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As it readies its constellation of <keyword id="21665619" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Earth-observation-satellites" source="keywords">Earth observation satellites</keyword>, <keyword id="22385578" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru-based-startup" source="keywords">Bengaluru-based startup</keyword> <keyword id="22317867" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pixxel-Space" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Pixxel Space" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Pixxel Space">Pixxel Space</keyword> has plans to map the Moon and <keyword id="20578027" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroids" source="keywords">asteroids</keyword>, and look for materials required to build settlements in outer space. In an interaction with PTI editors at the agency's headquarters here, Pixxel Space co-founder and CEO Awais Ahmed spelt out the long-term plans of the startup and these include exploration of asteroids with the intention of finding building materials or possible <keyword id="22407481" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fuel-sources" source="keywords">fuel sources</keyword> for future settlements in space. "We are building hyper-spectral cameras that look at the Earth. The same cameras can be turned outwards to look at other objects in space. We can send these spacecraft to the Moon, <keyword id="19901192" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars" source="keywords">Mars</keyword> or the asteroid belt, and build a map of the solar system," Ahmed said. He said the startup would also like to place satellites in orbits around the Moon -- cis-lunar orbits -- to explore the Earth's only natural satellite in greater detail. "We can go between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt and identify which of these asteroids are stunning and useless, and which of them have certain precious materials that can be useful in space," Ahmed said. Satellites can look for ice on asteroids which can be used as fuel by splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen, and can also be stored as water, he said. "So, when humanity expands towards space it does not make sense to mine all of that material from Earth when there's so much more material actually available in space," ahmed said. He said Elon Musk's SpaceX was building railroads for the space revolution, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and others were building habitats for space. "We want to be the ones to provide the material to sort of make it all happen. But very long term vision," Ahmed said. Pixxel Space plans to launch six hyper-spectral satellites later this year as part of its constellation to map the Earth in greater detail. Another 18 satellites are slated for launch next year that will complete the Bengaluru-based startup's constellation in low Earth orbit.

Bengaluru-based Pixxel Space plans to mine asteroids for building settlements in space

