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

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

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

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

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

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

10 celestial events to look forward to this October!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SpaceX achieved an incredible engineering feat on Sunday.</li><li>The company launched the fifth test <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-flight-four-ocean-splashdown-elon-musk-plans-2024-6">flight of its Starship rocket</a>.</li></ul>SpaceX's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-fifth-flight-test-how-to-watch-2024-10">Starship rocket achieved a world first</a> on Sunday during its fifth test flight, showing for the first time that the launch system may really have what it takes to change spaceflight forever.The launch system, which includes a Starship rocket-ship stacked atop a 233-foot-tall Super Heavy booster and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-big-is-spacex-starship-2023-4">stands taller than the Statue of Libery</a>, took off on its fifth orbital test flight on Sunday.The Super Heavy booster released Starship on its path toward space, then began to fall back to Earth. For the first time ever, as the booster descended toward the company's Texas launchpad, a pair of giant mechanical "chopsticks," or arms snatched it.The giant booster had returned to Earth in one piece. It was SpaceX's first attempt at the revolutionary chopstick maneuver."A day for the history books," engineers at SpaceX said as the booster landed.This engineering feat is unlike anything ever seen in orbital rocket technology. But it's something that SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, has been touting for years."I know it sounds insane," <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA8ZBJWo73E">Musk said</a> in an interview for the YouTube channel Everday Astronaut in 2021. "When I suggested that, people thought I'd lost my mind."The feat brings SpaceX one step closer to Musk's stated goals of building the first fully reusable rocket system in history, slashing the cost of spaceflight, and ultimately making humanity a multi-planetary species.Now that SpaceX has proven both Starship and Super Heavy can launch toward space and return to Earth in one piece, the company is on track to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-launch-success-elon-musk-vision-cheap-space-travel-closer-2024-3">make rocket launches an estimated 10 times cheaper.</a><h2 id="193a3f68-f32e-43f4-9c65-18f25953f5c3">A huge step toward Musk's vision of colonizing Mars</h2><div type="image" title="spacex super heavy booster lands in mid-air" height="880" width="1175" msid="114224845" hostid="261" sizebytes="140760"></div>Starship is designed to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-sn15-starship-rocket-fly-again-soon-2021-5">be the world's first fully reusable rocket</a>, meaning both the booster and the spaceship should be able to return to Earth ready to be used again.Super Heavy's successful landing on Sunday is one of the last big steps toward achieving that goal.The savings of reusability aren't hypothetical; SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 boosters have already proven that reusability can cut costs. SpaceX is able to offer cheap and quick turnaround launches at around<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-launch-success-elon-musk-vision-cheap-space-travel-closer-2024-3"> $67 million per flight</a>, which is about $1,500 per pound of payload.By comparison, the Space Shuttle <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://theconversation.com/how-spacex-lowered-costs-and-reduced-barriers-to-space-112586">cost about $25,000 per pound to fly</a> when it was active.Musk has previously said his ambition is to bring Starship costs down to <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-starship-rocket-update-flight-cost-million-2022-2">about $10 million per launch</a>, a drastic price cut that could open the door for futuristic <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">space industries</a> like asteroid mining and space factories and ultimately pave the way toward achieving Musk's vision of a colony on Mars with 1 million people.Starship is the vehicle that's supposed to make Musk's Mars dreams come true."No rocket before this has had the potential to extend life to another planet," <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk">Musk, who founded SpaceX</a> in 2002 for this very purpose, <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1776669097490776563">said</a> in April. Musk isn't the only one."I have little doubt that it's going to be the workhorse that will bring humans back to the moon and Mars," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-way-to-mars-2015-11">Olivier de Weck</a>, professor of aeronautics, astronautics, and engineering at MIT, previously told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-spacex-elon-musk-reusable-rocket-mars-moon-launch-2023-2">Business Insider.</a>"It's not just a cool rocket project, but literally it has the potential to change the fate of humanity," he said.<h2 id="09214b7a-6b4a-42e1-a2b6-3f87566b75cd">SpaceX makes rocket history</h2>In past Starship test flights, the Super Heavy booster either exploded mid-flight or landed in the water. Sunday's test flight was the first time the booster returned to its launch site.After its 33 Raptor engines roared to life, lifting Starship toward its destination, the booster headed toward home. As it neared the launch tower, it fired three of its engines to slow down, and then like something out of a sci-fi film, it slowly lowered itself gently into the tower's mechanical arms as SpaceX employees screamed and cheered in the background.However, the company has faced a series of setbacks and delays since Starship's inaugural orbit-height flight 18 months ago. SpaceX said regulators were delaying Starship's fifth test launch because of minor changes and that the FAA was dragging its heels.But on Saturday, the FAA approved Starship's fifth launch and SpaceX wasted no time and launched the very next day. The FAA did require that SpaceX take more steps to better analyze the environmental impact of its launches moving forward.For example, SpaceX will have environmental engineers check how the launches affect nearby animal nesting sites during and after launches, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/13/science/space-starship-launch-landing.html">The New York Times</a> reported.

