All systems go! The project engineer of the Dawn mission has posted a very detailed update (as of August 30), describing the spacecraft’s status in its journey to the asteroid Vesta.
The detection in June by two different amateur astronomers of an impact on Jupiter bodes well for asteroid/comet research. You can read the actual paper here. [pdf] Key quote from the abstract:
A systematic study of the impact rate and size of these bolides can enable an empirical determination of the flux of meteoroids in Jupiter with implications for the populations of small bodies in the outer Solar System and may allow a better quantification of the threat of impacting bodies to Earth. The serendipitous recording of this optical flash opens a new window in the observation of Jupiter with small telescopes.
Collision alert! Two small asteroids are going to zip past the Earth this week, both passing closer than the Moon.
The publication of the results of the material found within the Hayabusa capsule has been delayed until December. The researchers have found that the particles in the capsule are smaller than expected, and they need more time to study them properly.
More information on the recently discovered fireball that impacted Jupiter on August 20, including images.
For the third time in the last year, Jupiter has been hit by a large previously unknown object.
Two interesting astronomy stories in today’s Science magazine:
Volunteers, using their home computers, have helped discover a previously unknown pulsar.
Scientists, using telescopes, have discovered a previoulsy unknown asteroid in one of the Trojan points of the orbit of Neptune.
The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak tonight and tomorrow, and Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log has some good tips for the best way to not only view it, but to hear it as well!
The Japanese government has approved a new asteroid mission similar to Hayabusa. The new mission could launch as early as 2014 and bring samples back by 2020.
NASA officials have reviewed the list of Near Earth Objects and found only three that meet all the constraints for a manned mission. Key quote:
Out of the 44 reachable asteroids, 27 were too small, and only 15 have orbits that allow for exploration between 2020 and 2050 — the timeframe NASA wants to pursue for NEO missions. The 180-day mission constraint further cuts the list to three.
It must also be noted that none of these asteroids are reachable without a heavy-lift rocket like the Ares V.
Talk about thinking ahead! Since 2007 a team of scientists have actually been planning a mission to 1999 RQ36, the asteroid that has a 1 in 1000 chance of hitting the Earth in 2182. Their mission, dubbed OSIRIS-Rex (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer), has already been picked as one of two finalists in NASA’s New Frontiers program. The decision on which mission NASA will fund will be made next summer.
The Japanese space agency JAXA has put Hayabusa’s heat shield, outer capsule, and parachute on public display, to large crowds.
Solar sail engineers from around the world gathered in Brooklyn last week for the Second International Symposium on Solar Sailing. Ben Diedrich, fellow caver, solar sail expert, and the man behind wiki.solarsails.info, gave two papers. He also emailed me to say that “Japan’s contingent gave several talks – many of which compared analysis of deployment, flight, or steering with actual flight data” of Ikaros. A review of the program [pdf] revealed some fascinating uses for solar sails. I like this paper title the best: “Deflecting Apophis with a flotilla of solar sails.” [ed. Apophis is an asteroid with the potential of hitting the Earth.]
Update: Japanese scientists have now announced that they have been able to adjust Ikaros’s attitude using sunlight.
Another update: Ben Diedrich emailed me the link to read the actual proceedings from the conference. See pg 103 to read the paper on using solar sails to deflect Apophis.
End of the world alert! Scientists have identified an almost half mile wide asteroid with a 1 in 1000 chance of hitting the Earth in 2182.
Astronomers have concluded that the high levels of carbon monoxide that they have detected in the upper layers of Neptune’s atmosphere are the leftover fingerprint of a cometary impact some 200 years ago.
Using Google Earth, a curator at an Italian museum has discovered a previously unknown, very young, and almost pristine impact crater hidden in the deserts of Egypt.
The head of the Russian manned space program thinks that NASA’s new goals of building a rocket and capsule for reaching an asteroid by 2015 to be “unreal.”
NASA, scooped by this AP story, has now made it official. The first survey of the sky by the WISE infrared telescope has just been completed, finding 25,000 new asteroids, 95 of which are near Earth asteroids.
An AP report today says that the infrared WISE space telescope has catalogued 25,000 new asteroids, 95 of which are near Earth objects. Actual data, however, has not yet been released.
Check out the Rosetta flyby images.
Today (July 10) is when the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft is scheduled to fly past asteroid 21 Lutetia. The webcast can be seen here, starting at 12 pm, Eastern time, including the release of the first pictures, beginning 5 pm Eastern.
Rosetta has sent back its first picture of the asteroid 21 Lutetia. The flyby is scheduled for July 10.
More tiny particles have been detected in the inner return capsule of Hayabusa.
Update and bumped: More details have been released about what was inside the Hayabusa capsule. In total, two 0.01 millimeter particles have been found in the inner capsule, and about 10 large particles in the outer capsule.
The first photo from inside the Hayabusa capsule has been released, showing the presence of a tiny 0.01 millimeter particle. It is still unknown whether this is an asteroid particle or something captured on the return to Earth.
The reports of NASA administrator Charles Bolden’s al-Jazeera interview have so far focused mostly on Bolden’s claim that his “foremost” priority at NASA is to reach out to the Muslim world in order “to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”
Though this statement is both idiotic and condescending, I don’t think it was the most idiotic thing Bolden said. Instead, I think the prize-winner is this quote near the end of the interview (at around 21:30), where Bolden describes why we need to find out the make-up of all asteroids:
Is it sand or is it metal? If it is sand we’re not really worried that much about it because it’s probably going to impact the Earth and, you know, go away. Metal would be a bad day. We could have another ice age and instead of the extinction of the dinosaurs it would be the extinction of you and me.
Asteroids made of “sand” are merely going to “go away” if they hit the Earth? I would really like to see the scientific research Bolden is relying on for this statement.
