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10 celestial events to look forward to this October!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-announcement-billionaire-spaceflight-hubble-space-telescope-2022-9">Hubble Space Telescope</a> captured a comet-like forked tail streaming from the asteroid Dimorphos.</li><li>NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-confirms-dart-probe-crash-moved-asteroid-2022-10">DART</a> spacecraft <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-video-moment-nasa-dart-spacecraft-crashed-into-asteroid-2022-9">slammed into the asteroid</a> in September, as practice for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">saving Earth</a>.</li></ul>The asteroid Dimorphos just hasn't been the same since <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webbs-pillars-creation-snap-shows-glittering-view-hubble-cant-see-2022-10">NASA</a> slammed a spacecraft into it. In fact, it kind of looks like a comet now, NASA discovered when the Hubble Space Telescope snapped a new image of the distant space rock.NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a daring attempt to practice diverting an asteroid away from Earth. Astronomers don't know of any hazardous asteroids heading for Earth in the next 100 years, but the agency wants to be prepared in case it needs to nudge away Armageddon. So on September 26, the DART spacecraft slammed into Dimorphos, pushing it slightly closer to the larger asteroid it's orbiting, called Didymos.An asteroid — a simple rock — usually appears as a point of light in telescope images. But a comet — a ball of ice and dust — usually has two distinct tails. One tail appears white and is made of dust. The other looks blue, since it's made of electrically charged particles called ions.<div type="image" title="Halley's comet" height="599" width="798" msid="94997665" hostid="261" sizebytes="61880"></div>Thanks to the explosive DART impact, a stream of dust and rock has been drifting from Dimorphos out into space. Now it has the forked-tail appearance of a comet. That double tail is an "unexpected development," according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-hubble-spots-twin-tails-in-new-image-after-dart-impact">NASA's statement</a> on the Hubble photo.Hubble has observed the Dimorphos-Didymos system 18 times since DART's impact. The images indicate that the second, "northern" tail formed sometime between October 2 and 8. Scientists aren't sure how it happened, according to NASA, but will continue investigating in the coming months.<div type="image" title="illustration shows spacecraft with two long solar panel wings and blue engine fire approaching an asteroid" height="1519" width="2700" msid="94997668" hostid="261" sizebytes="274790"></div>By gathering as much data as possible about the DART impact, and what happened to Dimorphos afterward, will help NASA plan for any future mission to deflect a dangerous asteroid. Telescopes across the planet and throughout Earth's orbit, including the new James Webb Space Telescope, are watching the asteroid closely.

The asteroid NASA crashed into looks like a comet now, with a forked tail, Hubble image reveals

