The 5 Most Out-of-This-World Space Accomplishments of 2022
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Eight of the Most Important Space Discoveries Since the Apollo Landings
This Asteroid Won't Hit Earth, But It's Coming Pretty Dang Close
NASA's Dawn Goes In For a Closer Look at the Birth of the Solar System
Our 1st Interstellar Visitor Likely Came From a 2-Star System
Rendezvous With an Interstellar Traveler
Sponsored
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He graduated from Sonoma State University in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in physics (and minor in astronomy), after which he signed on for a two-year stint in the Peace Corps, where he taught physics and mathematics in the African nation of Cameroon. From 1989-96 he served on the crew of NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. 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We kick-started the first moon mission in 50 years and altered the orbit of a planetary object for the first time ever. Here’s a recap of some of the best space accomplishments of 2022, according to KQED’s Danielle Venton, and Ben Burress, astronomer with Chabot Space and Science Center and longtime contributor to KQED’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. James Webb telescope released spectacular images of nebulae and galaxies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s been almost a year since Webb, the largest-ever space telescope, launched and began sending back spectacular images of the cosmos. And since July, we’ve been stunned by images of fledgling stars and the ancient universe, taking us as far back as 400 million years after the big bang. The Webb telescope has revealed the complexity of distant galaxies, observed extrasolar planets and detected the presence of water vapor and carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of two exoplanets — telltales of possible life beyond Earth. From Jupiter’s aurora, Neptune’s rings and Saturn’s moon to merging galaxies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/albums/72177720301006030\">here’s a collection of some fascinating Webb images\u003c/a> that awed us this year. —\u003cem> Danielle Venton and Ben Burress\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1981005\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1981005\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-800x432.png\" alt=\"Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image of the Cosmic Cliffs from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This image separates out several wavelengths of light from the First Image revealed on July 12, 2022, which highlight molecular hydrogen, a vital ingredient for star formation. Insets on the right-hand side highlight three regions of the Cosmic Cliffs with particularly active molecular hydrogen outflows.\" width=\"800\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-800x432.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-1020x550.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-160x86.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-768x414.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-1536x829.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-1920x1036.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o.png 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image of the Cosmic Cliffs from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This image separates out several wavelengths of light from the first image revealed on July 12, 2022, which highlight molecular hydrogen, a vital ingredient for star formation. Insets on the right-hand side highlight three regions of the Cosmic Cliffs with particularly active molecular hydrogen outflows. \u003ccite>(NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI/Image processing by J. DePasquale of STScI)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>2. NASA’s DART mission crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In September, NASA crashed a 1,200-pound spacecraft into an asteroid system called Didymos to test the possibility of deflecting an asteroid headed for earth. The goal of the mission was to change the trajectory of the asteroid by giving it a little nudge, pushing it off course and away from Earth. NASA announced that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (or DART) mission, the first test of its kind, successfully altered the orbit of the asteroid by 32 minutes, giving scientists hope for the future of planetary defense of Earth.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Ben Burress\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART's Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4238&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. Artemis kick-starts mission to the moon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>NASA’s launch of Artemis 1 in November revived the space agency’s “Moon to Mars” initiative by sending the Orion, an uncrewed spacecraft, to orbit the moon for six weeks. On Dec. 11, the capsule returned from its flight around the moon, splashing down a few hundred miles south of San Diego. The success of Artemis 1 will lay the foundation for the next stages of the Artemis program, which will rely on SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, to build a moon lander for astronauts. The Artemis program aims to return humans to the moon in 2025 to learn about how humans can survive in space. \u003cem>— Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NASA’s Artemis I Mission Splashes Down in Pacific Ocean\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/xzZPzmMtQA8?start=6546&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Black hole: Images and sounds\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In May, an international team of astrophysicists and researchers working with the Event Horizon Telescope successfully \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979313/this-is-the-first-image-of-the-black-hole-at-the-heart-of-the-milky-way\">captured the first image of our galaxy’s central, supermassive black hole\u003c/a>. They did this by positioning eight observatories around the world, working together as one huge radio telescope. The discovery comes three years after the team released the first-ever image of a black hole in the center of galaxy Messier 87. In other black hole news, we also heard, for the first time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1980297/listen-to-the-deepest-musical-note-in-the-known-universe\">the sounds of a black hole in the Perseus cluster\u003c/a> in the eeriness of the sound waves carried through hot gasses in the galaxy. \u003cem>— Ben Burress\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/audible-cosmos-black-hole-sounds-v2-17luf-mp3/embed?style=Cover\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>5. China sends astronauts to its very own space station\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In November, China sent Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu on the Shenzhou 15 mission to their recently completed, three-module space station called Tiangong. During this six-month mission, the taikonauts, as the Chinese call astronauts, will conduct three or four spacewalks and more than 100 experiments. The Tiangong, which means “celestial palace” in Mandarin, is the second space station in orbit next to the International Space Station.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>—Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shenzhou 15 crew enters Chinese space station after docking\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/jZ6lAhZnkeM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are some of the space and astronomy news you’re looking forward to in 2023?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10237.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Here’s a recap of some of the best space accomplishments of 2022.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846129,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":true,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":true,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":14,"wordCount":778},"headData":{"title":"The 5 Most Out-of-This-World Space Accomplishments of 2022 | KQED","description":"Here’s a recap of some of the best space accomplishments of 2022.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"The 5 Most Out-of-This-World Space Accomplishments of 2022","datePublished":"2022-12-16T23:00:44.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:22:09.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1981001/the-best-space-accomplishments-2022","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>This year the most powerful space telescope ever assembled brought us breathtaking images of galaxies from billions of years ago. We kick-started the first moon mission in 50 years and altered the orbit of a planetary object for the first time ever. Here’s a recap of some of the best space accomplishments of 2022, according to KQED’s Danielle Venton, and Ben Burress, astronomer with Chabot Space and Science Center and longtime contributor to KQED’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. James Webb telescope released spectacular images of nebulae and galaxies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s been almost a year since Webb, the largest-ever space telescope, launched and began sending back spectacular images of the cosmos. And since July, we’ve been stunned by images of fledgling stars and the ancient universe, taking us as far back as 400 million years after the big bang. The Webb telescope has revealed the complexity of distant galaxies, observed extrasolar planets and detected the presence of water vapor and carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of two exoplanets — telltales of possible life beyond Earth. From Jupiter’s aurora, Neptune’s rings and Saturn’s moon to merging galaxies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/albums/72177720301006030\">here’s a collection of some fascinating Webb images\u003c/a> that awed us this year. —\u003cem> Danielle Venton and Ben Burress\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1981005\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1981005\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-800x432.png\" alt=\"Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image of the Cosmic Cliffs from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This image separates out several wavelengths of light from the First Image revealed on July 12, 2022, which highlight molecular hydrogen, a vital ingredient for star formation. Insets on the right-hand side highlight three regions of the Cosmic Cliffs with particularly active molecular hydrogen outflows.\" width=\"800\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-800x432.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-1020x550.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-160x86.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-768x414.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-1536x829.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o-1920x1036.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/52565832838_d2d73bb5ed_o.png 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image of the Cosmic Cliffs from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This image separates out several wavelengths of light from the first image revealed on July 12, 2022, which highlight molecular hydrogen, a vital ingredient for star formation. Insets on the right-hand side highlight three regions of the Cosmic Cliffs with particularly active molecular hydrogen outflows. \u003ccite>(NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI/Image processing by J. DePasquale of STScI)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>2. NASA’s DART mission crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In September, NASA crashed a 1,200-pound spacecraft into an asteroid system called Didymos to test the possibility of deflecting an asteroid headed for earth. The goal of the mission was to change the trajectory of the asteroid by giving it a little nudge, pushing it off course and away from Earth. NASA announced that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (or DART) mission, the first test of its kind, successfully altered the orbit of the asteroid by 32 minutes, giving scientists hope for the future of planetary defense of Earth.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Ben Burress\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART's Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4238&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. Artemis kick-starts mission to the moon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>NASA’s launch of Artemis 1 in November revived the space agency’s “Moon to Mars” initiative by sending the Orion, an uncrewed spacecraft, to orbit the moon for six weeks. On Dec. 11, the capsule returned from its flight around the moon, splashing down a few hundred miles south of San Diego. The success of Artemis 1 will lay the foundation for the next stages of the Artemis program, which will rely on SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, to build a moon lander for astronauts. The Artemis program aims to return humans to the moon in 2025 to learn about how humans can survive in space. \u003cem>— Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NASA’s Artemis I Mission Splashes Down in Pacific Ocean\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/xzZPzmMtQA8?start=6546&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Black hole: Images and sounds\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In May, an international team of astrophysicists and researchers working with the Event Horizon Telescope successfully \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979313/this-is-the-first-image-of-the-black-hole-at-the-heart-of-the-milky-way\">captured the first image of our galaxy’s central, supermassive black hole\u003c/a>. They did this by positioning eight observatories around the world, working together as one huge radio telescope. The discovery comes three years after the team released the first-ever image of a black hole in the center of galaxy Messier 87. In other black hole news, we also heard, for the first time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1980297/listen-to-the-deepest-musical-note-in-the-known-universe\">the sounds of a black hole in the Perseus cluster\u003c/a> in the eeriness of the sound waves carried through hot gasses in the galaxy. \u003cem>— Ben Burress\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/audible-cosmos-black-hole-sounds-v2-17luf-mp3/embed?style=Cover\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>5. China sends astronauts to its very own space station\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In November, China sent Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu on the Shenzhou 15 mission to their recently completed, three-module space station called Tiangong. During this six-month mission, the taikonauts, as the Chinese call astronauts, will conduct three or four spacewalks and more than 100 experiments. The Tiangong, which means “celestial palace” in Mandarin, is the second space station in orbit next to the International Space Station.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>—Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shenzhou 15 crew enters Chinese space station after docking\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/jZ6lAhZnkeM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are some of the space and astronomy news you’re looking forward to in 2023?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"hearken","attributes":{"named":{"src":"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10237.js","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1981001/the-best-space-accomplishments-2022","authors":["11631"],"categories":["science_28","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_144","science_1502","science_5186"],"featImg":"science_1981002","label":"source_science_1981001"},"science_1978197":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1978197","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1978197","score":null,"sort":[1641866952000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"thousands-of-asteroids-orbit-near-earth-nasas-next-gen-spotter-helps-protect-us","title":"Thousands of Asteroids Orbit Near Earth. NASA's Next-Gen Spotter Helps Protect Us","publishDate":1641866952,"format":"image","headTitle":"Thousands of Asteroids Orbit Near Earth. NASA’s Next-Gen Spotter Helps Protect Us | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of NASA’s many launches, those with a fiery blastoff and a gleaming aerial ascent into space get the most love from space fans — but not all missions fly on rockets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take Sentry II. It’s not a spacecraft or even a ground-based telescope. It’s a computer algorithm designed to forecast \u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-1994-pc1-closest-jan-18-2022/\">future asteroid \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">near-misses\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and collisions with Earth. To do that, it must search through mountains of asteroid orbital data collected by many observatories. In December, NASA launched Sentry II on its mission.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The inaugural “flight” of a computer program may not sound flashy, but Sentry II’s \u003ca href=\"https://minorplanetcenter.net/\">mission to sift through tens of thousands of known asteroid orbits\u003c/a> looking for those that could pose a threat to us is both an enormous task and vitally important to predicting potential calamity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Keeping an eye on traffic\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it like this: You’re driving your car on a crowded freeway, sharing the road with hundreds of other cars all moving along with you, changing lanes, speeding up, slowing down. You constantly monitor other cars through your windshield, out the side windows and in your rearview mirror.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978207\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/600px-Asteroids-KnownNearEarthObjects-Animation-UpTo2018010-NASAJPLCALTECH1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation of known near-Earth asteroids and the inner solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the cars you can safely ignore: those two or three lanes over, slower traffic falling behind, or that speeder up ahead disappearing into the distance. Nothing to worry about at the moment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then there are the cars you watch more closely, those whose speed and trajectory you judge may bring them close. To avoid a collision, you want as much advance warning as possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now imagine your task is to monitor 27,000 cars and predict potential near-car encounters years into the future. That’s like what the Sentry algorithms do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Sentry II’s fresh perspective\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The original Sentry algorithm, in operation since 2002, did its job very well, projecting asteroids’ paths and gravitational interactions with the sun and planets a century into the future. But Sentry I had limitations, and humans had to step in and do some of the math themselves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, it could not account for changes in an asteroid’s trajectory from influences such as \u003ca style=\"color: #41a62a\" href=\"https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/the-yarkovsky-effect-pushing-asteroids-around-with-sunlight/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">heating effects by sunlight\u003c/a>; these are nongravitational influences that cause small but constant deviations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sentry I also had difficulty plotting how much the course of an object would deviate when it swung close to Earth and our planet’s gravity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like a Gen-Z youngster with technical savvy that puts older generations to shame, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-next-generation-asteroid-impact-monitoring-system-goes-online\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sentry II\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> takes these influences into account with finesse, coming swiftly to more accurate projections and predictions. This high-powered mission is well equipped to take on the rising tide of orbital data flooding in from around the world. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Near-Earth asteroids\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since the first asteroid was discovered on New Year’s Day in 1801, generations of astronomers have found many, many more space rocks lurking in the dark. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978204\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 872px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978204\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"872\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission.jpg 872w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission-800x368.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission-160x74.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission-768x353.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 872px) 100vw, 872px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graph showing all near-Earth asteroids discovered each year, by mission or survey, since 1995. \u003ccite>(NASA/Center for Near-Earth Object Studies)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the last two centuries, larger and more sensitive telescopes, and more recently spacecraft, have probed for the faint, elusive dots of light crawling against the starry backdrop of space. In the last few decades, \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/totals.html\">our awareness of them has risen exponentially\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To date, astronomers know of more than 27,000 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">near-Earth asteroids\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and discover about 3,000 more every year. Of these, 9,948 are larger than 460 feet across, and 889 are larger than a half mile in diameter, large enough to inflict regional or global devastation should they impact our planet — so the importance of tracking their orbital motions and projecting their paths into the future is plain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978205\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 770px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978205\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021.jpg 770w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radar image of 2021 PJ1, the 1,000th near-Earth asteroid detected by radar observations since 1968. 2021 PJ1 is a 65- to 100-foot asteroid that passed about 1 million miles from Earth in August 2021. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/basics.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit\u003c/a> and present the possibility of collision are, obviously, the ones to keep the closest eye on. Those larger than 460 feet (about the length of one-and-a-half football fields) are considered potentially hazardous objects — the cars on the freeway that can make your heart jump. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What would happen if an asteroid hit Earth?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s happened before: a major asteroid or comet impact with Earth. Sixty-six million years ago, a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">6-mile-wide asteroid\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> hit the northern top of the Yucatan Peninsula and wrought global devastation that contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs, along with 75% of all species living at the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On average, an impact on the scale of the dinosaur-killer happens about every 100 million years. The good news is, pretty much all asteroids even approaching that size have been found and their orbits mapped out very accurately, and none of them is projected to come near Earth. Their orbits are fairly stable and can be accurately predicted far into the future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978201\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 985px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978201\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"985\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020.jpg 985w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 985px) 100vw, 985px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of near-Earth asteroid 2020 QG, an SUV-sized rock that passed within 1,830 miles of Earth’s surface in August 2020. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But smaller asteroids are another matter. Their orbits are more strongly influenced by gravitational interactions with planets and other effects, which complicates predictions of their future whereabouts. They’re also harder to detect, so there are many yet unknown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smaller asteroids also are more numerous, and they both pass near and impact Earth more frequently. