Soviet spacecraft Cosmos 482 crashes without incident into Indian Ocean
The 50-year-old lander probe returned to Earth early Saturday, May 10, entering the atmosphere at about 2:24 a.m. ET (9:24 a.m. Moscow time) over the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia, and falling into the Indian Ocean, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
The European Space Agency is monitoring Cosmos 482's uncontrolled descent. The spacecraft was last spotted on radar over Germany between 12:30 a.m. ET and 2:04 a.m. ET.
"We have not received so far any reports on visual direct observations of the final re-entry, or on any impacts on ground," the ESA said.
Skywatching: May 2025 full moon is a flower moon and micromoon. Here's when to see it.
The EU Space Surveillance and Tracking agency said, "Object Cosmos-482 Descent Craft decayed within the last estimated re-entry window."
Scientists had not been concerned about Cosmos 482's return to Earth causing a danger risk to humans because of the craft's small size – about 3 feet in diameter and around 1,190 pounds, Space.com reported.
The space news site reported that Virtual Telescope Project astronomer Gianluca Masi posted an image of the spacecraft as it passed over Rome early May 10. The probe was "visible as a trail entering the field of view from the top and pointing to the bottom right corner," Masi wrote on his website.
Cosmos 482, also known as Kosmos 482, was one of a pair of identical Venus atmospheric lander probes launched by the Soviet Union in 1972. The other spacecraft, Venera 8, arrived at Venus and made scientific measurements of the planet's soil before ceasing operation.
According to NASA, Cosmos 482 suffered an apparent launch malfunction and failed to achieve the velocity needed to reach Venus' atmosphere. Cosmos 482 separated into four pieces, two of which remained in Earth's low orbit and decayed within 48 hours, and the other two pieces went into a higher orbit.
Contributing: Greta Cross, Eric Lagatta and Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
What if we've been thinking about dark matter all wrong, scientist wonders
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Dark matter could be made from tiny black holes formed when so-called "dark baryons" collapse, scientists suggest. Or, alternatively, dark matter could be a type of particle created by a form of Hawking radiation on the cosmic horizon. Here's what all that means. Dark matter is the substance that appears to make up about 27% of our universe, compared to the 5% of our universe composed of "normal" matter. Scientists certainly know dark matter exists due to some peculiar effects observed in the cosmos that normal matter can't account for. However, nobody knows what dark matter is made of. For decades, the leading candidate has been WIMPs, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. But as the search for WIMPs begins to falter with experiments continuing to turn up empty handed, new theories of dark matter are starting to surface. Among them are two new models developed by Stefano Profumo, who is a professor of theoretical physics at the University of California, San Diego — and his ideas take a very different view of the dark-matter problem. "My attitude is that we've tried very hard to think about dark matter as a particle, but it hasn't worked out so far," Profumo told "I think it's natural to take a break and look at the whole thing from a distance, and wonder whether we are fundamentally thinking about this in the wrong way." In one paper, Profumo considers whether the "dark sector" could be what gives birth to dark matter. By dark sector, he isn't referring to how our universe is governed by dark matter and dark energy. Instead, he's referring to a kind of "mirror world" of particles that interact via forces that our world's kind of matter does not experience. Profumo says the concept is not as strange as it may sound. For example, he highlights how the quarks inside protons and neutrons are bound together by the strong nuclear force. "But then take electrons, which are absolutely blind to the strong force. They don't feel it at all. For them the strong force is a dark sector," said Profumo. "It's common in the Standard Model." Dark baryons would be the equivalent of protons or neutrons in this dark sector, except that they could contain more than three quarks, Profumo says, and therefore be more massive. The next step in the researcher's theory was inspired by his teenage son asking whether a sufficiently massive particle could collapse under its own gravity to form a mini black hole. The dark baryons in the dark sector, if it so exists, could be massive enough to do just that — and these tiny black holes could then be rife in the universe and collectively form what we call dark matter. "I've worked with people who have thought very deeply about a dark-sector equivalent to the strong force, but they've never really pushed all the way to the black hole frontier," said Profumo. "But I really think it is a possibility that we need to take into consideration." Black holes, large or small, are surrounded by an invisible boundary called the event horizon, inside which gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. However, the event horizon is 'hot' – particles created at the boundary by quantum effects can radiate away as what we call Hawking radiation (named for famous physicist Stephen Hawking, who is credited with the idea). Over time, Hawking radiation removes mass and energy from a black hole, causing it to gradually evaporate. For supermassive black holes, this would take an unimaginably long time — 10^100 years at least. However, black holes on the smallest scales — what we call the Planck scale —- can evaporate in an amount of time less than the age of the universe. However, if we make certain assumptions about the nature of these black holes formed by the collapse of dark baryons, then their Hawking radiation could become suppressed, preventing them from evaporating and enabling them to act as dark