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="9531572" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="comet-neowise">Comet Neowise</keyword> has dazzled stargazers this week, but its surprise appearance highlights one of Earth's greatest vulnerabilities.</li><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> discovered the comet hurtling towards Earth three months ago, but only because one of its space <keyword id="62018" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Telescopes">telescopes</keyword> got lucky.</li><li>Our planet is woefully unprepared for the enormous, deadly rocks that hurtle towards us from deep space. But a telescope NASA is developing could track more dangerous <keyword id="81841" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Asteroids">asteroids</keyword>.</li></ul>A welcome distraction has turned the world's eyes to the sky this week. Comet Neowise, a 3-mile-wide chunk of space ice, is rocketing past our planet, creating a spectacle in the night: a brilliant ball of white light with long, colorful tails.The comet is a benign and beautiful sight, but it highlights a global vulnerability. Tens of thousands of potentially dangerous objects regularly careen past Earth undetected, and some of them inevitably crash into it.<keyword id="51550" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="comets">Comets</keyword> — balls of space ice and dust — almost never pose a threat to Earth, but asteroids and meteors (smaller chunks of rock) come close more often. Although impacts are extremely rare, a space rock big enough to destroy a city (or worse) could hurtle towards Earth at any time, and scientists might not see it until it's far too late.Nobody even knew Comet Neowise existed until a NASA space telescope discovered it approaching just three months ago. The spacecraft was scanning for asteroids and comets (balls of space ice and dust) that fly too close to Earth. The mission is called the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) — that's where the new comet gets its name.<div type="image" title="comet neowise belarus" height="1918" width="2557" msid="77038711" hostid="261"></div>"This is an example of an object coming out of deep space that our survey capabilities need to be able to spot," Lindley Johnson, a <keyword id="2812558" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="planetary-defense">planetary defense</keyword> officer at NASA, said in a press briefing about Comet Neowise on Wednesday. "In this case, we were lucky that it did cross the field of view of the NEOWISE spacecraft back in March."Many "<keyword id="1821718" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="near-Earth-objects">near-Earth objects</keyword>" (NEOs) do not cross any telescope's line of sight, and several potentially dangerous asteroids have snuck up on Earth in recent years."Luck is not a plan," Richard Binzel, an asteroid researcher and professor of planetary sciences at MIT, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-space-telescope-to-detect-deadly-asteroids-2019-9">told Business Insider</a> in September.<h2>Dangerous asteroids can fly under the radar</h2><div type="image" title="Chicxulub_impact asteroid" height="2089" width="2785" msid="77038716" hostid="261"></div>A 6-mile-wide asteroid surprised the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when it crashed into Earth. The impact caused a mile-high tsunami, sparked wildfires, and released billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, blotting out the sun for years. That was the end of the age of big lizards.In case scientists discover such an asteroid approaching Earth again, NASA has considered some ways to push it off its collision course: slamming a spacecraft into it, detonating an explosion near it, or firing lasers that heat and vaporize the rock enough to change its orbit.But that takes time and the technology is unproven. What if nobody spots the asteroid until it's too late?In recent years, scientists have missed plenty of large, dangerous objects approaching Earth."We feel we've only found about a third of the population of asteroids that are out there that could represent an impact hazard to the Earth," Johnson said.In 2013, a meteor measuring about 65 feet in diameter and traveling at 40,000 mph entered the atmosphere and exploded over Chelyabinsk in central Russia. The blast sent out a shock wave that broke windows and damaged buildings across the region, injuring more than 1,400 people.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-threat-of-meteor-crashing-into-earth-is-bigger-than-you-think-2019-5">According to NASA modeling</a>, an event like the Chelyabinsk meteor occurs about every 60 years. That same day, a larger asteroid came within 17,000 miles of Earth.<div type="image" title="asteroid russia Chelyabinsk" height="3744" width="5616" msid="77038726" hostid="261"></div>Then a year ago a 427-foot-wide, "city-killer" asteroid <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">flew within 45,000 miles of Earth</a>. NASA had almost no warning about it.That's because right now, the only way scientists can track an NEO is by pointing a telescope toward the right place at the right time. Telescopes detect the sunlight that asteroids reflect, but the smaller the asteroid, the fainter the reflection. Plus, some asteroids just aren't very reflective.<div type="image" title="NEOWISE" height="1024" width="1365" msid="77038734" hostid="261"></div>NEOWISE (the NASA mission, not the comet) is not enough to protect us on its own, and it is living on borrowed time. Hunting asteroids is its second career, which came after it outlived its first mission: scanning the entire sky twice in infrared light. That initial project yielded copious data on distant stars and galaxies."This is a telescope that is well past its expiration date and, like a very old car, every day is a gift," Amy Mainzer, the telescope's principal investigator, said. "We're not really sure how much longer it's going to go. In theory, maybe another year at most."When NEOWISE goes dark, it will leave Earth even more oblivious to threats from space.<h2>NASA is planning its first planetary defense spacecraft</h2><div type="image" title="neocam asteroid hunter spacecraft discovery nasa jpl caltech" height="1476" width="1968" msid="77038739" hostid="261"></div>A plan for better NEO surveillance finally gained some traction in September, when NASA announced plans for a new asteroid-hunting space telescope. The project is still in its early stages, though.Called the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission (NEOSM), the spacecraft would feature heat-sensing infrared sensors capable of detecting even dark asteroids, which are the most difficult to find. (Because the sun warms up space rocks, they emit infrared light even if they don't reflect much visible light.)Unlike NEOWISE, NEOSM would be dedicated to tracking objects near Earth. It would also fix a major blind spot: It could pick up on objects coming from the direction of the sun, where most telescopes can't look."This is the first time NASA has ever voiced a commitment to flying a space-based asteroid survey," Binzel said of the mission. "They've always said 'we'll study it, we'll study it,' and now they say 'we are going to do it.'"The agency's 2020 budget allotted nearly $36 million for the telescope's development. If funding continues, it could launch as early as 2025."Having knowledge of what's out there is something that the planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> community has been advocating for for nearly 30 years," Binzel said. "This is a breakthrough decades in the making."

