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Smelliest planets in and around our solar system

Perth: (The Conversation) Last week, three tiny Australian satellites from Curtin University's <keyword id="23932163" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Binar-Space-Program" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Binar Space Program" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Binar Space Program">Binar Space Program</keyword> burned up in Earth's atmosphere. That was always going to happen. In fact, Binar means "fireball" in the Noongar language of the First Nations people of Perth. When a satellite is in low Earth orbit (2,000km or less), it experiences orbital decay as it drags closer and closer to the surface, eventually burning up. But these cube satellites (<keyword id="21533654" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CubeSats" source="keywords">CubeSats</keyword>), known as Binar-2, 3 and 4, entered the atmosphere much sooner than originally planned. They only lasted for two months - a third of what was expected. This significantly reduced valuable time for science and testing new systems. The reason for their untimely demise? Our Sun has kicked into high gear, and the Binar satellites are far from the only casualty. Recent high <keyword id="20792842" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Solar-activity" source="keywords">solar activity</keyword> has been causing an unexpected headache for satellite operators in the last few years, and it's only increasing. <h2>Why is the Sun so active? </h2> Solar activity includes phenomena such as sunspots, solar flares and solar wind - the stream of charged particles that flows toward Earth. This activity is a product of the Sun's ever-changing magnetic field, and approximately every 11 years, it completely flips. At the midpoint of this cycle, solar activity is at its highest. While this cycle is known, specific solar activity is challenging to predict - the dynamics are complex and solar forecasting is in its infancy. In the last few months, indicators of solar activity were more than one and a half times higher than predictions for this point in the current cycle, labelled <keyword id="22712826" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-cycle-25" source="keywords">solar cycle 25</keyword>. <h2>The impact of <keyword id="20087207" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-weather" source="keywords">space weather</keyword> </h2> Space weather refers to the environmental effects that originate from outside our atmosphere (mostly the Sun). It affects us on Earth in a variety of noticeable and unnoticeable ways. The most obvious is the presence of auroras. In the past few months, auroras have been visible far more intensely and closer to the equator than in the last two decades. This is a direct result of the increased solar activity. Space weather, and solar activity in particular, also creates additional challenges for satellites and satellite operators. Higher solar activity means more solar flares and stronger solar wind - resulting in a higher flux of charged particles that can damage or disrupt electrical components on satellites. It also means an increase in ionising radiation, resulting in a higher dose for astronauts and pilots, and potential disruptions to long-distance radio communications. But for satellites in low Earth orbit, the most consistent effect of solar activity is that the extra energy gets absorbed into the outer atmosphere, causing it to balloon outward. As a result, all satellites less than 1,000km from Earth experience a significant increase in <keyword id="23473319" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="atmospheric-drag" source="keywords">atmospheric drag</keyword>. This is a force that disrupts their orbit and causes them to fall towards the planet's surface. Notable satellites in this region include the International Space Station and the Starlink constellation. These satellites have thrusters to counteract this effect, but these corrections can be expensive. Low Earth orbit also contains many university satellites, such as the Binar CubeSats. Cube satellites are rarely equipped with tools that can adjust their altitude, so they're entirely at the mercy of space weather. <h2>What happened to Binar? </h2> The Binar Space Program is a satellite research program operating out of Curtin University. It aims to advance our understanding of the Solar System and lower the barrier for operating in space. The program began operations with its first satellite, Binar-1, in September 2021. This was less than a year into solar cycle 25 when solar activity was relatively low. In these conditions, the ten-centimetre cube satellite started at an altitude of 420km and survived a full 364 days in orbit. The program's follow-up mission - Binar-2, 3, and 4 - were three equally sized CubeSats. However, they were expected to last approximately six months owing to the extra surface area from new deployable solar arrays and a forecast increase in solar activity. Instead, they only made it to two months before burning up. While cube satellite missions are relatively cheap, the premature ending of a mission will always be costly. This is even more true for commercial satellites, highlighting the need for more accurate space weather forecasting. The good news is the Sun will calm down again. Despite the current unexpectedly high solar activity, it will likely slow down by 2026, and is expected to return to a solar minimum in 2030. While this was not an explicit goal of the mission, the Binar Space Program has now poignantly demonstrated the dramatic effects of solar activity on space operations. While the untimely loss of Binar-2, 3 and 4 was unfortunate, work has already begun on future missions. They are expected to launch into far more forgiving space weather. (The Conversation).

