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"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler", Albert Einstein
Browsing All posts tagged under »Asteroids«
Asteroid belts of just the right size are friendly to life
Read more: phys.org
NASA’s WISE Colors in Unknowns on Jupiter Asteroids
October 16, 2012
Scientists using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, have uncovered new clues in the ongoing mystery of the Jovian Trojans — asteroids that orbit the sun on the same path as Jupiter. Like racehorses, the asteroids travel in packs, with one group leading the way in front of the gas giant, and […]
Meteorite points to asteroid Vesta’s dynamo
October 13, 2012
A team of scientists in the US says that the asteroid Vesta probably had a rotating liquid core in its early history. This, the researchers say, created a dynamo that produced a magnetic field strong enough to magnetize the rocks on its surface. As it was previously thought that only larger planets, such as Earth, […]
Bruce Willis Couldn’t Save Us from Asteroid Doom
August 8, 2012
According to the internet hysteria surrounding the ancient Mayan calendar, an asteroid could be on its way to wipe out the world on December 21, 2012. Obviously this is pretty unlikely — but if an asteroid really is on its way, could we take a cue from the disaster movie Armageddon in order to save the planet? […]
How likely is an asteroid strike?
February 26, 2012
David Spiegelhalter A report suggests that there should be 91 deaths every year from asteroid strikes, but what are the chances of that actually happening? Buy insurance. Tick. Health check. Tick. Drive sensibly. Tick. As a general rule, we humans like to control our lives. But let’s face it, all of this caution is a […]
The population of natural Earth satellites
January 5, 2012
Mikael Granvik, Jeremie Vaubaillonc, Robert Jedickea Abstract We have for the first time calculated the population characteristics of the Earth’s irregular natural satellites (NES) that are temporarily captured from the near-Earth-object (NEO) population. The steady-state NES size-frequency and residence-time distributions were determined under the dynamical influence of all the massive bodies in the solar system […]
Observe asteroid 2005 YU55′s close approach tomorrow night!
November 7, 2011
Asteroid 2005 YU55′s close approach Click here for animation There is a good opportunity to observe what is currently the largest asteroid that makes a close approach to the Earth on the evening of 8 November. Asteroid 2005 YU55 is 400 metres in size and it will make its closest approach at 11pm at a […]
Most pristine known asteroid is denser than granite
October 28, 2011
Asteroids are generally regarded as the solar system’s scrap heap, the battered bits that broke off and were left behind when the planets were forming. But the lumpy asteroid 21 Lutetia may be a whole, unbroken building block left nearly untouched since the solar system’s birth. “We think planets were built of things like Lutetia,” […]
WISE Revises Numbers of Asteroids Near Earth
September 29, 2011
This chart shows how data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has led to revisions in the estimated population of near-Earth asteroids. The infrared-sensing telescope performed the most accurate survey to date of a slice of this population as part of project called NEOWISE. This allowed the science team to make new estimates […]
New views of an ancient asteroid
September 26, 2011
Using the Herschel Space Telescope, astronomers are set to obtain the first-ever images of asteroid 1999 RQ36 in far infrared light, a wavelength that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will not be able to see once it approaches the charcoal-black chunk of rock floating in space. Peering through forest-fire smoke with the 61-inch telescope on Mt. Bigelow […]
Searching for the Origins of the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid
September 19, 2011
Scientists think that a giant asteroid, which broke up long ago in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, eventually made its way to Earth and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Data from NASA’s WISE mission likely rules out the leading suspect,a family of asteroids called Baptistina, so the search for the […]
Extraterrestrial dust reveals asteroid’s past and future
August 26, 2011
Talk about seeing a world in a grain of sand. A sprinkling of asteroid dust that slipped into Japan’s Hayabusa probe when it touched down on the asteroid Itokawa six years ago has revealed surprising details about the space rock’s past and its likely future. Hayabusa was meant to land on the 500-metre-wide asteroid in […]
China Reveals Solar Sail Plan To Prevent Apophis Hitting Earth in 2036
August 18, 2011
A small shove could prevent a global catastrophe, according to Chinese plans Apophis is a 46 million tonne asteroid that will pass within a hair’s breath of Earth in 2029. However, Apophis’s trajectory is likely to take it through a region of space near Earth known as a keyhole that will ensure the asteroid returns […]
Fact following fiction?
August 16, 2011
Scientists plan mission to blow up an asteroid ‘hurtling towards Earth’ Plan is similar to the plot of Hollywood film Armageddon It seemed far-fetched on the silver screen. But the European Space Agency is planning to launch a mission similar to the plot of Hollywood movie Armageddon, in which Bruce Willis and his intrepid team […]
Was Earth’s Original Water Delivered by Ice-Covered Asteroids?
July 19, 2011
Contrary to preconceived notions, the atmosphere and the oceans were perhaps not formed from vapors emitted during intense volcanism at the dawning of our planet. Francis Albarède of the Laboratoire des Sciences de la Terre (CNRS / ENS Lyon / Université Claude Bernard) suggests that water was not part of the Earth’s initial inventory but […]
November 1, 2012
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