Latest Planetary defense Stories
For the first time, observations coordinated by ESA's space hazards team have found an asteroid that comes close enough to Earth to pose an impact threat. The space rock was found by amateur astronomers, highlighting the value of 'crowd-sourcing' to science and planetary defense. The discovery of asteroid 2011 SF108 was made by the volunteer Teide Observatory Tenerife Asteroid Survey (TOTAS) team during an observation slot sponsored by ESA's Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program in...
[ Watch the Video ] New asteroid population numbers given by NASA shows that Earth isn't as threatened as previously thought by the space rocks. NASA announced on Thursday that its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explore (WISE) has found that there are significantly less near-Earth asteroids in the mid-size range than previously thought. Astronomers believe there are about 19,500 mid-size near-Earth asteroids, which is over 15,000 less than previously thought. Scientists say this...
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New observations by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, show there are significantly fewer near-Earth asteroids in the mid-size range than previously thought. The findings also indicate NASA has found more than 90 percent of the largest near-Earth asteroids, meeting a goal agreed to with Congress in 1998. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Astronomers now estimate there are roughly 19,500 --...
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission indicate the family of asteroids some believed was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs is not likely the culprit, keeping the case open on one of Earth's greatest mysteries. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) While scientists are confident a large asteroid crashed into Earth approximately 65 million years ago, leading to the...
NASA said on Monday that the family of asteroids believed to be responsible for the destruction of dinosaurs is innocent. Observations made by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) confirmed that a 2007 study's claims that a huge asteroid known as Baptistina destroyed the dinosaurs was false. Although the new discovery has abolished one theory of how the dinosaurs ceased to exist, it did not bring about any new theories on the topic. The original theory used...
Every six years, asteroid 1999 RQ 36 nears the Earth - by cosmic standards - and researchers are launching a global observation campaign to learn as much as possible in preparation for the OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S.-led mission to bring back a sample of pristine asteroid material. Astronomers working on the U.S.' first asteroid-sample return mission – the NASA mission named OSIRIS-REx – have begun a months-long observing campaign that is the last chance to study their target...
Arizona, Nevada and Southern California residents got a brilliantly bright treat Wednesday night as a possible fragment of an asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere and streaked across the southwestern sky, according to a NASA scientist, after dozens of eyewitness reports were taken. Residents from Phoenix to Las Vegas reported to local authorities and various media outlets that they had seen a bright light moving quickly across the night sky west to east at around 7:45 pm PDT (10:45...
NASA has announced that it is planning to send a spacecraft to a distant asteroid in five years to gather samples of what could be the building blocks of all life on Earth. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, if all goes well, will intercept asteroid 1999 RQ36, orbit it for one year, and then reach out a robotic arm, touch the surface and grab up a handful of dirt and then return to Earth with the precious sample. "We call it "˜touch and go'," said principal investigator Michael Drake of the...
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Astronomers studying observations taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission have discovered the first known "Trojan" asteroid orbiting the sun along with Earth. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Trojans are asteroids that share an orbit with a planet near stable points in front of or behind the planet. Because they constantly lead or follow in the same orbit as the planet, they never...
Hard hats will not be necessary but you may want to keep an eye on the sky. An asteroid approximately 10 to 50 yards wide will be buzzing past the Earth on Monday, The Telegraph is reporting.The tumbling space rock will be bright enough to see with a small telescope and will buzz past our planet to within 11,000 miles, well within the orbit of the moon. The asteroid, named 2011 MD, was only spotted on Wednesday by a robotic telescope in New Mexico that is exclusively used to scan the skies...
Latest Planetary defense Reference Libraries
Near-Earth Object -- Near-Earth Objects (NEO) are asteroids, comets and large meteoroids whose orbit intersects Earth's orbit and which may therefore pose a collision danger. Due to their size and proximity, NEO's are also more easily accessible for spacecraft from Earth and are important for future scientific investigation and commercial development. In fact, some near-Earth asteroids can be reached with much less ΔV (change in velocity) than the Moon. In the United States, NASA...
Near-Earth Asteroid -- Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are asteroids whose orbit intersects Earth's orbit and which may therefore pose a collision danger, as well as being most easily accessible for spacecraft from Earth. In fact, some near-Earth asteroids can be reached with much less ΔV than the Moon. The most famous near-Earth asteroid is 433 Eros that was visited by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous probe. A few hundred such near-Earth asteroids are known, ranging in size up...
433 Eros -- The asteroid 433 Eros was named after the Greek god of love Eros. It is an S-type asteroid approximately 13 x 13 x 33 km in size, the second-largest near-Earth asteroid. It was visited by the NEAR Shoemaker probe, which first orbited it taking extensive photographs of its surface and then in 2001 at the end of its mission was landed on the asteroid's surface using only its maneuvering jets. Depending on where they stood on Eros, a person who weighed 200 pounds (90...