matter. Meanwhile, Profumo's other idea plays on the concept of Hawking radiation as well, but in a completely novel way. We live in a universe that is expanding at an accelerating rate, taking regions of the cosmos so far away that their light will never reach us. This leads to a boundary, or a cosmic horizon, which defines the edge of the visible universe. There could be much more of the universe beyond this horizon, but we will never see it. Now, let's go back in time to the moment of the Big Bang. The universe began with a burst of expansionist energy known as inflation. This inflationary period lasted a tiny fraction of a second. However, some models also posit that there was a second brief burst of expansionary energy that followed inflation. "It is basically a period of mini-inflation," said Profumo. "It could be associated with inflation and how it ends, or it could be driven by a similar set-up to inflation." This second expansionary period created cosmic horizons like the cosmic horizon that borders the visible universe today. However, the visible universe today is 93 billion light-years across, with Earth at its center (the concept of a "visible" universe is very observer dependent — observers in different parts of the cosmos will see a different volume of observable universe centered around themselves). The vast size of the visible universe means the temperature at the cosmic horizon is very low because space itself has become so spread out. However, during the second burst of inflation, the universe was still incredibly compact and the temperature at the horizon was extremely hot. Profumo realized these early cosmic horizons could act like event horizons; indeed, the concept is a bit like a black hole but turned inside-out because everything beyond the cosmic horizon is forever disconnected from us, just like everything inside a black hole's event horizon is separated from us. And just as Hawking radiation is emitted from a black hole's event horizon, Profumo suggests the cosmic horizon could also experience Hawking radiation in the same manner, and that the energy of this radiation could transform into some kind of dark matter particle. "Maybe [dark matter] is as simple as that," said Profumo. "Early on, the universe behaved like a black hole, and there was stuff sprinkled into the universe because the universe was evaporating in the same way that a black hole evaporates." This might seem somewhat arbitrary, because the location of the cosmic horizon depends upon the location of the observer. However, because the universe is homogenous (the same at every point on large scales) and isotropic (the same in all directions) — two truisms that we call the Cosmological Principle —- then any two observers should see the exact same amount of dark matter, wherever they are. Profumo isn't necessarily saying dark matter has to be one of these two possibilities; indeed, the fact that he has developed two theories implies that he's reluctant to nail his colors to any particular mast. "The aim of the game is to understand the breadth and scope of what dark matter could be, and to cast the net as wide as possible," said Profumo. RELATED STORIES — What is dark matter? — 'Dark matter is more valuable than gold': Wobbly galaxies help shine a light on the universe's strangest stuff — Captured dark matter may transform some 'failed stars' into 'dark dwarfs' All we know for sure about dark matter is that it interacts via gravity, and yet despite its mystery it is utterly dominant in how matter in the universe assembles itself into galaxies. Almost a century since Fritz Zwicky first suggested the existence of dark matter, and about half a century since Vera Rubin confirmed the need for dark matter in our universe, we still don't know anything more about it. Experiments can narrow down dark matter's properties, so the more ideas we have on the table, the more likely it is that we will be able to match one of them up to the observed properties of dark matter. Profumo's dark sector–black hole hypothesis was published on May 9 in Physical Review D, and his cosmic horizon model was published in the same journal on July 8. Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
What would Mars look like in daylight? 'Enhanced' photo from Perseverance offers a look
With its reddish-hued surface and surroundings, Mars has more than earned its colorful nickname. But how would the Red Planet appear under clear-blue Earth skies? Thanks to a NASA rover wandering the Martian iron oxide-infused surface, we now have a rough idea. Perseverance, one of two car-sized robotic rovers managed from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, has spent years exploring the Mars surface for signs that the planet was once habitable. Scientists believe the geology of Mars may hold valuable clues about past ancient life, and so the robotic vehicles, controlled remotely from Earth, have slowly navigated the rocky terrain to scoop up and collect intriguing samples. Along the way, Perseverance has made some extraordinary finds and captured some stunning vistas. The latest came earlier in May, when the rover captured what NASA described as "one of the sharpest panoramas of its mission so far." NASA released the mosaic in August, which, with color-enhancing technology, unveils the Martian landscape under a sky that is "deceptively" blue. Perseverance: Object resembling a helmet spotted on Mars surface by rover What is Perseverance? What to know about NASA rover In July 2020, the Perseverance rover underwent a 200-day, 300-million-mile journey to reach Mars. After landing in February 2021 in the Jezero Crater, the robot, controlled remotely from Earth, spent nearly four years searching for and collecting more than two dozen rock samples – many of which are stored at the first-ever depot on another planet for future retrieval. The bottom of the Jezero Crater – believed to have formed 3.9 billion years ago from a massive impact – is considered to be among the most promising areas on Mars to search for evidence of ancient life. Perseverance's adventures have revealed some insights about the enigmatic Martian geology. Then in 2024, after years in the trenches of Jezero, Perseverance in December finally summitted the steep Martian crater to begin the next leg of its journey exploring the crater's rim. The rocks Perseverance has spent years collecting are of high interest to NASA and the European Space Agency, which hopes to one day soon retrieve the samples and bring them back to Earth before humans themselves venture to the Red Planet. NASA's Curiosity rover has also been exploring the Martian surface since 2012 in the Gale Crater. 