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Meteor that hit a home in Georgia is older than Earth, says scientist
People in several Southern states reported seeing the mysterious fireball in broad daylight on June 26 as it hurtled toward the ground faster than the speed of sound.
University of Georgia planetary geologist Scott Harris said in a press release on Friday that he examined 23 grams (0.8 ounces) of meteorite fragments recovered from a piece the size of a cherry tomato that struck a man's roof like a bullet and left a dent in the floor of the home outside Atlanta.
Examining the fragments under microscopes, Harris concluded the meteorite formed 4.56 billion years ago. That is roughly 20 million years older than the Earth.
"It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago, Harris said.
Harris said University of Georgia scientists and colleagues at Arizona State University plan to submit their findings with Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. They propose naming the space rock the McDonough Meteorite, reflected the name of the Georgia city where it plunged to Earth.
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United News of India
an hour ago
- United News of India
NISAR's 12- metre antenna reflector successfully unfurled in space
Chennai, August 16 (UNI) Seventeen days after the launch of world's costliest Earth observation satellite NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar ( NISAR), its 12- metre antenna reflector was successfully unfurled in orbit on August 15 when India was celebrating its Independence Day, said Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) part of USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said. On August 15, small explosive bolts that held the reflector assembly in place were fired, enabling the antenna to begin a process called the 'bloom', its unfurling by the release of tension stored in its flexible frame while stowed like an umbrella. Subsequent activation of motors and cables then pulled the antenna into its final, locked position, JPL said. The drum shaped antenna reflector spanning 39 feet or 12 metres is an essential piece of science hardware in NISAR was unfurled in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Weighing about 142 pounds (64 kilograms), the reflector features a cylindrical frame made of 123 composite struts and a gold-plated wire mesh. On August 9, the satellite's boom, which had been tucked close to its main body, started unfolding one joint at a time until it was fully extended about four days later. The reflector assembly is mounted at the end of the boom. The reflector had been stowed, umbrella-like, until the 30-foot (9-meter) boom that supports it could be deployed and locked in place, JPL said on August 15. Launched by ISRO on July 30 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India's southeastern coast, NISAR will track the motion of ice sheets and glaciers, the deformation of land due to earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides, and changes in forest and wetland ecosystems down to fractions of an inch. It also will aid decision-makers in fields as diverse as disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, and agriculture. 'The successful deployment of NISAR's reflector marks a significant milestone in the capabilities of the satellite,' said Karen St. Germain, Director, Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 'From innovative technology to research and modeling to delivering science to help inform decisions, the data NISAR is poised to gather will have a major impact on how global communities and stakeholders improve infrastructure, prepare for and recover from natural disasters, and maintain food security,' Karen added. The mission carries the most sophisticated radar systems ever launched as part of a NASA mission. In a first, the satellite combines two synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems: an L-band system that can see through clouds and forest canopy, and an S-band system that can see through clouds as well but is more sensitive to light vegetation and moisture in snow. The reflector plays a key role for both systems, which is why the successful deployment of the hardware is such a significant milestone, JPL said. 'This is the largest antenna reflector ever deployed for a NASA mission, and we were of course eager to see the deployment go well. It's a critical part of the NISAR Earth science mission and has taken years to design, develop, and test to be ready for this big day,' said Phil Barela, NISAR Project Manager at JPL in Southern California, which managed the US portion of the mission and provided one of the two radar systems aboard NISAR. 'Now that we've launched, we are focusing on fine-tuning it to begin delivering transformative science by late fall of this year,' Barela added. To image Earth's surface down to pixels about 30 feet (10 meters) across, the reflector was designed with a diameter about as wide as a school bus is long. Using SAR processing, NISAR's reflector simulates a traditional radar antenna that for the mission's L-band instrument would have to be 12 miles (19 kilometers) long to achieve the same resolution. 'Synthetic aperture radar, in principle, works like the lens of a camera, which focuses light to make a sharp image. The size of the lens, called the aperture, determines the sharpness of the image,' said Paul Rosen, NISAR's Project Scientist at JPL. 