New Observations Show Asteroid Resembling a Spinning Hockey Puck
A team of astronomers used the Gemini South Observatory in Chile to observe asteroid 2024 YR4 in multiple wavelengths as it zoomed away from Earth in February, barely 1 1/2 months after its discovery. They created a 3D image of it based on their findings, The Associated Press reported.
The nearly 200 foot (60-meter) asteroid looks more like a flat disk — or not-quite-round hockey puck — than a potato. It also has a rapid rotation rate of about once every 20 minutes.
'This find was rather unexpected since most asteroids are thought to be shaped like potatoes or toy tops rather than flat disks,' the research team lead, Bryce Bolin from Eureka Scientific said in a statement.
Scientists said it most likely originated in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and is rich in silicates.
At one point earlier this year, NASA and the European Space Agency put the odds of the asteroid striking Earth in 2032 at 3%. It's now down to virtually zero for the next century, but there's a 3.8% chance it could strike the moon instead. Even if that happens, NASA assures the moon's orbit will not be altered.
The asteroid —- which swings our way every four years — will be too far away by next week for ground telescopes to see. The Webb Space Telescope will take another look later this month or next.
Scientists consider all this good practice for when a potentially killer asteroid heads our way.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
5 days ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US Astronaut Jim Lovell, Commander of Apollo 13, Dead at 97
US astronaut Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 Moon mission which nearly ended in disaster in 1970 after a mid-flight explosion, has died at the age of 97, NASA announced Friday. The former Navy pilot, who was portrayed by actor Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," died in a Chicago suburb on Thursday, the US space agency said in a statement. The astronaut's "life and work inspired millions of people across the decades," NASA said, praising his "character and steadfast courage." Lovell travelled to the Moon twice but never walked on the lunar surface, reported AFP. Yet he is considered one of the greats of the US space program after rescuing a mission that teetered on the brink of disaster as the world watched in suspense far below. "There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the places we would not go on our own," Hanks said in an Instagram post. "Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy." 'Houston, we've had a problem' Launched on April 11, 1970 -- nine months after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon -- Apollo 13 was intended to be humanity's third lunar landing. The plan was that Lovell would walk on the Moon. The mission, which was also crewed by astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, was already considered fairly routine. Then an oxygen tank exploded on the way there. The disaster prompted Swigert to famously tell mission control: "Houston, we've had a problem." Lovell then repeated the phrase, which is slightly different to the one used in the Ron Howard movie, according to NASA. The three astronauts and crew on the ground scrambled to find a solution. The United States followed the chaotic odyssey from the ground, fearing that the country could lose its first astronauts in space. Around 200,000 miles from Earth, the crew was forced to shelter in their Lunar Module, slingshot around the Moon and rapidly return to Earth. The composed leadership of Lovell -- who was nicknamed "Smilin' Jim" -- and the ingenuity of the NASA team on the ground managed to get the crew safely back home. Lovell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but never returned to space. 'Our Hero' Born on March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, Lovell worked as a Navy pilot before joining NASA. He was one of three astronauts who became the first people to orbit the Moon during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. The mission also took the famous image "Earthrise," in which the blue planet peeks out from beyond the Moon. Lovell's family said they were "enormously proud of his amazing life and career," according to a statement released by NASA. "But, to all of us, he was Dad, Granddad, and the Leader of our family. Most importantly, he was our Hero," the statement added. "We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible."