Why yesterday's SpaceX launch was such a huge deal for space travel 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA works with a worldwide coalition of astronomers to find and track dangerous asteroids.</li><li>In the event of an impending hazardous asteroid strike, NASA already has its plan in place to alert the public.</li></ul>When the Chicxulub impactor, a six-mile-wide asteroid, struck Earth 66 million years ago, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dinosaurs-going-extinct-before-asteroid-hit-earth-study-2021-6">dinosaurs had no warning</a>. If an asteroid that size hit Earth today, a shock wave two million times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb would flatten forests and trigger tsunamis. A seismic pulse equal to a magnitude 10 earthquake would crumble cities. And long after the impact, a cloud of hot dust, ash, and steam would blot out the sun, plunging the Earth into freezing cold. <div type="image" title="An artists depiction of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs" height="1449" width="2070" msid="107779797" hostid="261" sizebytes="373936"></div>But at least we'd probably know it was coming ahead of time. And if NASA has anything to say about it, we may even be able to prevent the apocalypse. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is tasked with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-nasa-shouldnt-waste-time-moon-polls-say-2023-8">finding, tracking, and assessing the risk</a> associated with potentially hazardous asteroids in our solar system.“We definitely want to find all those before they find us,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/people/lindley-johnson/">Lindley Johnson</a>, Lead Program Executive for the Planetary Defense Coordination Office.To do that, NASA works with a global coalition of astronomers called the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN). Here’s what they would do if an apocalyptic asteroid strike was headed toward Earth. <h2>An international warning system </h2>In the event that a dangerous asteroid is headed toward Earth, IAWN has procedures in place to notify the public. First, the party members who detected the threat would share their observations across the IAWN network to verify their findings and assess the danger.Once all parties agree that Earth should brace for impact, NASA would send out an alert.“I don’t have a red phone on my desk or anything,” Johnson said. “But we do have formal procedures by which notification of a serious impact would be provided.”If the asteroid was headed toward the US, NASA would notify the White House, and the government would release a formal statement to the public. If it was big enough to pose an international threat, IAWN would notify the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs.<h2>Hunting for asteroids </h2>An asteroid is considered “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-warns-asteroid-skyscraper-football-stadium-size-pass-earth-watch-2024-2">potentially hazardous</a>” if it is larger than roughly 460 feet across and intersects Earth’s orbit at a minimum distance of 0.5 astronomical units, which is half the distance between Earth and the sun. There are about 2,300 known potentially hazardous asteroids out there, and roughly 153 of them are larger than 0.6 miles across. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-sizes-that-can-damage-cities-states-planet-2018-6">That’s big enough to trigger a catastrophe if one struck Earth.</a>To find and track them, NASA and the other IAWN partners look for new asteroids in addition to tracking ones that have already been discovered. All their observations get compiled into a database at the Minor Planet Center.So far, IAWN has found over 34,000 near-Earth asteroids. With enough observational data, NASA can confidently predict their orbits at least a century into the future, Johnson said.There’s a slim chance that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-predicts-exact-date-asteroid-hit-earth-atomic-bomb-bennu-2023-9">potentially hazardous Bennu asteroid</a> could hit Earth in 159 years, triggering an explosion equal to 24 nuclear bombs. But the odds of that happening are only about one in 2,700, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-spacecraft-provides-insight-into-asteroid-bennus-future-orbit">according to a 2021 study</a>.If Bennu does head toward Earth, NASA has a few tricks up its sleeve to defend our planet.<h2>Defending Earth</h2>Most of the time, IAWN catches oncoming asteroids long before they become an immediate threat to Earth, according to Johnson. But NASA would need at least five to 10 years of advanced notice to prevent the apocalypse from an approaching asteroid. In 2021, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-crashes-dart-spacecraft-into-asteroid-to-test-planetary-defense-2022-9">NASA launched its first planetary defense test mission</a>. It rammed an uncrewed spacecraft into an asteroid to shift its orbit away from Earth.<div type="image" title="An illustration of a spacecraft flying in front of an asteroid" height="1376" width="2180" msid="107779800" hostid="261" sizebytes="184652"></div>The mission was a success, and NASA <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">plans to test more deflection techniques</a> in the future. A developing “gravity tractor” technique would send a spacecraft to stay in position next to the asteroid and allow the gravitational interaction to pull the asteroid out of its orbit. NASA is also working on a technique that uses an ion beam to shift an asteroid's course.But if the threat was coming in less than five years, NASA wouldn’t have time to deflect the asteroid. Then, it might resort to destruction to minimize and disperse the impact.If NASA only had a few months of warning, then <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">there’s not much it could do to save Earth</a>.Thankfully, IAWN’s strategy is to find asteroids decades, if not centuries, before the impact. “That gives us plenty of time to then try to do something about them while they’re still in space, so that we completely avoid any catastrophe here on Earth,” Johnson said.

