Selected NASA Discovery Missions Include Three With PSI Ties

Planetary Science Institute researchers are working on three of five Discovery missions selected for further consideration by NASA. One or two of the missions will be selected for flight opportunities as early as 2020.

Each of the five teams selected will receive $3 million to conduct concept design studies and analyses.

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NASA Has Cut Off the Group That Wants to Save Us From Killer Asteroids

A nonprofit organization that many have looked at as our best chance to detect potentially Earth-destroying asteroids has just been dropped by NASA, apparently because it missed a series of deadlines the agency set up for it.

The B612 Foundation’s mission is to launch Sentinel,

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Target of Japanese space mission named for dragon’s palace

The Japanese space agency has selected Ryugu as the name of an asteroid pursued by the country’s Hayabusa 2 space probe, naming the object after a dragon’s palace in an ancient Japanese fairy tale, officials said Monday.

A selection committee picked the name Ryugu from 7,336 entries proposed by the public.

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Asteroids found to be the moon’s main ‘water supply’

Water reserves found on the moon are the result of asteroids acting as “delivery vehicles” and not of falling comets as was previously thought. Using computer simulation, scientists from MIPT and the RAS Geosphere Dynamics Institute have discovered that a large asteroid can deliver more water to the lunar surface than the cumulative fall of comets over a billion year period.

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Asteroid Deflection: Science Fiction or Reality?

An astrophysics research group experimentally confirms its theories about the manipulation of asteroids and photon propulsion

It’s the ultimate science fiction: The immense power of the sun is harnessed and converted into a massive phased array of laser beams that have the potential to intercept and deflect asteroids before they smash into Earth.

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AIDA DOUBLE MISSION TO DIVERT DIDYMOS ASTEROID’S DIDYMOON

An ambitious joint US-European mission, called AIDA, is being planned to divert the orbit of a binary asteroid’s small moon, as well as to give us new insights into the structure of asteroids. A pair of spacecraft, the ESA-led Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) and NASA-led Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART),

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1.2 billion-year-old ‘meteorite mineral’ found in Scotland

The earliest known occurrence of one of Earth’s rarest minerals has been found in Scotland, scientists have said.

The 1.2 billion-year-old reidite was found in rock samples taken from the Stac Fada Member, a large geological area in the north west Highlands.

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Globally unique double crater identified in Sweden

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have found traces of two enormous meteorite impacts in the Swedish county of Jamtland, a twin strike that occurred around 460 million years ago.

The researchers have discovered two craters in Jamtland.

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Asteroids boiled young Earth’s oceans

It didn’t take long for early life on Earth to get into hot water. Very hot water.

Evidence from ancient rocks suggests that asteroids slammed into our planet around 3.3 billion years ago. The impacts would have released huge amounts of energy.

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Comet Hitchhiker Would Take Tour of Small Bodies

Catching a ride from one solar system body to another isn’t easy. You have to figure out how to land your spacecraft safely and then get it on its way to the next destination. The landing part is especially tricky for asteroids and comets,

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