventually be mounted inside the Hayabusa-2 space probe that’s scheduled to take off in 2014.
The space probe will eventually rendezvous with an asteroid called 1999JU3 that is in orbit between Earth and Mars. That rendezvous is expected to happen in 2018. Once the space probe gets close enough to the asteroid, the cannon will detach and remotely fire its projectile into the surface of the asteroid.
The goal is not to destroy the asteroid, but to create a small crater that the probe can land beside and then deploy a small Rover to gather samples. The samples will then be carried back to Earth and are expected to return in 2020. The Japanese space agency wants to create the small crater to expose new asteroid material that hasn’t been affected by space weather and heat.
[via Telegraph]
Japanese space agency JAXA has successfully test fired its “space cannon” that is designed to launch a projectile into asteroid. The space cannon will eventually be mounted inside the Japanese Hayabusa-2 space probe. That space probe is expected to launch in 2014. After launch, the Hayabusa-2 space probe will head towards a rendezvous with an […]
One of the scary things about the asteroids that zip around our solar system is that scientists simply don’t know all of them that are out there. While the chances of a gigantic asteroid smashing into the Earth with enough force to wipe us out is slim, the Earth is pelted with smaller asteroids all the time. Just ask the Russians what sort of damage a small asteroid can make when it goes meteor and enters the atmosphere.
Another asteroid was recently discovered that passed impressively close to the Earth – on a cosmic scale. The asteroid zipped past the Earth in September but was only discovered this month. That means it made its close pass by the Earth and no one even knew it. Even more interesting is the fact that the asteroid’s orbit will bring the 1300 foot diameter projectile back to Earth in 2032.
Some early reports indicated that the asteroid has a chance of smashing into the Earth, unleashing a force of “thousands” of atomic bombs. NASA was quick to step in and put some of the fears to rest with the prediction that there’s only a 1:63,000 chance that the asteroid will hit the earth about 20 years from now. NASA went so far as to say that it was 99.998% sure asteroid 2013 TV135 will uneventfully zip past the Earth again in 2032. That prediction of a 1:63,000 chance doesn’t do much to make me feel better considering people hit the lottery every month with odds often much more remote than that.
[via CNN]
What some classifies as one of the most dangerous asteroids ever discovered zipped past the Earth last month. The asteroid is called 2013 TV135 and the asteroid will again pass close by the Earth in about 20 years. The asteroid made headlines again when reports surfaced that there was a chance the Earth and the […]
Shutdown, Obamacare, Syria… who cares—while Humanity wastes time in political shitslinging and unnecessary wars, a team of Ukranian astronomers have discovered a massive asteroid that has a real chance of hitting Earth in 2032 with apocalyptical consequences. It’s the second time in history that an asteroid makes it to the top of NASA’s space danger list as a potential danger.
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At 330 miles in diameter, Vesta is the second most massive object in the asteroid belt. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has been orbiting it for some time now
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A bunch of music fans at an outdoor concert for the group Mumford & Sons were treated to quite a sight earlier this week. The concert was being held at an outdoor amphitheater in Pelham, Alabama – about 20 miles south of Birmingham. NASA says that at about 8:18 PM central time on Monday a giant meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere above the state.
According to NASA, the meteor was traveling at 76,000 mph and 3 seconds after hitting the atmosphere it disintegrated at an altitude about 25 miles above Woodstock, Alabama. Because of the speed the meteor was traveling at, it created sonic booms that were heard by witnesses on the ground.
Witnesses at the concert also report seeing a really bright flash of light in the sky. Astronomers say that the flashes were bright enough to be 15 times brighter than Venus in the nighttime sky. The fireball was reportedly as bright as the crescent moon on Monday night.
[via Washington Post]
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