NASA explains how it would alert the public of an apocalyptic asteroid strike 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Billionaires, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and their <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">space businesses are racing to the moon.</a></li><li>A few treaties have set norms for space exploration between countries, but there are no hard rules.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barack-obama-jeff-bezos-space-exploration-colonization-save-earth-2024-3">space business</a> is in bloom and, so far, it's largely unregulated.A commercial <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-ceo-safety-switch-almost-lost-odysseus-moon-landing-2024-2">spacecraft touched down on the moon</a> for the first time last month, in a NASA-sponsored mission by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines.Then last week, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-elon-musk-rocket-launch-flight-three-2024-3">SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket finally launched into space</a> and cruised above Earth without exploding.<div type="image" title="A video still shows SpaceX's Starship starting its launch to space. The behemoth mega-rocket is engulfed in smoke in flames as it takes off." height="1080" width="1920" msid="108733448" hostid="261" sizebytes="36012"></div>Both achievements were major leaps forward for NASA's new moon program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface using Starship. In fact, NASA's biggest plans — to replace the aging space station, establish a permanent base on the moon, and send astronauts to Mars — depend on companies like SpaceX or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-risk-blue-origin-rocket-2021-6">Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin</a>.But the billionaires helming those companies have even bigger plans.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-paid-250000-to-a-flight-attendant-who-accused-elon-musk-of-sexual-misconduct-2022-5">Elon Musk</a> has said he plans to fly 1,000 Starships to build and populate a city on Mars. Bezos envisions a trillion people living in giant space stations across the solar system.Other space startups have ambitions including asteroid mining, in vitro <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-tourists-sex-pregnancy-risk-2023-8">fertilization (IVF) in space</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-station-first-ever-space-hotel-set-open-in-2027-2021-3">space hotels</a>.<div type="image" title="An artist's concept of what lunar mining could look like. An astronaut is seen taking measurements in the foreground while rovers and various instruments are in the background of the illustration. The scene is set on the surface of the moon." height="675" width="1200" msid="108733450" hostid="261" sizebytes="46098"></div>What's to stop companies from putting giant advertisements on the face of the moon? Or industrializing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blueprints-giant-telescopes-moon-nasa-astronomers-2024-2">craters that scientists want to use for telescopes</a>? Or mining a single <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">asteroid for $100 quintillion</a> worth of precious metals, bringing it back to Earth for sale, and destabilizing the global economy? What will keep the budding deep-space industry in check?"There isn't anything specifically enforceable," Mai'a Cross, a professor of international affairs and diplomacy at Northeastern University, told Business Insider.There are no laws or regulations for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">moon landings</a> or asteroid mining. As space startups and billionaires vie for a foothold on the moon and beyond, experts say governments probably need to start setting some ground rules."We're going to have to figure out how we want to operate, what rules we want to live by, and what the framework is going to look like," George Nield, former associate administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, told Business Insider.<h2>The new space economy needs room to grow</h2><div type="image" title="the moon bright round blotchy cratered disc in the blackness of space" height="1986" width="1986" msid="108733452" hostid="261" sizebytes="220948"></div>NASA doesn't want to run the show anymore. Instead, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-offers-cover-costs-blue-origin-nasa-contract-spacex-2021-7">NASA wants to be one of many customers</a> leasing spots in private companies' rockets, spaceships, space stations, and lunar habitats."We want to really try to grow the lunar economy and have these companies be successful," Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a press briefing ahead of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-im-1-odysseus-moon-lunar-landing-mission-nasa-2024-2">Intuitive Machines mission</a>.So far, the US government has deliberately avoided regulating the emerging space economy, for fear of suffocating it before it takes off.The FAA is quite active in regulating passenger safety on airplanes, for example, but has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blue-origin-employees-letter-new-shepard-rockets-not-safe-2021-9">no rules for spaceflight passenger safety</a>, even as Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic fly tourists to the edge of space or around the planet.<div type="image" title="Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson in flight" height="900" width="1600" msid="108733454" hostid="261" sizebytes="74372"></div>"We do need much more regulation than currently exists," Cross said."It is also in the interest of the private companies to call for this regulation sooner rather than later, because they don't want to start investing and taking action on things that, down the road, will be deemed illegal," she added.For now, only a handful of international agreements outline what is and isn't acceptable in space, and they have no teeth.