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<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><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><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><p>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.</p><p><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.</p><p><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.</p><p>"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."</p><h2 id="462c4c69-18b1-4a3f-8e7d-7cb0491d6b39">Asteroids can be worth quintillions</h2><p>Asteroid 2024 PT5 may not be worth much, since scientists think it's made of basalt.</p><p>It's basically "a giant boulder," Teddy Kareta, a planetary scientist at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.</p><p>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>.</p><p>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.</p><p>Psyche's metal-rich makeup — mostly iron and nickel — makes it worth an estimated $100 quintillion if it were here on Earth.</p><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><p>Some asteroids even have precious metals like platinum, gold, and cobalt.</p><p>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><strong> </strong>in 2020 to grab scientific samples from it.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><h2 id="e5b0dd4a-bb61-4c4d-a49c-2d9e9a2960a9">Pit stops on the way to Mars</h2><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Mini-moons are perfect places to start, some scientists think, because of their proximity to Earth but also because of how small they are.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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>.</p><h2 id="bf8bc193-7a0a-4a09-9d9c-2c6ac7e8d411">Mini-moon missions at the ready</h2><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p>

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

<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><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Asteroids have different chemical makeups depending on where they formed in our solar system.</p><p>To determine the<strong> </strong>dino-killing<strong> </strong>asteroid's origin, researchers examined the various elements in samples taken from<strong> </strong>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>.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><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><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Understanding more about the origin of major asteroid strikes in Earth's past could help NASA know where to look for future risks.</p><p>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.</p><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><p>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.</p><p>Their levels of ruthenium showed that most of the objects were S-type asteroids, which are found in the inner solar system.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>About 80% of the meteorites that have hit Earth are fragments of S-type asteroids, Fischer-Gödde said.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>The researchers published their findings in the journal <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk4868"><u>Science</u></a>.</p>

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>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><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Earth is poised to pick up this<strong> </strong>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.</p><p>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.</p><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><p>"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>.</p><p>The asteroid poses no threat to Earth.</p><h2 id="2a322604-0537-4de0-b3ff-12eba524a529">You'll probably only see the mini-moon in photos</h2><p>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.</p><p>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."</p><p>That won't stop him from trying to photograph it, though.</p><p>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.</p><p>"<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.</p><p>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.</p><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><p>So stay tuned for pictures.</p><h2 id="90a35d03-b346-44fa-a648-63841dcaf537">When the mini-moon returns</h2><p>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.</p><p>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).</p><p>For reference, the main<strong> </strong>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.</p><p>After that, our temporary moonlet won't fly by again until 2055.</p><p>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.</p><p>The situation brings Bartlett to a simple conclusion, which you may have reached too: "Space is neat," he said.</p>

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

<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><p>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>.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>But it wasn't clear that they could prevent such a catastrophe — even with 14 years to figure it out.</p><p>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.</p><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><p>"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.</p><p>"The most important item of the morning was the discussion involving the political nature of the decision-making," another participant said.</p><h2 id="fff0e374-634e-421c-bed3-007449857a08">Congress may not move fast enough</h2><p>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.</p><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><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>A major part of the simulation was figuring out how to impress the "seriousness" of the situation upon Congress and other leadership, Johnson said.</p><p>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.</p><h2 id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">The most likely incoming asteroid scenario</h2><p id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">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.</p><p id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">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.</p><p id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">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.</p><p id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">"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.</p><p id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">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.</p><p>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.</p><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><p id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">In the simulation, experts wanted more information to understand their anti-asteroid options.</p><p id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">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.</p><p>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.</p><p>So far, NASA has not discovered any large asteroids on track to impact Earth.</p><p>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.</p><h2 id="8dbc0625-4426-4bc0-ba2d-99b4f3dc63a5">NASA could plan a mission just in case</h2><p>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.</p><p>"It's an adult thing to do that can protect us from becoming surprised," he said.</p><p>The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine made a similar recommendation in its last decadal survey of planetary science priorities.</p><p>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.</p><p>So why isn't NASA working on that right now?</p><p>"It's not in the budget," Binzel said.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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."</p>