Comet Neowise is a dazzling sight, but it's also a reminder of how woefully unprepared we are for dangerous asteroids

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers have spotted a newly-referenced comet that is heading towards Earth. </li><li>The comet is likely to be so bright it could outshine our stars. </li></ul>A recently-spotted comet is expected to shine brighter than the stars in the night sky as it passes our planet, according to astronomers.<a href="https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23D77.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The comet, named C/2023 A3,</a> is hurtling toward the Earth at about 180,610 mph, per space.com. If all goes well, the comet, which last passed by the Earth about 80,000 years ago, will start being visible with the naked eye around October 2024, <a href="https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23D77.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to data from the Minor Planet Center.</a>It could be as bright or brighter as our stars, and much more brilliant than the recent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-what-look-like-see-photos-2023-1">ZTF green comet</a> that passed the Earth last month. <h2>Brighter than the Green Comet</h2>C/2023 A3 is expected to reach a brightness magnitude between -0.7 and -5, per space.com. That technical term means it will potentially be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-venus-during-daytime-2013-12">as bright as Venus</a> in our night skies.By comparison, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-green-comet-science-explains-its-glow-2023-1?r=US&amp;IR=T">recent Green Comet ZTF</a> had a brightness of around magnitude +4.6 (the lower the magnitude, the brighter), per space.com.<div type="image" title="Comet ZTF is shown against the night sky." height="1500" width="2000" msid="98478948" hostid="261" sizebytes="266958"></div>That means C/2023 A3 has the potential to be at least about 100 times brighter than ZTF, and six times brighter than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-passing-close-to-earth-dazzling-photos-videos-2020-7">NEOWISE</a>, a comet that grazed the Earth in 2020, according to Ukrainian astronomy magazine The Universe. Space. Tech. But of course, these are just predictions, and a lot could happen to the comet before then.For one, the comet will have to survive the sun. The ball of gas, ice, and dust is now heading toward our star and it will have to survive its smoldering rays. The critical moment will be its perihelion — its closest approach to the sun — on September 24, 2024. Still, scientists are hopeful, according to <a href="https://universemagazine.com/en/main-comet-of-2024-gets-the-name/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Universe. Space. Tech.</a>, because the comet is expected to be quite large and its perihelion is far from the sun, about 36 million miles away. <h2>NASA keeps a close eye out for objects that graze the Earth</h2>C/2023 A3 was spotted on February 22 by the NASA-funded asteroid early detection system Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).The system, operated by the University of Hawaii, is made up of four telescopes placed in Hawaii, Chile, and South Africa. These automatically scan the sky to spot potential threats to Earth coming from the sky. NASA keeps a close eye on near-Earth objects that could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-killer-asteroid-could-threaten-earth-in-a-few-millennia-2022-10?r=US&amp;IR=T">hurt our planet,</a> but it doesn't always catch them this early.For instance, NEOWISE was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">spotted only three months before</a> it passed by the Earth in 2020. On that occasion, we were lucky and the comet only passed our planet, offering spectacular vistas to onlookers. C/2023 A3, however, isn't expected to be a planetary threat. Astronomers think it will pass about 0.5 Astronomical Units, or 44 million miles, from our planet.