'Without SAR, spaceborne radars could generate data, but the resolution would be too rough to be useful. With SAR, NISAR will be able to generate high-resolution imagery. Using special interferometric techniques that compare images over time, NISAR enables researchers and data users to create 3D movies of changes happening on Earth's surface,' Rosen said. The NISAR satellite is the culmination of decades of space-based radar development at JPL. Starting in the in the 1970s, JPL managed the first Earth-observing SAR satellite, Seasat, which launched in 1978, as well as Magellan, which used SAR to map the cloud-shrouded surface of Venus in the 1990s. The NISAR mission is a partnership between NASA and ISRO spanning years of technical and programmatic collaboration. The successful launch and deployment of NISAR builds upon a strong heritage of cooperation between the US and India in space. Indian rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-F16 (GSLV-F6) on July 30 orbited the NISAR. The data produced by NISAR's two radar systems, one provided by NASA and one by ISRO, will be a testament to what can be achieved when countries unite around a shared vision of innovation and discovery. The ISRO Space Applications Centre provided the mission's S-band SAR. The U R Rao Satellite Centre provided the spacecraft bus. Launch services were through Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre. After launch, key operations, including boom and radar antenna reflector deployment, are being executed and monitored by the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network's global system of ground stations. Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, JPL leads the US component of the project. In addition to the L-band SAR, reflector, and boom, JPL also provided the high-rate communication subsystem for science data, a solid-state data recorder, and payload data subsystem. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Near Space Network, which receives NISAR's L-band data. The spacecraft is built around ISRO's I-3K Structure. It carries two major Payloads viz., L & S- Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The S-band Radar system, data handling & high- speed downlink system, the spacecraft and the launch system are developed by ISRO. The L-band Radar system, high speed downlink system, the Solid-State Recorder, GPS receiver, the 9m Boom hoisting the 12m reflector are delivered by NASA. Further, ISRO takes care of the satellite commanding and operations and NASA will provide the orbit maneuver plan and Radar operations plan. NISAR mission will be aided with ground station support of both ISRO and NASA for downloading of the acquired images, which after the necessary processing will be disseminated to the user community. The data acquired through S-band and L-band SAR from a single platform will help the scientists to understand the changes happening to Planet Earth. Built at a cost of about $1.5 billion, the 2,400 kg NISAR's mission life will be five years. UNI VJ AAB
India Today
3 hours ago
- India Today
Nisar's giant reflector fully deployed, commissioning underway in space
The Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) mission has successfully deployed its massive radar reflector in orbit, marking the transition from launch to full mission confirmed that the eight-meter-wide deployable antenna, one of the largest of its kind ever sent to space, is now fully extended and locked in place, paving the way for crucial commissioning deployment of the gigantic reflector, which unfurled like a precision-made umbrella, is critical to Nisar's mission of capturing high-resolution radar imagery of The reflector works in tandem with sophisticated radar instruments operating in both L-band (built by Nasa) and S-band (contributed by Isro), enabling the spacecraft to track subtle changes in land surfaces, ice sheets, forests, and coastlines with unprecedented accuracy.'The reflector is the beating heart of this mission,' mission officials said in a statement. 'Its full and safe deployment ensures that Nisar can begin the next phase of testing before science operations commence.' Jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and Nasa, Nisar was launched earlier this year onboard India's GSLV Mk-II rocket from Sriharikota. It is the first major collaborative Earth science satellite between the two nations, symbolizing a landmark in international cooperation for climate and disaster the coming weeks, engineers on the ground will carry out system checks, calibration runs, and instrument tuning to commission the spacecraft for routine science operations. Once fully operational, Nisar will systematically map the entire Earth every 12 days, offering a continuous stream of data critical for understanding phenomena like glacier melting, land subsidence, earthquake faults, and forest believe Nisar's radar vision will be especially valuable for monitoring climate-driven changes with global impact, from rising sea levels to agricultural India, the satellite also holds special promise in disaster management—providing rapid, all-weather imaging that can help track floods and landslides in its mega reflector now open to the cosmos, Nisar is closer than ever to becoming the world's most advanced radar eye on Earth, ushering in a new era of planetary monitoring from space.- EndsMust Watch
NDTV
5 hours ago
- NDTV
NASA-ISRO's $1.3 Billion Satellite NISAR Deploys Its Antenna In Orbit
