Tag Archives: Earth

NASA deep space probe reaches asteroid deemed potential Earth threat

FILE PHOTO - NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is seen on display at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, U.S. August 20, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Brown

By Joey Roulette

(Reuters) – NASA’s deep space explorer Osiris-Rex flew on Monday to within a dozen miles of its destination, a skyscraper-sized asteroid believed to hold organic compounds fundamental to life as well as the potential to collide with Earth in about 150 years.

Launched in September 2016, Osiris-Rex embarked on NASA’s unprecedented seven-year mission to conduct a close-up survey of the asteroid Bennu, collect a sample from its surface and return that material to Earth for study.

Bennu, a rocky mass roughly a third of a mile wide and shaped like a giant acorn, orbits the sun at roughly the same distance as Earth and is thought to be rich in carbon-based organic molecules dating back to the earliest days of the solar system. Water, another vital component to the evolution of life, may also be trapped in the asteroid’s minerals.

Scientists believe that asteroids and comets crashing into early Earth delivered organic compounds and water that seeded the planet for life, and atomic-level analysis of samples from Bennu could help prove that theory.

But there is another more existential reason to study Bennu.

Scientists estimate there is a one-in-2,700 chance of the asteroid slamming catastrophically into Earth 166 years from now. That probability ranks Bennu No. 2 on NASA’s catalog of 72 near-Earth objects potentially capable of hitting the planet.

Osiris-Rex will help scientists understand how heat radiated from the sun is gently steering Bennu on an increasingly menacing course through the solar system. That solar energy is believed to be nudging the asteroid ever closer toward Earth’s path each time the asteroid makes its closest approach to our planet every six years.

“By the time we collect the sample in 2020 we will have a much better idea of the probability that Bennu would impact Earth in the next 150 years,” mission spokeswoman Erin Morton said.

Scientists have estimated that in 2135 Bennu could pass closer to Earth than the moon, which orbits at a distance of about 250,000 miles, and possibly come closer still sometime between 2175 and 2195.

Osiris-Rex reached the “preliminary survey” phase of its mission on Monday, soaring to within 12 miles of the asteroid. The spacecraft will pass just 1.2 miles from Bennu in late December, where it will enter the object’s gravitational pull.

From that stage, the spacecraft will begin gradually tightening its orbit around the asteroid, spiraling to within just 6 feet of its surface. Osiris-Rex will then extend its robot arm to snatch a sample of Bennu’s terrain in a “touch-and-go” maneuver set for July 2020.

Osiris-Rex will later fly back to Earth, jettisoning a capsule bearing the asteroid specimen for a parachute descent in the Utah desert in September 2023.

NASA is developing a strategy for deflecting Bennu, or any other asteroid found to be on a collision course with Earth, by use of a special spacecraft to slam into the object hard enough to nudge it onto a safer path, said Lindley Johnson, a planetary defense officer with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“But this is all dependent on the outcome of a very close approach that Bennu has with Earth in September 2135,” Johnson said. “We’ll just need to wait and see. Rather, our great-great-grandchildren will need to see.”

(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Orlando, Fla.; Editing by Steve Gorman and Paul Tait)

Thousands gather in Israeli desert for meteor shower

Cars drive through Ramon Crater during the Perseid meteor shower near the town of Mitzpe Ramon, southern Israel, August 12, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

By Ori Lewis

MITZPE RAMON, Israel (Reuters) – Thousands of star-gazers gathered overnight at one of the darkest spots in Israel hoping to be dazzled by the annual Perseid meteor shower, only to be left somewhat disappointed by the show.

Locals had the rare task of directing traffic on a moonless Monday night in Mitzpe Ramon in the heart of the Negev Desert, a spot surrounded by terrain described as similar to a lunar or Martian landscape.

The Feinberg family from the Tel Aviv region drove for two-and-a-half hours for the display but the number of meteors, about one or fewer per minute, failed to truly light up the Ramon Crater’s dark night sky as in previous years.