<h2>Space treaties help, but they aren't enforceable</h2>Space diplomacy started with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.<div type="image" title="historical photo of president lyndon b johnson sitting at a long desk on a stage with other men in suits representing the united kingdom and u.s.s.r. signing a treaty" height="1500" width="2244" msid="108733455" hostid="261" sizebytes="149826"></div>Among other things, the treaty asserts that nobody can claim territory or sovereignty in space, nobody can put nuclear weapons in space, and that states are responsible for the space activities of even their non-government actors — such as companies or nonprofits."It's a pretty strong agreement. But like most international law, there is actually no significant way to enforce those norms," Cross said.In 2020 NASA introduced the Artemis Accords as a fresh agreement for the new lunar exploration era.Signed by 36 countries so far (but <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-accords-deep-space-exploration-moon-mars-asteroids-comets-2020-10">not Russia or China</a>), the Accords call for nations going to the moon and beyond to be peaceful, help astronauts in distress, share scientific data, avoid junking up the moon and its orbit, and mine space resources sustainably.Those treaties are for nations, though. In 2022 the Hague Institute for Global Justice started a similar agreement for commercial entities.Called The Washington Compact, this treaty for space commerce reflects many of the same principles as the Outer Space Treaty. A series of space startups, civil-society organizations, consultants, and two former NASA administrators have signed it. SpaceX and Blue Origin have not signed on.<h2>In the absence of space law, peer pressure can help</h2>Still, shared norms and treaties can be powerful even without enforcement. Companies operating on the moon will have a strong incentive to play nice with each other: It's good for business.<div type="image" title="Jeff Bezos wearing a cowboy hat and blue Blue Origin jumpsuit" height="2011" width="3000" msid="108733456" hostid="261" sizebytes="117448"></div>"Sure, we can pretend we don't have any regulations, but then your mining operation is going to get ruined when somebody drives their rover too close or, whatever you set up, your telecommunications platform is going to get messed up because somebody else decided to build something right next to you," Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, told Business Insider."It's going to be much, much more to your benefit, and to your shareholders' benefits, if you can manage to get along with your neighbors," she added.What's more, companies that want to leapfrog from the moon to Mars will need the moon's resources to get there. That's a built-in incentive not to over-mine or crowd the moon's orbit.<div type="image" title="An artist's rendering shows several Starships landing on Mars, next to colonies of humans, in a theoretical future." height="1152" width="2047" msid="108733458" hostid="261" sizebytes="72360"></div>Limited capacity should also hold most companies back from going rogue for a while. Intuitive Machines could only go to the moon with the help of its investors, NASA, and customers who paid to put their projects on the lander."In these early phases, everything will be so experimental that working together will be necessary," Cross said. "This wouldn't just be one space billionaire with one project."Even SpaceX's plans for fully private missions, so far, are basically joy rides bankrolled by other billionaires: Jared Isaacman and Yusaku Maezawa."That doesn't necessarily solve all the problems, but it does kind of weaken the sense that this is just someone like Elon Musk, really, determining all of the norms and rules in space," Cross said.<h2>Setting rules while the space titans are still 'Star Trek geeks'</h2><div type="image" title="william shatner talks to jeff bezos" height="1570" width="2861" msid="108733459" hostid="261" sizebytes="127742"></div>The US is at the forefront of commercial space exploration, putting Congress in a prime position to lead the way on what the rules should be.Half of global private space investment is in US companies, the US International Trade Commission <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/executive_briefings/ebot_us_private_space_launch_industry_is_out_of_this_world.pdf">reported</a> in November. Seven of the world's 10 biggest commercial space operators are based in the US, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.As the industry plows forward, Congress is starting to consider the issue. In November, two Republican representatives introduced a bill that would create a certification process for commercial space missions, adding to the FAA's launch licensing and the Federal Communications Commission's regulation of satellite transmissions, SpaceNews <a target="_blank" href="https://spacenews.com/new-commercial-space-bill-addresses-mission-authorization-and-ssa/">reported</a>.In another vein, last year <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-bill-protect-rocket-billionaires-crew-injury-death-musk-besos-2023-5">Florida passed a bill to protect space companies</a> and their owners from getting sued over spaceflight passenger death or injury."I think, frankly, government is struggling to keep pace with industry," Nield, the former FAA official, said of the overall regulatory landscape.It may be wise to catch up while the entrepreneurs vying for space seem to be truly passionate about it — "Star Trek geeks," in Hanlon's words."Right now you have a pretty small community of people who are like-minded," Hanlon said. "We really need to take advantage of this sort of camaraderie that we have, and try to build some of these frameworks before we start getting the bad actors who are really just in it for the money."

