Jay TateA new study has identified the first known permanent population of asteroids originating from outside our solar system. The objects are believed to have been captured from other stars billions of years ago, and have been orbiting our Sun in disguise ever since. The work is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Jay TateImpact cratering both produces new regolith and causes seismic events that can degrade and erase small craters on the surface of asteroids, a paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist James Richardson says.
The impact of small bodies hitting an asteroid pulverizes its surface, making new regolith, while seismic shaking produced by the impact causes older regolith to move downhill and fill already existing craters,
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Jay TateThe first known comet to visit us from another star system has an unusual make-up, according to new research.
The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov was detected in our Solar System last year.
This mysterious visitor from the depths of space has provided astronomers with an unprecedented opportunity to study how different it is from comets that have been formed around the Sun.
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Jay TateComet breakups are a timely topic right now. The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov just broke into at least two pieces. And though that comet is speeding out of the Solar System, never to be seen again, most of them don’t leave the Solar System. Most of them orbit the Sun,
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Jay TateAfter the successful completion of its “Checkpoint” rehearsal, NASA’s first asteroid-sampling spacecraft is one step closer to touching down on asteroid Bennu. Yesterday, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft performed the first practice run of its sample collection sequence, reaching an approximate altitude of 246 feet (75 meters) over site Nightingale before executing a back-away burn from the asteroid.
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Jay TateIn August, a robotic spacecraft will make NASA’s first-ever attempt to descend to the surface of an asteroid, collect a sample, and ultimately bring it safely back to Earth. In order to achieve this challenging feat, the OSIRIS-REx mission team devised new techniques to operate in asteroid Bennu’s microgravity environment –
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Jay TateThe simulation tests are currently in full swing, as the astrophysicist community is looking forward to the so-called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission – the first kinetic impact deflection probe to be carried out on a near-Earth asteroid.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California have moved further in their efforts to simulate how they might deflect celestial bodies potentially heading to and potentially hitting the Earth (although the latter is highly improbable),
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Jay TateSpaceX, the largest commercial satellite constellation operator in the world, has ambitious plans of installing 12,000 satellites in low-orbit over a span of several years, as part of its Starlink project to provide low-cost broadband internet service.
A well-known astronomer and satellite tracker has voiced concerns that efforts to scan the skies for potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroids might be in jeopardy due to ambitious plans by SpaceX to deploy over 12,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit over the next several years.
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Jay TateUsing data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), researchers have found more than 300 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), minor planets located in the far reaches of the solar system, including more than 100 new discoveries. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, the study also describes a new approach for finding similar types of objects and could aid future searches for the hypothetical Planet Nine and other undiscovered planets.
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Jay TateBefore the Taqba Dam impounded the Euphrates River in northern Syria in the 1970s, an archaeological site named Abu Hureyra bore witness to the moment ancient nomadic people first settled down and started cultivating crops. A large mound marks the settlement, which now lies under Lake Assad.
But before the lake formed,
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