Astronomers are completely confident that the 150-foot-wide asteroid 2012 DA14 is not going to hit us, passing “only” at 17,200 miles from Earth—the closest encounter with an asteroid ever predicted. It’s a close call, but we will be safe. But then again, a meteorite just exploded in Russia. So what would really happen if their calculations are wrong? More »
Late last month, we told you about an asteroid that will fly by the Earth at close proximity on February 15. Essentially, it will squeeze its way in between the Earth and the Moon, which is actually really close, and one company is saying that the asteroid is worth $195 billion in materials, such as metals and propellants. However, others aren’t so sure about that figure.
Deep Space Industries says that they’re willing to pay whoever can go up into space and actually grab the asteroid to mine it for materials, and if that sounds nearly impossible, it probably is at this point. However, Deep Space Industries claim that there are many other asteroids near Earth that would be far easier to catch anyway.
According to DSI, if this specific asteroid contains even 5% recoverable water, that alone might be worth as much as $65 billion in rocket fuel. DSI also explains that the asteroid most likely weighs anywhere from as little as 16,000 tons to as much as one million tons, so the amount of easily-recovered metals, like iron and nickel, could be worth $130 billion alone.
Many people are skeptical about the asteroids worth, though. It’s not to say that the asteroid itself isn’t worth almost $200 billion, but the work that it would take to mine the materials would cost a fortune, as noted by Forbes. Essentially, they argue that since it’s impossible right now to mine asteroids and use the materials in space to build other things, the asteroid is worth nothing until we’re able to actually mine the thing.
[via Network World]
Fly-by asteroid said to be worth $195b in materials is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The large Apophis asteroid passed by Earth a few days ago, some 9,000,000 miles from our fair planet. The asteroid, which is named after an Egyptian demon, was said to measure 270 to 275 meters wide. The European Space Astronomy Center’s Herschel Space Observatory observed as it neared, however, that it is much larger than that.
Herschel came to this conclusion by observing the asteroid using thermal infrared in different wavelengths, which you can see in the image above. Combining the infrared observations with optical measurements, Apophis’s size estimates were refined, with the asteroid turning out to be about 20-percent larger in diameter than previously believed at 325 meters wide.
The European Space Astronomy Center’s Goran Pilbratt offered this statement. “Although Apophis initially caught public interest as a possible Earth impactor, which is now considered highly improbable for the foreseeable future, it is of considerable interest in its own right, and as an example of the class of near Earth objects. Our unique Herschel measurements play a key role for the physical characterization of Apophis, and will improve the long-term prediction of its orbit.”
Many call Apophis the doomsday asteroid because it was initially believed there was a small 2.9-percent chance of it hitting Earth in the year 2029. That information was later refined, with the asteroid actually passing by at a distance of about 22,000 miles. Apophis will near Earth again in the year 2036, but no one knows how close it will come to our planet.
[via Astronomy]
Herschel Space Observatory finds Apophis asteroid is larger than believed is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The deadly asteroid Apophis is safely passing by Earth today, more than 9 million miles (14.5 million kilometers) from our home planet. Next time we won’t be so lucky. On April 13, 2029, Apophis will come so close that it may destroy satellites in orbit. More »
NASA must think our moon is getting lonely, because it’s mulling the idea of capturing an asteroid and placing it in lunar orbit, so it has a rocky satellite all of its own. More »
Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.
2012, we salute you. All in all, you’ve been a pretty good year. There’s been highs, lows, and lots of inbetweens. Above all else, though, you’ve been generous in the alternative arena. Whether it’s the discovery of certain particles, or activities in space, 2012 had it covered. What better way to finish it off, then, with a disease smelling dog, a plan to catch an asteroid and a growable hangover cure. This is alt-week.
It’s like something out a strange science fiction movie: a giant asteroid careening towards earth is diverted using a massive blast of paintballs fired into space, saving mankind and forever giving paintball-lovers bragging rights over airsoft fans. As odd as it sounds, this very proposal earned Sung Wook Paek, Department of Aeronautics and Astronauts at MIT, the 2012 Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition. And yes, there’s a video.
The competition was sponsored by the United Nations’ Space Generation Advisory Council. Paek presented his strategy at the International Astronautical Congress in Italy, where he detailed how firing a mass quantity of paintballs into an asteroid could prevent what would otherwise be an unfortunate collision with our fragile planet. It’s as simple sounding as it is seemingly ingenious; the light-colored paintballs, upon impact, would cause a slight diversion in the asteroid’s course. At this point, the chunk of space rock would then be coated in a reflective substance. The sunlight bouncing off the reflective surface would increase solar radiation pressure and further alter the asteroid’s course, redirecting it out of the danger zone.