In a landmark moment for global Earth science and international space collaboration, the world's most expensive civilian Earth imaging satellite-the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)-has successfully deployed its massive radar antenna in orbit, marking a critical step toward delivering life-saving data to communities across the globe. If the mission progresses on track by the next Monsoon, India will have a great new watchtower in space that can help predict landslides, glacier lake outburst, and combined with weather data even help assess likely cloud bursts, all of these have been dogging the mountains of India in recent times. It is for this reason the NISAR satellite is called a life saving mission. The world has never seen a watch tower like this before and hence disaster managers are hoping all goes well for this hugely important mission. The 12m radar antenna reflector of #NISAR is now fully 'bloom' 🌸 Congratulations to @NASA JPL & @isro on this tremendous milestone! The systematic deployment—driven by multiple motor actuators & intricate cabling—faced many challenges. Some of the challenges involved were… — Dr. S Somanath (@SomanathSpeak) August 16, 2025 Launched on July 30, 2025, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India's south -eastern coast, NISAR is a joint mission between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The satellite lifted off aboard India's GSLV-F16 rocket, a powerful vehicle powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine-a technology once denied to India but now a symbol of its space prowess. Weighing over 2.8 tons and costing $1.3 billion, NISAR is the most expensive Earth observation satellite ever built. Its mission: to track minute changes in Earth's surface-down to fractions of an inch-caused by earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, glacier movements, and forest degradation. The data it collects will be vital for disaster preparedness, infrastructure monitoring, and climate resilience. "The successful deployment of NISAR's reflector marks a significant milestone in the capabilities of the satellite," said Karen St. Germain, director, Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "From innovative technology to research and modeling to delivering science to help inform decisions, the data NISAR is poised to gather will have a major impact on how global communities and stakeholders improve infrastructure, prepare for and recover from natural disasters, and maintain food security," Germain said. A Technological Marvel Seventeen days after launch, on August 15, the satellite's 12-meter radar antenna reflector unfurled in orbit. This drum-shaped reflector, made of gold-plated wire mesh and supported by a 9-meter boom, is the largest ever deployed for a NASA mission in low Earth orbit. It directs microwave pulses from NISAR's dual radar systems-L-band from NASA and S-band from ISRO-toward Earth and receives the return signals, enabling high-resolution imaging even through clouds, vegetation, and rain. The unfurling process, dubbed the "bloom," involved the release of tension stored in the reflector's flexible frame, followed by motorized activation that locked the antenna into its final position. This milestone sets the stage for science operations to begin by late October 2025. A Mission to Protect and Inform "This is a first-of-its-kind, jewel radar satellite that will change the way we study our home planet and better predict a natural disaster before it strikes," said Nicky Fox, NASA's Science Mission Chief. NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails added, "It really shows the world what our two nations can do. But more so than that, it really is a pathfinder for relationship building". The satellite will revisit nearly every part of Earth's land and ice surfaces every 12 days, enabling scientists to create 3D time-lapse maps of surface changes. These insights will help forecasters and first responders stay ahead of floods, landslides, and other disasters, and aid decision-makers in agriculture, urban planning, and environmental conservation. India's Role: From Launchpad to Leadership India's contribution to the mission is not just symbolic-it's strategic. The GSLV-F16 rocket, which carried NISAR into orbit, represents India's growing capability in launching heavy payloads. The rocket's cryogenic engine, once a point of geopolitical tension, now powered mission that benefit the entire planet. "Congratulations India!" tweeted India's Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh after the successful launch. "The mission will benefit the entire world community". ISRO's S-band radar complements NASA's L-band system, allowing NISAR to detect changes in vegetation, moisture, and snow with unprecedented sensitivity. Together, they form a powerful tool for monitoring Earth's dynamic systems. What's Next? With the antenna now deployed, the NISAR team will begin calibrating the radar systems and preparing for full-scale science operations. The satellite is expected to start delivering data by October 2025, with applications ranging from tracking glacier melt in Antarctica to monitoring groundwater depletion in India. As Wendy Edelstein, NISAR's Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted, "NISAR is a 50-50 partnership between NASA and ISRO. It represents the largest collaboration of its kind and a model for future missions". In a world increasingly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, NISAR stands as a beacon of hope-an orbiting sentinel powered by international cooperation, cutting-edge technology, and a shared commitment to saving lives.