Right now, the Sun is far more active than predicted - and small satellites are paying the price

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

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

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Baiju Bhatt, the cofounder of trading app Robinhood, has a new space startup.</li><li>Aetherflux aims to launch a constellation of satellites to transmit solar power to Earth using infrared lasers.</li></ul>When Baiju Bhatt co-founded the stock trading app <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-collapse-what-happened-retail-investing-meme-stocks-future-finance-2022-2">Robinhood</a> in 2013 with his college best friend, Vlad Tenev, the aim was to "democratize finance for all."Robinhood's no-fee, gamified approach to investing made capital markets more accessible than ever before, leading to an IPO in 2021.After over a decade at the company, Bhatt stood down as Robinhood's chief creative officer in March to pursue what was described at the time as "other entrepreneurial interests."In October, Bhatt announced he was launching Aetherflux, a Silicon Valley-based space startup.Aetherflux aims to create a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) that will collect solar power and beam it down to receptors on Earth using infrared lasers.Just as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-starlink-spacex-satellite-internet-business-constellation-fleet-elon-musk-mars">Elon Musk's Starlink</a> constellation has transformed communications, Bhatt hopes Aetherflux will revolutionize energy, he told Business Insider in an interview.The receptors will be just 10 meters in diameter, Bhatt said, meaning they can be placed virtually anywhere and theoretically provide power to remote locations that would otherwise be too expensive or dangerous to reach."If we succeed, we unlock a renewable energy source for humanity that can be delivered virtually anywhere," he wrote in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/allow-me-re-introduce-myself-baiju-bhatt-nu1ic/?trackingId=xecx1MNjQxGa6fapJvT2fA%3D%3D">LinkedIn post</a> announcing Aetherflux.If it works, far more solar power can be captured in orbit than through the atmosphere at ground level, and there would be no nighttime or weather disruptions to the power source. It would also free up land used for solar farms on Earth.Aetherflux plans to start by powering military operations in remote locations or remote mining operations, Bhatt said.<div type="image" title="A profile of Baiju Bhatt smiling in a black t-shirt in front of a beige background." height="3553" width="5324" msid="114432481" hostid="261" sizebytes="611312"></div>Bhatt hopes that a single receptor will one day be able to capture enough power for a small neighborhood of homes. He added that they'd need around 100 satellites to provide continuous power to one location.The idea of space-based solar power has existed for decades, but theories have generally rested on large constructions being sent into orbit and using microwaves to transmit energy.In January 2023, the California Institute of Technology launched a solar space-power demonstrator satellite into orbit for a yearlong mission to test out a range of potential approaches.Caltech's president, Thomas F. Rosenbaum, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/space-solar-power-project-ends-first-in-space-mission-with-successes-and-lessons">said the project</a> had shown them that solar power beamed from space "is still a future prospect" but that it "should be an achievable future."Aetherflux wants to do things differently by using infrared lasers and a modular approach.The science has already been demonstrated; it's just going to be an engineering and economic feat to prove it can be done from space, Bhatt said.To begin with, Aetherflux plans to send a single satellite into orbit by the first quarter of 2026 to demonstrate that solar energy transmission is possible.<h2 id="f76e6857-d783-49d8-94bf-ab950b9759df">The right time to be in space</h2>Though the career jump from finance to the space industry may seem unusual, Bhatt said space has been his "lifelong calling."NASA was a part of Bhatt's childhood. His father moved to the US from India to pursue physics and got a job at NASA's Langley Research Center in the 1990s studying atmospheric sciences.With a bachelor's in physics and a master's in mathematics, both from Stanford, Bhatt thought he'd be a physicist too. So, Robinhood was a "bit of a detour," he told BI.He is still a board member but has stepped back from day-to-day operations.One lesson Bhatt said he learned from running the trading app was how powerful capitalism could be in accelerating innovation."If you can take a problem that's been stagnating and you can create a capitalist system around it where people can make money doing something, you'll see the rate of progress really speed up," he said.