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In 1908, a collision\u003c/a> by a large object caused an aerial explosion over Siberia that flattened forests for miles around and sent tremors through Earth that were detected by seismographs in London.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/five-years-after-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-nasa-leads-efforts-in-planetary-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In 2013, a 20-meter object\u003c/a> exploded in Earth’s atmosphere above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The shockwave shattered windows and caused some brick structures to collapse, and though there were no fatalities, over 1,400 people were injured by indirect causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smaller chunks of rock burn up in Earth’s atmosphere or hit the ground on a daily basis, and though their effects may be minor, they usually go undetected until only hours before impact, if at all, coming at us with little or no advance warning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like a fender bender in traffic, even the smallest meteorite impact could spoil someone’s day, or worse, so keeping tabs on the traffic around Earth is important. Knowing what’s coming at you is the first step in predicting, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">possibly avoiding\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a collision. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The new mission to spot near-Earth asteroids brings in more information about their orbits and picks up some tasks humans have had to do.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846331,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":25,"wordCount":1125},"headData":{"title":"Thousands of Asteroids Orbit Near Earth. NASA's Next-Gen Spotter Helps Protect Us | KQED","description":"The new mission to spot near-Earth asteroids brings in more information about their orbits and picks up some tasks humans have had to do.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Thousands of Asteroids Orbit Near Earth. NASA's Next-Gen Spotter Helps Protect Us","datePublished":"2022-01-11T02:09:12.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:25:31.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","path":"/science/1978197/thousands-of-asteroids-orbit-near-earth-nasas-next-gen-spotter-helps-protect-us","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of NASA’s many launches, those with a fiery blastoff and a gleaming aerial ascent into space get the most love from space fans — but not all missions fly on rockets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take Sentry II. It’s not a spacecraft or even a ground-based telescope. It’s a computer algorithm designed to forecast \u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-1994-pc1-closest-jan-18-2022/\">future asteroid \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">near-misses\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and collisions with Earth. To do that, it must search through mountains of asteroid orbital data collected by many observatories. In December, NASA launched Sentry II on its mission.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The inaugural “flight” of a computer program may not sound flashy, but Sentry II’s \u003ca href=\"https://minorplanetcenter.net/\">mission to sift through tens of thousands of known asteroid orbits\u003c/a> looking for those that could pose a threat to us is both an enormous task and vitally important to predicting potential calamity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Keeping an eye on traffic\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it like this: You’re driving your car on a crowded freeway, sharing the road with hundreds of other cars all moving along with you, changing lanes, speeding up, slowing down. You constantly monitor other cars through your windshield, out the side windows and in your rearview mirror.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978207\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/600px-Asteroids-KnownNearEarthObjects-Animation-UpTo2018010-NASAJPLCALTECH1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation of known near-Earth asteroids and the inner solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the cars you can safely ignore: those two or three lanes over, slower traffic falling behind, or that speeder up ahead disappearing into the distance. Nothing to worry about at the moment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then there are the cars you watch more closely, those whose speed and trajectory you judge may bring them close. To avoid a collision, you want as much advance warning as possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now imagine your task is to monitor 27,000 cars and predict potential near-car encounters years into the future. That’s like what the Sentry algorithms do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Sentry II’s fresh perspective\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The original Sentry algorithm, in operation since 2002, did its job very well, projecting asteroids’ paths and gravitational interactions with the sun and planets a century into the future. But Sentry I had limitations, and humans had to step in and do some of the math themselves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, it could not account for changes in an asteroid’s trajectory from influences such as \u003ca style=\"color: #41a62a\" href=\"https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/the-yarkovsky-effect-pushing-asteroids-around-with-sunlight/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">heating effects by sunlight\u003c/a>; these are nongravitational influences that cause small but constant deviations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sentry I also had difficulty plotting how much the course of an object would deviate when it swung close to Earth and our planet’s gravity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like a Gen-Z youngster with technical savvy that puts older generations to shame, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-next-generation-asteroid-impact-monitoring-system-goes-online\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sentry II\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> takes these influences into account with finesse, coming swiftly to more accurate projections and predictions. This high-powered mission is well equipped to take on the rising tide of orbital data flooding in from around the world. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Near-Earth asteroids\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since the first asteroid was discovered on New Year’s Day in 1801, generations of astronomers have found many, many more space rocks lurking in the dark. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978204\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 872px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978204\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"872\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission.jpg 872w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission-800x368.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission-160x74.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/CNEOS-graphofNEOdiscoveriesbymission-768x353.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 872px) 100vw, 872px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graph showing all near-Earth asteroids discovered each year, by mission or survey, since 1995. \u003ccite>(NASA/Center for Near-Earth Object Studies)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the last two centuries, larger and more sensitive telescopes, and more recently spacecraft, have probed for the faint, elusive dots of light crawling against the starry backdrop of space. In the last few decades, \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/totals.html\">our awareness of them has risen exponentially\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To date, astronomers know of more than 27,000 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">near-Earth asteroids\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and discover about 3,000 more every year. Of these, 9,948 are larger than 460 feet across, and 889 are larger than a half mile in diameter, large enough to inflict regional or global devastation should they impact our planet — so the importance of tracking their orbital motions and projecting their paths into the future is plain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978205\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 770px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978205\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021.jpg 770w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/asteroid_2021PJ1-JPL-Sept2021-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radar image of 2021 PJ1, the 1,000th near-Earth asteroid detected by radar observations since 1968. 2021 PJ1 is a 65- to 100-foot asteroid that passed about 1 million miles from Earth in August 2021. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/basics.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit\u003c/a> and present the possibility of collision are, obviously, the ones to keep the closest eye on. Those larger than 460 feet (about the length of one-and-a-half football fields) are considered potentially hazardous objects — the cars on the freeway that can make your heart jump. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What would happen if an asteroid hit Earth?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s happened before: a major asteroid or comet impact with Earth. Sixty-six million years ago, a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">6-mile-wide asteroid\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> hit the northern top of the Yucatan Peninsula and wrought global devastation that contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs, along with 75% of all species living at the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On average, an impact on the scale of the dinosaur-killer happens about every 100 million years. The good news is, pretty much all asteroids even approaching that size have been found and their orbits mapped out very accurately, and none of them is projected to come near Earth. Their orbits are fairly stable and can be accurately predicted far into the future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978201\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 985px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1978201\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"985\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020.jpg 985w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/01/pia24037_nasa-2020QG-SUV-aug2020-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 985px) 100vw, 985px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of near-Earth asteroid 2020 QG, an SUV-sized rock that passed within 1,830 miles of Earth’s surface in August 2020. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But smaller asteroids are another matter. Their orbits are more strongly influenced by gravitational interactions with planets and other effects, which complicates predictions of their future whereabouts. They’re also harder to detect, so there are many yet unknown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smaller asteroids also are more numerous, and they both pass near and impact Earth more frequently. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In 1908, a collision\u003c/a> by a large object caused an aerial explosion over Siberia that flattened forests for miles around and sent tremors through Earth that were detected by seismographs in London.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/five-years-after-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-nasa-leads-efforts-in-planetary-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In 2013, a 20-meter object\u003c/a> exploded in Earth’s atmosphere above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The shockwave shattered windows and caused some brick structures to collapse, and though there were no fatalities, over 1,400 people were injured by indirect causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smaller chunks of rock burn up in Earth’s atmosphere or hit the ground on a daily basis, and though their effects may be minor, they usually go undetected until only hours before impact, if at all, coming at us with little or no advance warning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like a fender bender in traffic, even the smallest meteorite impact could spoil someone’s day, or worse, so keeping tabs on the traffic around Earth is important. Knowing what’s coming at you is the first step in predicting, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">possibly avoiding\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a collision. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1978197/thousands-of-asteroids-orbit-near-earth-nasas-next-gen-spotter-helps-protect-us","authors":["6180"],"categories":["science_28","science_40","science_4450","science_3947"],"tags":["science_144","science_1073","science_4414"],"featImg":"science_1978206","label":"source_science_1978197"},"science_1977331":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1977331","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1977331","score":null,"sort":[1636030806000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"nasa-to-explore-what-could-be-the-iron-core-of-a-former-planet","title":"NASA to Explore What Could Be The Iron Core of a Former Planet","publishDate":1636030806,"format":"standard","headTitle":"NASA to Explore What Could Be The Iron Core of a Former Planet | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>NASA is preparing a journey to an unusual asteroid named \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/16-psyche/in-depth/\">Psyche,\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\na journey that no spacecraft has taken before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psyche is not your common asteroid. Scientists believe it’s the metallic core of a planet that had its rocky layers stripped away by violent collisions with other space objects in the distant past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s spacecraft will depart Earth on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-heavy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> SpaceX Falcon Heavy\u003c/a> launch vehicle in August 2022, beginning a voyage to the solar system’s \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&condition_1=101%3Aparent_id&condition_2=asteroid%3Abody_type%3Ailike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> main asteroid belt\u003c/a>, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Along the way, in May 2023, it will fly near enough to Mars to gain a boost in speed from that planet’s gravity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977334 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU.jpg\" alt=\"A rough, cratered gray asteroid floats against the black backdrop of space. \" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s concept of the asteroid Psyche, believed to be the remnant metallic core of an ancient planet. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Arizona State University will lead the Psyche mission, conducted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The asteroid\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Psyche was discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer\u003ca href=\"https://royalsociety.org/blog/2019/11/a-parthenope-in-the-sky/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Annibale de Gasparis\u003c/a>, who named the slowly moving, star-like spot of light in the sky after the Greek goddess of the soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psyche circles the sun within the solar system’s main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. At 140-miles wide, the asteroid is one of the most scientifically intriguing objects in the belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977335\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977335 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Psyche_asteroid_eso_cropESO-LAM-VLT.jpg\" alt=\"A fuzzy, white distorted circle sits against a jet black background. \" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Psyche_asteroid_eso_cropESO-LAM-VLT.jpg 300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Psyche_asteroid_eso_cropESO-LAM-VLT-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of asteroid 16 Psyche captured by the Very Large Telescope using adaptive optics technology. \u003ccite>(ESO/LAM/Very Large Telescope)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Psyche’s density, calculated from a mass estimated by its gravitational influence on other asteroids and a size measurement made by the IRAS infrared survey, tells scientists the asteroid is largely composed of metal — unlike typical asteroids, which are rocky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why scientists believe it may be the dense metallic core of a former planet, whose outer rocky layers may have been blasted away by collisions with other objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the asteroid Psyche is the iron core of a former planet or planetoid, then it may serve as a rare chance to examine a planetary core directly — an opportunity that fully formed planets do not offer, hiding their precious cores in secrecy beneath hundreds or thousands of miles of rock and magma.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A planet that might have been?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The early solar system is thought to have been a tumultuous place, filled with whizzing asteroids, comets, and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-researchers-find-evidence-of-planet-building-clumps\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planetesimals\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” — primordial, kilometer-plus-sized objects that merged with each other to form planets. All these objects flying about frequently shattered against other large objects. The collisions reshaped them, and they gradually rebuilt over time from a continual bombardment of smaller bits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these space objects became larger, their gravity’s strength also grew, which in turn pulled in even more stuff, and they snowballed. Some quickly dominated their regions of the solar system, and would eventually become the planets we know today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977338\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977338 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/earth_interior_cutaway_preview_3.jpg__1240x510_q85_subject_location-602515_subsampling-2.jpg\" alt=\"A picture of blue, white and green Earth with a cutaway that shows its dark red crust; lighter red upper mantle and mantle; yellow-red outer core; and bright yellow inner core. \" width=\"720\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/earth_interior_cutaway_preview_3.jpg__1240x510_q85_subject_location-602515_subsampling-2.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/earth_interior_cutaway_preview_3.jpg__1240x510_q85_subject_location-602515_subsampling-2-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cutaway of Earth showing the internal layered structure as we understand it through indirect measurements and observations. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These planets — largely molten from the incredible heat generated by the impacts and bombardment of their formation — underwent a process called differentiation, in which heavier material, like metals, sank to form their cores, while lighter stuff — such as silicates — floated toward the surface. This layering effect led to the structures of planets and moons we understand today, with dense, metal-rich cores surrounded by mantles of lighter material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Direct exploration of a one-time planetary core would provide insights into the formation and development of planets, like Earth, that can otherwise only be gleaned indirectly through measurements of gravity and the motion of\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/seis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> seismic waves traveling through a planet’s interior.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Solar electric propulsion\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Psyche spacecraft will be specially equipped with a high-tech engine to propel it on its voyage and eventual rendezvous with the huge iron asteroid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977336\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977336\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/6138511259515.image-PsycheAtJPL-NASA-JPL-Caltech.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/6138511259515.image-PsycheAtJPL-NASA-JPL-Caltech.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/6138511259515.image-PsycheAtJPL-NASA-JPL-Caltech-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft during construction at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The engine sounds like something from a science fiction novel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most robotic probes sent to distant reaches of the solar system rely on the momentum of their launch from Earth and changes in speed and trajectory provided by the gravity of planets they steer past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Psyche-bound craft will use\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/solar-electric-propulsion-makes-nasas-psyche-spacecraft-go\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> solar-electric propulsion\u003c/a> to change course and speed and eventually settle into an orbit around the destination asteroid. NASA has tested similar propulsion systems before, such as on the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/seis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Deep Space 1\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/dawn/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Dawn spacecraft.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how it works:Using electricity generated with solar panels, heavy atoms (in this case xenon) are ionized and accelerated by electric fields, then shot into space in a high-speed beam to produce thrust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977337 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A black, round engine thruster with interior rings of bright blue. \" width=\"2560\" height=\"1809\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-800x565.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-2048x1447.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-1920x1357.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A solar-electric propulsion engine being tested on Earth. The engine uses a beam of accelerated ions as thrust. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though this engine does not have the raw umph of a conventional chemical combustion rocket, it has distinct advantages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, solar-electric propulsion is much more efficient, making the best use of its propellant with far less waste. And since the source of energy that drives it comes from sunlight, the spacecraft does not need to carry along the weight of chemical or nuclear fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though the power of this engine thrust is modest, it can run continually, the gentle acceleration building up over a long period of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Psyche spacecraft will arrive at its destination in 2026, only four years after launch. Then, we may glimpse secrets of the birth and development of a planet. The kind of information that our own Earth keeps buried under thousands of miles of rock.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Scientists believe the asteroid Psyche was a planet that lost its rocky layers during violent collisions with space objects long ago. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846381,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":24,"wordCount":945},"headData":{"title":"NASA to Explore What Could Be The Iron Core of a Former Planet | KQED","description":"Scientists believe the asteroid Psyche was a planet that lost its rocky layers during violent collisions with space objects long ago. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"NASA to Explore What Could Be The Iron Core of a Former Planet","datePublished":"2021-11-04T13:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:26:21.