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

<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><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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"><u>NASA</u></a>.</p><div type="image" title="View of a football stadium from above." height="2051" width="1461" msid="107369399" hostid="261" sizebytes="513156"></div><p>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.</p><p>Still, this asteroid will be too small and far away to see without a telescope. </p><p>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.</p><p>But if you want to catch a glimpse of the asteroid as it whizzes by, you're in luck!</p><p>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"><u>YouTube</u></a> or in the video below.</p><p>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.</p><p>VTP has recorded other flybys like this, and it's "something always very fascinating to see," Masi told BI.</p><h2>About Asteroid 2008 OS7</h2><p>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.</p><p>Its oblong-shaped orbit means that each time the asteroid approaches Earth, its distance from our planet varies significantly.</p><p>For example, the website <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spacereference.org/asteroid/2008-os7"><u>Space Reference</u></a> estimates that upon its next close approach, in July 2037, it will be about 9.7 million miles from Earth.</p><h2>Potentially hazardous asteroids</h2><p>Asteroid 2008 OS7 is what <a target="_blank" href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html"><u>NASA calls</u></a> a "potentially hazardous" asteroid because of its size and how close it flies past Earth.</p><p>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.</p><p>Scientists have identified more than <a target="_blank" href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/totals.html"><u>34,000 near-Earth objects</u></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>.</p><p>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."><u>five to 10 years of warning</u></a> to destroy or deflect it.</p><p>NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/near-earth-object-surveyor"><u>Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission</u></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.</p>

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>NOAA issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch for the first time in nearly 20 years.</li><li>This type of storm generates dazzling aurora, but can also cause radio blackouts and outages.</li></ul><p>For the first time in nearly 20 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecasted a "severe" G4 geomagnetic storm to hit this Friday, dazzling states across the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sunspot-seven-times-size-earth-bring-aurora-to-us-states-2024-5">northern US with aurora borealis</a>.</p><p>G4 storms are the second-strongest type of geomagnetic storm. "If geomagnetic storms were hurricanes, 'severe' would be category 4," according to SpaceWeather.com. </p><p>In the past, powerful geomagnetic storms have also been known to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storms-flares-dangerous-effects-earth-sun">mess with electronics</a> on satellites causing communication blackouts and disrupt the grid — triggering voltage control problems that can result in power outages.</p><p>For example, in October 2003, a G5 solar storm — the most severe type of g-storm — caused power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.</p><div type="image" title="GPS satellite over Earth" height="1500" width="2000" msid="110017877" hostid="261"></div><p>In preparation for Friday's G4 event, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has notified satellite and grid operators of the oncoming storm "so they can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-flare-coronal-eruption-geomagnetic-storm-effects-safety">take protective action</a>," the center announced Thursday.</p><p>For example, grid operators will likely withhold maintenance on Friday and Saturday to reduce the amount of stress they're putting on the grid, Matt Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told Business Insider.</p><p>All that is to say, experts told Business Insider they don't expect to see any major issues this Friday. <br /><br />"It's possible," Owens said. "If I was a betting man, I'd say there won't be serious effects. But I imagine there will be some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/northern-lights-artic-circle-trip-findland-tips-3-2023">impressive aurora</a>."</p><h2 id="c5784e8f-39e5-4ded-8a49-55f0cd176b80">What causes a geomagnetic storm</h2><div type="image" title="solar flare" height="300" width="400" msid="110017879" hostid="261"></div><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-eruption-coronal-mass-ejection-geomagnetic-storm-earth-aurora-friday-2023-11">Geomagnetic storms</a> occur when high-energy particles from the sun reach Earth and interact with our magnetic field.</p><p>But the sun is 93 million miles away, so to reach us these particles have to get a major boost. That boost comes from solar storms.</p><p>Solar storms happen when the sun shoots powerful explosions of highly-energized and magnetic plasma called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-probe-flew-through-sun-explosion-clue-solar-storms-cme-2024-4">coronal mass ejections</a> toward Earth.</p><p>To be clear, the sun is constantly erupting and hurling particles into space. Most of them are directed away from Earth and never reach us. Occasionally one will come our way, sparking a minor G1 or G2 storm.</p><div type="image" title="Magnetosphere earth magnetic field" height="720" width="1280" msid="110017881" hostid="261"></div><p>However, a G4 storm, like the one forecast through this weekend, is rare. The last time NOAA issued a G4 storm watch was in 2005.</p><p>Forecasts like these better help the folks managing satellites and power grids prepare. However, ultimately, we won't know how intense the storm will be until it's already here.</p><h2 id="53290ca3-ee15-40e0-bf39-4f463733a6ad">Forecasting solar storms is tricky</h2><div type="image" title="Aurora" height="1417" width="2114" msid="110017882" hostid="261"></div><p>Forecasting solar storms is tricky. "Sometimes we find that the storms can be stronger than we thought, or they can be somewhat of a dud," Alex Young, the associate director for science at NASA Goddard's Heliophysics Science Division, told BI.</p><p>This particular storm is especially difficult to track because it's made up of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-solar-flares-erupt-simultaneously-on-sun-earth-impacts-2024-4">five separate coronal mass ejections</a>, all hurtling towards Earth at roughly 560 miles per second, Owens said.</p><p>In case the storm is severe and triggers outages, it's always best to respond how you would for any <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackouts-power-outages-more-common-climate-change-electric-grid-infrastructure-2023-3">power outage</a>: keep your fridge closed, disconnect appliances to avoid damage from an electrical surge, and check with local officials about heating and cooling locations. Also, a severe storm might disrupt GPS, so it's best to have a written record and directions to important locations, like hospitals.</p><p>Also all signs point to an incredible light show for northern US states on Friday night, potentially reaching as far south as New York and Pennsylvania, Young said.</p>

