Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The Billionaires’ Mystery Space Venture and the Finer Points of Asteroid Mining
Looks like there’s going to be a new player in the space game pretty soon. On Tuesday, during a press conference at the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Planetary Resources will come into existence.
Behind the mystery venture are Larry Page and Eric Schmidt of Google, director James Cameron, Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Charles Simonyl, Google Board of Directors member K. Ram Shiram, and Chairman of the Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr.
The cryptic press release didn’t give any details save a name and vague description of the company’s goals. It will “overlay two critical sector – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP.” It goes on the say that the innovative startup will “create a new industry and a new definition of natural resources.”
It may be convoluted, but it’s enough information to give some scientists a pretty clear idea of what Planetary Resources might do. It’s likely an asteroid mining company. That’s really the only thing in space that we need on Earth and could redefine natural resources.
Villain in disguise: Jupiter’s role in impacts on Earth
Jupiter is often credited for shielding Earth from catastrophic asteroid and comet impacts. But new simulations of the influence of gas giant planets in solar systems casts doubt on Jupiter’s reputation as Earth’s protector.
Origin of Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Remains a Mystery
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 open the case on one of Earth’s greatest mysteries. While scientists are confident a large asteroid crashed into Earth approximately 65 million years ago, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs and some other life forms on our planet, they do not know exactly where the asteroid came from or how it made its way to Earth. A 2007 study using visible-light data from ground-based telescopes first suggested the remnant of a huge asteroid, known as Baptistina, as a possible suspect.
APOD: The South Pole of Asteroid Vesta
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS, DLR, IDA
Explanation: What created the circular structure around the south pole of asteroid Vesta? Pictured above, the bottom of the second largest object in the asteroid belt was recently imaged for the first time by the robotic Dawn satellite that arrived last month. A close inspection of the 260-meter resolution image shows not only hills and craters and cliffs and more craters, but ragged circular features that cover most of the lower right of the 500-kilometer sized object. Early speculation posits that the structure might have been created by a collision and coalescence with a smaller asteroid. Alternatively, the features might have originated in an internal process soon after the asteroid formed. New clues might come in the next few months as Dawn spirals down toward the rocky world and obtains images of increasingly high resolution.
Japanese Asteroid Mission a Success
A space mission to a nearby asteroid launched in 2005 has yielded some interesting clues about Earth’s early formation. Japanese scientists on that mission report in the journal Science that despite retrieving a very small sample from the nearby Itokawa asteroid, the knowledge gained is huge.
Chinese Scientists Plan to Pull an Asteroid into Orbit Around Earth
Last week Chinese scientists wanted to divert an asteroid away from Earth. This week, they want to pull one into orbit around the Earth. What’s possible objections could anyone have to this idea?
Asteroid spotter Hannah hopes for her name in the stars
A sixth-former who went on work experience to study astronomy and discovered two new asteroids is hoping to have one named after her.
Hannah Blyth was using a remote-controlled telescope to stare into the night sky when she helped spot 22 new asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.
Fellow stargazers hope one will be named “Hannahblyth” after scientists in America confirm the discoveries.
The 18-year-old from Castleton, near Newport, was “totally amazed”.
“It’s an honour that there’s a rock out there which may one day have my name on it,” she said.
“I felt elated when I realised what I was looking at it - it was beyond my wildest dreams.
Summer placement
“It’s totally mind blowing.”
Miss Blyth was on a summer placement with the Faulkes Telescope Project, based at the University of Glamorgan, when she made the discoveries using robotic telescopes in Australia and on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
She was given coordinates to study the sky between Jupiter and Mars which would then direct the telescopes to take photographs of them.
Other astronomers working on the project looked at her images and realised her discoveries.
China and Europe Both Have Plans To Prevent Deadly Asteroid Apophis from Hitting Earth in 2029 (or 2036)
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 in 2036.
Nobody knows how close Apophis will come on that pass. But if there’s a chance of a collision, we’ll have only 7 years to work out how to avoid catastrophe.
Researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing say their preference is to use a solar sail to place a small spacecraft into a retrograde orbit and on collision course with Apophis. The retrograde orbit will give it an impact velocity of 90km/s which, if they do this well enough in advance, should lead to a collision large enough to do the trick.In 2002, the European Space Agency began a program called Don Quijote to find out how best to perform such a deflection.
Don Quijote involves sending two spacecraft to a near Earth asteroid; one to smash into it and the other to watch while in orbit above the impact crater. The goal is to change the asteroid’s semimajor axis by more than 100 metres and to measure the change with an accuracy greater than 1 per cent.
Scientists stunned by surface of asteroid Vesta
The first close-up pictures of the massive asteroid Vesta reveal a northern hemisphere littered with craters — including a trio nicknamed “Snowman” — and a smoother southern half, researchers reported Monday.
Running along the asteroid’s equator are deep grooves — a surprise to scientists who did not expect to see such features.
Source: @spacefuture
NASA Dawn Spacecraft Returns Close-Up Image of Vesta
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has returned the first close-up image after beginning its orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta. On Friday, July 15, Dawn became the first probe to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Software Models Consequences Of Asteroid Strikes
University of Southampton researchers have developed NEOImpactor, a software package that models asteroid impacts and assesses the potential consequences for human beings and their economy. The software package was developed by Nick Bailey and Dr Graham Swinerd of the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences, and Dr Richard Crowther of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
NEOImpactor is specifically designed for measuring the impact and consequences of “small” asteroids - those measuring less than one kilometer in diameter. According to NEOImpactor, the ten countries most at risk from small asteroid strikes are China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the United States, the Philippines, Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Nigeria.
The International Spaceguard survey has been cataloguing near Earth asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter. Smaller asteroids remain undetected. Some, like asteroid 2003 SQ222 come very close to Earth - just 54,700 miles. Astronomers estimate that there are about 500 million undiscovered asteroids the size of 2003 SQ222 or larger that exist in the same area of space through which Earth orbits.
Source: space.com
This image shows the first, unprocessed image obtained by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft of the giant asteroid Vesta in front of a background of stars. It was obtained by Dawn’s framing camera on May 3, 2011, from a distance of about 1.2 million kilometers (750,000 miles). Vesta is inside the white glow at the center of the image. The giant asteroid reflects so much sunlight that its size is dramatically exaggerated at this exposure.
Vesta is 330 miles (530 kilometers) in diameter and the second most massive object in the asteroid belt. But, in Dawn’s early approach images, Vesta only appears approximately five pixels across in size.
Huge Asteroid to Pass Near Earth in November
The near-Earth asteroid named 2005 YU55 — on the list of potentially dangerous asteroids — was observed with the Arecibo Telescope’s planetary radar on April 19, 2010 when it was about 1.5 million miles from the Earth, which is about 6 times the distance to the moon.
To Mimic Asteroid Collisions, Scientists Smash Boulders Together
Two 40-foot cranes suspend two granite balls, ready for impact, to mimic asteroid collisions in an experiment at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
House-Size Asteroid Zooms Close by Earth
An asteroid the size of a house zoomed by Earth today (March 16), flying within the orbit of the moon just one day after astronomers spotting the space rock in the sky, NASA says.
The small asteroid 2011 EB74 was about 47 feet (14 meters) across and posed no threat of hitting Earth, since it was too small to survive the trip through the planet’s atmosphere.