This method was detailed in a video using the 900-foot-wide asteroid Apophis as the virtual test subject due to its potential impact with earth in the future. Just how many paintballs would it take to potentially knock the massive asteroid off course? Five tons’ worth. And sadly, while it’s fun to imagine the asteroid careening off-course immediately after a blast of pellets, it would take about two decades for the solar radiation pressure to shove the rock out of its dangerous trajectory. You can check out a video of this in action here.
According to Paek, additional things could be launched into space in addition to the paint pellets, such as pellets with aerosols that would “impart air drag on the incoming asteroid to slow it down. Or, you could just paint the asteroid so you can track it more easily with telescopes on Earth. So there are other uses for this method.” Last year’s winning strategy revolved around the idea of diverting an asteroid via a blast of solid pellets.
[via Space]
Fighting asteroids with paintballs: an MIT graduate student’s winning strategy is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Tonight, an asteroid the size of a house – dubbed 2012 TC4 by NASA – will pass by Earth, coming in at one-quarter of the distance between the moon and this rock we call home (aka, 59,000 miles). The 2012 TC4 asteroid was discovered on October 4th, and scientists say it does not pose a risk. You can watch the asteroid fly by the old-fashioned way using a small telescope, or you can track it online and watch a live video feed of its flyby.
The Slooh Space Camera will provide free live coverage of the asteroid’s passing at its Slooh website. While you wait, you can track 2012 TC4′s progress via the Near Earth Object Office’s Twitter feed, which is regularly updated. If Twitter isn’t your thing, you can also download NASA’s Asteroid Watch widget, which keeps track of asteroids that near Earth.
Sadly, 2012 TC4 isn’t large enough for you to see with the naked eye. If you’re keen on breaking out the ol’ telescope, keep in mind that you’ll likely only see a dot much like the one in the photo above. The asteroid has a magnitude of 13.7, which in layman’s terms means its about 1,500 times fainter than it would need to be for your eyes to detect it.
This one of several large comets that have passed by recently, which include the 2012 LZ1 asteroid that passed by in June. It’s supposed to pass by at 12:57am due south. The live stream coverage is provided from the Canary Islands observatory.
[via PHYS]
Asteroid the size of a house to pass Earth tonight is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We first laid eyes on Parrot’s first Android-based Asteroid car infotainment system a couple years ago at CES. Then, at this past year’s show, we got a sneak peek at a trio of successor Asteroid devices. Now, a mere 10 months later, the Asteroid Smart, Tablet and Mini have finally arrived in consumer-ready garb. First, there’s a flagship in-dash system, the double-DIN Asteroid Smart. It features a 6.2-inch 800 x 480 capacitive display, a Texas Instruments 800MHz processor and runs a heavily skinned version of Android 2.3. The Smart also has four USB 2.0 ports (one which pushes 5V to charge an iPod) for connecting external devices like the included GPS antenna or a dongle for cellular data. Plus, there are 3.5mm line-in and microphone jacks to go with a host of RCA connections and a micro-USB port round the back. Bluetooth 3.0 is baked in, and an SD card slot sits behind the detachable security strip to the left of the screen.
The Smart’s siblings, the Asteroid Mini and Asteroid Tablet are also coming to North America this month. The Tablet packs similar specs as the Smart, only it’s got a 5-inch capacitive screen and is portable, as opposed to an in-dash solution. It runs the same skinned version of Gingerbread, has GPS and Bluetooth radios, and packs 512MB of RAM and 1GB of on-board storage, plus an SD slot. It also comes with a wireless touchpad remote so you can control the system straight from your steering wheel. Meanwhile, the Mini, with its 3.2-inch, non-touch screen has a similar form factor to the Tablet and comes with a wireless remote as well. However, its OS is built on Android 1.5 and it relies upon an external GPS antenna like its bigger, double-DIN cousin. The Asteroid Tablet will retail for $399, and the Mini will cost a hundred bucks less when they go on sale in a few weeks.
We got to swipe our way around the Parrot Smart, so join us after the break to see it in action.
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
Parrot unveils Asteroid Smart, Tablet and Mini car infotainment systems, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A group of scientists from Scotland have an insane idea to help reverse the effects of global warming here on Earth. The scientists think they can grab a near-Earth asteroid called 1036 Ganymed and use it to him to create a massive dust cloud to block some of the Sun’s energy from warming the Earth. The scientists say that they only need to reduce 1.7% of the solar radiation that hits the Earth to offset a global temperature increase of 3.6°F.
The plan is rather far-out, and even the scientists admit that it’s no replacement for curbing greenhouse gas emissions here on Earth. The scientists envision using some sort of “mass driver” that can be used to push the asteroid to Lagrange point L1. Lagrange point L1 is where gravity from the Sun and the Earth cancel each other out.
Once there, the mass driver could then be used to blow a massive cloud of dust and debris off the asteroid to block sunlight. The dust cloud would need a mass of about 11 million-billion pounds and span about 1600 miles wide. I wonder if a slight miscalculation in the size of the dust cloud might block more sun than they intend and plunge the Earth into an Ice Age.
[via Livescience]
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