A meteor streaks across the sky in the early morning during the Perseid meteor shower in Ramon Crater near the town of Mitzpe Ramon, southern Israel, August 13, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

A meteor streaks across the sky in the early morning during the Perseid meteor shower in Ramon Crater near the town of Mitzpe Ramon, southern Israel, August 13, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

“We are here waiting for the stars to fall, the children are very impatient,” said Eliran Feinberg, 42, who works for an air cargo company.

The Perseid meteors, which reach their peak every August, are produced by debris from the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet that passes by the Earth every 133 years. It last passed in 1992.

Professor Rennan Barkana, head of the astrophysics department at Tel Aviv University, said this year’s shower was not as intense because the Earth had passed through a sparser part of the comet’s debris than previously and a smaller amount of particles had entered the atmosphere.

(Additional reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo, Writing by Ori Lewis. Editing by Patrick Johnston)

Israel plans to land unmanned spacecraft on moon in February

Israeli scientists stand next to an unmanned spacecraft which an Israeli team plans to launch into space at the end of the year and to land it on the Moon next year, in Yahud, Israel, July 10, 2018 REUTERS/Ronen Zvulu

By Ari Rabinovitch

YEHUD, Israel (Reuters) – An Israeli non-profit group plans to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon in February in the first landing of its kind since 2013.

The craft, which is shaped like a round table with four carbon fiber legs, is set to blast off in December from Florida’s Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, said Ido Anteby, chief executive of the SpaceIL non-profit.

It aims to transmit pictures and videos back to earth over two days after it lands on Feb. 13 as well as measuring magnetic fields.

Ido Anteby, SpaceIL's CEO stands in front of an unmanned spacecraft which an Israeli team plans to launch into space at the end of the year and to land it on the Moon next year, in Yahud, Israel, July 10, 2018 REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Ido Anteby, SpaceIL’s CEO stands in front of an unmanned spacecraft which an Israeli team plans to launch into space at the end of the year and to land it on the Moon next year, in Yahud, Israel, July 10, 2018 REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

“Our spacecraft will be the smallest ever to land on the moon,” said Anteby.

Since 1966, the United States and the former Soviet Union have put around 12 unmanned spacecraft on the moon using braking power to perform “soft” landings and China did so in 2013.

SpaceIL was founded in 2011 by a group of engineers with a budget of about $90 million and they had to sacrifice size and operational capabilities for more efficient travel.

The craft, unveiled on Tuesday at state-owned defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries, stands about 1.5 meters high and weighs 585 kg (1,290 lb). The spacecraft has four carbon fiber legs and fuel takes up two-thirds of its weight.

At 60,000 km (37,000 miles) above Earth the spacecraft will deploy. It will orbit Earth in expanding ellipses and, about two months later, cross into the moon’s orbit. It will then slow and carry out a soft landing causing no damage to the craft.

“The landing is the most complicated part. The spot chosen is relatively flat and the spacecraft has eye contact with Earth for communication,” Anteby said. “From the moment the spacecraft reaches the point that it begins the landing, it will handle it totally autonomously.”

SpaceIL is backed mainly by private donors, including U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and billionaire Morris Kahn who co-founded Amdocs, one of Israel’s biggest high-tech companies.

(Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Scientists puzzled by exotic distant galaxy lacking dark matter

The galaxy named NGC 1052-DF2, a large fuzzy-looking galaxy so diffused that astronomers call it a 'see-through' galaxy because its missing most, if not all of its dark matter, is shown in this photo obtained from NASA on March 28, 2018. NASA, ESA, and P. van Dokkum (Yale University)/Handout via REUTERS

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers have detected for the first time a galaxy that is devoid of dark matter, the plentiful but enigmatic material that does not emit light or energy and had been considered a fundamental part of all galaxies including our own Milky Way.

The discovery, announced on Wednesday, is forcing scientists to rethink their ideas about the formation of galaxies.

“We didn’t expect that this could happen,” said Yale University astronomer Pieter van Dokkum, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature.

Paradoxically, the discovery of a galaxy without dark matter may actually confirm that the stuff actually exists by contradicting hypotheses advanced by dark matter doubters.

Van Dokkum said the galaxy, called NGC1052-DF2 and located about 65 million light years away from Earth, also appears to be devoid of gas and is relatively sparsely populated by stars.