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","path":"/science/1977331/nasa-to-explore-what-could-be-the-iron-core-of-a-former-planet","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>NASA is preparing a journey to an unusual asteroid named \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/16-psyche/in-depth/\">Psyche,\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\na journey that no spacecraft has taken before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psyche is not your common asteroid. Scientists believe it’s the metallic core of a planet that had its rocky layers stripped away by violent collisions with other space objects in the distant past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s spacecraft will depart Earth on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-heavy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> SpaceX Falcon Heavy\u003c/a> launch vehicle in August 2022, beginning a voyage to the solar system’s \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&condition_1=101%3Aparent_id&condition_2=asteroid%3Abody_type%3Ailike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> main asteroid belt\u003c/a>, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Along the way, in May 2023, it will fly near enough to Mars to gain a boost in speed from that planet’s gravity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977334 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU.jpg\" alt=\"A rough, cratered gray asteroid floats against the black backdrop of space. \" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/pia24472-psyche-asteroid-illustration-16_0-NASA-JPL-Caltech-ASU-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s concept of the asteroid Psyche, believed to be the remnant metallic core of an ancient planet. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Arizona State University will lead the Psyche mission, conducted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The asteroid\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Psyche was discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer\u003ca href=\"https://royalsociety.org/blog/2019/11/a-parthenope-in-the-sky/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Annibale de Gasparis\u003c/a>, who named the slowly moving, star-like spot of light in the sky after the Greek goddess of the soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psyche circles the sun within the solar system’s main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. At 140-miles wide, the asteroid is one of the most scientifically intriguing objects in the belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977335\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977335 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Psyche_asteroid_eso_cropESO-LAM-VLT.jpg\" alt=\"A fuzzy, white distorted circle sits against a jet black background. \" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Psyche_asteroid_eso_cropESO-LAM-VLT.jpg 300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Psyche_asteroid_eso_cropESO-LAM-VLT-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of asteroid 16 Psyche captured by the Very Large Telescope using adaptive optics technology. \u003ccite>(ESO/LAM/Very Large Telescope)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Psyche’s density, calculated from a mass estimated by its gravitational influence on other asteroids and a size measurement made by the IRAS infrared survey, tells scientists the asteroid is largely composed of metal — unlike typical asteroids, which are rocky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why scientists believe it may be the dense metallic core of a former planet, whose outer rocky layers may have been blasted away by collisions with other objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the asteroid Psyche is the iron core of a former planet or planetoid, then it may serve as a rare chance to examine a planetary core directly — an opportunity that fully formed planets do not offer, hiding their precious cores in secrecy beneath hundreds or thousands of miles of rock and magma.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A planet that might have been?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The early solar system is thought to have been a tumultuous place, filled with whizzing asteroids, comets, and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-researchers-find-evidence-of-planet-building-clumps\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planetesimals\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” — primordial, kilometer-plus-sized objects that merged with each other to form planets. All these objects flying about frequently shattered against other large objects. The collisions reshaped them, and they gradually rebuilt over time from a continual bombardment of smaller bits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these space objects became larger, their gravity’s strength also grew, which in turn pulled in even more stuff, and they snowballed. Some quickly dominated their regions of the solar system, and would eventually become the planets we know today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977338\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977338 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/earth_interior_cutaway_preview_3.jpg__1240x510_q85_subject_location-602515_subsampling-2.jpg\" alt=\"A picture of blue, white and green Earth with a cutaway that shows its dark red crust; lighter red upper mantle and mantle; yellow-red outer core; and bright yellow inner core. \" width=\"720\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/earth_interior_cutaway_preview_3.jpg__1240x510_q85_subject_location-602515_subsampling-2.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/earth_interior_cutaway_preview_3.jpg__1240x510_q85_subject_location-602515_subsampling-2-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cutaway of Earth showing the internal layered structure as we understand it through indirect measurements and observations. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These planets — largely molten from the incredible heat generated by the impacts and bombardment of their formation — underwent a process called differentiation, in which heavier material, like metals, sank to form their cores, while lighter stuff — such as silicates — floated toward the surface. This layering effect led to the structures of planets and moons we understand today, with dense, metal-rich cores surrounded by mantles of lighter material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Direct exploration of a one-time planetary core would provide insights into the formation and development of planets, like Earth, that can otherwise only be gleaned indirectly through measurements of gravity and the motion of\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/seis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> seismic waves traveling through a planet’s interior.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Solar electric propulsion\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Psyche spacecraft will be specially equipped with a high-tech engine to propel it on its voyage and eventual rendezvous with the huge iron asteroid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977336\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977336\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/6138511259515.image-PsycheAtJPL-NASA-JPL-Caltech.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/6138511259515.image-PsycheAtJPL-NASA-JPL-Caltech.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/6138511259515.image-PsycheAtJPL-NASA-JPL-Caltech-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft during construction at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The engine sounds like something from a science fiction novel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most robotic probes sent to distant reaches of the solar system rely on the momentum of their launch from Earth and changes in speed and trajectory provided by the gravity of planets they steer past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Psyche-bound craft will use\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/solar-electric-propulsion-makes-nasas-psyche-spacecraft-go\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> solar-electric propulsion\u003c/a> to change course and speed and eventually settle into an orbit around the destination asteroid. NASA has tested similar propulsion systems before, such as on the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/seis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Deep Space 1\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/dawn/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Dawn spacecraft.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how it works:Using electricity generated with solar panels, heavy atoms (in this case xenon) are ionized and accelerated by electric fields, then shot into space in a high-speed beam to produce thrust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977337 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A black, round engine thruster with interior rings of bright blue. \" width=\"2560\" height=\"1809\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-800x565.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-2048x1447.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/solar_electric_propulsion_0-1920x1357.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A solar-electric propulsion engine being tested on Earth. The engine uses a beam of accelerated ions as thrust. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though this engine does not have the raw umph of a conventional chemical combustion rocket, it has distinct advantages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, solar-electric propulsion is much more efficient, making the best use of its propellant with far less waste. And since the source of energy that drives it comes from sunlight, the spacecraft does not need to carry along the weight of chemical or nuclear fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though the power of this engine thrust is modest, it can run continually, the gentle acceleration building up over a long period of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Psyche spacecraft will arrive at its destination in 2026, only four years after launch. Then, we may glimpse secrets of the birth and development of a planet. The kind of information that our own Earth keeps buried under thousands of miles of rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1977331/nasa-to-explore-what-could-be-the-iron-core-of-a-former-planet","authors":["6180"],"categories":["science_28"],"tags":["science_144","science_4414"],"featImg":"science_1977333","label":"source_science_1977331"},"science_1969218":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1969218","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1969218","score":null,"sort":[1599681697000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-often-do-space-objects-hit-earth-a-primer","title":"How Often Do Space Objects Hit Earth? A Primer","publishDate":1599681697,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How Often Do Space Objects Hit Earth? A Primer | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The year 2020 is clearly out to make its mark in a big way: a global pandemic, massive wildfires across the Western United States, huge demonstrations for social justice around the globe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s another one: a record observed near-miss of Earth by a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/basics.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rock from space\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969152\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969152 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-1020x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, home of the Zwicky Transient Facility sky-scanning camera that captured the post-flyby image of asteroid 2020 QG on Aug. 15, 2020. \u003ccite>(Palomar Observatory/Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On Aug. 15, at 9:08 p.m. PDT, the robotic sky-scanning survey telescope at the NSF/NASA-funded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ztf.caltech.edu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zwicky Transient Facility\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Palomar Observatory in California captured an image of a previously unknown asteroid, 10-20 feet in diameter, whizzing by Earth at a speed of 8 miles per second. The image was taken only six hours after the rock’s closest approach, 1,830 miles from Earth’s surface over the southern Indian Ocean, closer than any previously known near-Earth asteroid, or NEA.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ztf-finds-closest-known-asteroid-fly-earth\">student in India, examining images\u003c/a> captured by the ZTF telescope in California, first spotted and reported the object.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Too Close for Comfort, Too Small to Notice?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The asteroid, named \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2020 QG, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7728\">set a record\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the nearest miss of the Earth ever observed — just 1,830 miles or about a quarter of Earth’s diameter — yet it wasn’t spotted until after it passed!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969147\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969147 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-1020x730.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-1020x730.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-800x573.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-768x550.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image of asteroid 2020 QG captured six hours after its 1,830-mile close approach to Earth on Aug. 15, 2020. The image was captured by the Zwicky Transient Facility camera on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory. \u003ccite>(Zwicky Transient Facility/Palomar Observatory/Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is normal for encounters with near-Earth asteroids of this size. Too small to be discovered until getting breathtakingly close to the Earth, these car-sized chunks of rock, often fragments from collisions between larger asteroids much farther away that took place long ago, lurk invisibly throughout the solar system. Estimates place their population in the hundreds of millions, though most of them pass no closer to Earth than the distance to the moon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asteroid 2020 QG may be small enough to sneak up on us unnoticed, but it would also do little damage, if any, if it did hit Earth. It would mostly burn up and disintegrate during its high-speed dash through our atmosphere, with possibly some small fragments reaching the ground. Since three-quarters of Earth’s surface is covered by ocean, such remnants often fall into water.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/space/meteor-asteroid-chelyabinsk-russia-feb-15-2013\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chelyabinsk meteor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that exploded and mostly disintegrated in the sky over Russia in 2013 was at least three times the size of 2020 QG. It caused a powerful shock wave that broke windows, tumbled brick walls, and injured almost 1,500 people. Luckily, there were no fatalities. Despite these effects, only a few small fragments survived to reach the ground.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969149 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The smoke trail left behind by the Chelyabinsk meteor, which lit up the skies and produced a powerful shock wave when it exploded high in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. The Chelyabinsk meteor was an approximately 66-foot wide object that struck Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 40,000 miles per hour, producing a 400-500 kiloton aerial blast that injured almost 1,500 people and caused structural damage to a number of buildings. \u003ccite>(Alex Alishevskikh)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Chelyabinsk meteor, by the way, was not detected until it entered our atmosphere and announced itself in an aerial blast with an estimated explosive power between 400-500 kilotons. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Space Stuff Hitting Earth: How Concerned Should We Be?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It might surprise you to learn that space rocks and other debris fly close to and even \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">impact the Earth all the time\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every day about a 100 tons of space rock filters down to Earth’s surface, most of it in the form of dust grains that vaporize in the atmosphere and rain down as microscopic specks. You can see the larger particles flash through the night sky as meteors if you’re patient enough, but most of this space debris showers down on us unseen and unfelt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Larger chunks of rock and metal that reach the ground before burning up completely are called meteorites, and are prized finds by collectors who can distinguish them from Earth rocks. Some meteorites can fetch \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://geology.com/meteorites/value-of-meteorites.shtml\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a good price\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the right buyer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/\">Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u003c/a> say\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that about every 10,000 years, on average, an asteroid in the 100-meter (328 foot) class strikes the Earth, causing big problems in the region it hits: a huge impact blast and shock wave, or a tsunami, if the object hits the ocean. The famous “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meteorcrater.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteor Crater\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” in northern Arizona, east of Flagstaff, is a near mile-wide, 600-foot-deep impact hole. It was formed 50,000 years ago when an asteroid measuring about 160 feet across hit the ground. Though this asteroid would have wreaked havoc across the local Pleistocene landscape, there were likely no global effects from the blast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969148\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969148 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Dur%C3%A1n-Ortiz-CC4.0int-800x216.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-800x216.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-1020x275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-160x43.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-768x207.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-1536x415.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-2048x553.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-1920x518.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The nearly mile-wide, 600-foot deep Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona. This impact crater was formed 50,000 years ago when a 160-foot nickel-iron meteorite collided with Earth. Originally called the “Canyon Diablo,” the feature is also referred to as Barringer Crater, after mining engineer Daniel Barringer who, in 1903, suggested it may have been formed by an iron meteorite. \u003ccite>(Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every few hundred thousand years a larger object, half a mile or more across, collides with the Earth. Objects of this size produce global complications, throwing dust and other debris into the atmosphere around the planet, which can block off sunlight, cause acid rain, and ignite firestorms with the heat of reentering debris. These larger collisions also cause devastating shock waves and tsunamis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The global effects of these major impacts have caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/dinosaur-extinction/\">Take it from the \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dinosaurs, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the poster-children of global collision catastrophe, who \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">were wiped out by the impact\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and aftermath of a six-mile-or-more wide object that struck the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula about 65 million years ago, forming the Chicxulub impact crater, now mostly buried under sediment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s to Be Done?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With all that space rock flying around out there, are we doing anything to protect us from it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, yes. Since at least 1994, NASA has worked to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-search-for-asteroids-to-help-protect-earth-and-understand-our-history/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">discover and characterize asteroids and comets\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that have the potential to collide with Earth and inflict significant damage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2005 the U.S. Congress handed NASA the goal of finding 90% of all potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, ones larger than 460 feet across, by the end of 2020. NASA’s NEO (Near-Earth Object) Observations Program is still working toward this target, using evolving technologies. Fortunately, asteroids of this size are much easier to detect than small ones like 2020 QG, and they can be discovered and tracked years before coming close to Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This gives us time to predict future collisions, and possibly do something to prevent them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the ground, advance warning of the location and magnitude of a projected impact by an incoming asteroid could help us prepare, by evacuating the threatened region, for instance. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists are also thinking how we might \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">alter the course of a threatening asteroid\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, turning a predicted collision into a near-miss scenario. With enough advance notice of a likely major impact — and we’re talking years — even a relatively small “nudge” to an asteroid’s trajectory could ultimately make the difference between hit and miss here on Earth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969226\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969226 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-800x514.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-800x514.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-768x493.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation.jpg 950w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The conceptual “Gravity Tractor” is a massage robotic spacecraft that would fly near an Earth-endangering asteroid to gradually “tug” it onto a safe course using low-powered engine thrust and mutual gravitational attraction. \u003ccite>(Dan Durda/FIAAA/B612 Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This may sound like something out of science fiction, but one concept being explored is the “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gravity tractor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” a massive robotic spacecraft placed near an asteroid, which gives it a small but constant pull via its gravitational attraction. Flying \u003c/span>alongside \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">an asteroid, the spacecraft would use low-powered engine thrust to gradually “tug” the rock with mutual gravitational attraction, slowly steering the asteroid away from its Earth-bound path — kind of like a tiny tugboat guiding a huge ship onto a safe course. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sleep Well Tonight\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Small asteroids like 2020 QG will continue to buzz and even hit the Earth multiple times each year. They will also often fly by or disintegrate in our atmosphere unnoticed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ongoing observation of near-Earth objects\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a powerful tool for predicting when an asteroid or comet might impact the Earth. The good news is that no major impacts are foreseen anytime soon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coming up in November: \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/asteroid-earth-november-2020-scn-trnd/index.html\">Election Day Near-Earth Asteroid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Asteroid 2020 QG became the closest observed near-miss of Earth by a space rock on August 15: 1,830 miles!","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704847055,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":31,"wordCount":1534},"headData":{"title":"How Often Do Space Objects Hit Earth? A Primer | KQED","description":"Asteroid 2020 QG became the closest observed near-miss of Earth by a space rock on August 15: 1,830 miles!","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"How Often Do Space Objects Hit Earth? A Primer","datePublished":"2020-09-09T20:01:37.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:37:35.