Billionaires going to space aim to industrialize the moon, asteroids, and Mars. It's time to set some ground rules.

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

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

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists built the largest digital camera ever, weighing 3 tons with a 5-foot lens, for astronomy.</li><li>The LSST camera is designed to take thousands of 3,200-megapixel images of the entire southern sky.</li></ul>The world's largest digital camera is finally complete in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-particles-neutrinos-fermilab-dune-tunnels-south-dakota-2024-2">laboratory</a> in Menlo Park, California.The SUV-sized Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cameras-left-in-glacier-legendary-explorer-found-85-years-later-2022-10">Camera</a> weighs about 6,200 pounds — roughly 3 metric tons — and its front lens is more than 5 feet wide.<div type="image" title="person in white jumpsuit wearing medical gloves appears faint taking selfie in a mosaic of blue green and yellow tiles inside a reflective lens inside a circle of mechanical gear with a gold circular frame around it" height="1500" width="2000" msid="109013691" hostid="261"></div>The LSST camera has to be that big to achieve its mission of taking a 10-year digital survey of the entire southern sky, scanning the whole area every few nights, eventually creating the largest <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-black-hole-milky-way-center-2019-10">astronomical movie</a> ever."No one has ever looked at so much of the universe so frequently," Aaron Roodman, the deputy director of Rubin Construction for SLAC and camera-program lead, told Business Insider.LSST isn't just a fun project to break records, though. Among its breakthrough science goals, the camera can also track down large, city-killer-sized asteroids so that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">NASA can identify any space rocks that might threaten Earth</a>.The camera's heft will also help investigate the mysterious dark energy and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hunt-for-dark-matter-begins-in-old-gold-mine-underground-2022-7">dark matter</a> that fills our universe and puzzles scientists.Scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory built this leviathan lens over two decades at an approximate cost of $168 million.Finally, it's complete, ready to ship off to the Rubin Observatory in Chile, high in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peru-drug-laced-beers-helped-ancient-empire-prosper-wari-2022-1">Andes mountains</a>. Engineers plan to mount it to the observatory later this year.<div type="image" title="rubin observatory white boxy building with telescope dome in a driveway sitting on top of a mountain with brown mountains surrounding" height="1500" width="2061" msid="109013693" hostid="261"></div><h2>A full-sky panorama, but 10 years long</h2>Photos from the LSST camera will contain 3,200 megapixels.One megapixel is one million pixels. An ultra-high-definition, or 4K, TV can only display about 8 megapixels. To show an image from the LSST camera in its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/high-resolution-photo-lets-you-zoom-in-on-peoples-faces-2018-12">full resolution</a>, you would need hundreds of ultra-HD TVs."Its images are so detailed that it could resolve a golf ball from around 15 miles away while covering a swath of the sky seven times wider than the full moon," Roodman <a target="_blank" href="https://phys.org/news/2024-04-slac-largest-digital-camera-built.html">said</a> in a press release.