Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors

[weatheriscool]

[Powers]

Big if true.

[caltrek]

In a dated article that ties the previous three posts together:

NASA Spacecraft Provides Insight into Asteroid Bennu’s Future Orbit
August 11, 2021

Introduction:

(NASA) In a study released Wednesday, NASA researchers used precision-tracking data from the agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to better understand movements of the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu through the year 2300, significantly reducing uncertainties related to its future orbit, and improving scientists’ ability to determine the total impact probability and predict orbits of other asteroids.

The study, titled “Ephemeris and hazard assessment for near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu based on OSIRIS-REx data,” was published in the journal Icarus.

“NASA’s Planetary Defense mission is to find and monitor asteroids and comets that can come near Earth and may pose a hazard to our planet,” said Kelly Fast, program manager for the Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We carry out this endeavor through continuing astronomical surveys that collect data to discover previously unknown objects and refine our orbital models for them. The OSIRIS-REx mission has provided an extraordinary opportunity to refine and test these models, helping us better predict where Bennu will be when it makes its close approach to Earth more than a century from now.”

In 2135, asteroid Bennu will make a close approach with Earth. Although the near-Earth object will not pose a danger to our planet at that time, scientists must understand Bennu’s exact trajectory during that encounter in order to predict how Earth’s gravity will alter the asteroid’s path around the Sun – and affect the hazard of Earth impact.

Using NASA’s Deep Space Network and state-of-the-art computer models, scientists were able to significantly shrink uncertainties in Bennu’s orbit, determining its total impact probability through the year 2300 is about 1 in 1,750 (or 0.057%). The researchers were also able to identify Sept. 24, 2182, as the most significant single date in terms of a potential impact, with an impact probability of 1 in 2,700 (or about 0.037%).

Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nas ... -orbit

[wjfox]

Watch live: Nasa unveils first sample from Bennu asteroid

– Scientists at US space agency Nasa are holding a news conference where they have unveiled first pictures of the space rock extracted from the Bennu asteroid

– The material, scooped up by a Nasa probe and returned to Earth last month, is currently being examined in a special lab in Texas

– The mission team thinks it has about 250g (9oz) of space dust although they will know for sure in a few days

– Quantities of the material will be shared with scientists around the world who will examine it for clues about the formation of the Solar System

– You can watch the news conference live by clicking the play button in the picture above

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science ... t-67075218

[weatheriscool]

[raklian]

[weatheriscool]

NASA set to journey to a metal-rich asteroid
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-jour ... eroid.html
by Chandan Khanna with Issam Ahmed in Washington

A NASA probe is set to blast off bound for Psyche, an object 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) away that could offer clues about the interior of planets like Earth.

It's a world like no other: a metal-rich asteroid that could be the remnants of a small planet, or perhaps an entirely new type of celestial body unknown to science.

A NASA probe is set to blast off Friday bound for Psyche, an object 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) away that could offer clues about the interior of planets like Earth.

"We've visited either in person or robotically worlds made of rock, worlds made of ice and worlds made of gas... but this will be our first time visiting a world that has a metal surface," lead scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton told reporters during a briefing this week.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting Friday at 10:19 am Eastern Time (1419 GMT) for launch from Kennedy Space Center, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, with a backup window on Saturday if weather conditions are unfavorable.

Trailing a blue glow from its next-generation electric propulsion system and flanked by two large solar arrays, the van-sized probe should arrive at its destination in the Asteroid Belt, between Mars and Jupiter, in July 2029.

[wjfox]

Nasa probe launches to metal asteroid Psyche

58 minutes ago

An American space agency (Nasa) probe has left Earth to visit one of the most unusual objects in the Solar System.

The craft is heading to a metal world - an asteroid called 16 Psyche - which telescopic observations suggest is made from up to 60% iron and nickel.

Scientists think it may be the remnant core of a planet-like object that had its outer rocky layers stripped off.

The launch of the investigating spacecraft, also named Psyche, took place from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

A Falcon-Heavy rocket left the ground at precisely 10:19:43 local time (14:19 GMT; 15:19 BST) to hurl the probe on what will be a six-year, 3.5 billion km (2.2 billion miles) journey to its destination, out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67099605

[raklian]

Interesting!

[weatheriscool]

NASA's Lucy spacecraft swoops past first of 10 asteroids on long journey to Jupiter
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-nasa-lucy ... roids.html
by Marcia Dunn

NASA's Lucy spacecraft on Wednesday encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey to Jupiter.

The spacecraft on Wednesday swooped past the pint-sized Dinkinesh, about 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. It was "a quick hello," according to NASA, with the spacecraft zooming by at 10,000 mph (16,000 kph).

Lucy came within 270 miles (435 kilometers) of Dinkinesh, testing its instruments in a dry run for the bigger and more alluring asteroids ahead. Dinkinesh is just a half-mile (1 kilometer) across, quite possibly the smallest of the space rocks on Lucy's tour.

Lucy's main targets are the so-called Trojans, swarms of unexplored asteroids out near Jupiter that are considered to be time capsules from the dawn of the solar system. The spacecraft will swing past eight Trojans believed to be up to 10 to 100 times bigger than Dinkinesh. It's due to zip past the final two asteroids in 2033.