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dinosaur-fossil-from-day-extinction-asteroid-hit-earth-scientists-claim-2022-4">asteroid that killed</a> most dinosaurs 66 million years ago left behind traces of its own origin.</li><li>Researchers think they know where the Chicxulub impactor came from based on levels of ruthenium.</li></ul>A team of researchers think they know the origin of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-impact-triggered-underwater-volcanic-eruptions-2018-2">massive space rock</a> that hit Earth and killed off almost all the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.Their findings could help NASA in its search for potentially hazardous asteroids that pose a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mass-extinction-earth-take-10-million-years-recover-2019-4">significant threat</a> to life on Earth.Asteroids have different chemical makeups depending on where they formed in our solar system.To determine the dino-killing asteroid's origin, researchers examined the various elements in samples taken from several locations dating to the time of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mass-extinction-earth-take-10-million-years-recover-2019-4">mass extinction</a>.In particular, they looked at the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oppenheimer-science-to-understand-physics-atomic-bombs-2023-7">element ruthenium</a>. It's a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/44/ruthenium">rare</a> metal on Earth but is more abundant in asteroids.Ruthenium levels can be a good indicator of whether an asteroid "originally formed in the outer solar system or in the inner solar system," Mario Fischer-Gödde, one of the researchers, told Business Insider.Fischer-Gödde and his colleagues found that, unlike many other impactors over the last 541 million years, the Chicxulub impactor that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-strike-cretaceous-paleogene-extinction-2017-11">killed the dinosaurs</a> and up to 75% of all life on Earth formed in the outer — not the inner — solar system.However, the impactor likely made its way to the inner solar system in the asteroid belt long before it hurtled toward Earth. That's because in the early days of the solar system, Jupiter migrated and its gravitational influence scattered more distant asteroids closer to the sun in the process, Fischer-Gödde said.<h2 id="42437828-e838-4325-833b-b21d3ef96f61">NASA doesn't know where all the dangerous asteroids are</h2><div type="image" title="A stegosaurus skeleton in front of a sign that reads &quot;Apex the Segosaurs&quot;" height="683" width="1024" msid="112576306" hostid="261" sizebytes="48450"></div>Despite the rarity of huge asteroid strikes, NASA and other space agencies are racing to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-built-largest-digital-camera-lsst-for-asteroids-dark-matter-2024-4">learn all they can</a> about potentially harmful rocks that could trigger another mass extinction event. Because it only takes one.There are still many unknowns about these rocks, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">where some of them are</a> and which types may pose the most threat.Understanding more about the origin of major asteroid strikes in Earth's past could help NASA know where to look for future risks.With the ruthenium findings, "we are a step further in zooming in on the exact object" that created the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-more-sulfur-rapid-climate-cooling-2017-11">Chicxulub crater</a>, Jan Smit, a professor emeritus at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider via email.<h2 id="bbfbaaec-0fb8-4e72-a632-37f1006840ab">An asteroid type that rarely hits Earth did unbelievable damage</h2><div type="image" title="An artist's illustration of a massive asteroid colliding with Earth" height="1414" width="2121" msid="112576307" hostid="261" sizebytes="186530"></div>Fischer-Gödde and his colleagues examined samples from five <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulation-experts-fear-congress-would-delay-action-2024-6">other impacts</a> that happened in the last 541 million years.Their levels of ruthenium showed that most of the objects were S-type asteroids, which are found in the inner solar system.Meanwhile, the samples taken from the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, where the Chicxulub impactor hit, suggested that the object was a C-type asteroid, which typically live in the outer solar system.Earlier studies <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=d979a6041b8f5d7121d348980127dd645a72bea6c355d8e6bd6ce429583ce309&amp;postID=66be5b0fb9a365362651ba40&amp;postSlug=origins-asteroid-killed-dinosaurs-help-prevent-future-mass-extinction-2024-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2F24322">suggested</a> the Chicxulub impactor was a C-type asteroid but this latest ruthenium data adds to the supporting evidence, Smit told BI.About 80% of the meteorites that have hit Earth are fragments of S-type asteroids, Fischer-Gödde said.It's not clear why S-type impactors are more common, but Fischer-Gödde thinks it might be that C-types tend to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-asteroid-couldnt-stop-impact-europe-2021-5">break apart more</a> and don't make it through the Earth's atmosphere."So far we cannot really say whether one or the other asteroid type would be more likely to cause a mass extinction event," Fischer-Gödde said in a follow-up email. He said asteroids may have contributed to older mass extinction events, like the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=31f1c3e012df1524f07e36095b624c954adf7b450ab4f9552ae32e03b640b8fe&amp;postID=66be5b0fb9a365362651ba40&amp;postSlug=origins-asteroid-killed-dinosaurs-help-prevent-future-mass-extinction-2024-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fmass-extinction">one</a> during the Late Devonian period. Future research could explain the origins of these asteroid strikes as well.However, the devastation from the Chicxulub impactor shows that a C-type can be disastrous for Earth. It was a combination of factors, from its size to where it hit, that led to its widespread destruction."It's a big kind of cosmic coincidence, and we all should be thankful for this because otherwise maybe the planet would look very different nowadays," Fischer-Gödde said.The researchers published their findings in the journal <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk4868">Science</a>.