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1969218/how-often-do-space-objects-hit-earth-a-primer","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The year 2020 is clearly out to make its mark in a big way: a global pandemic, massive wildfires across the Western United States, huge demonstrations for social justice around the globe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s another one: a record observed near-miss of Earth by a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/basics.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rock from space\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969152\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969152 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-1020x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/SamuelOschinTelescope-48inch-PalomarObservatory-Caltech.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, home of the Zwicky Transient Facility sky-scanning camera that captured the post-flyby image of asteroid 2020 QG on Aug. 15, 2020. \u003ccite>(Palomar Observatory/Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On Aug. 15, at 9:08 p.m. PDT, the robotic sky-scanning survey telescope at the NSF/NASA-funded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ztf.caltech.edu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zwicky Transient Facility\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Palomar Observatory in California captured an image of a previously unknown asteroid, 10-20 feet in diameter, whizzing by Earth at a speed of 8 miles per second. The image was taken only six hours after the rock’s closest approach, 1,830 miles from Earth’s surface over the southern Indian Ocean, closer than any previously known near-Earth asteroid, or NEA.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ztf-finds-closest-known-asteroid-fly-earth\">student in India, examining images\u003c/a> captured by the ZTF telescope in California, first spotted and reported the object.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Too Close for Comfort, Too Small to Notice?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The asteroid, named \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2020 QG, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7728\">set a record\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the nearest miss of the Earth ever observed — just 1,830 miles or about a quarter of Earth’s diameter — yet it wasn’t spotted until after it passed!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969147\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969147 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-1020x730.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-1020x730.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-800x573.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories-768x550.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/800px-PIA24038-Asteroid2020QG-20200816-ZTF-Caltech-Optical-Observatories.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image of asteroid 2020 QG captured six hours after its 1,830-mile close approach to Earth on Aug. 15, 2020. The image was captured by the Zwicky Transient Facility camera on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory. \u003ccite>(Zwicky Transient Facility/Palomar Observatory/Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is normal for encounters with near-Earth asteroids of this size. Too small to be discovered until getting breathtakingly close to the Earth, these car-sized chunks of rock, often fragments from collisions between larger asteroids much farther away that took place long ago, lurk invisibly throughout the solar system. Estimates place their population in the hundreds of millions, though most of them pass no closer to Earth than the distance to the moon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asteroid 2020 QG may be small enough to sneak up on us unnoticed, but it would also do little damage, if any, if it did hit Earth. It would mostly burn up and disintegrate during its high-speed dash through our atmosphere, with possibly some small fragments reaching the ground. Since three-quarters of Earth’s surface is covered by ocean, such remnants often fall into water.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/space/meteor-asteroid-chelyabinsk-russia-feb-15-2013\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chelyabinsk meteor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that exploded and mostly disintegrated in the sky over Russia in 2013 was at least three times the size of 2020 QG. It caused a powerful shock wave that broke windows, tumbled brick walls, and injured almost 1,500 people. Luckily, there were no fatalities. Despite these effects, only a few small fragments survived to reach the ground.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969149 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Chelyabinsk-meteor-trail-from-120miles-Alex-Alishevskikh-CC2.0generic.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The smoke trail left behind by the Chelyabinsk meteor, which lit up the skies and produced a powerful shock wave when it exploded high in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. The Chelyabinsk meteor was an approximately 66-foot wide object that struck Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 40,000 miles per hour, producing a 400-500 kiloton aerial blast that injured almost 1,500 people and caused structural damage to a number of buildings. \u003ccite>(Alex Alishevskikh)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Chelyabinsk meteor, by the way, was not detected until it entered our atmosphere and announced itself in an aerial blast with an estimated explosive power between 400-500 kilotons. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Space Stuff Hitting Earth: How Concerned Should We Be?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It might surprise you to learn that space rocks and other debris fly close to and even \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">impact the Earth all the time\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every day about a 100 tons of space rock filters down to Earth’s surface, most of it in the form of dust grains that vaporize in the atmosphere and rain down as microscopic specks. You can see the larger particles flash through the night sky as meteors if you’re patient enough, but most of this space debris showers down on us unseen and unfelt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Larger chunks of rock and metal that reach the ground before burning up completely are called meteorites, and are prized finds by collectors who can distinguish them from Earth rocks. Some meteorites can fetch \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://geology.com/meteorites/value-of-meteorites.shtml\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a good price\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the right buyer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/\">Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u003c/a> say\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that about every 10,000 years, on average, an asteroid in the 100-meter (328 foot) class strikes the Earth, causing big problems in the region it hits: a huge impact blast and shock wave, or a tsunami, if the object hits the ocean. The famous “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meteorcrater.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteor Crater\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” in northern Arizona, east of Flagstaff, is a near mile-wide, 600-foot-deep impact hole. It was formed 50,000 years ago when an asteroid measuring about 160 feet across hit the ground. Though this asteroid would have wreaked havoc across the local Pleistocene landscape, there were likely no global effects from the blast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969148\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969148 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Dur%C3%A1n-Ortiz-CC4.0int-800x216.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-800x216.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-1020x275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-160x43.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-768x207.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-1536x415.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-2048x553.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/Arizona_Meteor_Crater_09_2017_5859-Mario-Roberto-Durán-Ortiz-CC4.0int-1920x518.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The nearly mile-wide, 600-foot deep Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona. This impact crater was formed 50,000 years ago when a 160-foot nickel-iron meteorite collided with Earth. Originally called the “Canyon Diablo,” the feature is also referred to as Barringer Crater, after mining engineer Daniel Barringer who, in 1903, suggested it may have been formed by an iron meteorite. \u003ccite>(Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every few hundred thousand years a larger object, half a mile or more across, collides with the Earth. Objects of this size produce global complications, throwing dust and other debris into the atmosphere around the planet, which can block off sunlight, cause acid rain, and ignite firestorms with the heat of reentering debris. These larger collisions also cause devastating shock waves and tsunamis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The global effects of these major impacts have caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/dinosaur-extinction/\">Take it from the \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dinosaurs, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the poster-children of global collision catastrophe, who \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">were wiped out by the impact\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and aftermath of a six-mile-or-more wide object that struck the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula about 65 million years ago, forming the Chicxulub impact crater, now mostly buried under sediment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s to Be Done?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With all that space rock flying around out there, are we doing anything to protect us from it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, yes. Since at least 1994, NASA has worked to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-search-for-asteroids-to-help-protect-earth-and-understand-our-history/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">discover and characterize asteroids and comets\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that have the potential to collide with Earth and inflict significant damage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2005 the U.S. Congress handed NASA the goal of finding 90% of all potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, ones larger than 460 feet across, by the end of 2020. NASA’s NEO (Near-Earth Object) Observations Program is still working toward this target, using evolving technologies. Fortunately, asteroids of this size are much easier to detect than small ones like 2020 QG, and they can be discovered and tracked years before coming close to Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This gives us time to predict future collisions, and possibly do something to prevent them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the ground, advance warning of the location and magnitude of a projected impact by an incoming asteroid could help us prepare, by evacuating the threatened region, for instance. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists are also thinking how we might \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">alter the course of a threatening asteroid\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, turning a predicted collision into a near-miss scenario. With enough advance notice of a likely major impact — and we’re talking years — even a relatively small “nudge” to an asteroid’s trajectory could ultimately make the difference between hit and miss here on Earth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969226\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969226 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-800x514.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-800x514.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation-768x493.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gravtug_durdaDan-Durda-FIAAA-B612-Foundation.jpg 950w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The conceptual “Gravity Tractor” is a massage robotic spacecraft that would fly near an Earth-endangering asteroid to gradually “tug” it onto a safe course using low-powered engine thrust and mutual gravitational attraction. \u003ccite>(Dan Durda/FIAAA/B612 Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This may sound like something out of science fiction, but one concept being explored is the “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gravity tractor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” a massive robotic spacecraft placed near an asteroid, which gives it a small but constant pull via its gravitational attraction. Flying \u003c/span>alongside \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">an asteroid, the spacecraft would use low-powered engine thrust to gradually “tug” the rock with mutual gravitational attraction, slowly steering the asteroid away from its Earth-bound path — kind of like a tiny tugboat guiding a huge ship onto a safe course. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sleep Well Tonight\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Small asteroids like 2020 QG will continue to buzz and even hit the Earth multiple times each year. They will also often fly by or disintegrate in our atmosphere unnoticed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ongoing observation of near-Earth objects\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a powerful tool for predicting when an asteroid or comet might impact the Earth. The good news is that no major impacts are foreseen anytime soon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coming up in November: \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/asteroid-earth-november-2020-scn-trnd/index.html\">Election Day Near-Earth Asteroid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1969218/how-often-do-space-objects-hit-earth-a-primer","authors":["6180"],"categories":["science_28","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_144","science_147","science_146"],"featImg":"science_1969150","label":"source_science_1969218"},"science_1945508":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1945508","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1945508","score":null,"sort":[1564598230000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"eight-big-space-discoveries-since-the-apollo-landings","title":"Eight of the Most Important Space Discoveries Since the Apollo Landings","publishDate":1564598230,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Eight of the Most Important Space Discoveries Since the Apollo Landings | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>The 1969-72 Apollo moon landings took place in the era when humankind was just beginning to explore outer space with robotic probes and space-based observatories. \u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a time when we took the cosmos more at face value, with a \u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>what you see is what you get” attitude. Black holes, for instance, were mind-bending, hypothetical objects whose existence was yet to be verified. And we still wondered if our sun might be the only star in the universe with planets\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945623\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1945623 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The unique perspective of observing the cosmos and our planet's place in it from the vantage point of outer space has led to many scientific discoveries and philosophical revelations. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The unique perspective of observing the cosmos and our planet’s place in it from the vantage point of outer space has led to many scientific discoveries and philosophical revelations. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the decades since the Apollo missions, a long list of fresh discoveries has reshaped our understanding of the universe, from the cosmic to the subatomic. Here are eight of the most important of those since humans last landed on the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Black Hole Confirmed\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1971 strong emissions of X-rays were detected from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/cygnusx1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">point\u003c/a> in the constellation Cygnus. Like smoke from an unseen gun, the X-rays were believed to emanate from the first-ever detected \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/black-holes\">black hole\u003c/a>, though this wasn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2011/11/29/cygnus-x-1-a-black-hole-confirmed/\">confirmed \u003c/a>for over 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The notion of a massive object with gravity so strong that even light cannot escape goes back to at least 1784, when the Englishman John Michell first published the idea. Einstein’s theory of general relativity in the early 20th century predicted black holes, though the theoretical objects had such bizarre properties that \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/news/black-holes-albert-einstein-theory-relativity-space-time\">Einstein himself was not convinced\u003c/a> they could exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Life on the Ocean Floor\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1977, a thriving ecosystem of living organisms was found on the floor of the deep ocean, surrounding a \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/vents.html\">hydrothermal vent\u003c/a> and subsisting entirely on heat and chemical energy emerging from Earth’s interior. An NSF-funded team of marine geologists made the discovery in the geothermal hot spot of the \u003ca href=\"https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=334070\">Galapagos Rift\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945625\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/sully-main-endeavor-field.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/sully-main-endeavor-field.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/sully-main-endeavor-field-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘black smoker.’ Hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor support thriving communities of life that are not dependent on energy from sunlight.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This find provided a first example of life that thrives without sunlight in the cold, dark environment of the ocean floor, encouraging scientists to imagine how extraterrestrial life might form and prosper under very alien conditions on other worlds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dinosaur Killer Identified \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez implicated an asteroid hitting Earth as the culprit responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs. This extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous geological period was a mystery that had gone unsolved for more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez’s team found an unusually high concentration of the element iridium in the worldwide geologic layer of sediment marking the end of the Cretaceous period. Iridium is rare in Earth rocks, but abundant in asteroids, suggesting that a global asteroid- impact catastrophe was the logical source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945626\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/536px-Chicxulub_radar_topography.jpg\" alt=\"A map of the northern Yucatan Peninsula showing the barely visible remnants of the Chixulub impact crater, formed by an asteroid strike about 66 million years ago. \" width=\"536\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/536px-Chicxulub_radar_topography.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/536px-Chicxulub_radar_topography-160x179.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map of the northern Yucatan Peninsula showing the barely visible remnants of the Chixulub impact crater, formed by an asteroid strike about 66 million years ago. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1990s, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">100-mile wide impact crater\u003c/a> was identified at the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, with its center near the town of Chixulub. Mostly buried under jungle and sea floor sediment, the crater was chemically dated to around 66 million years old, coinciding with the dying off of the dinosaurs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Chixulub crater is \u003ca href=\"https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/03/09/alvarez-theory-on-dinosaur/\">widely accepted\u003c/a> as the fatal wound that ended the 200 million year dynasty of Earth’s most famous extinct creatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First Planets Outside Our Solar System Found\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first confirmed \u003ca href=\"https://futurism.com/the-first-exoplanet-was-discovered-25-years-ago-today\">discovery of a planet outside our solar system\u003c/a> occurred in 1992, when two extrasolar planets were detected orbiting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/subject/8731/pulsars/\">pulsar\u003c/a>, which is the remnant core of a dead star, in the constellation Virgo. The first detection of an exoplanet orbiting a star that is still active and burning fuel took place three years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945627\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/20130108_2M1207.jpg\" alt=\"Most exoplanets are too far away and too small to be captured directly in an image, and are detected indirectly. This image is one of the first, and few, direct images of an exoplanet (small red blotch), shown next to its star. \" width=\"500\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/20130108_2M1207.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/20130108_2M1207-160x139.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most exoplanets are too far away and too small to be captured directly in an image, and are detected indirectly. This image is one of the first, and few, direct images of an exoplanet (the small, red blotch) shown next to its star. \u003ccite>(NaCo/VLT/ESO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before these events, the existence of planets orbiting other stars was only speculation. To date, a \u003ca href=\"https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/\">total of 4,096 planets\u003c/a> in almost 3,000 planetary systems outside our solar system have been confirmed, most of them in our general neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Expansion of the Universe is Speeding Up\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1998, the scientific community was stunned to discover that our universe is not only expanding, a fact known for decades, but expanding at an \u003cem>accelerating rate\u003c/em>. Conventional wisdom dictated that gravitational attraction by matter within the universe should be slowing the expansion, but careful observations of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.thephysicsmill.com/2015/06/29/type-1a-the-other-type-of-supernova/\">special type of supernova\u003c/a> that serves as a precision tool for measuring distances across the universe revealed the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the idea of “\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy\">dark energy\u003c/a>” was born, a strange form of energy thought to permeate the universe and exert a \u003cem>repulsive\u003c/em> force on all large-scale structures — galaxies and clusters of galaxies — driving them farther apart at an ever-faster rate\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> Though its nature remains largely unknown, it is estimated that at least 68% of the \u003ca href=\"https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.html\">universe’s overall composition\u003c/a> is made up of dark energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Factoring in another invisible substance called “\u003ca href=\"https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter\">dark matter\u003c/a>,” it turns out that the objects in the universe that we can see — the type of stuff we and our planet and the stars are made of — make up only about 4% of the universe’s mass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An Ocean on Jupiter’s Moon\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1995, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/galileo/\">Galileo mission\u003c/a> all but confirmed the existence of a massive ocean of liquid water, \u003ca href=\"https://europa.nasa.gov/about-europa/ocean/\">concealed beneath the icy crust\u003c/a> of Jupiter’s moon Europa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Images of Europa’s cracked surface suggested that it is a shell of ice floating on top of an ocean that may be up to 100 miles deep and contain twice the water in Earth’s ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1945628\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/the-puzzling-fascinating-surface-of-jupiters-icy-moon-europa-looms-large-in-this-newly-reprocessed.jpeg\" alt=\"The pattern of cracks in the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa was the first clue to the deep ocean it hides beneath.