Space and astronomy news
One of my favourite upcoming missions is NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, set to go into orbit around two different asteroids. It was originally supposed to blast off this month, but mission planners have decided to push the launch back to September to minimize any potential disruptions to NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander mission, due for launch in early August.
I actually did an article on Dawn about a year ago. So instead of repeating that here, I’ll just link you to the article.
Original Source:NASA
On July 7, 2007 NASA will launch its next explorer into the Solar System. This spacecraft’s destinations are the asteroids Ceres and Vesta, where it will help answer many unknowns about the formation and structure of these minor planets. As part of the mission, the Hubble Space Telescope captured high resolution images of the two objects, and the photos were released today.
Dawn will go into orbit around Vesta in 2011, spend a few years examining it, and then move on to Ceres. It will arrive at its second destination in 2015. This will make it the first spacecraft to ever orbit two different objects in the Solar System.
So there you go Dawn, take these pictures along, so you’ll recognize the asteroids when you see them.
Original Source: Hubble News Release
Astronomers have turned up many binary asteroids in the Solar System. Instead of a single, solitary spacerock, you’ve got two objects orbiting a common centre of gravity. A new paper published in the 2007 issue of the journal Icarus focuses on one of these double objects: the binary asteroid 90 Antiope.
Continue reading “Double Asteroids Revealed as Twin Piles of Rubble”
This week we’re talking about asteroids. And not just any asteroids, but Near Earth Objects. How do astronomers find these things, why are they buzzing around the Earth, what are the chances we’ll actually get hit, and what would happen if we did get hit? How could we stop them?
Continue reading “Podcast: Asteroids Make Bad Neighbours”
If you’re planning a move in the next few years, you might want to consider thread from asteroid impact on your list of annoyances. Researchers from the University of Southampton have modeled the consequences of asteroid strikes around the Earth, and figured out which countries would suffer worst.
Continue reading “The Countries Most at Risk to Asteroid Impacts”
A new NASA mission is being proposed to fly out, extract a sample from a nearby asteroid, and return it to Earth. The asteroid is known as 1999 RQ36, and the mission is OSIRIS.
Continue reading “Asteroid Sample Return Mission Proposed”
Astronomers have theorized that light from the Sun influences the speed at which asteroids spin, and now they’ve gathered the evidence to back it up.
Continue reading “Sunlight Puts the Spin on Asteroids”
The Earth has been bombarded by asteroids in the past, and it’s going to happen again in the future. It’s not a question of “if”, it’s a question of “when”. Keenly aware of the problem, scientists are working on strategies that could prevent an asteroid with Earth in its cross hairs from impacting us.
Continue reading “Lasers Could Deflect Future Asteroids From Impacting Earth”
A small dwarf planet out past the orbit of Neptune could eventually become one of the brightest comets ever seen. Caltech professor Mike Brown – the discoverer of Eris – presented his calculations during the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society held in Seattle in early January.
Continue reading “Dwarf Planet Could Become a Comet”
I don’t want to get you worried, or even mildly concerned. No need to panic. In fact, just read this little piece, and remark with interest that an asteroid is going to get really really close to the Earth on October 31, 2041. It might – I repeat might – have a small, insignificant chance of hitting the Earth and causing regional devastation. Like a 1 in 40,000 chance. Those are pretty good odds when you think of it.
Continue reading “Close Call with Asteroid 2006 XG1 in 2041”