Scientists think they've found the origin of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. It could help prevent a future mass extinction on Earth.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>On Thursday and Saturday, two different <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-threat-of-meteor-crashing-into-earth-is-bigger-than-you-think-2019-5">"potentially hazardous" asteroids</a> will fly by Earth.</li><li>The first is as big as a mountain, and the second will be one of the brightest in recent history.</li></ul>Two rare <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">asteroids</a> will zoom past Earth at close range this week, within just 42 hours of each other.Due to their size and trajectory, both of these space rocks are labeled "potentially hazardous." But that doesn't mean they pose an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">immediate threat to Earth</a>.In fact, both of them will safely fly by at thousands of miles per hour. There's a zero percent chance that either will collide with our planet, according to the European Space Agency.Neither of these asteroids will be visible to the naked eye, but you may be able to spot them with a telescope or binoculars, Gianluca Masi, astrophysicist and founder of The Virtual Telescope Project, told Business Insider over email.Or, you can watch them via livestreams hosted by The Virtual Telescope Project:<ul><li>Use <a target="_blank" href="https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/">this link</a> to watch Asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21 streak past Earth on Thursday, June 27, starting at 4:00 p.m. ET.</li><li>And <a target="_blank" href="https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2024/06/20/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-2024-mk-very-close-encounter-online-observation-29-june-2024/">this link</a> to watch Asteroid 2024 MK fly by on Saturday, June 29, starting at 5:00 p.m. ET.</li></ul><h2 id="f7d4c781-e54b-4539-9212-0b088e744ec7">Mountain-sized Asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21</h2><div type="image" title="ESA infographic about Asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21 and it's close approach on June 27 2024." height="1080" width="1920" msid="111295552" hostid="261"></div>Asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21 is one of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/details-from-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-2013-11">largest asteroids</a> to have recently passed near Earth, Masi wrote in a press statement.With an estimated diameter of roughly 1.4 miles, this mountain-sized space rock is larger than 99% of all known <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">near-Earth objects</a>, according to the European Space Agency.Asteroid 2011 UL21 falls into a class of space rocks known as "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-plan-alert-public-world-asteroid-strike-2024-2">planet killers</a>," which are at least 1.2 miles wide. If one crashed into Earth, it would cause damage on a continental scale, and potentially kick up enough dust to trigger significant climactic changes for many years, LiveScience <a target="_blank" href="https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/mountain-size-planet-killer-asteroid-will-make-a-close-approach-to-earth-this-week-and-you-can-watch-it-live">reported</a>.The Chicxulub asteroid, for example, credited with the dinosaurs' demise was about 6.5 miles across and triggered global warming for an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aap8525?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D71187586662918797870423820668119382806%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1719416200">estimated</a> 100,000 years after impact.<div type="image" title="An artist's illustration of a massive asteroid colliding with Earth" height="1414" width="2121" msid="111295553" hostid="261"></div>Luckily, 2011 UL21 won't be coming close enough to cause any concern on Thursday. It'll sneak by Earth at a safe distance of more than 4 million miles, which is 17 times farther than <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-moon-distance-edge-of-outer-space-2018-5">the distance between Earth and the moon</a>, Masi wrote.But this fly-by is noteworthy because 2011 UL21 will be among the top 10 largest asteroids to pass by Earth at close range in the last 125 years, he added.<h2 id="789dcbe3-2c95-457e-9dcd-ad0ac66ffd8e">Newly discovered Asteroid 2024 MK</h2><div type="image" title="ESA infographic about Asteroid 2024 MK and its close approach on June 29, 2024." height="1080" width="1920" msid="111295549" hostid="261"></div>Asteroid 2024 MK was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-sent-spaceship-near-dinkinesh-asteroid-discovered-second-baby-one-2023-11">first discovered</a> earlier this month, just 13 days before it will pass by Earth at remarkably close range, according to the European Space Agency.It's much smaller than 2011 UL21, with an estimated diameter between 390 and 885 feet. That's roughly the length of one to 2.5 football fields.<div type="image" title="Gif map of Asteroid 2024 MK's close approach with Earth" height="669" width="800" msid="111295551" hostid="261"></div>But what this asteroid lacks in size, it should make up for in brightness. It will come within 184,000 miles of Earth, which is about 77% of the average distance between the Earth and the moon, Masi wrote.It's close proximity will make it one of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amateur-astronomer-video-jupiter-bright-fireball-comet-asteroid-impact-2023-9">brightest objects</a> of its kind observed in recent history, he added.