A 'severe' geomagnetic storm is forecast for Earth for the first time in years &mdash; here's what to know about these storms

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US military carried out a series of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday.</li><li>The Pentagon disclosed that B-2 stealth bombers were involved in the operation.</li></ul><p>The US military carried out a series of airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Wednesday, using B-2 stealth bombers to hit targets underground.</p><p>The Pentagon suggested the B-2 Spirit's involvement in the operation sent a message to American adversaries, such as Iran, that no target is out of reach or too far hidden from the US. The bombers were specifically built to take out hard-to-reach targets.</p><p>Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the US <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/b-2-stealth-bombers-join-red-sea-fight-bomb-houthis-2024-10">carried out "precision strikes"</a> against five hardened underground weapons storage sites that the Houthis used to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-battles-best-iranian-tech-red-sea-admiral-2024-10">fuel their attacks</a> against shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.</p><p>The US military said that the Houthi rebels stored missiles, weapons parts, and other munitions at the facilities, adding that US Navy and US Air Force assets, including the B-2s, were involved in the operation.</p><p>Austin said in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3937640/statement-by-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-on-us-airstrikes-in-houthi/">statement</a> on the operation that "this was a unique demonstration of the United States' ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified."</p><div type="image" title="A B-2 bomber against a solid gray sky." height="4912" width="7360" msid="114327768" hostid="261" sizebytes="153116"></div><p>The defense secretary said that using the B-2s in the strike operation demonstrates America's "global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere."</p><p>The operation marks the first known deployment of the B-2 in the US military's monthslong <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-stuck-red-sea-battle-cant-fight-houthis-forever-2024-6">counter-Houthi campaign</a>, during which the Pentagon has relied heavily on its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-aircraft-carrier-eisenhower-planes-in-air-constantly-houthis-2024-2">warships and fighter jets</a> stationed in the region to carry out missions against the rebels.</p><p>The Air Force has just 19 operational B-2s, flying wing aircraft manufactured by Northrop Grumman. Two of the aircraft, which cost around $2 billion each, were lost in crashes. The US bases the heavy strategic bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.</p><p>Before the emergence of the new B-21 Raider, the B-2 was, for decades, the only stealth bomber. A powerful asset and an element of the US nuclear triad, these aircraft can deliver conventional and nuclear <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/b-2-bomber-sank-warship-pacific-new-anti-ship-bombs-2024-7">strikes on targets</a> as far as 6,000 nautical miles away without having to refuel.</p><p>Given the B-2's impressive range and stealth technology, the Air Force <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104482/b-2-spirit/#:~:text=The%20B%2D2%20provides%20the,%2C%20and%20heavily%20defended%2C%20targets">touts its</a> "unique ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets."</p><p>The bomber was designed with the Cold War and Soviet air defenses in mind. The Cold War ended before the aircraft was delivered, though.</p><p>The B-2 has flown missions in conflicts around the world over its nearly three decades of service; its last reported bombing run before the strike against the Houthis on Wednesday <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-gaza-lebanon-10-17-24-intl-hnk#cm2crnln300003b6nkz37kfot">took place</a> in early 2017 and targeted Islamic State operations.</p><div type="image" title="A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing takes off at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., April 15, 2024." height="4335" width="6502" msid="114327774" hostid="261" sizebytes="306580"></div><p>Mark Gunzinger, a retired Air Force colonel who flew the older B-52 Stratofortress bomber, said the stealth B-2 Spirit can essentially engage "any target on the face of the earth, and it can do so without the need to land in a specific region."</p><p>For instance, the bomber can easily fly from its base in the continental US and hit targets in the Middle East or conduct bomber patrols in the Indo-Pacific.</p><p>That capability is "important if you're conducting a limited strike to deny and deter and you did not want to involve your allies in that strike by landing at one of their air bases," Gunzinger, the director of future concepts and capability assessments at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Business Insider.</p><p>He added that the B-2's low observability also allows it to carry out penetrating strikes without warning to achieve the element of surprise. With its huge payload, too, this aircraft sends a powerful message to America's adversaries.</p><div type="image" title="US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and four Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A Lightning IIs fly together in a horizontal line above clouds." height="3336" width="5662" msid="114327772" hostid="261" sizebytes="240984"></div><p>The US military has not disclosed what munitions it released during the Houthi operation, but the B-2 is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.dote.osd.mil/Portals/97/pub/reports/FY2014/af/2014mop.pdf?ver=2019-08-22-110545-203">the only aircraft </a>in the Air Force that is programmed to drop the GBU-57 MOP "bunker buster."</p><p>The GBU-57 MOP, or Massive Ordnance Penetrator, is a GPS-guided, 30,000-pound bomb made by Boeing that can reach high-value targets buried up to 200 feet underground before exploding. It is the Air Force's largest non-nuclear bomb.</p><p>The large warhead case is designed for a large explosive payload while also remaining intact during impact, giving it the ability to penetrate hardened, protected targets.</p><p>The Air Force <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104614/massive-ordnance-penetrator/">describes the MOP</a> as a heavy munition that can accomplish "difficult" and "complicated" missions of reaching enemy weapons stored in well-protected sites.</p><p>The B-2 can also carry other powerful munitions, including 500-pound and 2,000-pound bombs. It's a weapon that sends a message like few others can.</p>