A bright comet is heading towards Earth and could outshine the stars in the sky, say astronomers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rock crashed into present-day Mexico 66 million years ago, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/timeline-consequences-of-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-2019-9">dooming the dinosaurs</a>.</li><li>The object's origin has remained a mystery, but Harvard astrophysicists have a new theory. </li><li>They suggest the dinosaur-killer wasn't an <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword>, but shrapnel from a comet that had flown too close to the sun.</li></ul>About 66 million years ago, a space rock more than 6 miles wide collided with Earth, striking land that is now part of Mexico.The impact sparked wildfires that stretched for hundreds of miles, triggered a mile-high tsunami, and released billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere. That gaseous haze blocked the sun, cooling the Earth and dooming the <keyword id="6533782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dinosaurs">dinosaurs</keyword>, along with 75% of all life on the planet.But the origins of that dinosaur-killing rock, named <keyword id="244916" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Chicxulub">Chicxulub</keyword>, have remained a mystery. Most theories suggest Chicxulub was a massive asteroid; hundreds of thousands of these rocks sit in a donut-shaped ring between Mars and Jupiter. But in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82320-2">a study</a> published Monday, two Harvard astrophysicists suggested an alternate idea: that Chicxulub wasn't an asteroid at all, but a piece of shrapnel from an icy comet that had been pushed too close to the sun by Jupiter's gravity.Asteroids and comets are both classified as space rocks <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/715/10-things-whats-that-space-rock/">by NASA</a>, but they differ in key ways: Comets form from ice and dust outside our solar system and are generally small and fast-moving, whereas rocky asteroids are larger, slower, and form closer to the sun."We are suggesting that, in fact, if you break up an object as it comes close to the sun, it could give rise to the appropriate event rate and also the kind of impact that killed the dinosaurs," Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist and cosmologist at Harvard University and co-author of the new study, said <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-02-comet-asteroid-dinosaurs.html">in a press release</a>. <h2>The solar system acts like a 'pinball machine' for comets</h2><div type="image" title="asteroid meteor armageddon shutterstock" height="714" width="952" msid="81022703" hostid="261"></div>Most asteroids come from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/did-you-know">the asteroid belt</a> between the solar system's inner and outer planets. But <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20110919.html">NASA scientists</a> who keep tabs on space objects that pass near Earth have yet to figure out where Chicxulub came from. In the new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, Loeb and his co-author, Amir Siraj, suggest Chicxulub didn't come from the asteroid belt. Rather, they say it more likely originated outside our solar system, in an area called <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/in-depth/">the Oort cloud</a>. Think of the Oort cloud as ring made of 1 trillion pieces of icy debris, which sits beyond the farthest reaches of the solar system, surrounding it. It's located at least 2,000 times farther away from the sun than Earth is. Comets that originate in the Oort cloud are known as <a href="https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question40.html">long-period comets</a> because they take so long to complete one orbit around the sun.But these comets can sometimes get pulled off-course by the gravity of massive planets like Jupiter. Such a tweak to a comet's orbit could send it hurtling on a path much closer to the sun. "The solar system acts as a kind of pinball machine," Siraj said <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-02-comet-asteroid-dinosaurs.html">in the release</a>.Comets that get near the sun are called "sungrazers." The new study calculated that about 20% of Oort cloud comets are sungrazers. As they approach our star, its gravity starts to pull them apart. Fragments of comet slough off and may careen toward nearby planets. This, the study authors say, is "a satisfactory explanation for the origin of the impactor" that killed the dinosaurs.<h2>The asteroid-versus-comet argument isn't settled</h2><div type="image" title="Chicxulub_impact asteroid" height="2089" width="2785" msid="81022708" hostid="261"></div>Siraj and Loeb aren't the only scientists who think a comet, not an asteroid, doomed the dinosaurs. A group of researchers from Dartmouth College similarly <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/dc-drs040413.php">suggested in 2013</a> that a high-speed comet could have created the Chicxulub crater. Chicxulub hit Earth at a speed of 12 miles per second (43,200 mph), which is about 30 times faster than the speed of a supersonic jet. The resulting 100-mile-wide crater extended 12 miles into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. Some scientists <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/timeline-consequences-of-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-2019-9">have estimated</a> the asteroid's power was equivalent to 10 billion of the atomic bombs used in World War II.But not all researchers are convinced a comet caused that destruction.Natalia Artemieva, a senior scientist at the Planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> Institute in Arizona, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/science/dinosaur-extinction-kt-comet-asteroid.html">told The New York Times</a> that comet fragments from a sungrazer would have been too small to create the Chicxulub crater. And Bill Bottke, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, suggested that the study overestimates the frequency of sungrazers - and, consequently, the amount of fragments those comets produce.Existing evidence favors the idea that Chicxulub was an asteroid, "but it's not conclusive," Bottke <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/science/dinosaur-extinction-kt-comet-asteroid.html">told the Times</a>. "There's still wiggle room if somebody really wants it to be a comet. I just think making that case is really hard."Siraj and Loeb, however, said their theory is supported by a type of material found deep inside the Chicxulub crater and other craters in South Africa and Kazakhstan. That substance, carbonaceous chondrite, may have come from comets. Whereas just 10% of asteroids from the asteroid belt are composed of carbonaceous chondrites, the material "could potentially be widespread in comets," the study authors wrote.The only samples ever collected from a comet in space were brought back in 2006. They revealed that object, called Wild 2, was composed of carbonaceous chondrite.<div type="image" title="kuiper belt oort cloud" height="853" width="1280" msid="81022713" hostid="261"></div>Finding the correct answer in the Chicxulub debate is useful because it could help researchers figure out the likelihood of a similar impact event in the future. Only two to three comets from the Oort Cloud have hit Earth during the last 500 million years, <a href="https://www.space.com/7075-comets-edge-solar-system-hit-earth.html">according to one study</a>. By contrast, according to the Planetary Society, a Chicxulub-sized asteroid impacts Earth every <a href="https://www.planetary.org/articles/will-an-asteroid-hit-earth#:~:text=About%2030%20small%20asteroids%20a,significant%20damage%20on%20the%20ground.">100 million years or so</a>. Siraj and Loeb modeled how many long-period comets get close enough to the sun to shed large fragments in the direction of Earth. Their numbers suggest 10 times more Chicxulub-sized objects hit Earth over its history than scientists previously thought.