2 'potentially hazardous' asteroids will streak by Earth this week, one as big as a mountain. You can watch it live.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The second moon that Earth has captured in its orbit this month is an asteroid called 2024 PT5.</li><li>Mini-moons like this could be ideal targets for asteroid mining to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">send humans deeper into space</a>.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/second-moon-orbiting-earth-when-why-what-to-know-2024-9 ">second moon that Earth now has for two months</a> may seem like just a fun curiosity, but it's also a sneak peek at a future space industry that could change our global economy.An asteroid called 2024 PT5, which normally orbits the sun as part of the Arjuna asteroid belt, was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-photograph-mini-moon-small-object-in-orbit-2020-2">captured in Earth's orbit</a> on Sunday, according to astronomers' projections. Astronomers expect it to spend about 57 days traveling along a horseshoe-shaped path around Earth before rejoining its asteroid belt.For those 57 days, the school-bus-sized <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulation-experts-fear-congress-would-delay-action-2024-6">asteroid</a> will be a "natural satellite" of Earth — basically another, temporary moon.<div type="image" title="screenshot of asteroid profile page showing illustration of a bumpy candy-corn-shaped grey asteroid in space with a text box labeling it 2024 PT5 and saying its average estimated diameter is 10.76 m" height="1537" width="2864" msid="113817839" hostid="261" sizebytes="68552"></div>That makes it economically intriguing. "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">Mini-moons</a>" like this are ideal targets for mining, according to Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, one of the scientists who charted 2024 PT5's path around our planet.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">Asteroid mining</a> could someday help humans travel further out into the cosmos and extend our presence through the solar system. That's because some asteroids contain valuable metals like iron or platinum, as well as water.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's vision of a city on Mars</a>, for example, depends on asteroid mining. Temporary moons like 2024 PT5 could be a key stepping stone."Mini-moons are very important for the nascent global <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">space economy</a>," Marcos told Business Insider in an email. Because they come so close to Earth and take a sojourn in our orbit, he added, "they are among the objects easier to reach using low-cost missions."<h2 id="462c4c69-18b1-4a3f-8e7d-7cb0491d6b39">Asteroids can be worth quintillions</h2>Asteroid 2024 PT5 may not be worth much, since scientists think it's made of basalt.It's basically "a giant boulder," Teddy Kareta, a planetary scientist at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.But some asteroids contain so much metal that they're <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">worth more than our entire global economy</a>.Take Psyche, for example, an asteroid that NASA is sending a spacecraft to for scientific study, since the agency believes it to be the core of a long-dead planet.Psyche's metal-rich makeup — mostly iron and nickel — makes it worth an estimated $100 quintillion if it were here on Earth.<div type="image" title="graphic of what the asteroid is thought to look like" height="900" width="1600" msid="113817842" hostid="261" sizebytes="175866"></div>Some asteroids even have precious metals like platinum, gold, and cobalt.Nobody has mined an asteroid yet, though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-osiris-rex-probe-landing-on-asteroid-kicking-dust-2020-10">NASA punched one</a> in 2020 to grab scientific samples from it.Some startups are trying to figure out how to start mining space rocks, and do it in a cost-effective way. Flying to an asteroid isn't cheap.One of them, called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-startup-has-booked-its-first-test-mission-spacex-2022-6">AstroForge, has launched a small probe with SpaceX</a>, though the spacecraft wasn't able to conduct the testing they'd planned, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/asteroid-mining-astroforge-docking-mission-2025">Space.com</a>. The company is now planning two more missions, which it hopes will culminate in its first landing on a metallic asteroid in 2025.<h2 id="e5b0dd4a-bb61-4c4d-a49c-2d9e9a2960a9">Pit stops on the way to Mars</h2>Long-distance <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">deep-space missions</a>, especially if they're carrying humans and cargo, will have a fuel problem.Fuel is heavy, so the less of it you have to load onto a spacecraft the better. On the long flight to Mars or other planets, asteroids could become gas stations.That's because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/506/1/L6/6298231?login=false">research</a> <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JE005584">suggests</a> that many asteroids in Earth's neighborhood are rich in water, which can be mined and split into its elementary components — hydrogen and oxygen, both of which are critical for making rocket fuel.Mini-moons are perfect places to start, some scientists think, because of their proximity to Earth but also because of how small they are.It takes an immense amount of rocket fuel to escape Earth's powerful gravitational pull. But little asteroids don't have much gravity, making it easy to leapfrog off of them."It only takes a puff of fuel to leave the mini-moon and head back towards Earth," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT, previously told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/undiscovered-minimoons-may-orbit-earth-could-they-help-us-become-an-interplanetary-species">Live Science</a>.<h2 id="bf8bc193-7a0a-4a09-9d9c-2c6ac7e8d411">Mini-moon missions at the ready</h2>One problem with mini-moons is that scientists sometimes don't see them coming until a few weeks before they're captured in our planet's orbit.Asteroid 2024 PT5, for example, was first identified as a mini-moon in early September and will only be in Earth's orbit for about 57 days.That's a tight timeline for preparing and launching a mining mission. For any asteroid, "you need to learn enough about it to know whether it's worth sending a rocket up," Kareta said.Asteroid-mining companies can work around that by having mining spacecraft ready in Earth's orbit, waiting for the right space rock to zoom by, Marcos said."Either if you are thinking about collecting mineral samples for research or starting a space mining venture, mini-moons are your best bet to get your business off the ground," he said.