The B-2 stealth bomber used to hit the Houthis was built to strike the toughest targets

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Asteroid Bennu has a slim chance of hitting our planet on September 24, 2182, NASA said.</li><li>It would release as much energy as about 24 nuclear bombs, so NASA is keeping a close eye on it. </li></ul><p>What are you doing on September 24, 2182? You may want to clear your calendar because scientists think an asteroid may hit Earth. </p><p>NASA scientists are keeping a close eye on asteroid Bennu, a 1,610-foot-wide <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-sizes-that-can-damage-cities-states-planet-2018-6">cosmic object</a> that could smash into our planet.</p><p>If Bennu were to hit the Earth, it would slam into the surface at about seven miles per second. It is so big that it could release 1,400 megatons of energy, <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/details.html#?des=101955" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per a NASA calculation</a> — which is at least 24 times as powerful as the nuclear weapon, the Tsar Bomba. </p><p>Thankfully, the chances of this happening are very slim — about 1 in 2,700, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-spacecraft-provides-insight-into-asteroid-bennus-future-orbit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per a 2021 study</a>.</p><p>Still, NASA is interested enough in Bennu to launch a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-probe-returning-from-asteroid-with-2-oz-of-asteroid-space-rock-2021-5">seven-year-long mission</a> to study it, which is due to bring back a precious sample from the asteroid in a dramatic landing on Sunday.</p><p>This mission could help us better forecast the future of our cosmic neighbor, but it could also provide unprecedented insight into the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-earth-tectonic-plates-billion-years-2021-2">formation of the Earth</a>. </p><h2>Bennu is bigger than the Empire State Building</h2><p>Bennu belongs to a category of asteroids called "city-killers." That means that if it were to hit the Earth — the probability of which is zero until 2,100 and very small after that, per NASA — it would be powerful enough to flatten a large city. </p><div type="image" title="A animated gif shows a model of Bennu next to a picture of the Empire State Building and the Eiffel tower, both of which are about as tall as the asteroid is big." height="359" width="720" msid="103866263" hostid="261"></div><p>The diamond-shaped asteroid is no stranger to Earth's neighborhood. Its long orbit around the sun means it approaches the Earth about every six years.  But it usually keeps a polite distance from us — it's never come closer than about <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=Bennu&amp;view=OPC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3 million miles</a> from Earth.</p><p>As it makes its way around the solar system, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacecraft-asteroid-landing-osiris-rex-2020-10">Bennu's orbit</a> can change, and that's where it gets a little riskier. </p><p>To make its 2182 appointment with the Earth, Bennu will need to pass within a very small window in space — a "<a href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4921" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gravitational keyhole</a>" — in 2135. That would shift its orbit perfectly to line up with our planet.</p><p>But there's still a 99.96% chance it will miss us on that date. </p><h2>We need to know more about large Earth-bound asteroids</h2><p>Even though the risk is low, large asteroids near Earth need to be taken seriously. Of the ones we know, most pose <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/did-you-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">little to no</a> risk to our planet.</p><p>But the concern is that these kinds of objects could be hiding from view, meaning NASA can only spot them moments before they hit.</p><div type="image" title="A animated gif shows Bennu from all sides as it is being rotated around. The diamond-shaped grey asteroid is covered in boulders." height="900" width="900" msid="103866265" hostid="261"></div><p>NASA estimates that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">60% of the city-killer-sized</a> asteroids that could come in proximity to Earth are unknown at this time, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-killer-asteroid-could-threaten-earth-in-a-few-millennia-2022-10">even bigger rocks</a> could be hidden in the light of the sun, a known blindspot for observation from Earth. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chelyabinsk-meteor-mystery-3-years-later-2016-2?jwsource=cl">Chelyabinsk incident</a> provided a stark reminder of this fact in 2013 when a house-sized asteroid unexpectedly appeared over the city before exploding, breaking windows, damaging buildings, and injuring more than 1,400 people.</p><div type="image" title="asteroid russia Chelyabinsk" height="3744" width="4992" msid="103866266" hostid="261"></div>That's why NASA has been working to improve its forecasting of so-called Near Earth Objects.<p>Studying an object like Bennu, which is easy to observe and comes close enough to Earth that we can send a mission there, is important for understanding more about these objects. </p><p>NASA's mission to Bennu, a probe called Osiris-Rex that was launched in 2016, could provide more clues about how asteroids sail in the cosmos. For instance, one of the mission's objectives is to understand how the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/did-you-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">light from the sun,</a> as it is absorbed and re-radiated, could affect Bennu's orbit.</p><h2>Bennu could shed light on our planet's birth</h2><p>There's more to Bennu than its destructive potential, and that's what NASA is most interested in for Osiris-Rex.</p><p>Bennu was likely created at about the same time as our planet, about 4.5 billion years ago, <a href="https://beta.science.nasa.gov/mission/osiris-rex/osiris-rex-faq/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA said</a>.</p><p>Traces of what happened at that time have long been erased from our planet, under millions of years of erosion. But Bennu could still be carrying elements from then, frozen in time as it sails through the cosmos, per NASA.</p><p>That's why NASA is eagerly awaiting the return of its Osiris-Rex spacecraft, which is carrying a few ounces of precious dust collected from Bennu in 2020.</p><div type="image" title="OSIRIS REx collection" height="1312" width="1749" msid="103866269" hostid="261"></div><p>This little probe, which has been sailing back from Bennu since May 10, 2021, should deliver its payload, a capsule containing the precious sample, as it passes about 63,000 miles from the Earth in the early hours of Sunday morning. </p><p>The capsule is planned to fall back to Earth later Sunday morning, landing in Utah around 10:55 a.m. ET. </p>