The space rock that doomed the dinosaurs was shrapnel from a comet that flew too close to the sun, a Harvard study suggests

<ul><li>Asteroid 6478 Gault, the solar system’s lone asteroid with a comet tail, was just caught changing colors.</li><li>Astronomers at MIT speculate that its because the asteroid shed its outer layer as it spun.</li><li>The two-tailed asteroid now glows blue instead of red in the near-infrared spectrum.</li></ul>Asteroid’s aren’t supposed to leave two trails of dust behind them — and neither were they supposed to be able to change colours. But asteroid 6478 Gault is a rebel as it is going against the norm. Gault was discovered last December and labeled an ‘active’ asteroid as it left <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-hubble-telescope-caught-an-asteroid-ripping-itself-to-pieces-due-to-the-yorp-effect/articleshow/68620438.cms">two comet-like tails</a> behind it. Now, astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (<a href="http://news.mit.edu/2019/asteroid-changing-color-first-0830">MIT</a>) have caught the same asteroid switching colours, from red to blue. This is the first time that astronomers have seen any asteroid shift colours in real time. "This was a very big surprise," said Michael Marsset, a part of the MIT team at the Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) observing the asteroid from NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on the near-infrared spectrum. Fifty shades of 6478 Gault Astronomers aren’t quite sure what caused the colour to change. Their initial assumption is that Gault upper layer, composed mostly of dust, turned red after years of exposure to the Sun and simply withered away as the asteroid spun. "About 10% of asteroids spin very fast, meaning with a two- to three-hour rotation period, and it’s most likely due to the Sun spinning them up," said Marsset. The current blue tinge of the asteroid is the result of the less irradiated layer of the asteroid coming to light. "Interestingly, you only need a very thin layer to be removed to see a change in the spectrum," stated DeMeo, the study’s co-author. "It could be as thin as a single layer of grains just microns deep," he explained. Tailing similarities As the MIT team tries to determine what caused Gault to shift colours, what they do know for sure is that the asteroid is rocky — unlike a comet, which is normally just loose bundles of ice and dust. "It means that probably some mechanism responsible for dust emission is different from comets, and different from most other active main-belt asteroids," explains Marsset. Most comets also emerge from much cooler regions of the solar system. It’s because they get hotter as they approach the sun that their surface starts to melt away. The melting ice is what creates the comet’s characteristic tail. Gault can be found within the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. It’s a relatively average rock by all other accounts measuring around four kilometers as it orbits the Sun from 344 million kilometers away. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">An asteroid only turns into a meteor if it falls to Earth</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-happens-when-an-asteroid-actually-hits-earth/articleshow/70732006.cms">What happens when an asteroid actually hits Earth</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">An asteroid nearly half the size of Mount Everest might be on a collision course for Earth in less than a year</a>