\" width=\"650\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/the-puzzling-fascinating-surface-of-jupiters-icy-moon-europa-looms-large-in-this-newly-reprocessed.jpeg 650w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/the-puzzling-fascinating-surface-of-jupiters-icy-moon-europa-looms-large-in-this-newly-reprocessed-160x118.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The existence of an ocean on a nearby world is reason for celebration by \u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/research/Astrobiology\">astrobiologists\u003c/a> interested in finding life beyond Earth, and has compelled \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/\">NASA\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://spacenews.com/scientists-want-nasa-and-esa-to-work-together-on-a-europa-lander-mission/\">ESA\u003c/a> to mount space missions to conduct further exploration of Europa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after Europa’s ocean was discovered, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected plumes of water vapor spewing from Saturn’s tiny moon \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/science/enceladus/\">Enceladus\u003c/a>, further upping the stakes in the search for extraterrestrial life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Black Holes Collide\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, researchers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-ligo\">Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory\u003c/a>, or LIGO, made the first-ever detection of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-are-gw\">gravity waves\u003c/a>. Gravity waves are disturbances, or ripples, in the fabric of \u003ca href=\"http://www.einstein-online.info/elementary/specialRT/spacetime.html\">space-time\u003c/a>, caused by the acceleration of massive objects in space. The detection of these waves allows us to perceive events in the universe that cannot be observed by conventional instruments like telescopes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 454px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945630\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Ligosketch.jpg\" alt=\"The LIGO gravity wave observatory uses a laser to measure the extremely minute changes in distance between them caused by fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime. \" width=\"454\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Ligosketch.jpg 454w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Ligosketch-160x92.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The LIGO gravity wave observatory uses a laser to measure the extremely minute changes in distance between them caused by fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime. \u003ccite>(LIGO/Shane Larson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was LIGO that detected the disturbance caused by two black holes colliding and merging, an event whose possibility was hypothesized but never observed. But because LIGO’s highly sensitive laser-and-mirror array enables it to measure distortions in space-time smaller than the nucleus of an atom, it was able to catch the collision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First Image of a Black Hole \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, an international array of coordinated telescopes, collectively called the \u003ca href=\"https://eventhorizontelescope.org/\">Event Horizon Telescope\u003c/a>, or EHT, achieved what was conventionally thought to be impossible: It captured an image of the silhouette of one of the most elusive objects in the universe, a black hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/S/Supermassive+Black+Hole\">supermassive black hole\u003c/a> caught on camera lies 53 million light years away, at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87, and contains the equivalent mass of 6.5 billion stars the size of our sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black holes have long been famed as the ultimate dark object in the universe, impossible to capture in pictures by virtue of their strong gravity, which prevents any light from escaping. While it is a fact that light cannot get out of a black hole from inside its \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/E/Event+Horizon\">event horizon \u003c/a>— the distance at which the black hole’s gravity becomes strong enough to prevent light from escaping — it had long been thought that a black hole might be viewed in silhouette against the glow of hot gas surrounding it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But black holes are too small and distant for conventional telescopes to observe. The EHT array, however, is not a conventional telescope; it’s a collection of multiple millimeter-wavelength radio telescopes stationed at observatories from Antarctica to Greenland, Spain to Hawaii, and throughout the Americas. When their collective observations of a target object are synchronized, the EHT achieves imaging resolutions equal to an imaginary telescope that would measure half the size of Earth’s diameter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Next?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, what can we imagine will be discovered in the next 50 years?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Life forms swimming in Europa’s remote ocean? A fresh and unexpected picture of the universe seen through the lens of dark energy telescopes? The long-sought radio signals from distant, intelligent civilizations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If recent history is a guide, we can imagine now what we may soon no longer need to.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"From black holes to an ocean on Jupiter's moon, a spate of discoveries over the past 50 years has reshaped our understanding of the universe.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848451,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":41,"wordCount":1606},"headData":{"title":"Eight of the Most Important Space Discoveries Since the Apollo Landings | KQED","description":"From black holes to an ocean on Jupiter's moon, a spate of discoveries over the past 50 years has reshaped our understanding of the universe.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Eight of the Most Important Space Discoveries Since the Apollo Landings","datePublished":"2019-07-31T18:37:10.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T01:00:51.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1945508/eight-big-space-discoveries-since-the-apollo-landings","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The 1969-72 Apollo moon landings took place in the era when humankind was just beginning to explore outer space with robotic probes and space-based observatories. \u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a time when we took the cosmos more at face value, with a \u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>what you see is what you get” attitude. Black holes, for instance, were mind-bending, hypothetical objects whose existence was yet to be verified. And we still wondered if our sun might be the only star in the universe with planets\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945623\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1945623 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The unique perspective of observing the cosmos and our planet's place in it from the vantage point of outer space has led to many scientific discoveries and philosophical revelations. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Earthrise1_Apollo8AndersWeigang_2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The unique perspective of observing the cosmos and our planet’s place in it from the vantage point of outer space has led to many scientific discoveries and philosophical revelations. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the decades since the Apollo missions, a long list of fresh discoveries has reshaped our understanding of the universe, from the cosmic to the subatomic. Here are eight of the most important of those since humans last landed on the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Black Hole Confirmed\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1971 strong emissions of X-rays were detected from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/cygnusx1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">point\u003c/a> in the constellation Cygnus. Like smoke from an unseen gun, the X-rays were believed to emanate from the first-ever detected \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/black-holes\">black hole\u003c/a>, though this wasn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2011/11/29/cygnus-x-1-a-black-hole-confirmed/\">confirmed \u003c/a>for over 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The notion of a massive object with gravity so strong that even light cannot escape goes back to at least 1784, when the Englishman John Michell first published the idea. Einstein’s theory of general relativity in the early 20th century predicted black holes, though the theoretical objects had such bizarre properties that \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/news/black-holes-albert-einstein-theory-relativity-space-time\">Einstein himself was not convinced\u003c/a> they could exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Life on the Ocean Floor\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1977, a thriving ecosystem of living organisms was found on the floor of the deep ocean, surrounding a \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/vents.html\">hydrothermal vent\u003c/a> and subsisting entirely on heat and chemical energy emerging from Earth’s interior. An NSF-funded team of marine geologists made the discovery in the geothermal hot spot of the \u003ca href=\"https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=334070\">Galapagos Rift\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945625\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/sully-main-endeavor-field.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/sully-main-endeavor-field.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/sully-main-endeavor-field-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘black smoker.’ Hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor support thriving communities of life that are not dependent on energy from sunlight.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This find provided a first example of life that thrives without sunlight in the cold, dark environment of the ocean floor, encouraging scientists to imagine how extraterrestrial life might form and prosper under very alien conditions on other worlds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dinosaur Killer Identified \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez implicated an asteroid hitting Earth as the culprit responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs. This extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous geological period was a mystery that had gone unsolved for more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez’s team found an unusually high concentration of the element iridium in the worldwide geologic layer of sediment marking the end of the Cretaceous period. Iridium is rare in Earth rocks, but abundant in asteroids, suggesting that a global asteroid- impact catastrophe was the logical source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945626\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/536px-Chicxulub_radar_topography.jpg\" alt=\"A map of the northern Yucatan Peninsula showing the barely visible remnants of the Chixulub impact crater, formed by an asteroid strike about 66 million years ago. \" width=\"536\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/536px-Chicxulub_radar_topography.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/536px-Chicxulub_radar_topography-160x179.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map of the northern Yucatan Peninsula showing the barely visible remnants of the Chixulub impact crater, formed by an asteroid strike about 66 million years ago. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1990s, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">100-mile wide impact crater\u003c/a> was identified at the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, with its center near the town of Chixulub. Mostly buried under jungle and sea floor sediment, the crater was chemically dated to around 66 million years old, coinciding with the dying off of the dinosaurs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Chixulub crater is \u003ca href=\"https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/03/09/alvarez-theory-on-dinosaur/\">widely accepted\u003c/a> as the fatal wound that ended the 200 million year dynasty of Earth’s most famous extinct creatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First Planets Outside Our Solar System Found\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first confirmed \u003ca href=\"https://futurism.com/the-first-exoplanet-was-discovered-25-years-ago-today\">discovery of a planet outside our solar system\u003c/a> occurred in 1992, when two extrasolar planets were detected orbiting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/subject/8731/pulsars/\">pulsar\u003c/a>, which is the remnant core of a dead star, in the constellation Virgo. The first detection of an exoplanet orbiting a star that is still active and burning fuel took place three years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945627\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/20130108_2M1207.jpg\" alt=\"Most exoplanets are too far away and too small to be captured directly in an image, and are detected indirectly. This image is one of the first, and few, direct images of an exoplanet (small red blotch), shown next to its star. \" width=\"500\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/20130108_2M1207.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/20130108_2M1207-160x139.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most exoplanets are too far away and too small to be captured directly in an image, and are detected indirectly. This image is one of the first, and few, direct images of an exoplanet (the small, red blotch) shown next to its star. \u003ccite>(NaCo/VLT/ESO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before these events, the existence of planets orbiting other stars was only speculation. To date, a \u003ca href=\"https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/\">total of 4,096 planets\u003c/a> in almost 3,000 planetary systems outside our solar system have been confirmed, most of them in our general neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Expansion of the Universe is Speeding Up\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1998, the scientific community was stunned to discover that our universe is not only expanding, a fact known for decades, but expanding at an \u003cem>accelerating rate\u003c/em>. Conventional wisdom dictated that gravitational attraction by matter within the universe should be slowing the expansion, but careful observations of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.thephysicsmill.com/2015/06/29/type-1a-the-other-type-of-supernova/\">special type of supernova\u003c/a> that serves as a precision tool for measuring distances across the universe revealed the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the idea of “\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy\">dark energy\u003c/a>” was born, a strange form of energy thought to permeate the universe and exert a \u003cem>repulsive\u003c/em> force on all large-scale structures — galaxies and clusters of galaxies — driving them farther apart at an ever-faster rate\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> Though its nature remains largely unknown, it is estimated that at least 68% of the \u003ca href=\"https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.html\">universe’s overall composition\u003c/a> is made up of dark energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Factoring in another invisible substance called “\u003ca href=\"https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter\">dark matter\u003c/a>,” it turns out that the objects in the universe that we can see — the type of stuff we and our planet and the stars are made of — make up only about 4% of the universe’s mass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An Ocean on Jupiter’s Moon\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1995, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/galileo/\">Galileo mission\u003c/a> all but confirmed the existence of a massive ocean of liquid water, \u003ca href=\"https://europa.nasa.gov/about-europa/ocean/\">concealed beneath the icy crust\u003c/a> of Jupiter’s moon Europa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Images of Europa’s cracked surface suggested that it is a shell of ice floating on top of an ocean that may be up to 100 miles deep and contain twice the water in Earth’s ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1945628\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/the-puzzling-fascinating-surface-of-jupiters-icy-moon-europa-looms-large-in-this-newly-reprocessed.jpeg\" alt=\"The pattern of cracks in the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa was the first clue to the deep ocean it hides beneath.\" width=\"650\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/the-puzzling-fascinating-surface-of-jupiters-icy-moon-europa-looms-large-in-this-newly-reprocessed.jpeg 650w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/the-puzzling-fascinating-surface-of-jupiters-icy-moon-europa-looms-large-in-this-newly-reprocessed-160x118.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The existence of an ocean on a nearby world is reason for celebration by \u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/research/Astrobiology\">astrobiologists\u003c/a> interested in finding life beyond Earth, and has compelled \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/\">NASA\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://spacenews.com/scientists-want-nasa-and-esa-to-work-together-on-a-europa-lander-mission/\">ESA\u003c/a> to mount space missions to conduct further exploration of Europa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after Europa’s ocean was discovered, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected plumes of water vapor spewing from Saturn’s tiny moon \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/science/enceladus/\">Enceladus\u003c/a>, further upping the stakes in the search for extraterrestrial life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Black Holes Collide\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, researchers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-ligo\">Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory\u003c/a>, or LIGO, made the first-ever detection of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-are-gw\">gravity waves\u003c/a>. Gravity waves are disturbances, or ripples, in the fabric of \u003ca href=\"http://www.einstein-online.info/elementary/specialRT/spacetime.html\">space-time\u003c/a>, caused by the acceleration of massive objects in space. The detection of these waves allows us to perceive events in the universe that cannot be observed by conventional instruments like telescopes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 454px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945630\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Ligosketch.jpg\" alt=\"The LIGO gravity wave observatory uses a laser to measure the extremely minute changes in distance between them caused by fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime. \" width=\"454\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Ligosketch.jpg 454w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/Ligosketch-160x92.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The LIGO gravity wave observatory uses a laser to measure the extremely minute changes in distance between them caused by fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime. \u003ccite>(LIGO/Shane Larson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was LIGO that detected the disturbance caused by two black holes colliding and merging, an event whose possibility was hypothesized but never observed. But because LIGO’s highly sensitive laser-and-mirror array enables it to measure distortions in space-time smaller than the nucleus of an atom, it was able to catch the collision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First Image of a Black Hole \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, an international array of coordinated telescopes, collectively called the \u003ca href=\"https://eventhorizontelescope.org/\">Event Horizon Telescope\u003c/a>, or EHT, achieved what was conventionally thought to be impossible: It captured an image of the silhouette of one of the most elusive objects in the universe, a black hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/S/Supermassive+Black+Hole\">supermassive black hole\u003c/a> caught on camera lies 53 million light years away, at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87, and contains the equivalent mass of 6.5 billion stars the size of our sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black holes have long been famed as the ultimate dark object in the universe, impossible to capture in pictures by virtue of their strong gravity, which prevents any light from escaping. While it is a fact that light cannot get out of a black hole from inside its \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/E/Event+Horizon\">event horizon \u003c/a>— the distance at which the black hole’s gravity becomes strong enough to prevent light from escaping — it had long been thought that a black hole might be viewed in silhouette against the glow of hot gas surrounding it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But black holes are too small and distant for conventional telescopes to observe. The EHT array, however, is not a conventional telescope; it’s a collection of multiple millimeter-wavelength radio telescopes stationed at observatories from Antarctica to Greenland, Spain to Hawaii, and throughout the Americas. When their collective observations of a target object are synchronized, the EHT achieves imaging resolutions equal to an imaginary telescope that would measure half the size of Earth’s diameter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Next?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, what can we imagine will be discovered in the next 50 years?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Life forms swimming in Europa’s remote ocean? A fresh and unexpected picture of the universe seen through the lens of dark energy telescopes? The long-sought radio signals from distant, intelligent civilizations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If recent history is a guide, we can imagine now what we may soon no longer need to.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1945508/eight-big-space-discoveries-since-the-apollo-landings","authors":["6180"],"categories":["science_28","science_40","science_3947"],"tags":["science_144","science_2356","science_3142","science_2145","science_3370","science_5179","science_5175","science_309","science_201"],"featImg":"science_1945622","label":"source_science_1945508"},"science_1941459":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1941459","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1941459","score":null,"sort":[1557756106000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"this-asteroid-wont-hit-earth-but-its-coming-pretty-dang-close","title":"This Asteroid Won't Hit Earth, But It's Coming Pretty Dang Close","publishDate":1557756106,"format":"standard","headTitle":"This Asteroid Won’t Hit Earth, But It’s Coming Pretty Dang Close | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Asteroids are out there, even if you can’t always see them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want some naked-eye proof? It’s coming, in the form of a mountain of space rock named Apophis, for the Egyptian god of chaos; his task is to prevent the sun from rising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stretching three-and-a-half football fields long, Apophis will cruise within 19,000 miles of Earth—the closest this large an asteroid has come in recorded history. Apophis will swing inside our ring of geosynchronous satellites on April 13, 2029.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, that is a Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941472\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \" width=\"800\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-160x76.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-768x366.