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

This asteroid dirt might explain the origins of life on Earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA conducted a new tabletop simulation of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/potentially-hazardous-asteroids-fly-by-earth-this-week-watch-live-2024-6">discovering a large asteroid headed for Earth</a>.</li><li>Experts feared Congress wouldn't fund a mission to an asteroid with a 72% chance of impacting Earth.</li></ul>NASA recently brought together about 100 experts to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-asteroid-couldnt-stop-impact-europe-2021-5">pretend that an asteroid was heading for Earth</a>.The tabletop <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulations-difficult-to-stop-2021-5">simulation presented a hypothetical scenario</a> in which cities like Dallas, Washington, DC, and Madrid were at risk of a large asteroid impact."A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">large asteroid impact</a> is potentially the only natural disaster humanity has the technology to predict years in advance and take action to prevent," Lindley Johnson, a NASA planetary defense officer emeritus, said in a press release.But it wasn't clear that they could prevent such a catastrophe — even with 14 years to figure it out.The simulation revealed that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">technology wasn't the problem</a> that could ultimately doom a city, region, or entire country. It was politics.<div type="image" title="Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol on December 12, 2023." height="1500" width="2000" msid="111347083" hostid="261"></div>"I know what I would prefer [to do], but Congress will tell us to wait," one participant said of their asteroid-response plan, in a selection of anonymized comments in NASA's summary of the exercise, published on June 20."The most important item of the morning was the discussion involving the political nature of the decision-making," another participant said.<h2 id="fff0e374-634e-421c-bed3-007449857a08">Congress may not move fast enough</h2>NASA has conducted nearly a dozen tabletop simulations since 2013. This one happened in May and included participants from the US State Department, FEMA, and the space agencies of Europe, the UK, Japan, and Canada.<div type="image" title="large conference room with long desks full of people in suits sitting at laptops and looking at a large presentation screen with a person at a podium presenting" height="900" width="1634" msid="111347084" hostid="261"></div>Past exercises showed that, in order to save the world, NASA would need at least <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">five years' notice that an asteroid was headed toward us</a>, maybe even 10 years.This time the simulators learned that, even when they had plenty of time, they might not be able to launch their preferred anti-asteroid offensive.That's because they didn't think Congress would approve funding for a critical space mission to study the asteroid "unless impact became certain," NASA's summary said.A major part of the simulation was figuring out how to impress the "seriousness" of the situation upon Congress and other leadership, Johnson said.What's more, the 14-year timeline spanned multiple budget cycles and presidential elections. At any of those junctures, the president, Congress, or NASA's own leadership could change priorities and disrupt the asteroid plan.<h2 id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">The most likely incoming asteroid scenario</h2>Here are the hypothetical conditions the participants were given in this year's exercise: Scientists have determined a 72% chance of this asteroid impacting Earth in 14 years. It could strike anywhere across a swath of North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.The asteroid's size was unclear. It could be anywhere from 60 to 800 meters (half a mile) wide — possibly big enough to devastate an entire country.All that uncertainty made this "a very realistic scenario," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT who specializes in potentially hazardous asteroids, but did not participate in the simulation, told Business Insider."In fact, it's the most likely type of scenario we will face, where an asteroid is discovered and we have limited information," Binzel said.Options for preventing an asteroid impact include shooting the asteroid with lasers, launching a nuclear bomb at it, or simply smacking a space probe into it to nudge it away from Earth.NASA has tested one of those options in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-crashes-dart-spacecraft-into-asteroid-to-test-planetary-defense-2022-9">mission that punched an asteroid</a> and dramatically changed its path in 2022, just to prove the technique could work.<div type="image" title="sequence of images showing asteroid from a distance then close up then video cutting out" height="1000" width="2000" msid="111347087" hostid="261"></div>In the simulation, experts wanted more information to understand their anti-asteroid options.Unfortunately, the fictional space rock was about to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">pass behind the sun and disappear</a> from view for seven months. To avoid wasting precious time, scientists would have to send a spacecraft to the asteroid to learn more about it.That's where they feared politics would get in the way. Participants weren't sure Congress would fund the mission unless the asteroid was a certain threat — not a 72% chance of threat.So far, NASA has not discovered any large asteroids on track to impact Earth.But scientists have identified fewer than 11,000 near-Earth asteroids that are at least 140 meters (460 feet) wide — big enough to crush a city. They believe there are 15,000 of them in our vicinity, meaning more than a quarter of city killers remain undiscovered.<h2 id="8dbc0625-4426-4bc0-ba2d-99b4f3dc63a5">NASA could plan a mission just in case</h2>Binzel says NASA could get political and bureaucratic barriers out of the way now, before any asteroid threats are identified, by developing a reconnaissance mission to have on standby."It's an adult thing to do that can protect us from becoming surprised," he said.The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine made a similar recommendation in its last decadal survey of planetary science priorities.In that 2022 <a target="_blank" href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/26522/interactive/">report</a>, the Academies said that NASA should "develop an approach for a rapid-response, flyby" spacecraft to closely study newly-discovered threats. That way, it could launch a reconnaissance mission in less than three years if it became necessary. The Academies also recommended a demonstration to practice reconnaissance on a real asteroid.So why isn't NASA working on that right now?"It's not in the budget," Binzel said.First NASA has to make a proposal for such a mission, with a thumbs up from the White House, and then Congress would have to authorize and fund it."If there's an asteroid out there with our name on it, it's already there," Binzel said. "Fortunately, the chance in the next century or so is incredibly small. But it's not zero."