Asteroid gets caught changing colours for the very first time

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s new spacecraft mission aims to smash into the asteroid Dimorphos to reduce its speed.</li><li>The asteroid will be slowed by a centimeter per second, but that's enough to change its orbit and eventual course.</li><li>Scientists are testing to see if this method can help Earth defend itself from future incoming <keyword id="12253294" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroids" source="Orion">asteroids</keyword>.</li></ul>NASA is preparing to launch a spacecraft that it wants to smash into an asteroid for planetary defense.The first-of-its-kind DART mission, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is set to launch at 10:20 p.m. Pacific Time on November 23, aboard a <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">Space</keyword>X Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invites-media-to-launch-of-double-asteroid-redirection-test">NASA.</a> Scientists are testing if they can use the collision to alter the orbit of Dimorphos, a 525-foot long moonlet asteroid that's millions of miles away from Earth and slightly smaller than the Washington Monument. Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, which is almost half a mile long.Both asteroids are expected to come within roughly 6.8 million miles of Earth in September 2022, and the spacecraft is expected to reach Dimorphos - and crash into it - around the same time.The impact of the speeding spacecraft - moving at approximately 14,783 miles per hour - is expected to reduce Dimorphos' speed by about 1%. That may not seem substantial, but it's enough to alter the smaller asteroid's orbit, which scientists hope to observe from telescopes here on Earth.<h2>The purpose of DART is planetary defense</h2>DART's ultimate goal is to gain information on how space organizations can defend Earth from deadly asteroids hurtling towards us in the future."The Earth is hit by asteroids and pieces of asteroids all the time. Every year or so, we get hit by things the size of a table," said Andy Rivkin, DART's co-lead investigator from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNSYuY6N1Rs">2018 video</a> featured on the project's website.He said that objects like Dimorphos and Didymos hit Earth every few thousand years and are large enough to cause significant damage "on a regional scale."A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">3-mile-wide chunk of space ice</a> passed within 64 million miles of the planet in July. And in 2019, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">427-foot-wide "city-killer" asteroid that scientists had no idea about</a> until several days before it flew by came within 45 million miles of Earth. In comparison, the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was 6 miles wide.The DART mission, developed and led for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, uses a "low-cost" spacecraft that will be outfitted with two solar arrays making it a total 27.9 feet long, said the project website.The craft is equipped with a camera to help guide it to Dimorphos and an Italian-made satellite cube that will detach from the spacecraft before the impact and take pictures of the collision.A few years after the DART impact, the European Space Agency said its <a href="https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Hera">Hera mission</a> will investigate the project's effect on Dimorphos and its companion, Didymos.NASA has launched missions to hit asteroids before, aimed at gathering information about space objects. In 2005, it conducted the <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/deep-impact-epoxi/in-depth/">Deep Impact mission</a> to hit the comet Tempel 1, which it observed for eight years before it lost communication with the spacecraft.The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab team did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

NASA has plans to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid, to test if it can change the course of killer asteroids in the future