NASA scientists calculated the exact date an asteroid could hit Earth with the force of at least 24 nuclear bombs. Thankfully, it's a long way off.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-heading-earth-bright-outshine-stars-scientists-c-2023-a32023-3">Comet A3, or Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS</a>, is visible in the Northern Hemisphere this October.</li><li>The comet takes 80,000 years to orbit the sun, so Neanderthals were among the last people to see it.</li></ul><p>A rare comet is gleaming in our skies this October, it's your only chance to ever see it, and it might be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saw-northern-lights-surprising-photos-misleading-2024-5">visible to<strong> </strong>the naked eye</a>.</p><p>Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, or Comet A3, is a dusty ball of ice from the Oort Cloud that takes about 80,000 years to orbit the sun. That means some of the last people to see it were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/last-neanderthal-thorin-unique-dna-help-explain-species-extinction-2024-9">Neanderthals</a>.</p><p>This is the best opportunity in years, and possibly in a decade, to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-viewing-where-when-how-see-2023-1">see a bright comet in the sky</a>. Experts are hopeful that Comet A3 will be "highly memorable" and "a real crowd pleaser," according to Dan Bartlett, an astrophotographer who tracks comets.</p><p>But you <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tried-see-green-comet-fail-2023-2">need to be prepared</a>.</p><p>"It's just hard to make the time to be in the right place, to have the right experience," Teddy Kareta, a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomer-animations-reveal-solar-system-physics-2021-10">planetary scientist</a> who specializes in comets at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.</p><p>When Kareta has talked to people who have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/devil-comet-visible-during-total-solar-eclipse-how-see-2024-4">seen a truly great comet</a>, though, "there's just nothing like it," he said.</p><p>Here's everything you should know to be in the right place at the right time and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-when-to-see-green-comet-mars-together-night-sky-2023-2">spot the comet</a>.</p><h2 id="11d1e1ae-eb70-4e43-aa3a-ab5cb2a93f24">How bright is Comet A3?</h2><p id="11d1e1ae-eb70-4e43-aa3a-ab5cb2a93f24">Nobody is certain about how bright this comet will be, but Kareta says it has the potential to be the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-green-comet-nishimura-2023-9">brightest comet</a> in a decade.</p><p id="11d1e1ae-eb70-4e43-aa3a-ab5cb2a93f24">The last big, bold comet was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">NEOWISE in 2020</a>. It was visible to the naked eye and produced stunning photos like this:</p><div type="image" title="comet neowise belarus" height="1911" width="3000" msid="113849897" hostid="261" sizebytes="285386"></div><p id="11d1e1ae-eb70-4e43-aa3a-ab5cb2a93f24">Astronomers are divided about whether Comet A3 will shine as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-passing-close-to-earth-dazzling-photos-videos-2020-7">bright as Comet NEOWISE</a>.</p><p id="11d1e1ae-eb70-4e43-aa3a-ab5cb2a93f24">In recent weeks, A3 has at times been brighter than predicted and at other times matched predictions, according to the BBC's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/beginners-guide-comet-c-2023-a3">Sky at Night Magazine</a> and Robert Massey, the deputy executive director of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_mGtE7282Q&amp;ab_channel=RoyalAstronomicalSociety">Royal Astronomical Society</a>.</p><p id="11d1e1ae-eb70-4e43-aa3a-ab5cb2a93f24">From a dark-sky vantage point at Mono Lake, California — tucked into the Sierra Nevadas — Bartlett says he can see the comet with binoculars already.</p><p>But comets can change quickly, in a matter of hours. That's because their brightness depends on what type and amount of gas or dust they're emitting, and that can change on a dime.</p><p>For example, in 2007 Comet Holmes suddenly flared up and became 500,000 times brighter in just two days because a pocket of gas inside it had breached its surface, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/20347-comet-brightness-predictions-difficult.html">Space.com</a>.</p><p>"Sometimes people will say that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-everest-sky-how-to-see-it-12p-pons-brooks-2024-3">predicting comets</a> is kind of like playing the lottery," Kareta said.</p><h2 id="f9be457b-ee58-4abd-b650-c3903d50bfb8">When and where to see Comet A3</h2><p id="f9be457b-ee58-4abd-b650-c3903d50bfb8">Weather permitting,<strong> </strong>everyone in the Northern Hemisphere should be able to see Comet A3 in October.</p><p id="f9be457b-ee58-4abd-b650-c3903d50bfb8">There are two windows to catch it, one from now through October 2 and another from October 12 to 30, according to a press release from Massey.