NASA simulated an incoming asteroid impact, and the biggest roadblock to action was penny pinching

<ul><li>A new study by Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe finds that water and organic matter were brought to <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">earth</keyword> by asteroids.</li><li>A team of astronomers from Japan drew the analysis based on samples from the <keyword id="3634650" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ryugu" source="Orion">Ryugu</keyword> asteroid.</li><li>Hayabusa2 left Earth on 2014 and reached its stationary position above Ryugu in June 2018.</li></ul>Water and organic matter was brought to Earth by asteroids, finds Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe. The findings, published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy explains the mystery of how the Earth, which consisted almost entirely of molten magma in its initial formation, came to be covered in water, Kyodo News reported. A team of astronomers from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency drew the analysis based on samples from the Ryugu asteroid collected by the Hayabusa2 space probe. "In a broad sense, it is possible that small celestial bodies brought things that led to water and life on Earth," Motoo Ito, a senior researcher of geomaterials science at the <keyword id="14731597" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="japan-agency" source="Orion">Japan Agency</keyword> for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, was quoted as saying. In December 2020, a capsule that had been carried on a six-year mission by Hayabusa2 delivered more than 5.4 grams of surface material to Earth from the Ryugu asteroid, located over 300 million km away. While Ryugu particles displayed a close compositional match to that of Earth's water, there were some slight differences, leading researchers to hypothesise that Earth may have also sourced its water from places other than asteroids, the report said. An analysis of eight particles, totalling approximately 59 milligrams, from the Ryugu asteroid found in almost all of them organic matter and water not in liquid form but a hydroxyl group consisting of one oxygen atom bonded to one hydrogen atom, with a composition similar to that of water contained in cosmic dust and comets. Protected by a "cradle" of phyllosilicates, they were believed to have endured harsh environmental changes after leaving the outer solar system, where water and organic matter are present. Organic areas comprising a matter known as aliphatic hydrocarbon were also found within the relatively coarse-grained phyllosilicates. The surrounding coarse grains, which are more resistant to heat, may have prevented water and the organic matter from being altered by the environment, the report said. Hayabusa2 left Earth in 2014 and reached its stationary position above Ryugu in June 2018 after travelling 3.2 billion km on an elliptical orbit around the Sun for more than three years. The probe touched down on the asteroid twice the following year, collecting the first-ever subsurface samples from an asteroid. Researchers have previously found that Ryugu, born from a parent body formed in the outer solar system, travelled to the inner solar system and that its particles contain amino acids -- organic compounds said to be the "source of life." SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/news/400-acre-barrens-in-trichy-district-i[%E2%80%A6]-to-turn-into-a-palm-tree-forest/articleshow/93588898.cms">400-acre barrens in Trichy district in Tamil Nadu to turn into a palm tree forest</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/news/human-activities-disrupted-even-the-m[%E2%80%A6]es-in-the-earths-ecosystem-study/articleshow/93590471.cms">Human activities disrupted even the most resilient species in the Earth's ecosystem: study</a>