<div type="image" title="The first full moon of the year seen in Lisbon in January 2024." height="1400" width="2100" msid="109013695" hostid="261"></div>The LSST is designed to take about 1,000 images each night, stitching them together to make one <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">extremely detailed image</a> of the entire southern sky every few nights. Over 10 years, and tens of thousands of images, it should have what researchers call a 3D movie of the universe."This method allows us to observe changes in more than 20 billion galaxies, tracking both their movements and how they change," Travis Lange, the deputy project manager of the SLAC LSST team, said in a video on the project last month.<div type="image" title="galaxies stars in infrared jwst" height="2856" width="2799" msid="109013698" hostid="261"></div>Because of its diligence, the LSST should be able to capture all kinds of cosmic events in real time.<h2>Catching the universe red-handed</h2>Ultra-sensitive space observatories such as the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/times-nasa-webb-space-telescope-spotted-something-hubble-missed">James Webb Space Telescope</a> have scheduled times to point at specific objects and aren't always able to make a last-minute pivot toward emerging supernovas or interstellar visitors passing through our solar system.<div type="image" title="image of the colorful nebula in space" height="1307" width="1500" msid="109013700" hostid="261"></div>The LSST won't have to pivot at all. If something is happening in the southern sky, this giant camera should spot it as it surveys the whole area.That's what will allow the new camera to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">discover asteroids in our galactic neighborhood</a> that may have so far flown undetectedr."We'll be able to see things smaller than other telescopes have seen," Roodman told BI. "And since we're surveying so quickly, we really do expect to see a lot of what's out there."The LSST is also designed to alert astronomers whenever it identifies something new or changing in the sky. That gives astronomers the chance to turn their telescopes to observe new supernovae, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-supermassive-black-holes-nearest-earth-merging-into-monster-astronomers-2021-12">black-hole mergers</a>, and other astronomical phenomena in every wavelength of light, gathering the most data ever about these dynamic events.The survey is also likely to uncover <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vanishing-radio-signals-mystery-objects-in-milky-way-galaxy-center-2022-1">new types of deep-space objects and events</a>, Roodman said.<h2>Hunting for dark clues</h2>The LSST's ability to track galaxies' changes over a decade will also give scientists fresh insight into how the universe has evolved over time. That's key to understanding dark energy and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dark-matter-map-universe-galaxies-cosmic-voids-2021-5">dark matter</a>."Dark energy" is the name scientists have given to the mysterious force that causes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10">the universe to expand ever faster</a>. Dark matter is some type of matter that takes up space and has mass but doesn't seem to interact with light.Together, dark energy and matter make up most of the universe, and nobody knows what they are. The LSST could help find clues."If you <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-telescope-question-mark-space-galaxies-colliding-2023-8">look at one galaxy</a>, you can't tell anything. But if you look at hundreds of millions or billions — and we will look at billions of galaxies — you can see patterns across the sky," Roodman said. "You can see the imprint of how matter is distributed in the universe."

Scientists built a 3-ton camera with a 5-foot-wide lens to discover hazardous asteroids that NASA can't see

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

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

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

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

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

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