</p><p id="f9be457b-ee58-4abd-b650-c3903d50bfb8">During the first window, the comet appears above the eastern horizon during a 15-minute window that begins one hour before sunrise, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-brightening-perihelion-how-to-see">Space.com</a>.</p><p id="f9be457b-ee58-4abd-b650-c3903d50bfb8">However, the best opportunity to see the comet, when it's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.astronomy.com/observing/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-may-soon-become-bright/">closest to Earth</a>, is during the second window. After sunset, it will shine in the west, just to the left of the Big Dipper's handle, making for a more schedule-friendly viewing time.</p><h2 id="f584376a-e5c8-4cf2-9b77-2d6434dabfc3">Where to go and what to bring</h2><p>For the best viewing, you should drive far from the city and gaze into a very dark sky. Check Business Insider's list of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/darkest-skies-by-state-watch-space-events-stargazing">dark-sky spots in each state</a>.</p><div type="image" title="night sky with meteors shooting stars bright white streaks and one extra bright fireball above a rocky hillside of evergreen trees" height="681" width="1024" msid="113849895" hostid="261" sizebytes="82586"></div><p>If that's not an option, though, find a relatively dark spot outside the worst of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-dark-skies-look-like-how-many-more-stars-than-cities-suburbs">city lights</a> — maybe on a hill or just outside the city — where you can face away from any major light sources to look toward Comet A3.</p><p>"Even if you live in an area with lots and lots of street lights, lots of smog, lots of smoke, lots of whatever, you still ought to go for it," Kareta said.</p><p>Check the weather before you go. If it will be cloudy all night, for example, you may want to plan for another evening. Bring warm layers and a chair or blanket to lay back on. Without support, you might be surprised how quickly your neck gets tired of craning back to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-exploding-star-nova-nasa-says-expect-soon-2024-3">look at the stars</a>.</p><p>If you have binoculars or a telescope, bring them. There's no guarantee of naked-eye visibility. In some cities, you can check out binoculars or a telescope from your local library.</p><p>Especially if you're a beginner, you may want to download a skywatching app like Sky Safari ($4.99 in the App Store) or pull up a website like Stellarium (free) on your phone. Once you're on the ground, that will help you pinpoint where the comet is in the sky.</p><h2 id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">How to look for the comet</h2><p id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">Finding a comet in the sky is harder than you might think. You'll need to know a few tips and techniques.</p><p id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">Once you reach your comet-watching spot, it can help to open your skywatching app to identify exactly where the comet is in the sky, near a constellation you recognize — like the Big Dipper.</p><p>Then give your eyes at least 30 minutes to adjust to the dark. Try not to look at your phone. Even a small burst of blue light is enough to reset your eyes.</p><p>If the comet doesn't immediately jump out to you, try scanning around the area. Your peripheral vision is more sensitive to faint objects, so you might spot it in the corner of your eye.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-what-look-like-see-photos-2023-1">You're looking for</a> a smudge, slightly bigger than a star. It won't twinkle like the stars do, and it will look a bit blurrier, with less defined borders. It might appear elongated because of the comet's tail, which is dust and gas flowing off its icy body.</p><p>"If you look at it and it looks like it's behaving differently than some of the stars nearby, that's a really good sign that you've picked up on the right thing," Kareta said.</p><p>If you're still not sure, try taking a long-exposure photo with your phone. This is built into most phone cameras' nighttime settings. (Hint: Turn your brightness down to protect your eyes.)</p><p>The long exposure will provide a clearer image of the comet than your eyes can.</p><p id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">If you can't find Comet A3 at all, Kareta recommends trying again a few days later.</p><p>"Go one night out, and then take a night off, and go back out. You'll know better how to time it, how to get ready," he said.</p><h2 id="4dc3ee16-f7a1-4a12-9138-5ef798a3a762">How to photograph the comet</h2><p id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">If your phone isn't picking up the comet, a DSLR camera might do the trick. Massey recommends taking a series of exposures.</p><p id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">You can also hold your phone camera up to the lens of your binoculars or telescope to take a picture through it. That method can be tricky, so it helps to practice a bit in advance.</p><p id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">After this, Comet A3 won't return for tens of thousands of years. "See it now or lose your chance," Kareta said.</p>