<div type="image" title="Baiju Bhatt (right) and Vlad Tenev, founders of the online brokerage Robinhood." height="4160" width="6240" msid="114432476" hostid="261" sizebytes="601100"></div>After meeting with people working on power for DARPA at the beginning of this year and seeing the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-spacex-starship-launch-five-huge-deal-space-travel-2024-10">timeline Starship is on</a>, Bhatt decided that the best opportunities were now in space.Since 2009, the sum of private investments in space startups has soared from essentially nothing to $327.3 billion, according to the latest "<a target="_blank" href="https://spacecapital.docsend.com/view/9d69zpfz4ddms3ry">Space Investment Quarterly</a>" report published by venture capital and angel-investment firm Space Angels.The industry's value is expected to continue booming. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/aerospace-and-defense/our-insights/space-the-1-point-8-trillion-dollar-opportunity-for-global-economic-growth">McKinsey</a> estimates that the global space economy will be worth $1.8 trillion by 2035, accounting for inflation, up from $630 billion in 2023."It's hard to find something more exciting and impactful than space," said Matthew Weinzierl, a professor of the economics of space at Harvard Business School and coauthor of the upcoming book "Space to Grow.""This really is a new frontier, one where technological innovation can create new markets and solve real problems, often in ways we haven't thought of before," he said.Weinzierl said that in the past two decades, the US government has created pathways for commercial players, enabling market forces to take hold."Prices to orbit have dropped, launch availability has soared, and a wave of entrepreneurs are finding new ways to create value," he said.<div type="image" title="SpaceX's Super Heavy booster as it returned to its launch site, with the sun rising in the background." height="1031" width="1920" msid="114432482" hostid="261" sizebytes="52022"></div>With so many more commercially available products, space has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-launch-success-elon-musk-vision-cheap-space-travel-closer-2024-3#:~:text=%22With%20Starship%2C%20SpaceX%20is%20poised,in%20an%20email%20on%20Thursday.">never been cheaper</a>.Aetherflux is an example of how companies are using off-the-shelf solutions to speed up development. Its satellites are purchased readymade from satellite bus provider <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/palmer-luckey-anduril-apex-defense-tech-space-satellite-surveillance-2024-10">Apex</a>, the high-powered lasers it plans to use are commercially available, and it'll be using <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch">SpaceX</a> as a launch partner for its 2026 mission."The part that we're building is the actual optical design, the control systems, and the power transmission link, as well as the ground station," said Bhatt.<h2 id="5dda5318-030a-431a-91ff-f205b537a068">The future of Aetherflux</h2>When he spoke with BI, Bhatt had just moved into a lab facility in the Bay Area. With a team of 10 employees, he will begin iterating ground tests, developing the system design, and working with regulators.He's self-funding the project "completely," he told BI. As one of Robinhood's cofounders, Bhatt's net worth spiked after its IPO in 2021. He is worth around $1.7 billion, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/baiju-bhatt/">Forbes reports.</a>Although access to space has become more routine and affordable, Weinzierl said there is still a lot of uncertainty around the industry. Some of the ideas and businesses being developed today won't survive, but they'll be "the foundation that tomorrow's entrepreneurs will learn from and build on," he said.A self-proclaimed science nerd, Bhatt named his startup after a 19th-century theory about a pervasive medium called the aether, which physicists believed light traveled through."Einstein came along in 1905 and was basically like, nah, that stuff's all wrong. Light is the same in every reference frame," said Bhatt.So Aetherflux is named after a disproven scientific theory? Yes, Bhatt agreed with amusement. But he's "laser-focused" on the first mission and adamant that Aetherflux won't fall into the same bracket as its namesake."Space is hard," he admitted, "but we're committed to demonstrating this and making it happen."