'Enhanced-color' photo shows Mars under Earth-like skies The imaging team of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took advantage of clear skies May 26 on the Red Planet to capture the recent panoramic image from the rover's Mastcam-Z camera. The final product, a 360-degree panorama of an area nicknamed "Falbreen," was stitched together from 96 separate images. One version shows Mars in all its natural rust-colored glory. The other mosaic is what NASA refers to as an "enhanced-color" version that had its color bands processed to "improve visual contrast and accentuate color differences," NASA said in a press release. The result? A Martian sky that more accurately resembles Earth's. "In this particular mosaic, we have enhanced the color contrast, which accentuates the differences in the terrain and sky," Jim Bell, Mastcam-Z's principal investigator at Arizona State University in Tempe, said in a statement. Several interesting features are visible in the image, including a rock that appears to lie on top of a sand ripple and hills as distant as 40 miles away. Tracks from the rover's journey to the location can also be seen toward the mosaic's right edge about 300 feet away. Martian 'helmet' and other recent rover discoveries The panoramic photo is just one of several recent sights and discoveries made possible by Perseverance in 2025. Earlier in August, NASA published a photo of a rock on the surface of Mars with a pointed peak and a flared "brim" resembling a centuries-old helmet. The image, taken Aug. 5 by the rover's Left Mastcam-Z camera, was chosen as the photo of the week for week 234 of its mission on Mars. Perseverance also made two incredible finds earlier in the year, the most recent of which occurred in March when the rover came across an oddly textured rock comprised of hundreds of millimeter-sized spheres. In January, Perseverance also witnessed a relatively uncommon sight of two dust devils swirling and spinning near one another. NASA released the video and imagery of the phenomenon in April. Contributing: James Powel, USA TODAY Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
Flesh-eating bacteria case in Cape Cod prompts public health alert: What to know
A warning from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health may have some beachgoers exercising a little more caution as they try to escape the August heat. Residents and visitors at Buzzards Bay, a community on the south end of Cape Cod, are on alert after officials identified a person with a rare, flesh-eating bacterial infection in the area. Officials said the bacteria, known as Vibrio, could pose a risk to others in nearby coastal waters. The Vibrio species, which includes Vibrio vulnificus, can cause severe and life-threatening infections. Some can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, which kills off flesh around an open wound. Many people with a Vibrio vulnificus infection can get seriously ill and need intensive care or limb amputation. About 1 in 5 people with this infection die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill. But it's not the first time this bug has made its way to the Massachusetts bay: In a news release, the department of health said there have been seven cases of the illness over the last seven years among residents of the commonwealth, including four who were exposed in Massachusetts. The Vibrio bacteria and the infection it causes are usually more common in warmer waters, including in the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Texas and Florida, Dr. Larry Madoff told USA TODAY. But it's increasingly being seen northeastern states along the Atlantic coast, he added, such as Massachusetts and New York. "It's associated with warmer waters, and our waters are getting warmer," said Madoff, adding that the area where it's been found, Buzzards Bay, is an area with estuaries, small islands and warmer water on the western area of Cape Cod. The Vibrio bacteria also thrive in salty and brackish waters along the Atlantic coast, said Madoff, medical director for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences. Above-average water temperatures are creating the conditions that allow the bacteria to grow, especially in the spring, summer and early autumn. Still, he said, there's no need for most people to worry, as long as they take certain precautions. "I would not discourage people from going to the beach," he said. "The beach is good and people need to cool off." What precautions should people take against flesh-eating bacteria? There are several species of Vibrio bacteria that can cause people to fall seriously ill. So how can people protect themselves? The bacteria is opportunistic, and it can enter the body through open wounds, health officials said. Foods like contaminated shellfish can also carry the bacteria. People with health conditions including liver disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV or who are on immunosuppressants are at highest risk of severe illness from the bacteria following exposure. Some precautions include: What are some symptoms and signs of flesh-eating bacterial illness? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, common signs of a Vibrio infection include diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever, chills, dangerously low blood pressure and blistering lesions. Wounds that become infected may be red, swollen or discolored and may have a discharge.