How to see Comet A3, which could be the best comet in a decade. Neanderthals walked the Earth last time it flew by.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>At its equator, Earth is spinning at about 1,040 mph. But what if it just suddenly stopped?</li><li>You and everything else could go flying at hundreds of miles per hour, unless you're at the poles.</li></ul><p>"Stop the world, I want to get off." This exasperated phrase has been around since the 1950s, used in classic and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-tiktok-is-changing-music-industry">modern music</a> alike.</p><p>But if the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-stopped-rotating-life-implications-science-physics-2017-2">world were to really stop spinning</a>, the consequences would belong less in a romantic musical and more in an apocalyptic horror film.</p><h2>What if the Earth stopped suddenly?</h2><div type="image" title="Illustration of our planet's spin." height="1483" width="2022" msid="106302361" hostid="261" sizebytes="61648"></div><p>Imagine you're walking down a sunny beach somewhere along the equator. The Earth beneath you is spinning eastward at <a target="_blank" href="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/shadow-speed-and-earths-rotation">1,040 miles per hour</a> (1,674 kilometers/hour).</p><p>But since you, the sand, and everything else in your general vicinity are moving at the same speed, your stroll feels slow and leisurely.</p><p>Then the world beneath you stops, and you get off. Rather, you get thrown off.</p><div type="image" title="A woman flying off into space." height="1414" width="2121" msid="106302362" hostid="261" sizebytes="34682"></div><p>Thanks to <a target="_blank" href="https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/newtons-laws-of-motion"><u>Newton's first law</u></a> of inertia, you initially go flying eastward at roughly 1,040 miles per hour. No matter where you land, be it ocean or ground, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-sizes-that-can-damage-cities-states-planet-2018-6">force of impact</a> would probably kill you.</p><p>"Water, too, would feel this sudden acceleration," said Joseph Levy, associate professor of Earth and environmental geosciences at Colgate University. So you'd likely see the ocean sloshing around quite a bit before impact.</p><div type="image" title="High winds in the English Channel causing huge waves over Newhaven Harbour lighthouse." height="1451" width="2066" msid="106302363" hostid="261" sizebytes="188806"></div><p>Trees and buildings wouldn't be safe either, despite being rooted in the ground. "Earth materials are strong under compression but very weak under tension," Levy said.</p><p>In other words, that nearby brick building can hold hundreds of people because its floors and support beams become compact under their weight.</p><p>But the inertia shoving the building eastward from Earth's sudden stop would be much stronger than the mortar holding the bricks together, so the whole structure could rip apart, Levy said.</p><div type="image" title="House in Florida destroyed by a passing hurricane." height="1414" width="2119" msid="106302364" hostid="261" sizebytes="391274"></div><p>If it makes you feel better, your hypothetical cousin in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-surprises-living-working-antarctica-worlds-most-remote-post-office-2023-5">Antarctica</a> would likely survive with some bruises. "Near the poles, the axis of rotation is much smaller, so the rotational speed is much smaller," Levy said.</p><p>But you'd have to be very close — within 89.9 degrees latitude, Levy said, or about seven miles from the poles. At that distance, you'd probably just stumble forward at walking speed.</p><div type="image" title="A colony of Emperor penguin on ice." height="1410" width="2127" msid="106302365" hostid="261" sizebytes="203702"></div><p>But your friends in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-building-energy-islands-produce-wind-energy-and-green-hydrogen-2022-12">Denmark</a> or Australia probably wouldn't make it. Most places humans inhabit are far enough from the poles that their residents would still go flying at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wkbn.com/weather/how-fast-is-the-earth-spinning-where-you-live/"><u>hundreds of miles an hour</u></a>.