Robinhood's cofounder has joined the rapidly growing commercial space race, and wants to beam solar power from satellites to earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to deliver a return capsule with asteroid dust on Sunday.</li><li>The capsule should land in the Utah desert if all goes according to plan. </li></ul>On Sunday, Earth should receive a very special package from space, if all goes according to plan.After nearly three years, NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacecraft-asteroid-landing-osiris-rex-2020-10">OSIRIS-REx</a> is scheduled to finally deliver the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-leaking-into-space-2020-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">largest asteroid sample</a> ever to the Utah desert at approximately 10:55 a.m. ET. That's right, an asteroid sample is headed for Earth. It doesn't happen every day. In fact, it's only ever been attempted <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-japan-asteroid-sample-treasure-box-returns-2020-12">twice before</a>.OSIRIS-REx began orbiting the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-predicts-exact-date-asteroid-hit-earth-atomic-bomb-bennu-2023-9">asteroid called Bennu</a> in 2018. Then, in 2020, it closed in on the space rock that's as wide as the Empire State building is tall, and scooped up what scientists estimate to be enough dirt and dust to fill a cup, per <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1200803124/nasa-osiris-rex-mission-bring-home-asteroid-rocks-returns-utah">NPR</a>. <div type="image" title="OSIRIS REx collection" height="1312" width="2000" msid="103881334" hostid="261" sizebytes="144876"></div>If the payload touches down safely on Sunday morning as planned, teams of scientists and officials will begin a complicated ballet to secure the valuable scientific data it carries. Every early step after touchdown is delicately planned, but once scientists get the sample out of its carrier, that's when the fun begins.<h2>Bake it, fire lasers at it, and cut it in half</h2>Portions of the fragments taken from the sample are set to be shipped to over 200 researchers, where "they'll be baked, they'll be lasered, they'll be cut in half," Noah Petro, a NASA planetary scientist, told Insider.Scientists have a plan to analyze everything from the sample, even the inside and outside of the return capsule carrying it, Petro said. In total, scientists in labs across the globe aim to study the asteroid using 60 different analytical techniques, Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx, said during a NASA press conference Friday.The goal is for scientists to "understand processes that occurred before our solar system even existed," Lauretta said.<div type="image" title="asteroid bennu rotating osiris rex" height="800" width="800" msid="103881335" hostid="261" sizebytes="93168"></div>Lauretta said they estimate the sample contains about 250 grams of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-lunar-rover-found-thick-dust-on-moon-far-side-2020-2">regolith</a>, the dusty material on the asteroid's surface. He said that's well above the minimum they promised to deliver, and that it should be a sufficient amount to study. <h2>Why Bennu?</h2>Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in the press conference that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dawn-mission-to-asteroid-belt-ending-2018-9">asteroids sit in different sections</a> across the galaxy. Each section contains information about a different time period of our galaxy's history.Bennu is an ideal candidate because it comes from what scientists think is one of the oldest sections, and can therefore give us details about how our solar system formed. <div type="image" title="asteroid belt vega" height="585" width="1041" msid="103881338" hostid="261" sizebytes="50872"></div>Whatever they discover from analyzing the cosmic dust, Petro is pretty sure they're going to be surprised. When he explained what he thinks they'll find, he was excited. "We think we're gonna find chemistry that basically would have seeded the Earth," billions of years ago, "with the components that led to complex life on the Earth," he said.