It is about the same size as the Milky Way, but has roughly 250 times fewer stars: 400 million compared to the Milky Way’s 100 billion stars. It is classified as an ultra-diffuse galaxy, a kind first recognized in 2015.

Dark matter, which is invisible, is thought to comprise about a quarter of the universe’s combined mass and energy and about 80 percent of its total mass, but has not been directly observed. Scientists believe it exists based on gravitational effects it seems to exert on galaxies.

The universe’s ordinary matter includes things like gas, stars, black holes and planets, not to mention shoes, umbrellas, platypuses and whatever else you might see on Earth.

“Dark matter is not something that galaxies can sort of swap in or out of, like it’s kind of an optional thing that galaxies sometimes have and sometimes don’t,” van Dokkum said.

“We really thought that this is the essence of what a galaxy is, that galaxies are built from, initially, a bunch of dark matter and that all the stars and all the planets and everything else is just a little frost on top,” van Dokkum added.

The scientists spotted NGC1052-DF2 using the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, a telescope in New Mexico. They do not know how it formed, but have some hypotheses, including the possibility that a cataclysm within NGC1052-DF2 swept away all its gas and dark matter or that a massive nearby galaxy played havoc with it.

Van Dokkum said NGC1052-DF2 is so sparse that “it is literally a see-through galaxy.”

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Scientists test warning system as asteroid flies by

Scientists test warning system as asteroid flies by

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – An asteroid the size of a school bus flew remarkably near Earth on Thursday, providing scientists with an opportunity to test the warning systems that would kick in if a space collision was coming.

Asteroid 2012 TC4 came close — passing Earth at a distance of only around 44,000 km (27,000 miles), which is nothing in Universe terms.

There was no actual risk of a hit, although the asteroid did come well inside the orbit of the Moon and that of some human-made satellites.

“Basically, we pretended that this is a ‘critical’ object with a high risk of impacting Earth … and exercised our communication channels and used telescopes and radar systems for observations,” Detlef Koschny of European Space Agency said in a blog post on the agency’s website.

The results were mixed.

Koschny said one big radar system in Puerto Rico did not work due to damage from Hurricane Maria but that another U.S. based radar system was used instead.

“This is exactly why we do this exercise – to not be surprised by these things,” he said.

Radar images showed the asteroid was about 10 to 12 meters (yards) wide, roughly the size of an asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, leaving more than 1,000 people injured by flying glass and debris.

Koschny said the ESA now needed to update its predictions for how close 2012 TC4 will come to Earth on its next flyby, which has so far been forecast for 2079.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Super Moon To grace Earth’s Skies in coming days

The super moon appears in the sky in Cairo, Egypt, in this file photo taken October 17, 2016.

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – The largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades will be on display in the coming days, promising Earth-bound sky-watchers a celestial “supermoon” spectacle.

The full moon will come nearer to Earth than at any time since 1948, astronomers said. At closest approach, which occurs at 6:23 a.m. EST on Monday, the moon will pass within 216,486 miles (348,400 km) of Earth’s surface, about 22,000 miles (35,400 km) closer than average, they added.

The moon’s distance from Earth varies because it is in an egg-shaped, not circular, orbit around the planet.

If skies are clear, the upcoming full moon will appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than usual, making it what is called a supermoon, according to NASA. A supermoon occurs when the timing of a full moon overlaps with the point in the moon’s 28-day orbit that is closest to Earth. About every 14th full moon is a supermoon, said University of Wisconsin astronomer Jim Lattis.

People watch as a supermoon rises over Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, October 16, 2016.

People watch as a supermoon rises over Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, October 16, 2016. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

The next time a full moon comes as close to Earth will be in 2034.

“If you could stack up full moons next to each other, there is clearly a difference,” Lattis said, but to a casual observer it is going to look very similar to a regular full moon.

Weather permitting, sky-watchers in North America and locations east of the International Dateline will have a better view on Sunday night since the moon will set less than three hours after closest approach on Monday.