</p><h2>What if the Earth stopped spinning gradually?</h2><p>"In natural systems, nothing really ever comes to a complete stop instantly," Levy said.</p><p>So what if the Earth slows down over days or weeks?</p><p>A gradual slowdown could keep you from careening into the sky, but once it stopped, you'd still be in a lot of trouble.</p><p>"Over the course of the year as the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/animation-shows-changing-seasons-as-the-earth-orbits-the-sun">Earth orbited the sun</a>, half the planet would be in night and half in full light, but the half would be constantly changing over the course of the year," Levy said.</p><div type="image" title="Illustration of Earth and sun in space." height="1499" width="2000" msid="106302366" hostid="261" sizebytes="127570"></div><p>Instead of 12 hours, a "day" could last six months. The nonstop sun would roast nearby crops and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-declares-first-colorado-river-shortage-arizona-nevada-water-cuts-2021-8">evaporate much of the water</a> on your half of the globe, Levy added.</p><p>The following six-month-long night probably wouldn't be much better. A lack of light and warmth would likely kill off many remaining plants and freeze water into ice sheets.</p><p>Higher latitudes might be safer, as the sunlight wouldn't be too intense near the poles, Levy said. But you'd have to get used to a nomad lifestyle, forever chasing daylight around the globe.</p><p>You might have to deal with some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/effects-of-climate-change-2014-6">unexpected weather</a>, too.</p><div type="image" title="Aerial view of planet Earth covered in clouds." height="1411" width="2124" msid="106302367" hostid="261" sizebytes="77030"></div><p>On a spinning Earth, most solar radiation hits the planet's equator. "Broadly speaking, warm air rises over the equator, and falls over the poles after it cools off," Levy said. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-is-killing-off-vital-atlantic-ocean-current-system-2023-7">Ocean currents</a> follow a similar up-down cycle.</p><p>But when only half the planet gets intense sunlight for months on end, the planet gets a second, sideways temperature gradient, which makes predicting the weather twice as complicated.</p><p>"Winds would whip across the terminator — the shadow line — bringing cold air back from the night side, where it would warm and rise on the day side," Levy added.</p><h2>Could the world ever really stop spinning?</h2><div type="image" title="A hand in the foreground hold the moon between its thumb and index finger." height="1414" width="2121" msid="106302368" hostid="261" sizebytes="35530"></div><p>Don't panic, but the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-ocean-tides-work-lunar-gravity-2017-6">Earth's rotation is slowing down</a> thanks to a process called tidal braking.</p><p>The gravity of our moon creates an infinitesimally small drag on our planet's spin, so every century, Earth's rotation slows down an extra <a target="_blank" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19890002733/downloads/19890002733.pdf"><u>2.3 milliseconds</u></a>, according to NASA.</p><p>But it's unlikely the moon would ever stop the Earth completely. "The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-facts-2019-1">Earth is much larger than the moon</a> and has much more angular momentum as a result," Levy said.</p><p>One way to significantly slow Earth's rotation would be if humanity treated it like a giant energy source. For example, we could theoretically use Earth as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.torus.co/torus-flywheel"><u>flywheel system</u></a>, storing the kinetic energy from its spin to apply to our energy needs.</p><p>"If you used the spinning momentum of the planet to meet all human energy needs, it would still take something like 1 million years to slow the planet down to a stop," Levy said.</p><p>It's virtually impossible for any objects in space to halt the Earth's rotation before then. "The angular momentum of the Earth is too great for anything but a complete cataclysm to slow it down," Levy said.</p><p>So the world won't be stopping for you to get off any time soon — and that's probably a good thing.</p>

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