NASA scientists plan to bake, slice, and fire lasers at the asteroid sample from OSIRIS-REx to understand the creation of our solar system

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sunrun, the largest home solar installer, is pushing battery storage amid a downturn in the market.</li><li>High interest rates and policy changes in California are slowing demand for residential solar.</li></ul>The residential solar company Sunrun this month hit some milestones in what's otherwise been a bleak year for the industry.The company on Tuesday said it had 1 million residential solar customers and accounted for one in five home solar systems installed across the country. On a recent earnings call, Sunrun's CEO Mary Powell also said the company was selling a record amount of battery storage. More than half of new US sales in the latest quarter included solar and battery storage — what the company calls an "attachment rate." That figure is up from 12% a year ago.Still, the company isn't immune from a major slowdown in home solar sales. The slump was enough to force a competitor, SunPower, to file for bankruptcy protection this month. SunPower cited a combination of high interest rates and a policy change in California, the country's largest solar market. The company was also highly leveraged and struggled to raise more capital after some financial-reporting errors.In June, analysts at Wood Mackenzie forecast that homeowners nationwide will install 14% less solar power in 2024 than they did in 2023, marking the first time the market has contracted in five years. Zoë Gaston, a principal analyst on Wood Mackenzie's US distributed solar team, said the drop will likely be even larger following the exits of SunPower and another top installer, Titan Solar, from the industry.Driving the downturn is a new "net-metering" policy in California, where homeowners are getting paid less for sending electricity to the grid. The analysts estimate that California's market will contract by 40% this year, following a mad dash to install solar before those changes took effect in April 2023.High interest rates aren't helping either. Most homeowners finance their solar systems with a lease or a loan from companies like Sunrun. Higher rates on those long-term leases and loans mean less money saved on monthly utility bills, making solar less appealing."The days of easy money and low interest rates provided a lot of stimulus for demand," Brett Castelli, a clean-energy equity analyst at Morningstar, told Business Insider.Those days are over, he added, so some residential solar companies are focusing less on growth and more on cash flow after operating in the red.Powell told Business Insider that Sunrun had been focusing on boosting cash and a "battery-first" strategy in order to weather the solar-market headwinds. Sunrun is aiming for $200 million to $500 million in cash flow this year; historically it's been negative.She described the residential solar market this year as "distorted" because of the massive run-up in demand last year in California. But she speculated that it would adjust and then grow by at least 10% a year."Utilities don't have a solution for the future," Powell said, adding that <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/a/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=410907af3b41471e942f363124c7df5f&amp;_e=FH1nquVkvLfNWFzU_lJs7AfiLlVuT6tp-orYYxsiQ6Xb04sHPpCAri4s2sGvXpwgMOXKHrkz6fAZ5qhwQUqAN7ecYWspQ8eNmuBVPi4-oJZGY3DZPYLGfp_hwzKHsMpGsXu9MnCW07xSaqSSgUVU_naD-_XrZyHSN8fvD6Q_1mcZWLJJRUwme9UUf_Y-ocgDMDQjL0PS58nYKkpgOc8DTxCIvKp2Dw5T7VKntAN1HNHt32_HosEXg7Z81zY4XWq8UHeBdQ1ec0YwSVruC-j92AZ5h1NoIKQPn3NoqKEsWOUvB3ZYc8xbEl9dfiz-y4OaaxwujEvrpnlRKSgqXHGuPW44VrvTVXsKxjobl5e6jkuM8J1YU7mScSkza2XJNFJi_RbD0YUfEs1lR_WZwOnPFedTl0McEaarIC8dTt5c05odhMRNYJlHdHlI5nd2JGDAS453FqLVPoj3ud0mDseK7o8iWpQhwLkofncVVUWUEZ0%3D">customers are paying more for power but reliability is getting worse</a>. "That creates a systemic demand for solar and battery storage."Powell said regulators were pushing utilities to leverage residential renewable energy to stabilize the grid during periods of high demand, while homeowners want to have backup power as outages become more frequent because of extreme weather.Powell pointed to Sunrun's pilot projects in Texas, California, and Puerto Rico, where the company is monitoring its customers' stored solar power and sending it to the grid in times of high demand. Customers get paid for the energy, while Sunrun is paid for dispatching the batteries. In Maryland, Sunrun has partnered with three owners of electric Ford F-150s who charge at home to test how EV batteries can serve as back-up power.Castelli agreed with Powell's prediction that residential solar will grow in the long term, pointing to rising utility rates, the falling costs of equipment, and the likelihood of lower interest rates. But if states follow California's lead by making it less lucrative for homeowners to send electricity to the grid, demand could slow."The bottom line is the rooftop-solar industry needs to become more efficient," Castelli said. "The US has by far the highest cost for rooftop solar in the world. Through these changes and headwinds, companies are going out of business, and that's making the industry more efficient."

Residential solar is struggling. One company's add-on is helping it hit 1 million installations.

<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.