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029.jpg 998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But don’t worry, NASA has it all figured. Any bad luck that may befall you on that day won’t come from Apophis—probably. An earlier worst-case prediction that gave a 2.7 percent chance of Apophis striking the Earth has since been downgraded to practically nil. Actually, that’s an upgrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apophis is a Sparkle in NASA’s Eye\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, NASA scientists \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/923/scientists-planning-now-for-asteroid-flyby-a-decade-away/\">look forward to Apophis’\u003c/a> near miss. Given a decade to prepare, NASA might even send a robotic probe to rendezvous with the rock. At minimum, it’s an incredible opportunity to make close-up observations of a large asteroid. Apophis is large enough, and will be close enough, to see with our bare eyes, so Earth-based optical and radio telescopes will have an unprecedented view of the spectacle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 376px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941471\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg\" alt=\"The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \" width=\"376\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg 376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400-160x170.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \u003ccite>(UH/IA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the \u003ca href=\"http://pdc.iaaweb.org/\">2019 Planetary Defense Conference\u003c/a> held in Maryland this April, scientists brainstormed all the possible ways to take advantage of a flyby that others might see only as a narrowly averted disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has used radio telescopes before to\u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2462.html\"> produce rudimentary images\u003c/a> of some passing asteroids, though these were either smaller ones or much farther away. The last time any rock this size passed close to Earth was in 2001, the asteroid 2017 VW13. That one is estimated to have passed within 76,000 miles, a third of the distance to the moon. And, since it wasn’t discovered until 2017, no one even noticed it fly by!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>God of Chaos\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apophis is classified today as a “\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html\">Potentially Hazardous Asteroid\u003c/a>” (PHA). This means that it periodically crosses Earth’s orbital path, and is large enough to do some major damage if it were to hit us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from being an infrequent visitor from deep space as many comets are, coming around only every few decades or centuries, Apophis is a denizen of the inner solar system. Its 324-day orbit carries it from just outside Earth’s orbit at its farthest point from the sun, almost to the orbit of Venus at its closest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941470\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \" width=\"800\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-768x394.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons.jpg 936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think that because Apophis crosses Earth’s orbit more than once each year, the chance of collision is an ever-present threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, most of the time when Apophis crosses our path, Earth is at a different point in its orbit. It’s only those times when our orbital positions sync up that there’s any chance of bumping into each other. Think of a carnival carousel and that brass ring you try to grab each time your horse passes by it. You only have a shot at getting that ring if it swings close when you pass—and even then there’s no guarantee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>April 13, 2029 is one of those match-ups, and scientists are keenly eyeing the brass ring of new discovery that will be briefly within their reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Are the Chances?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While small objects pass close to Earth on a routine basis, and even collide with us more often than you might think, most go unnoticed. Three quarters of them fall over open ocean, most of the rest over sparsely populated land. And those that don’t break up in the atmosphere have limited effects when they hit the water or the ground anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger, more dangerous rocks make appearances with far less frequency—and the bigger they are, the rarer the encounter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\">Notable impacts in recent history include the \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska\">Tunguska\u003c/a> comet or meteorite impact in Siberia in 1908, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/five-years-after-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-nasa-leads-efforts-in-planetary-defense\">Chelyabinsk\u003c/a> event in Russia in 2013. Both were smaller than Apophis, but were relatively large objects: between 200 and 600 feet across in the case of Tunguska, and about 66 feet for Chelyabinsk. They exploded in Earth’s atmosphere, producing significant effects on the ground below, though no known fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger collisions with greater regional and even global effects can be found in prehistoric times, such as the impact that formed \u003ca href=\"https://www.barringercrater.com/\">Barringer Crater\u003c/a> (aka “Meteor Crater”) in Arizona 50,000 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find a “dinosaur killer” impact event you’d have to look all the way back to, well, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">\u003cem>dinosaur killer\u003c/em> impact\u003c/a>, 66 million years ago. The asteroid that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/25256/dinosaur-extinction-new-research-favors-volcanism-as-cause\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributed to ending\u003c/a> the dinosaurs’s long reign on Earth, which struck the northern end of the Yucatan Peninsula near Chicxulub, Mexico, was probably six miles across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941473\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chixulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples.\" width=\"536\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater-160x179.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chicxulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/David Fuchs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Defending Against Near Earth Objects\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, we aren’t completely in the dark about the dangers posed by \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. We’re also not completely helpless when it comes to defending our planet from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years now, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/mpc.html\">international coalition\u003c/a> of observers and researchers have collaborated to find, measure, and track \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. The data they collect are used to calculate the probability of a collision, and to predict the \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pd/cs/\">level of damage\u003c/a> in the event of a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, a major asteroid impact with Earth is a matter of when, not if. But the good news is that none are predicted in the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current approach to \u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">planetary defense\u003c/a> hinges on the idea that the further in advance we can predict an impact, the more time we have to do something about it. If we know it’s coming years before the fact, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tiny “nudge”\u003c/a> to the asteroid’s trajectory can make the difference between a catastrophic impact and a harmless near miss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What About Apophis’ Next Flyby?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The probability of Apophis hitting the Earth in 2029 has been practically ruled out. Its close passage through Earth’s gravitational field, though, will result in a change in its orbital path, so \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/god-of-chaos-apophis-asteroid-strike-orbit-earth-danger-apophis-a8901781.html\">careful observations of the flyby\u003c/a> will yield more than scientific discovery, it will let us make more precise collision predictions for future encounters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As things stand now, Apophis will make another close encounter with Earth in 2036, but will come no closer than 14 million miles. Beyond that, the chance of it hitting us anytime between 2060 and 2105 is 1 in 110,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing I’m going to lose sleep over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The Potentially Hazardous Asteroid called Apophis will narrowly miss Earth in 2029 -- so narrowly you'll be able to see it with your own eyes.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848678,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":31,"wordCount":1250},"headData":{"title":"This Asteroid Won't Hit Earth, But It's Coming Pretty Dang Close | KQED","description":"The Potentially Hazardous Asteroid called Apophis will narrowly miss Earth in 2029 -- so narrowly you'll be able to see it with your own eyes.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"This Asteroid Won't Hit Earth, But It's Coming Pretty Dang Close","datePublished":"2019-05-13T14:01:46.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T01:04:38.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1941459/this-asteroid-wont-hit-earth-but-its-coming-pretty-dang-close","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Asteroids are out there, even if you can’t always see them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want some naked-eye proof? It’s coming, in the form of a mountain of space rock named Apophis, for the Egyptian god of chaos; his task is to prevent the sun from rising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stretching three-and-a-half football fields long, Apophis will cruise within 19,000 miles of Earth—the closest this large an asteroid has come in recorded history. Apophis will swing inside our ring of geosynchronous satellites on April 13, 2029.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, that is a Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941472\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \" width=\"800\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-160x76.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-768x366.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029.jpg 998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But don’t worry, NASA has it all figured. Any bad luck that may befall you on that day won’t come from Apophis—probably. An earlier worst-case prediction that gave a 2.7 percent chance of Apophis striking the Earth has since been downgraded to practically nil. Actually, that’s an upgrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apophis is a Sparkle in NASA’s Eye\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, NASA scientists \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/923/scientists-planning-now-for-asteroid-flyby-a-decade-away/\">look forward to Apophis’\u003c/a> near miss. Given a decade to prepare, NASA might even send a robotic probe to rendezvous with the rock. At minimum, it’s an incredible opportunity to make close-up observations of a large asteroid. Apophis is large enough, and will be close enough, to see with our bare eyes, so Earth-based optical and radio telescopes will have an unprecedented view of the spectacle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 376px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941471\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg\" alt=\"The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \" width=\"376\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg 376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400-160x170.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \u003ccite>(UH/IA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the \u003ca href=\"http://pdc.iaaweb.org/\">2019 Planetary Defense Conference\u003c/a> held in Maryland this April, scientists brainstormed all the possible ways to take advantage of a flyby that others might see only as a narrowly averted disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has used radio telescopes before to\u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2462.html\"> produce rudimentary images\u003c/a> of some passing asteroids, though these were either smaller ones or much farther away. The last time any rock this size passed close to Earth was in 2001, the asteroid 2017 VW13. That one is estimated to have passed within 76,000 miles, a third of the distance to the moon. And, since it wasn’t discovered until 2017, no one even noticed it fly by!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>God of Chaos\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apophis is classified today as a “\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html\">Potentially Hazardous Asteroid\u003c/a>” (PHA). This means that it periodically crosses Earth’s orbital path, and is large enough to do some major damage if it were to hit us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from being an infrequent visitor from deep space as many comets are, coming around only every few decades or centuries, Apophis is a denizen of the inner solar system. Its 324-day orbit carries it from just outside Earth’s orbit at its farthest point from the sun, almost to the orbit of Venus at its closest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941470\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \" width=\"800\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-768x394.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons.jpg 936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think that because Apophis crosses Earth’s orbit more than once each year, the chance of collision is an ever-present threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, most of the time when Apophis crosses our path, Earth is at a different point in its orbit. It’s only those times when our orbital positions sync up that there’s any chance of bumping into each other. Think of a carnival carousel and that brass ring you try to grab each time your horse passes by it. You only have a shot at getting that ring if it swings close when you pass—and even then there’s no guarantee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>April 13, 2029 is one of those match-ups, and scientists are keenly eyeing the brass ring of new discovery that will be briefly within their reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Are the Chances?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While small objects pass close to Earth on a routine basis, and even collide with us more often than you might think, most go unnoticed. Three quarters of them fall over open ocean, most of the rest over sparsely populated land. And those that don’t break up in the atmosphere have limited effects when they hit the water or the ground anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger, more dangerous rocks make appearances with far less frequency—and the bigger they are, the rarer the encounter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\">Notable impacts in recent history include the \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska\">Tunguska\u003c/a> comet or meteorite impact in Siberia in 1908, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/five-years-after-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-nasa-leads-efforts-in-planetary-defense\">Chelyabinsk\u003c/a> event in Russia in 2013. Both were smaller than Apophis, but were relatively large objects: between 200 and 600 feet across in the case of Tunguska, and about 66 feet for Chelyabinsk. They exploded in Earth’s atmosphere, producing significant effects on the ground below, though no known fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger collisions with greater regional and even global effects can be found in prehistoric times, such as the impact that formed \u003ca href=\"https://www.barringercrater.com/\">Barringer Crater\u003c/a> (aka “Meteor Crater”) in Arizona 50,000 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find a “dinosaur killer” impact event you’d have to look all the way back to, well, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">\u003cem>dinosaur killer\u003c/em> impact\u003c/a>, 66 million years ago. The asteroid that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/25256/dinosaur-extinction-new-research-favors-volcanism-as-cause\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributed to ending\u003c/a> the dinosaurs’s long reign on Earth, which struck the northern end of the Yucatan Peninsula near Chicxulub, Mexico, was probably six miles across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941473\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chixulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples.\" width=\"536\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater-160x179.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chicxulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/David Fuchs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Defending Against Near Earth Objects\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, we aren’t completely in the dark about the dangers posed by \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. We’re also not completely helpless when it comes to defending our planet from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years now, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/mpc.html\">international coalition\u003c/a> of observers and researchers have collaborated to find, measure, and track \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. The data they collect are used to calculate the probability of a collision, and to predict the \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pd/cs/\">level of damage\u003c/a> in the event of a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, a major asteroid impact with Earth is a matter of when, not if. But the good news is that none are predicted in the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current approach to \u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">planetary defense\u003c/a> hinges on the idea that the further in advance we can predict an impact, the more time we have to do something about it. If we know it’s coming years before the fact, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tiny “nudge”\u003c/a> to the asteroid’s trajectory can make the difference between a catastrophic impact and a harmless near miss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What About Apophis’ Next Flyby?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The probability of Apophis hitting the Earth in 2029 has been practically ruled out. Its close passage through Earth’s gravitational field, though, will result in a change in its orbital path, so \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/god-of-chaos-apophis-asteroid-strike-orbit-earth-danger-apophis-a8901781.html\">careful observations of the flyby\u003c/a> will yield more than scientific discovery, it will let us make more precise collision predictions for future encounters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As things stand now, Apophis will make another close encounter with Earth in 2036, but will come no closer than 14 million miles. Beyond that, the chance of it hitting us anytime between 2060 and 2105 is 1 in 110,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing I’m going to lose sleep over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1941459/this-asteroid-wont-hit-earth-but-its-coming-pretty-dang-close","authors":["6180"],"categories":["science_28","science_40"],"tags":["science_144","science_3370","science_3832","science_3834","science_5175"],"featImg":"science_1941475","label":"source_science_1941459"},"science_1926879":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1926879","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1926879","score":null,"sort":[1531159244000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"nasas-dawn-goes-in-for-a-closer-look-at-the-birth-of-the-solar-system","title":"NASA's Dawn Goes In For a Closer Look at the Birth of the Solar System","publishDate":1531159244,"format":"standard","headTitle":"NASA’s Dawn Goes In For a Closer Look at the Birth of the Solar System | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Many of us remember that scene in the final moments of the first Star Wars movie, when Luke flies his ship toward the surface of the Death Star in a dizzying and breathtaking swoop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“I’m going in….”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, NASA did something similar with the \u003ca href=\"https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/\">Dawn\u003c/a> spacecraft orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres—though in less of a cowboy fashion\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn spiraled closer to Ceres than ever before in a swinging elliptical path that now carries the spacecraft within 22 miles of Ceres’ surface–that’s ten times closer than previously, and closer than most spacecraft ever get to a celestial body, short of landing on it. The pictures Dawn will capture promise to reveal new details about how our solar system came into being.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 678px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1926917\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing Dawn's maneuver from its previous orbit around Ceres (large green ellipse) to its present and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres' surface.\" width=\"678\" height=\"508\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit.jpg 678w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing Dawn’s maneuver from its previous orbit around Ceres (large green ellipse) to its present and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres’ surface. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dawn’s Mission to the Asteroid Belt\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs21grc.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first spacecraft\u003c/a> capable of orbiting two different objects in the solar system, sort of like a ship at sea visiting more than one island port along its multi-year cruise. The spacecraft launched in 2007 on an expedition to explore the \u003ca href=\"https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/why.html\">asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres\u003c/a>, the two largest objects in the Main Asteroid Belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Main Asteroid Belt is a sort of “time capsule” of material that has remained largely unchanged since the very early times of our solar system. It’s made up of millions of chunks of rock and metal—\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&condition_1=101%3Aparent_id&condition_2=asteroid%3Abody_type%3Ailike\">asteroids\u003c/a>—that circle the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They range in size from small boulders to objects hundreds of miles across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some thought that this solar-orbiting ring of rubble might have been the aftermath of the breakup of a planet some time in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926918\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1926918\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-800x450.gif\" alt=\"Map of Ceres made from measurements of gravitational strength (right), where red indicates stronger gravity. The gravitational variations provide clues about Ceres' internal structure. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-800x450.gif 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-160x90.gif 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-768x432.gif 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-1020x574.gif 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-1200x675.gif 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-1180x664.gif 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-960x540.gif 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-240x135.gif 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-375x211.gif 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-520x293.gif 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of Ceres made from measurements of gravitational strength (right), where red indicates stronger gravity. The gravitational variations provide clues about Ceres’ internal structure. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today we understand the asteroid belt as material left over from the formation of the solar system—ancient material that never coalesced to form a planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though all the asteroids of the belt are made of ancient material, smaller asteroids have undergone physical change over the eons: shattering collisions, or disruption by the pull of Jupiter’s gravity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger asteroids, like the 330-mile \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/4-vesta/in-depth/\">Vesta\u003c/a> and the 590-mile \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/ceres/overview/\">Ceres\u003c/a>, tend to hold up better against the rigors of residence in the asteroid belt, and the record of their origins is more intact. Vesta and Ceres are believed to be examples of “\u003ca href=\"http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/discovering_planets_beyond/how-do-planets-form\">planetesimals\u003c/a>,” the primordial “building blocks” that coalesced to form the planets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By examining the surface features, internal structures and chemical compositions of objects like Vesta and Ceres, we can reconstruct what conditions prevailed in the early solar system that shaped the formation of the planets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926916\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1926916\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing Dawn's journey from Earth, past Mars, and into the Main Asteroid Belt and its two ports of call, the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing Dawn’s journey from Earth, past Mars, and into the Main Asteroid Belt and its two ports of call, the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL/Gregory J. Whiffen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Such evidence is not preserved on planets like Earth, where atmospheric, volcanic and tectonic activity tend to erase primordial chemical and mineral structures. Put another way, if you want to understand how ice crystals develop to form snowflakes, you don’t study the water left behind after they have melted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vesta and Ceres also represent two different results of protoplanetary formation. While Vesta is a dry world that has experienced powerful collisions with other objects, Ceres appears to be a “wet” world, possibly possessing large amounts of water ice in its mantle, and maybe even a subsurface liquid water ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A Close-Up Look at Ceres\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After orbiting Ceres for almost three years, at distances ranging from several hundred to several thousand miles, \u003ca href=\"https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news-detail.html?id=7177\">NASA fired Dawn’s high-tech engine\u003c/a> to reign in its trajectory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, Dawn has captured many new images from its zoomed-in vantage point, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA22477\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">revealing details\u003c/a> of the dwarf planet not seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, earlier pictures of an impact crater, named Occator, showed mysterious white spots speckled about the crater’s floor. Similar white spots were found at other locations on Ceres. Later measurements identified the white material as sodium carbonate, a discovery that fueled speculation that these might be deposits left behind by eruptions of water that flooded onto the surface, and then boiled away in the near vacuum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1926915\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-800x728.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up view of Cerealia Facula, a mound of bright mineral deposits within Occator Crater. Dawn captured this image from its new, and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres' surface. \" width=\"800\" height=\"728\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-800x728.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-160x146.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-768x699.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-1020x928.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-960x874.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-240x218.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-375x341.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-520x473.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA.jpg 1125w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Close-up view of Cerealia Facula, a mound of bright mineral deposits within Occator Crater. Dawn captured this image from its new, and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres’ surface. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dawn Isn’t the Only Asteroid Explorer in Town\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Dawn may grab headlines for exploring the two largest objects in the Asteroid Belt, it isn’t the only robotic asteroid mission out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Japan’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/272619-japans-hayabusa-2-spacecraft-reaches-asteroid-prepares-to-collect-sample\">Hayabusa-2\u003c/a> is currently parked 12 miles from a near-Earth, carbon-rich asteroid named Ryugu. In the coming months it will attempt to make up to three brief touch-downs on the small asteroid’s surface to collect samples for return to Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/objectives/\">OSIRIS-REx\u003c/a> spacecraft will reach the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu this August, and will ultimately touch down on its surface and collect a sample to bring home. There is a chance that Bennu could impact Earth in the future, so learning about its origin, composition and structure is not only of scientific value, but may provide information we could use to defend ourselves against a possible collision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, NASA has approved a mission to send a spacecraft to the Main Belt \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/psyche\">asteroid Psyche\u003c/a>, which scientists believe may be the remnant iron core of an ancient planetesimal whose outer layers were blown away in a cataclysmic event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dawn Riding Into the Sunset?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Dawn shut down its electric ion propulsion engine after arriving in its Ceres-skimming orbit, it may have been the last time it is ever used. The mission is winding down, and NASA has parked Dawn in a retirement track—a final resting orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn will continue to make observations and collect data in the weeks and months to come from its daringly low altitude—and who knows what it might spot in its last days?\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"On June 6, NASA's Dawn spacecraft zoomed into an orbit around Ceres 10 times closer than ever before. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927719,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":28,"wordCount":1104},"headData":{"title":"NASA's Dawn Goes In For a Closer Look at the Birth of the Solar System | KQED","description":"On June 6, NASA's Dawn spacecraft zoomed into an orbit around Ceres 10 times closer than ever before. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"NASA's Dawn Goes In For a Closer Look at the Birth of the Solar System","datePublished":"2018-07-09T18:00:44.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:01:59.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1926879/nasas-dawn-goes-in-for-a-closer-look-at-the-birth-of-the-solar-system","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Many of us remember that scene in the final moments of the first Star Wars movie, when Luke flies his ship toward the surface of the Death Star in a dizzying and breathtaking swoop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“I’m going in….”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, NASA did something similar with the \u003ca href=\"https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/\">Dawn\u003c/a> spacecraft orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres—though in less of a cowboy fashion\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn spiraled closer to Ceres than ever before in a swinging elliptical path that now carries the spacecraft within 22 miles of Ceres’ surface–that’s ten times closer than previously, and closer than most spacecraft ever get to a celestial body, short of landing on it. The pictures Dawn will capture promise to reveal new details about how our solar system came into being.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 678px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1926917\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing Dawn's maneuver from its previous orbit around Ceres (large green ellipse) to its present and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres' surface.\" width=\"678\" height=\"508\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit.jpg 678w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawn-ceres-finalorbit-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing Dawn’s maneuver from its previous orbit around Ceres (large green ellipse) to its present and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres’ surface. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dawn’s Mission to the Asteroid Belt\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs21grc.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first spacecraft\u003c/a> capable of orbiting two different objects in the solar system, sort of like a ship at sea visiting more than one island port along its multi-year cruise. The spacecraft launched in 2007 on an expedition to explore the \u003ca href=\"https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/why.html\">asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres\u003c/a>, the two largest objects in the Main Asteroid Belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Main Asteroid Belt is a sort of “time capsule” of material that has remained largely unchanged since the very early times of our solar system. It’s made up of millions of chunks of rock and metal—\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&condition_1=101%3Aparent_id&condition_2=asteroid%3Abody_type%3Ailike\">asteroids\u003c/a>—that circle the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They range in size from small boulders to objects hundreds of miles across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some thought that this solar-orbiting ring of rubble might have been the aftermath of the breakup of a planet some time in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926918\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1926918\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-800x450.gif\" alt=\"Map of Ceres made from measurements of gravitational strength (right), where red indicates stronger gravity. The gravitational variations provide clues about Ceres' internal structure. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-800x450.gif 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-160x90.gif 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-768x432.gif 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-1020x574.gif 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-1200x675.gif 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-1180x664.gif 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-960x540.gif 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-240x135.gif 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-375x211.gif 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/PIA22083-520x293.gif 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of Ceres made from measurements of gravitational strength (right), where red indicates stronger gravity. The gravitational variations provide clues about Ceres’ internal structure. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today we understand the asteroid belt as material left over from the formation of the solar system—ancient material that never coalesced to form a planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though all the asteroids of the belt are made of ancient material, smaller asteroids have undergone physical change over the eons: shattering collisions, or disruption by the pull of Jupiter’s gravity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger asteroids, like the 330-mile \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/4-vesta/in-depth/\">Vesta\u003c/a> and the 590-mile \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/ceres/overview/\">Ceres\u003c/a>, tend to hold up better against the rigors of residence in the asteroid belt, and the record of their origins is more intact. Vesta and Ceres are believed to be examples of “\u003ca href=\"http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/discovering_planets_beyond/how-do-planets-form\">planetesimals\u003c/a>,” the primordial “building blocks” that coalesced to form the planets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By examining the surface features, internal structures and chemical compositions of objects like Vesta and Ceres, we can reconstruct what conditions prevailed in the early solar system that shaped the formation of the planets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926916\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1926916\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing Dawn's journey from Earth, past Mars, and into the Main Asteroid Belt and its two ports of call, the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/dawnsjourney-Gregory-J.-Whiffen-JPL-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing Dawn’s journey from Earth, past Mars, and into the Main Asteroid Belt and its two ports of call, the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL/Gregory J. Whiffen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Such evidence is not preserved on planets like Earth, where atmospheric, volcanic and tectonic activity tend to erase primordial chemical and mineral structures. Put another way, if you want to understand how ice crystals develop to form snowflakes, you don’t study the water left behind after they have melted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vesta and Ceres also represent two different results of protoplanetary formation. While Vesta is a dry world that has experienced powerful collisions with other objects, Ceres appears to be a “wet” world, possibly possessing large amounts of water ice in its mantle, and maybe even a subsurface liquid water ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A Close-Up Look at Ceres\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After orbiting Ceres for almost three years, at distances ranging from several hundred to several thousand miles, \u003ca href=\"https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news-detail.html?id=7177\">NASA fired Dawn’s high-tech engine\u003c/a> to reign in its trajectory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, Dawn has captured many new images from its zoomed-in vantage point, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA22477\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">revealing details\u003c/a> of the dwarf planet not seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, earlier pictures of an impact crater, named Occator, showed mysterious white spots speckled about the crater’s floor. Similar white spots were found at other locations on Ceres. Later measurements identified the white material as sodium carbonate, a discovery that fueled speculation that these might be deposits left behind by eruptions of water that flooded onto the surface, and then boiled away in the near vacuum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1926915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1926915\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-800x728.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up view of Cerealia Facula, a mound of bright mineral deposits within Occator Crater. Dawn captured this image from its new, and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres' surface. \" width=\"800\" height=\"728\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-800x728.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-160x146.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-768x699.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-1020x928.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-960x874.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-240x218.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-375x341.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA-520x473.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/cerealiafacula-NASA-JPL-Caltech-UCLA-MPS-DLR-IDA.jpg 1125w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Close-up view of Cerealia Facula, a mound of bright mineral deposits within Occator Crater. Dawn captured this image from its new, and final orbit, which carries it to within 22 miles of Ceres’ surface. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dawn Isn’t the Only Asteroid Explorer in Town\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Dawn may grab headlines for exploring the two largest objects in the Asteroid Belt, it isn’t the only robotic asteroid mission out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Japan’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/272619-japans-hayabusa-2-spacecraft-reaches-asteroid-prepares-to-collect-sample\">Hayabusa-2\u003c/a> is currently parked 12 miles from a near-Earth, carbon-rich asteroid named Ryugu. In the coming months it will attempt to make up to three brief touch-downs on the small asteroid’s surface to collect samples for return to Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/objectives/\">OSIRIS-REx\u003c/a> spacecraft will reach the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu this August, and will ultimately touch down on its surface and collect a sample to bring home. There is a chance that Bennu could impact Earth in the future, so learning about its origin, composition and structure is not only of scientific value, but may provide information we could use to defend ourselves against a possible collision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, NASA has approved a mission to send a spacecraft to the Main Belt \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/psyche\">asteroid Psyche\u003c/a>, which scientists believe may be the remnant iron core of an ancient planetesimal whose outer layers were blown away in a cataclysmic event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dawn Riding Into the Sunset?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Dawn shut down its electric ion propulsion engine after arriving in its Ceres-skimming orbit, it may have been the last time it is ever used. The mission is winding down, and NASA has parked Dawn in a retirement track—a final resting orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn will continue to make observations and collect data in the weeks and months to come from its daringly low altitude—and who knows what it might spot in its last days?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1926879/nasas-dawn-goes-in-for-a-closer-look-at-the-birth-of-the-solar-system","authors":["6180"],"categories":["science_28"],"tags":["science_144","science_5175"],"featImg":"science_1926913","label":"source_science_1926879"},"science_1921417":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1921417","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1921417","score":null,"sort":[1521494299000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"our-1st-interstellar-visitor-likely-came-from-2-star-system","title":"Our 1st Interstellar Visitor Likely Came From a 2-Star System","publishDate":1521494299,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Our 1st Interstellar Visitor Likely Came From a 2-Star System | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Our first known interstellar visitor likely came from a two-star system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the latest from astronomers who were amazed by the mysterious cigar-shaped object, detected as it passed through our inner solar system last fall.[contextly_sidebar id=”nefUdheDSXHnOcJbt6vj7wZSFqG71Xpv”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University of Toronto’s Alan Jackson reported Monday that the asteroid — the first confirmed object in our solar system originating elsewhere — is probably from a binary star system. That’s where two stars orbit a common center. According to Jackson and his team, the asteroid was likely ejected from its system as planets formed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been wandering interstellar space for a long time since,” the scientists wrote in the Royal Astronomical Society’s journal, \u003ca href=\"https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Monthly Notices\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discovered in October by a telescope in Hawaii millions of miles away, the asteroid is called Oumuamua, Hawaiian for messenger from afar arriving first, or scout. The red-tinged rock is estimated to be possibly 1,300 feet long and zooming away from the Earth and sun at more than 16 miles per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, a science team led by Wesley Fraser of Queen’s University Belfast reported that Oumuamua is actually tumbling through space, likely the result of a collision with another asteroid or other object that kicked it out of its home solar system. He expects it to continue tumbling for billions of more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists originally thought it might be an icy comet, but now agree it is an asteroid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The same way we use comets to better understand planet formation in our own solar system, maybe this curious object can tell us more about how planets form in other systems.” Jackson said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Close binary star systems may be the source of the majority of interstellar objects out there, both icy comets and rocky asteroids, according to the researchers.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Astronomers were amazed by the mysterious cigar-shaped object that passed through last fall.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704928089,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":11,"wordCount":322},"headData":{"title":"Our 1st Interstellar Visitor Likely Came From a 2-Star System | KQED","description":"Astronomers were amazed by the mysterious cigar-shaped object that passed through last fall.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Our 1st Interstellar Visitor Likely Came From a 2-Star System","datePublished":"2018-03-19T21:18:19.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:08:09.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Astronomy","sticky":false,"nprByline":"Marcia Dunn\u003cbr />The Associated Press","path":"/science/1921417/our-1st-interstellar-visitor-likely-came-from-2-star-system","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Our first known interstellar visitor likely came from a two-star system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the latest from astronomers who were amazed by the mysterious cigar-shaped object, detected as it passed through our inner solar system last fall.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University of Toronto’s Alan Jackson reported Monday that the asteroid — the first confirmed object in our solar system originating elsewhere — is probably from a binary star system. That’s where two stars orbit a common center. According to Jackson and his team, the asteroid was likely ejected from its system as planets formed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been wandering interstellar space for a long time since,” the scientists wrote in the Royal Astronomical Society’s journal, \u003ca href=\"https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Monthly Notices\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discovered in October by a telescope in Hawaii millions of miles away, the asteroid is called Oumuamua, Hawaiian for messenger from afar arriving first, or scout. The red-tinged rock is estimated to be possibly 1,300 feet long and zooming away from the Earth and sun at more than 16 miles per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, a science team led by Wesley Fraser of Queen’s University Belfast reported that Oumuamua is actually tumbling through space, likely the result of a collision with another asteroid or other object that kicked it out of its home solar system. He expects it to continue tumbling for billions of more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists originally thought it might be an icy comet, but now agree it is an asteroid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The same way we use comets to better understand planet formation in our own solar system, maybe this curious object can tell us more about how planets form in other systems.” Jackson said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Close binary star systems may be the source of the majority of interstellar objects out there, both icy comets and rocky asteroids, according to the researchers.