“The difference in distance from one night to the next will be very subtle, so if it’s cloudy on Sunday, go out on Monday. Any time after sunset should be fine,” Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Will Dunham)

Scientists find Earth-like planet circling sun’s nearest neighbor

The planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System, is seen in an undated artist's impression released by the European Southern Observatory

By Irene Klotz

(Reuters) – Scientists have discovered a planet that appears to be similar to Earth circling the star closest to the sun, potentially a major step in the quest to find out if life exists elsewhere in the universe, research published on Wednesday showed.

The relative proximity of the planet, known as Proxima b, gives scientists a better chance to eventually capture an image of it, to help them establish whether it has an atmosphere and water, which is believed to be necessary for life.

Future studies may reveal if any atmosphere contains tell-tale chemicals of biological life, such as methane, according to a paper published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

“The key question of our initiative was whether there were potentially life-bearing planets orbiting these stars. We know now there is at least one planet with some characteristics similar to the Earth,” said Pete Worden, a former top NASA manager, who was speaking at a European Southern Observatory webcast news conference to announce the find.

The planet, located about 4.2 light-years from Earth, or 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km), is the closest of some 3,500 planets that have been discovered beyond the solar system since 1995, according to the paper.

“This planetary system is much closer than any other that we know so detailed investigation is easier,” astronomer Ansgar Reiners, with the University of Gottingen in Germany, told reporters on a conference call.

Astronomers got their first hint of a planet circling the sun’s small dim neighbor star in 2013. But they needed additional observations, using more precise instruments, to make a definitive call.

An international team of 31 scientists found the planet after careful and repeated measurements of slight shifts in the color of the light coming from its host star, Proxima Centauri, which is a small, dim star in the Alpha Centauri system.

The shifts, which astronomers call “wobbles,” are caused by the gravitational tugging of a planet roughly 1.3 times the size of Earth on the parent star. Based on the timing of wobbles, scientists determined that the planet circles its host star in just 11 days, compared to Earth’s 365-day orbit around the sun.

That puts the planet far closer to its parent star than Earth orbits the sun. However, Proxima Centauri is so much smaller and dimmer than the sun that its planet’s orbit is suitably positioned for liquid water despite being just 4.4 million miles away.

EARTH-LIKE PLANET

“Chances are good that it’s a viable, Earth-like planet today,” said astronomer Pedro Amado, with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Granada, Spain.

But scientists are unsure if red dwarf stars like Proxima Centauri are good hosts for life. Planets orbiting close enough to keep water liquid would be blasted with 100 times more high-energy radiation than Earth receives from the sun, though what impact that would have on life is a matter of scientific debate.

“We don’t think it’s a show-stopper,” Amado said.

Magnetic fields and an atmosphere offer a planet some protection. It is unknown if Proxima b has either.

Before the discovery of Proxima b, the nearest Earth-like planet to the sun was circling a star known as Wolf 1061, located about 14 light-years away.

Proxima b may not be flying solo. “We have some suspicions that there is another signal around the star,” Reiners said.

More research is needed to determine if there are multiple planets circling Proxima Centauri.

The discovery announced on Wednesday is expected to bolster a $100 million project unveiled in April and backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to develop a miniature laser-powered spacecraft that can make the trip to the Alpha Centauri system in about 20 years.

“We hope to build a whole system that will send nanocraft to Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri within a generation,” said Worden, the executive director of Breakthrough Starshot, an initiative that aims to deploy thousands of tiny spacecraft to travel to our nearest neighboring star system and send back pictures.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Sydney, Australia; Additional reporting by Rosalba O’Brien in Santiago; Editing by Bill Rigby and Alistair Bell)

Great Red Spot Storm heating Jupiter’s atmosphere

Jupiter's most distinctive feature - a giant red spot, is seen in this April 21, 2014, REUTERS/NASA, ESA,

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – Scientists have long wondered why Jupiter’s upper atmosphere has temperatures similar to those of Earth, even though the biggest planet in the solar system is five times farther away from the sun.

The answer may be The Great Red Spot, an enormous storm big enough to swallow three Earths that has been raging on Jupiter for at least three centuries, a study showed on Wednesday.

Using an infrared telescope at Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Observatory, scientists discovered that the upper atmosphere above the Great Red Spot – the largest storm in the solar system – is hundreds of degrees hotter than anywhere else on the planet.