Asteroids in our solar system

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Humans have been studying <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-2024-total-solar-eclipse-cool-best-special-nasa-2024-1">total solar eclipses</a> for millennia to better understand the cosmos.</li><li>Total eclipses have helped prove Einstein's theory of relativity and led to the discovery of helium.</li></ul>On April 8, millions of people across the US will all do the same thing: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-to-see-total-eclipse-convince-boss-miss-work-2024-4">look up</a>.In the middle of the afternoon, day will shift to night, as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-eclipse-map-nasa-where-when-see-path-of-totality-2024-3">total solar eclipse</a> touches 15 states.We know now what causes a total <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/devil-comet-visible-during-total-solar-eclipse-how-see-2024-4">solar eclipse</a>. But our ancient ancestors from millennia ago weren't so certain, and that was bad news for some scientists.In the 21st century BCE, China's emporer <a target="_blank" href="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-history">reportedly</a> had two astronomers beheaded for not <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/total-eclipse-solar-power-generation-states-outside-path-totality-2024-3">predicting a total eclipse</a>.Over the centuries, total eclipses became less dire and more of an opportunity to test scientific theories and forge <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/helio-year-sun-solar-system-probe-eclipse-events-2024-1">new discoveries</a>.Here are seven times a total solar eclipse has helped advance human science.<h2>1. Measuring Earth's rotation</h2><div type="image" title="Aerial view of planet Earth covered in clouds." height="1411" width="2124" msid="109088911" hostid="261" sizebytes="77030"></div>Some of the earliest suspected records of eclipses <a target="_blank" href="https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/history/">date back</a> thousands of years.Some experts have suggested petroglyphs or rock carvings found on a monument in Ireland reference an eclipse that took place on November 30 in the year 3,340 BCE. Others have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/18/this-5000-year-old-stone-carving-may-be-the-worlds-first-drawing-of-an-eclipse/">expressed</a> skepticism.Human-made markings on tortoise shells from China and a Babylonian tablet from over 3,000 years ago may also contain ancient references to eclipses.Though these records are open to interpretation, scholars have <a target="_blank" href="https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/rotation.html">studied</a> historical descriptions of eclipses for centuries. It's how 18th-century astronomer Edmond Halley first realized the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-if-earth-stopped-spinning">Earth's rotation</a> has slowed over millennia.<h2>2. Discovering what causes eclipses</h2><div type="image" title="Engraving of Pericles stands next to Anaxagoras, who is sitting on steps next to columns in Ancient Greece" height="1500" width="2263" msid="109088912" hostid="261" sizebytes="1159624"></div>Two modern scholars <a target="_blank" href="https://daily.jstor.org/anaxagoras-and-the-eclipse-the-first-to-get-it-right/">give</a> Greek philosopher Anaxagoras of Clazomenae credit for figuring out the moon's role in eclipses, calling him "perhaps the first empirical astronomer."He likely developed his theories after witnessing an annular, or "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/october-solar-eclipse-annular-ring-of-fire-where-how-watch-2023-10">ring of fire</a>," eclipse on February 17, 478 BCE. While he got some of the science right, his overall understanding of the solar system was a product of its time.Anaxagoras, for example, thought that air pressure kept the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-living-on-flat-earth-would-look-like-2017-11">flat Earth</a> aloft at the center of the rotating sun, moon, and stars. Despite that error, he worked out the basic mechanics behind eclipses.Anaxagoras correctly believed the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-watch-da-vinci-glow-ghostly-shine-moon-phenomenon-2023-5">moon reflected</a> the sun's light. He was also accurate in his theories that when the moon moved in front of the sun, it caused a solar eclipse. Similarly, when the Earth was in between the sun and moon, there would be a lunar eclipse.He also used the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-lunar-eclipses-work-earth-moon-red-shadow-2018-7">moon's shadow</a> during an eclipse to estimate its size, but his calculations gave him a much smaller answer than reality.<h2>3. Estimating the moon's distance from Earth</h2><div type="image" title="A person is seated looking through a telescope with astrological instruments nearby in Ancient Greece" height="1500" width="2172" msid="109088915" hostid="261" sizebytes="589214"></div>On March 14, 189 BCE, a total solar eclipse swept over what is now northern Turkey. Greek astronomer Hipparchus would have just been a child at the time, but it's possible he saw the event.Years later, Hipparchus may have used secondhand accounts of that same eclipse to make one of the era's most mathematically accurate estimates of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mind-boggling-nasa-photo-shows-moon-distance-from-earth-2022-10">moon's distance from Earth</a>.Though Hipparchus' direct writings are lost, a 4th-century scholar <a target="_blank" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021828618817175">detailed</a> how he used the information.The astronomer estimated the distance between where the total eclipse was in modern day Turkey and Alexandria, Egypt — where a fifth of the sun showed — to make his calculation.Based on his math, Hipparchus offered a few ranges, including a mean distance of about 281,387 miles.He wasn't terribly far off. The moon is about 238,855 miles away.