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1921417/our-1st-interstellar-visitor-likely-came-from-2-star-system","authors":["byline_science_1921417"],"categories":["science_28","science_40"],"tags":["science_144","science_1073","science_25","science_576","science_577","science_3416"],"featImg":"science_1921418","label":"source_science_1921417"},"science_1917535":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1917535","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1917535","score":null,"sort":[1510268439000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"rendezvous-with-a2017-u1","title":"Rendezvous With an Interstellar Traveler","publishDate":1510268439,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Rendezvous With an Interstellar Traveler | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>In October, astronomers discovered that our solar system has been visited by an interstellar traveler. It’s not a spaceship — because that would be \u003cem>truly\u003c/em> huge news — but a natural object: a 500-foot chunk of material designated as \u003ca href=\"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171103.html\">A/2017 U1\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is \u003cem>still\u003c/em> big news since A/2017 U1 is the first large object passing through our solar system that we know originated in interstellar space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>We Almost Missed It!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time it was discovered on October 19, by Robert Weryk using the \u003ca href=\"https://panstarrs.stsci.edu/\">Pan-STARRS telescope\u003c/a> in Hawaii, A/2017 U1 had already swung through its closest approach to our sun — “\u003ca href=\"https://www.windows2universe.org/physical_science/physics/mechanics/orbit/perihelion_aphelion.html\">perihelion\u003c/a>” — and was moving away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917564\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 580px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917564\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz.jpg\" alt=\"Image of interstellar asteroid A/2017 U1 taken by the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii. \" width=\"580\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz.jpg 580w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-160x83.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-240x125.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-375x195.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-520x271.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of interstellar asteroid A/2017 U1 taken by the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii. \u003ccite>(PanSTARRS/Paulo Holvorcem and Michael Schwartz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But astronomers tracking its movement were able to plot its trajectory, which led to the revelation that A/2017 U1’s orbit is \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://history.nasa.gov/conghand/traject.htm\">hyperbolic\u003c/a> — \u003c/em>definitive proof of its interstellar origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike the orbits of planets, comets, and asteroids that perpetually run laps around our sun on closed, elliptical loops, a hyperbolic path is “open,” like a boomerang with infinitely long ends. The middle of the boomerang’s bend is where the object makes its closest approach to the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Interstellar Comet or Asteroid?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A/2017 U1 was originally classified as a comet since its hyperbolic path resembles the orbits of \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/L/Long-period+Comets\">“long-period” comets\u003c/a> that travel very far into space, but are otherwise gravitationally bound to the sun and orbit it in a regular cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Comets are common fare in regions far from the sun, where sunlight is weak and volatile ices can remain frozen and stable. Almost all of the comets that swing close to the sun spend most of their time in the \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/kbos\">\u003cem>Kuiper Belt\u003c/em>\u003c/a> beyond Neptune’s orbit, or in the much more distant \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/oort\">\u003cem>Oort Cloud\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which surrounds the solar system like a vast, frosty bubble. It is only when a comet heats up near the sun that some of its ices are vaporized and out-gas to form its long, iconic tail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Image of a comet passing close to the sun, captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 2011. The white circle represents the sun, whose bright disk is hidden behind a disk of metal. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-960x960.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of a comet passing close to the sun, captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 2011. The white circle represents the sun, whose bright disk is hidden behind a disk of metal. \u003ccite>(SOHO/NASA/ESA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, when astronomers pored over data acquired by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/soho/index.html\">SOHO spacecraft\u003c/a> around the time of A/2017 U1’s perihelion, no comet-like behavior was detected in the sun’s vicinity. At its closest approach the object was only 23 million miles from the sun, closer than the planet Mercury and within SOHO’s field of view. If it were a comet, SOHO should have detected out-gassing caused by the sun’s intense heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of out-gassing shows that A/2017 U1 contains little if any frozen volatile materials, and must be composed of rock or metal — like an asteroid. We are accustomed to thinking of asteroids as objects that spend most of their time relatively close to the sun, where the steady and strong sunlight vaporizes any ices. Objects that originate farther out tend to be comets, containing substantial amounts of ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917566\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by the European Rosetta spacecraft in 2014. The volatile ices contained in comets are vaporized by sunlight and out-gas into space to form the comet's tail.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-1920x1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-1180x1180.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-960x960.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by the European Rosetta spacecraft in 2014. The volatile ices contained in comets are vaporized by sunlight and out-gas into space to form the comet’s tail. \u003ccite>(ESA/Rosetta)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So, discovering an interstellar object that has spent probably hundreds of thousands of years in cold interstellar space, and yet is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a comet but an asteroid, is an even more exciting event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Where Did A/2017 U1 Come From?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “legs” of A/2017 U1’s hyperbolic orbit — the long, stretched arcs of the boomerang’s ends — point in the directions it came from and where it is now heading toward, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The object appears to have cruised in from the direction of the constellation Lyra, somewhere near the star Vega. This doesn’t mean that it originated at Vega, or from any of the stars in that region of the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its interstellar cruising speed of 16 miles per second, it would take almost 300,000 years to travel the 25 light years from Vega to our solar system. In that time, the stars have moved along their own paths, rearranging themselves in space and making it nearly impossible to determine A/2017 U1’s true point of origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s likely that this asteroid \u003cem>did\u003c/em> originate in a star system long ago and was ejected into interstellar space. It has been theorized that even in our solar system, comets and asteroids have been flung into interstellar space by the gravitational influence of giant planets, like Jupiter. Such evictions would have been especially frequent when the solar system was young and there were many more chunks of rock and ice flying about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, it can go both ways: we were just buzzed by an interstellar asteroid that probably came from another star system, and somewhere else in the galaxy a comet or asteroid that originated in our own solar system, flung out millions or billions of years ago, may be whizzing past another star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>NASA Has Dabbled in Interstellar Trajectories\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though A/2017 U1 is a natural object, and not an alien spacecraft like the one featured in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112537.Rendezvous_with_Rama\">Rendezvous With Rama\u003c/a>,” there is, in fact, at least one known spacecraft in interstellar space: our own \u003ca href=\"http://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-41147213/voyager-1-at-40-scientists-amazed-1970s-space-probe-still-works\">Voyager 1\u003c/a>, which we launched back in 1977.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voyager 1 officially entered interstellar space in 2013 when it passed through the \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://ibex.swri.edu/students/What_is_the_heliopause.shtml\">heliopause\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, the tenuous boundary between the bubble of gases blown out by our sun and what lies beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Voyager 1 achieved \u003ca href=\"https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/54979/when-did-voyager-1-achieve-solar-system-escape-velocity\">solar escape velocity\u003c/a> in the same way that in theory A/2017 U1 escaped from its parent system: through interaction with a massive planet — in Voyager 1’s case, Jupiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917568\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Artist illustration of Voyager 1, which officially passed through the heliopause and crossed over into interstellar space in 2013. Voyager 1 is presently over 13 billion miles away, a distance that takes light 19.5 hours to traverse. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-520x293.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires.jpg 1820w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist illustration of Voyager 1, which officially passed through the heliopause and crossed over into interstellar space in 2013. Voyager 1 is presently over 13 billion miles away, a distance that takes light 19.5 hours to traverse. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before its encounter with Jupiter, Voyager 1 lacked the speed to break free of the sun’s gravitational pull, but after accelerating under Jupiter’s gravity it was flung into a hyperbolic orbit and became, as NASA put it, “. . . destined — perhaps eternally — \u003ca href=\"http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/156-people-in-astronomy/space-exploration-and-astronauts/satellites-robotic-space-craft/973-will-the-pioneer-and-voyager-probes-ever-leave-the-milky-way-beginner\">to wander the Milky Way\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, just as with A/2017 U1, interstellar distances are vast, and the journey between stars is slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voyager 1 is expected to reach our \u003ca href=\"https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0204i/\">solar system’s cometary haven\u003c/a>, the Oort Cloud, in 300 years, and then spend 30,000 years passing through it. In 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445, enacting its own extrasolar rendezvous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime A/2017 U1 is heading out again. As of November 10 it is over 160 million miles from the sun and hurtling away at 25 miles per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, whatever it is — asteroid, or alien artifact — it won’t be pass by ever again.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A 500-foot space rock discovered in October has turned out to be an asteroid from outside our solar system.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704928302,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":29,"wordCount":1236},"headData":{"title":"Rendezvous With an Interstellar Traveler | KQED","description":"A 500-foot space rock discovered in October has turned out to be an asteroid from outside our solar system.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Rendezvous With an Interstellar Traveler","datePublished":"2017-11-09T23:00:39.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:11:42.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"sticky":false,"path":"/science/1917535/rendezvous-with-a2017-u1","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In October, astronomers discovered that our solar system has been visited by an interstellar traveler. It’s not a spaceship — because that would be \u003cem>truly\u003c/em> huge news — but a natural object: a 500-foot chunk of material designated as \u003ca href=\"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171103.html\">A/2017 U1\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is \u003cem>still\u003c/em> big news since A/2017 U1 is the first large object passing through our solar system that we know originated in interstellar space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>We Almost Missed It!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time it was discovered on October 19, by Robert Weryk using the \u003ca href=\"https://panstarrs.stsci.edu/\">Pan-STARRS telescope\u003c/a> in Hawaii, A/2017 U1 had already swung through its closest approach to our sun — “\u003ca href=\"https://www.windows2universe.org/physical_science/physics/mechanics/orbit/perihelion_aphelion.html\">perihelion\u003c/a>” — and was moving away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917564\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 580px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917564\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz.jpg\" alt=\"Image of interstellar asteroid A/2017 U1 taken by the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii. \" width=\"580\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz.jpg 580w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-160x83.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-240x125.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-375x195.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PanSTARRS-Paulo-Holvorcem_Michael-Schwartz-520x271.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of interstellar asteroid A/2017 U1 taken by the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii. \u003ccite>(PanSTARRS/Paulo Holvorcem and Michael Schwartz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But astronomers tracking its movement were able to plot its trajectory, which led to the revelation that A/2017 U1’s orbit is \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://history.nasa.gov/conghand/traject.htm\">hyperbolic\u003c/a> — \u003c/em>definitive proof of its interstellar origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike the orbits of planets, comets, and asteroids that perpetually run laps around our sun on closed, elliptical loops, a hyperbolic path is “open,” like a boomerang with infinitely long ends. The middle of the boomerang’s bend is where the object makes its closest approach to the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Interstellar Comet or Asteroid?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A/2017 U1 was originally classified as a comet since its hyperbolic path resembles the orbits of \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/L/Long-period+Comets\">“long-period” comets\u003c/a> that travel very far into space, but are otherwise gravitationally bound to the sun and orbit it in a regular cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Comets are common fare in regions far from the sun, where sunlight is weak and volatile ices can remain frozen and stable. Almost all of the comets that swing close to the sun spend most of their time in the \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/kbos\">\u003cem>Kuiper Belt\u003c/em>\u003c/a> beyond Neptune’s orbit, or in the much more distant \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/oort\">\u003cem>Oort Cloud\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which surrounds the solar system like a vast, frosty bubble. It is only when a comet heats up near the sun that some of its ices are vaporized and out-gas to form its long, iconic tail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Image of a comet passing close to the sun, captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 2011. The white circle represents the sun, whose bright disk is hidden behind a disk of metal. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-960x960.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/soho-sungrazingcomet.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of a comet passing close to the sun, captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 2011. The white circle represents the sun, whose bright disk is hidden behind a disk of metal. \u003ccite>(SOHO/NASA/ESA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, when astronomers pored over data acquired by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/soho/index.html\">SOHO spacecraft\u003c/a> around the time of A/2017 U1’s perihelion, no comet-like behavior was detected in the sun’s vicinity. At its closest approach the object was only 23 million miles from the sun, closer than the planet Mercury and within SOHO’s field of view. If it were a comet, SOHO should have detected out-gassing caused by the sun’s intense heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of out-gassing shows that A/2017 U1 contains little if any frozen volatile materials, and must be composed of rock or metal — like an asteroid. We are accustomed to thinking of asteroids as objects that spend most of their time relatively close to the sun, where the steady and strong sunlight vaporizes any ices. Objects that originate farther out tend to be comets, containing substantial amounts of ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917566\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by the European Rosetta spacecraft in 2014. The volatile ices contained in comets are vaporized by sunlight and out-gas into space to form the comet's tail.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-1920x1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-1180x1180.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-960x960.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by the European Rosetta spacecraft in 2014. The volatile ices contained in comets are vaporized by sunlight and out-gas into space to form the comet’s tail. \u003ccite>(ESA/Rosetta)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So, discovering an interstellar object that has spent probably hundreds of thousands of years in cold interstellar space, and yet is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a comet but an asteroid, is an even more exciting event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Where Did A/2017 U1 Come From?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “legs” of A/2017 U1’s hyperbolic orbit — the long, stretched arcs of the boomerang’s ends — point in the directions it came from and where it is now heading toward, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The object appears to have cruised in from the direction of the constellation Lyra, somewhere near the star Vega. This doesn’t mean that it originated at Vega, or from any of the stars in that region of the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its interstellar cruising speed of 16 miles per second, it would take almost 300,000 years to travel the 25 light years from Vega to our solar system. In that time, the stars have moved along their own paths, rearranging themselves in space and making it nearly impossible to determine A/2017 U1’s true point of origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s likely that this asteroid \u003cem>did\u003c/em> originate in a star system long ago and was ejected into interstellar space. It has been theorized that even in our solar system, comets and asteroids have been flung into interstellar space by the gravitational influence of giant planets, like Jupiter. Such evictions would have been especially frequent when the solar system was young and there were many more chunks of rock and ice flying about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, it can go both ways: we were just buzzed by an interstellar asteroid that probably came from another star system, and somewhere else in the galaxy a comet or asteroid that originated in our own solar system, flung out millions or billions of years ago, may be whizzing past another star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>NASA Has Dabbled in Interstellar Trajectories\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though A/2017 U1 is a natural object, and not an alien spacecraft like the one featured in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112537.Rendezvous_with_Rama\">Rendezvous With Rama\u003c/a>,” there is, in fact, at least one known spacecraft in interstellar space: our own \u003ca href=\"http://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-41147213/voyager-1-at-40-scientists-amazed-1970s-space-probe-still-works\">Voyager 1\u003c/a>, which we launched back in 1977.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voyager 1 officially entered interstellar space in 2013 when it passed through the \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://ibex.swri.edu/students/What_is_the_heliopause.shtml\">heliopause\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, the tenuous boundary between the bubble of gases blown out by our sun and what lies beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Voyager 1 achieved \u003ca href=\"https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/54979/when-did-voyager-1-achieve-solar-system-escape-velocity\">solar escape velocity\u003c/a> in the same way that in theory A/2017 U1 escaped from its parent system: through interaction with a massive planet — in Voyager 1’s case, Jupiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917568\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Artist illustration of Voyager 1, which officially passed through the heliopause and crossed over into interstellar space in 2013. Voyager 1 is presently over 13 billion miles away, a distance that takes light 19.5 hours to traverse. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires-520x293.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/PIA17462_hires.jpg 1820w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist illustration of Voyager 1, which officially passed through the heliopause and crossed over into interstellar space in 2013. Voyager 1 is presently over 13 billion miles away, a distance that takes light 19.5 hours to traverse. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before its encounter with Jupiter, Voyager 1 lacked the speed to break free of the sun’s gravitational pull, but after accelerating under Jupiter’s gravity it was flung into a hyperbolic orbit and became, as NASA put it, “. . . destined — perhaps eternally — \u003ca href=\"http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/156-people-in-astronomy/space-exploration-and-astronauts/satellites-robotic-space-craft/973-will-the-pioneer-and-voyager-probes-ever-leave-the-milky-way-beginner\">to wander the Milky Way\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, just as with A/2017 U1, interstellar distances are vast, and the journey between stars is slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voyager 1 is expected to reach our \u003ca href=\"https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0204i/\">solar system’s cometary haven\u003c/a>, the Oort Cloud, in 300 years, and then spend 30,000 years passing through it. In 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445, enacting its own extrasolar rendezvous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime A/2017 U1 is heading out again. As of November 10 it is over 160 million miles from the sun and hurtling away at 25 miles per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, whatever it is — asteroid, or alien artifact — it won’t be pass by ever again.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1917535/rendezvous-with-a2017-u1","authors":["6180"],"categories":["science_28"],"tags":["science_144","science_3419","science_5175"],"featImg":"science_1917563","label":"science"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? 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You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn","officialWebsiteLink":"/mindshift/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"2"},"link":"/podcasts/mindshift","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"}},"morning-edition":{"id":"morning-edition","title":"Morning Edition","info":"\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. 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