<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><keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword> agencies around the world took part in a <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> <keyword id="67741" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Simulation">simulation</keyword> of an asteroid-impact scenario.</li><li>The participating experts learned about a fictitious <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword>'s trajectory and had to react.</li><li>In the exercise, they couldn't stop it from hitting Europe, showing how <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">unprepared we are for such a crisis</a>.</li></ul>Scientists around the world have been bamboozled this week by a fictitious asteroid heading toward Earth.A group of experts from US and European space agencies attended a week-long exercise led by NASA in which they faced a hypothetical scenario: An asteroid 35 million miles away was approaching the planet and could hit within six months.With each passing day of the exercise, the participants learned more about the asteroid's size, trajectory, and chance of impact. Then they had to cooperate and use their technological knowledge to see if anything could be done to stop the space rock.The experts fell short. The group determined that none of Earth's existing technologies could stop the hypothetical asteroid from striking given the six-month timeframe of the simulation. In this alternate reality, the asteroid crashed into eastern Europe.As far as we know, no asteroids currently pose a threat to Earth in this way. But an estimated two-thirds of asteroids 460 feet in size or bigger - large enough to wreak considerable havoc - <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/faq/">remain undiscovered</a>. That's why NASA and other agencies are attempting to prepare for such a situation. "These exercises ultimately help the planetary-defense community communicate with each other and with our governments to ensure we are all coordinated should a potential impact threat be identified in the future," Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense officer, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-to-participate-in-tabletop-exercise-simulating-asteroid-impact">said in a press release</a>. <h2>6 months is not enough time to prepare for an asteroid impact</h2>The fictitious asteroid in the simulation was called 2021PDC. In NASA's scenario, it was first "spotted" on April 19, at which time it was thought to have a 5% of hitting our planet on October 20, six months after its discovery date. But Day 2 of the exercise fast-forwarded to May 2, when new impact-trajectory calculations showed that 2021PDC would almost certainly hit either Europe or northern Africa. The participants in the simulation considered various missions in which spacecraft could try to destroy the asteroid or deflect it off its path.<div type="image" title="hypothetical impact" height="915" width="1120" msid="82344056" hostid="261"></div>But they concluded that such missions wouldn't be able to get off the ground in the short amount of time before the asteroid's impact."If confronted with the 2021PDC hypothetical scenario in real life, we would not be able us to launch any spacecraft on such short notice with current capabilities," <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pd/cs/pdc21/pdc21_day2_briefing2.pdf">the participants said</a>. They also considered trying to blow up or disrupt the asteroid using a nuclear explosive device."Deploying a nuclear disruption mission could significantly reduce the risk of impact damage," they found.Still, the simulation stipulated that 2021PDC could be anywhere from 114 feet to half a mile in size, so the chance that a nuke could make a dent was uncertain. Day 3 of the exercise skipped ahead to June 30, and Earth's future looked grim: 2021PDC's impact trajectory showed it headed for eastern Europe. By Day 4, which fast-forwarded to a week before the asteroid impact, there was a 99% chance the asteroid would hit near the border between Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria. The explosion would bring as much energy as a large nuclear bomb.All that could be done was evacuate the affected regions ahead of time.<h2>Most asteroids fly under the radar, and many are spotted too late</h2><div type="image" title="dinosaur asteroid meteor" height="1017" width="1440" msid="82344057" hostid="261"></div>It's tempting to assume that in the real world, astronomers would spot an asteroid akin to 2021PDC with much more notice than six months. But the world's ability to surveil near-Earth objects (NEOs) is woefully incomplete.Any space rock with an orbit that takes it within 125 million miles of the sun is considered an NEO. But Johnson said in July that NASA thinks "we've only found about a third of the population of asteroids that are out there that could represent an impact hazard to the Earth."Of course, humanity hopes to avoid a surprise like the dinosaurs got 65 million years ago, when a 6-mile-wide asteroid crashed into the Earth. But in recent years, scientists have missed plenty of large, dangerous objects that came close.<div type="image" title="comet neowise japan" height="1406" width="2500" msid="82344060" hostid="261"></div>Comet Neowise, a 3-mile-wide chunk of space ice, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">passed with 64 million miles of Earth</a> in July. Nobody knew that comet existed until a NASA space telescope discovered it approaching four months prior.In 2013, a meteor about 65 feet in diameter entered the atmosphere traveling 40,000 mph. It exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, without warning, sending out a shock wave that broke windows and damaged buildings across the region. More than 1,400 people were injured.<div type="image" title="asteroid russia Chelyabinsk" height="3744" width="5616" msid="82344061" hostid="261"></div>And in 2019, a 427-foot-wide, "city-killer" asteroid <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">flew within 45,000 miles of Earth</a>. NASA had almost no warning about it.That's because currently, the only way scientists can track an NEO is by pointing one of Earth's limited number of powerful telescopes in the right direction at the right time. To address that problem, NASA announced two years ago that it would launch a new space telescope dedicated to watching for hazardous asteroids. That telescope, named the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission, along with the European Space Agency's newly launched <a href="https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Planetary_Defence/New_ESA_telescope_in_South_America_to_search_for_asteroids" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Test-Bed Telescope</a> and the <a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/02/Flyeye_Observatory" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Flyeye Telescope</a> that's being built in Italy, should eventually bolster the number of NEOs we can track.<h2>NASA is testing ways to stymie an asteroid</h2><div type="image" title="DART nasa asteroid mission spacecraft" height="1406" width="2500" msid="82344065" hostid="261"></div>NASA has investigated the options scientists would have if they were to find a dangerous asteroid on a collision course with Earth. These include detonating an explosive device near the space rock, as the exercise participants suggested, or firing lasers that could heat up and vaporize the asteroid enough to change its path.Another possibility is sending a spacecraft up to slam into an oncoming asteroid, thereby knocking it off its trajectory. This is the strategy NASA is most serious about: Later this year, the agency is scheduled to launch a test of such a technology. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (<keyword id="348209" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dart">DART</keyword>) will send a spacecraft to the asteroid Dimorphos and purposefully hit it in the fall of 2022.NASA hopes that collision will change Dimorphos's orbit. While that asteroid isn't a threat to Earth, the mission could prove that redirecting an asteroid is possible with enough lead time.

You Searched For "asteroid comet" and got 9 results

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NASA has plans to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid, to test if it can change the course of killer asteroids in the future

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In a NASA simulation of an asteroid impact, scientists concluded they couldn't stop a space rock from decimating Europe

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