It could be a coincidence or a major clue, said Boston University physicist James O’Donoghue, lead scientist of the study published in the journal Nature.

The storm spans 13,670 miles by 7,456 miles (22,000 km by 12,000 km) and is located in Jupiter’s lower atmosphere. The top of its clouds reach altitudes of about 31 miles (50 km).

By a process of elimination, the newly found hot spot must be heated from below, the study concluded.

The finding provides a strong link between Jupiter’s upper and lower atmosphere, though the exact process by which heat is transferred remains unknown. The most-likely energy source is acoustic waves that provide heat from below, the study said.

Scientists also are unsure why the storm is brick red, nor why it has changed color over time. In a 1900 report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, scientists described the oval storm as salmon pink. Recent images from the Hubble Space Telescope show it has become orange tinged and more circular.

Like a hurricane on Earth, the Spot’s center is relatively calm, but farther out winds reach 270 mph to 425 mph (430 kph to 680 kph). Because there is no land on Jupiter, which is made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, the storm can never make landfall and dissipate.

“The Great Red Spot is like a wheel that’s wedged between two conveyor belts running in opposite directions,” said planetary scientist Glenn Orton, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

“One is adding momentum to it at the top, and another is adding momentum at the bottom. Together, they feed the vortex and essentially keep it alive.”

But the storm may not be alive much longer. It has been shrinking for the last 100 years, Orton said.

More information is expected from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which arrived at Jupiter on July 4.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Alan Crosby)

Major Solar Storm Could Give Only 12 Hours’ Warning

A new report from British officials gives an ominous warning:  a solar storm that could damage the National Grid could arrive with no more than 12 hour’s warning.

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) says the possibility of “severe space weather” could leave nations in the dark and disrupt communications and air traffic.

“Solar activity can produce x-rays, high-energy particles and coronal mass ejections of plasma. Where such activity is directed towards Earth there is the potential to cause wide-ranging impacts. These include power loss, aviation disruption, communication loss, and disturbance to (or loss of) satellite systems,” the study reads.

The study says the storm could be worse than the Carrington event of 1859 that is considered the strongest geomagnetic storm to strike the Earth.   Electric equipment worldwide was damaged by the storm and in some places, telegraph lines caught fire from the storm.

“Most coronal mass ejections are not emitted in the direction of Earth,” the report says. “Those that are typically take one to three days to reach us, and we can predict the arrival time to within about six hours. Predictions are currently less accurate due to degradation in the satellite capability available to forecasters.

“Generally speaking, the faster the ejection, the greater the potential impacts. The Carrington event, for example, travelled to Earth in as little as 18 hours. It is therefore likely that our reasonable worst case scenario would only allow us 12 hours from observation to impact.”

Museum To Present “Overwhelming Evidence For Creation”

A new museum proposed for Boise, Idaho is being described as a place to present “overwhelming evidence’ for God’s creation of Earth and life.

The Northwest Science Museum is proposing a large national history museum that would have exhibits detailing the Earth’s history from a Biblical perspective.  The museum’s proposed building would appear similar to Noah’s ark with a dinosaur on the roof.

“We want to show a lot of science that’s being censored and not presented to the public,” Doug Bennett, the museum’s executive director, told the Idaho Statesman.

Bennett told the Christian News Network that the goal is to show how science actually backs up the creation story in Genesis.

“They need to know that there is true science that backs up creation,” Bennett asserted. “The church as a whole has shied away from this issue. Our goal is to help pastors and lay teachers understand the overwhelming evidence for creation from a scientific point of view, and that we don’t need to be afraid to talk about origins.”

“All Christian doctrine is based in Genesis and most within the first 11 chapters of Genesis. So it’s extremely important to understand origins,” Bennett added.  “Understanding origins leads one to have to make a decision about God as a creator, and if God created you, then he makes the rules and you are accountable to him; and if you are accountable, then you have to either accept Jesus as Lord and savior or reject him. That’s one of the goals of the Northwest Science Museum: to bring people to the point where they have to make a decision about God.”

The structure as proposed would cost $150 million and provides 350,000 square feet for the museum and offices.