<h2>4. Predicting the path of an eclipse</h2><div type="image" title="A map of England showing the path of an 18th century eclipse" height="2445" width="2000" msid="109088917" hostid="261" sizebytes="708824"></div>In the 11th or 12th century, Mayan astronomers made a remarkable prediction for their time: They calculated that a total solar eclipse would occur in 1991, and their prediction was accurate to within a day.It would be centuries until humans made a more accurate prediction. In the 18th century, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/edmond-halley-solar-lunar-eclipse-manuscripts-sell-auction-2023-12">Edmond Halley</a>, better known for discovering a comet with his name, made a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/may/03/halleys-eclipse-newtonian-selling-science-history">map</a> predicting the path of the May 3, 1715 solar eclipse with extreme accuracy.Others made maps before him, but Halley based his prediction on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/isaac-newton-burnt-notes-pyramids-apocalypse-theology-sold-auction-2020-12">Isaac Newton</a>'s theory of universal gravitation, which helped him pinpoint the eclipse's timing to within four minutes.<h2>5. The discovery of helium</h2><div type="image" title="A drawing of several people seated and standing around astronomical equipment in the late 19th century in India" height="1500" width="2175" msid="109088919" hostid="261" sizebytes="650872"></div><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rare-element-arctic-lava-suggest-earth-core-may-leaking-2023-10">Helium</a> is very abundant in the universe but rare on Earth. It took an eclipse for an astronomer to discover it.French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-scientists-discovered-helium-first-alien-element-1868-180970057/">traveled</a> to Guntur, India just for the August 18, 1868 eclipse. He was using a spectroscope, a prism-like device for separating sunlight into a spectrum.Janssen saw a yellow line with a wavelength unlike any other element. Around the same time, English astronomer Norman Lockyer developed an instrument for viewing the sun even without an eclipse. He saw the same line.Lockyer called the mysterious element helium. It took a couple of decades for scientists to see it on Earth, during experiments on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/italy-skeleton-of-a-roman-killed-steps-from-sea-fled-vesuvius-eruption-2021-12">Mount Vesuvius</a> lava and uranium.<h2>6. Proof of Einstein's theory of relativity</h2><div type="image" title="A building holds a large piece of astronomical equipment with a long tube and rectangular box" height="1500" width="2244" msid="109088922" hostid="261" sizebytes="221628"></div>Astronomer James Craig Watson was certain he'd <a target="_blank" href="https://www.american-eclipse.com/">found</a> proof of a new planet during the 1878 eclipse. Supposedly located between the Sun and Mercury, Vulcan was only visible when the moon blocked the giant star.Several more eclipses passed without anyone finding evidence of Vulcan. In 1915, Albert Einstein <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/einstein-showed-newton-was-wrong-about-gravity-now-scientists-are-ncna1038671">explained</a> Mercury's unusual orbit with his general <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/albert-einstein-thought-experiments-2023-10">theory of relativity</a>. It fit the data better than a mysterious, difficult-to-spot extra planet.Despite this evidence, Einstein's theory didn't receive scientific proof until the May 29, 1919 eclipse. The physicist had said the sun's gravity would bend light from nearby stars.In 1919, expeditions traveled to Principe, an island off the coast of Africa, and Brazil. While the moon blocked the sun, the astronomers took photographs.The stars seemed to have shifted locations compared to the reference photos. The apparent new locations showed the sun was bending the light within the measurements that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russell-einstein-manifesto-nuclear-weapons-bombs-danger-2024-2">Einstein predicted</a>.<h2>7. Studying eclipses from space</h2><div type="image" title="A large antenna dish beneath a solar eclipse" height="1383" width="2055" msid="109088924" hostid="261" sizebytes="79024"></div>Gemini 12 astronauts Jim Lovell and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/buzz-aldrin-thoughts-lunar-module-moon-liftoff-2017-7">Buzz Aldrin</a> were the first humans to see a total eclipse from space. The November 12, 1966 eclipse moved from Peru to Brazil, and the astronauts hovered near the path of totality.It was a coincidence that they were close enough to see it, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-history-of-total-solar-eclipses-seen-by-astronauts-from-outer-space-180983909/">Smithsonian Magazine</a>. Aldrin's photos were unfocused and a bit disappointing.Four years later, TV networks <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8i9qNslaJA">broadcast</a> the "eclipse of the century," full of images of the event. NASA also launched over two dozen rockets to study <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-sunscreen-is-not-enough-to-protect-you-from-sun-2023-9">UV radiation</a> and solar X-rays during the phenomenon.The agency still uses rockets to gather data during eclipses and will launch three on April 8.

7 times a total solar eclipse revolutionized science 

<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.

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