Earth got its water and organic matter from asteroids, finds Japan's space probe

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A giant "city killer" asteroid will safely shoot past Earth today traveling at 41,000 mph.</li><li>Its closest approach to Earth will be 1.77 million miles, over seven times the distance to the moon.</li></ul>NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has spotted a giant <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-predicts-exact-date-asteroid-hit-earth-atomic-bomb-bennu-2023-9">"city killer" asteroid</a> flying toward Earth. And this afternoon, it will reach its closest approach to our planet, about 1.77 million miles away.For reference, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mind-boggling-nasa-photo-shows-moon-distance-from-earth-2022-10">the moon</a> is about 239,000 miles from Earth, so this asteroid will be 7.4 times as far from Earth as the moon is. The speedy space rock is expected to be zipping along at about 41,000 mph and measures roughly 890 feet across, or roughly the size of a US football stadium, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch/next-five-approaches">NASA</a>.<div type="image" title="View of a football stadium from above." height="2051" width="1461" msid="107369399" hostid="261" sizebytes="513156"></div>Experts sometimes call asteroids this size "city killers" because they're capable of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">destroying an entire city</a> if they collide with an inhabited part of Earth.Still, this asteroid will be too small and far away to see without a telescope. It will be about 10,000 times fainter than the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/type-be-vampire-stars-secret-helper-2023-11">faintest stars</a> visible to the naked eye, Gianluca Masi, an astrophysicist and the scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project, told Business Insider over email.But if you want to catch a glimpse of the asteroid as it whizzes by, you're in luck!Masi and his colleagues will be recording the event live starting at 1 p.m. ET today. You can watch the livestream on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CtdiyL86JE&amp;ab_channel=TheVirtualTelescopeProject">YouTube</a> or in the video below.The livestream will track Asteroid 2008 OS7 as it flies by Earth. Viewers will be able to distinguish it as a tiny dot moving past other fixed tiny dots, aka stars, in the background. The livestream will last about 45 minutes, Masi said.VTP has recorded other flybys like this, and it's "something always very fascinating to see," Masi told BI.<h2>About Asteroid 2008 OS7</h2>Asteroid 2008 OS7 orbits the sun every 962 days. After passing by Earth, it will continue along its oval-shaped path through our solar system.Its oblong-shaped orbit means that each time the asteroid approaches Earth, its distance from our planet varies significantly.For example, the website <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spacereference.org/asteroid/2008-os7">Space Reference</a> estimates that upon its next close approach, in July 2037, it will be about 9.7 million miles from Earth.<h2>Potentially hazardous asteroids</h2>Asteroid 2008 OS7 is what <a target="_blank" href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html">NASA calls</a> a "potentially hazardous" asteroid because of its size and how close it flies past Earth.An asteroid is considered potentially hazardous if it is at least 460 feet in diameter and orbits Earth within a distance of about 4.65 million miles.Scientists have identified more than <a target="_blank" href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/totals.html">34,000 near-Earth objects</a>. Just over 2,300 have been designated <a target="_blank" href="https://www.space.com/ai-finds-first-potentially-dangerous-asteroid">potentially hazardous</a>.But NASA suspects there are many more out there that haven't been discovered. If a giant asteroid were on course to hit Earth, we'd need <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5#:~:text=NASA%20is%20developing%20a%20space%20telescope%20to%20track%20asteroids&amp;text=NASA%20is%20planning%20a%20mission,into%20Earth's%20orbit%20in%202026.">five to 10 years of warning</a> to destroy or deflect it.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/near-earth-object-surveyor">Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission</a>, set to launch in September 2027. It would send an infrared space telescope into Earth's orbit to expand NASA's search for near-Earth objects that could threaten our planet.

A football stadium-sized asteroid will blaze by Earth today. Here's how to watch the potentially hazardous 'city killer' live.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Earth is getting a second moon, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">a mini-moon asteroid</a> called 2024 PT5, on September 29.</li><li>This asteroid from the Arjuna asteroid belt will follow a horseshoe path around Earth for 57 days.</li></ul>Earth is about to pluck a second moon from an asteroid belt — but we only get this <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-photograph-mini-moon-small-object-in-orbit-2020-2">mini-moon</a> for 57 days.It's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/potentially-hazardous-asteroids-fly-by-earth-this-week-watch-live-2024-6">an asteroid</a> about the size of a school bus, at 35 feet long, and it has a typical, un-snazzy asteroid name: 2024 PT5.Earth is poised to pick up this hitchhiker from the nearby Arjuna <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">asteroid belt</a> on September 29.According to a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad781f">paper</a> published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society this month, the 2024 PT5 asteroid will then be in the grasp of Earth's gravity, following a horseshoe-like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/animation-shows-moon-orbits-barycenter-below-earth-surface-2021-3">path around our planet</a> until November 25, when it will return to an orbit around the sun.<div type="image" title="screenshot of asteroid profile page showing illustration of a bumpy candy-corn-shaped grey asteroid in space with a text box labeling it 2024 PT5 and saying its average estimated diameter is 10.76 m" height="1537" width="2864" msid="113609379" hostid="261" sizebytes="68552"></div>"You may say that if a true <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artificial-star-earth-orbit-help-astronomy-science-calibrate-telescope-2024-6">satellite</a> is like a customer buying goods inside a store, objects like 2024 PT5 are window shoppers," Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, the paper's lead author, told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/earth-mini-moon-asteroid-2024-pt5">Space.com</a>.The asteroid poses no threat to Earth.<h2 id="2a322604-0537-4de0-b3ff-12eba524a529">You'll probably only see the mini-moon in photos</h2>This mini-moon is nothing like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">our real moon</a>. It's super mini. Forget about spotting it with your naked eye or even a pair of binoculars.In fact, according to Dan Bartlett, an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tried-see-green-comet-fail-2023-2">astrophotographer in California</a>, asteroid 2024 PT5 is so faint that it's "well beyond the limits of most of the best amateur telescopes."That won't stop him from trying to photograph it, though.From his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/darkest-skies-by-state-watch-space-events-stargazing">dark-skies </a>vantage point in the middle of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Bartlett thinks he might be able to catch the asteroid by imaging all night long with his sophisticated telescope equipment on an extra-dark night when the main moon is not in the sky."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-photograph-full-moon-according-to-astrophotographers-top-tips-2024-9">The image probably won't look like much</a> but you never know until you try," Bartlett told BI in an email.However, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/images-show-james-webb-space-telescope-stronger-sharper-than-hubble-2022-7">telescopes</a> used by professional astronomers should be able to image 2024 PT5 easily, according to Marcos.<div type="image" title="four pixelated blurry images of white dots in distant space with one long dot circled in purple in the center" height="928" width="936" msid="113609377" hostid="261" sizebytes="78262"></div>So stay tuned for pictures.<h2 id="90a35d03-b346-44fa-a648-63841dcaf537">When the mini-moon returns</h2>The asteroid won't make its closest <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">approach to Earth</a> until after it loses mini-moon status, though.On January 8, 2025, according to NASA, it will skim past Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers).For reference, the main moon (the big one you see in the sky at night) is, on average, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mind-boggling-nasa-photo-shows-moon-distance-from-earth-2022-10">about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away from us</a>. It will probably still be impossible to see with binoculars or the naked eye.After that, our temporary moonlet won't fly by again until 2055.It's not our first mini-moon and it won't be the last. Another asteroid, called 2022 NX1, briefly fell into Earth's orbit in 2022. Astronomers declared it to be a mini-moon, or a "short-term natural satellite," and determined that it would return again in 2051.The situation brings Bartlett to a simple conclusion, which you may have reached too: "Space is neat," he said.

Earth is about to get a 2nd moon, for 57 days only. Here's what you need to know.

A potentially hazardous giant asteroid is set to zoom past <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword> with a 37,400 km/h speed on Thursday, according to <keyword id="6360409" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>. The asteroid, named 418135 (2008 AG33), has an estimated diameter between 350 to 780 metres, revealed NASA's <keyword id="13734975" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="centre-for-near-earth-object-studies" source="Orion">Centre for Near Earth Object Studies</keyword> (CNEOS). NASA defines any space object that comes within 193 million km of Earth as a "near-Earth object" (NEO) and any fast-moving object within 7.5 million km as "potentially hazardous". According to the Centre, as they orbit the <keyword id="24879" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sun" source="Orion">Sun</keyword>, the NEOs can occasionally approach close to Earth. However, it explained that a "close" passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres. Asteroid 418135 is thus expected to skim past our planet without any risk of impact, <keyword id="1274891" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="live-science" source="Orion">Live Science</keyword> reported. At its closest point, the asteroid, travelling at more than 30 times the speed of sound, will come within about 3.2 million kilometres of Earth, which is roughly eight times the average distance between Earth and the Moon. Asteroid 418135 was first discovered on January 12, 2008, by asteroid surveyors at the Mt. <keyword id="13734974" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="lemmon-skycenter" source="Orion">Lemmon SkyCenter</keyword> observatory in Arizona and last zipped past Earth on March 1, 2015, according to CNEOS. The asteroid swings by our planet roughly every seven years, with the next close flyby predicted to come on May 25, 2029. But it may not be the biggest space rock to hurtle past Earth. Another asteroid, named 467460 (2006 JF42) is touted to be the biggest so far to zoom past Earth, the report said. The space rock has an estimated diameter between 380 to 860 metres and will be travelling at roughly 40,700 km/h when it passes Earth on May 9. Several space agencies are already working on ways to possibly deflect asteroids flying straight at Earth. Last November, NASA launched a spacecraft as a part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, which plans to redirect a non-hazardous asteroid by ramming it off course. China is also in the early planning stages of an asteroid-redirect mission. By slamming 23 Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu, the country says it would be able to divert the space rock from a potentially catastrophic impact with Earth, the report said. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ola-may-be-rushing-into-electric-cars-when-scooters-continue-to-underperform/articleshow/91141264.cms"></a><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-will-now-allow-users-to-remove-personal-information-from-their-search-results/articleshow/91142502.cms">Google will now allow users to remove personal information from their Search results</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/adani-enterprises-sets-up-a-wholly-owned-media-arm/articleshow/91128727.cms"></a><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/skywatching-on-april-30-venus-and-jupiter-will-look-like-they-are-about-to-collide/articleshow/91145254.cms">Skywatching on April 30: Venus and Jupiter will look like they are about to collide</a>

You Searched For "Asteroid Earth" and got 10 results

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NASA simulated an incoming asteroid impact, and the biggest roadblock to action was penny pinching

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Earth got its water and organic matter from asteroids, finds Japan's space probe

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A football stadium-sized asteroid will blaze by Earth today. Here's how to watch the potentially hazardous 'city killer' live.

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Potentially hazardous giant asteroid to skim past Earth on Thursday: NASA

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