Al Arabiya
01-08-2025
- Al Arabiya
US, Russian space chiefs talk moon, ISS cooperation in rare Florida meeting
NASA's new temporary administrator on Thursday held a rare face-to-face meeting in Florida with Russia's space agency chief, where they discussed cooperation on the moon and maintaining the space powers' longstanding relationship on the International Space Station, Roscosmos said. The talks between Sean Duffy and Dmitry Bakanov at the US space agency's Kennedy Space Center represented the first in-person meeting between the heads of NASA and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, since 2018. NASA said late on Thursday the two chiefs 'discussed continued cooperation and collaboration in space,' without providing further details. The meeting coincided with an attempt to launch a joint astronaut crew from Florida to the ISS that was postponed due to weather. It was a significant moment for Washington's bifurcated space relations with Russia — especially for Duffy, an acting NASA administrator who was assigned to the role just this month while also overseeing the Transportation Department. Roscosmos showed on Telegram a video of the meeting between Duffy and Bakanov, each flanked by staff, and other events where Bakanov and his delegation can be seen mingling with US officials. The Russian space agency said 'the parties discussed further work on the ISS, cooperation on lunar programs, joint exploration of deep space, continued interaction on other space projects.' Roscosmos and NASA did not respond to questions about the nature of the lunar program or deep space discussions. Such talks could signal thawing relations between the two countries' civil space programs and represent a shift in global space relations. Russia had plans to participate in NASA's flagship Artemis moon program until it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It became a partner on China's moon program, the International Lunar Research Station, a direct rival to the US Artemis program. The war in Ukraine has led to a vastly isolated Russian space program, which has since boosted investments in military space efforts while nearly all of its joint space exploration projects with the West collapsed. The Russian delegation visited NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday and on Thursday was poised to watch the launch of Crew-11, a routine mission to the ISS featuring two US astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut. But bad weather pushed the launch to Friday morning, SpaceX said. While US–Russian tensions over the war in Ukraine have limited contact between NASA and Roscosmos, they have continued to share astronaut flights and cooperate on the ISS, a 25-year-old totem of scientific diplomacy crucial to maintaining the two space powers' storied human spaceflight capabilities. Amity on the $100 billion ISS is buoyed primarily by a technical interdependency: the Russian segment relies on power generated by American solar panels, while the task of maintaining the station's altitude is assigned to Russia's thrusters. Multiple other countries depend on the ISS for microgravity research, prominently the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan. The military space programs of the US and Russia meanwhile have an adversarial relationship. The US has accused Russia of developing a nuclear space weapon and deploying counterspace weapons and spy satellites near American spy satellites. Russia has denied many of Washington's space allegations. Bakanov and Duffy were expected to discuss extending the two countries' astronaut seat exchange agreement — in which US astronauts fly on Russian Soyuz capsules in exchange for Russian astronauts flying on US capsules — and the planned disposal of the ISS in 2030, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Arab News
30-07-2025
- Arab News
Radar satellite launched by India and NASA will track minuscule changes to Earth's land and ice
FLORIDA: NASA and India paired up to launch an Earth-mapping satellite on Wednesday capable of tracking even the slightest shifts in land and ice. The $1.3 billion mission will help forecasters and first responders stay one step ahead of floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions and other disasters, according to scientists. Rocketing to orbit from India, the satellite will survey virtually all of Earth's terrain multiple times. Its two radars — one from the US and the other from India — will operate day and night, peering through clouds, rain and foliage to collect troves of data in extraordinary detail. Microwave signals beamed down to Earth from the dual radars will bounce back up to the satellite's super-sized antenna reflector perched at the end of a boom like a beach umbrella. Scientists will compare the incoming and outgoing signals as the spacecraft passes over the same locations twice every 12 days, teasing out changes as small as a fraction of an inch (1 centimeter). It's '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,' NASA's science mission chief Nicky Fox said ahead of liftoff. Fox led a small NASA delegation to India for the launch. It will take a full week to extend the satellite's 30-foot (9-meter) boom and open the 39-foot-in-diameter (12-meter) drum-shaped reflector made of gold-plated wire mesh. Science operations should begin by the end of October. Among the satellite's most pressing measurements: melting glaciers and polar ice sheets; shifting groundwater supplies; motion and stress of land surfaces prompting landslides and earthquakes; and forest and wetland disruptions boosting carbon dioxide and methane emissions. NASA is contributing $1.2 billion to the three-year mission; it supplied the low-frequency radar and reflector. The Indian Space Research Organization's $91 million share includes the higher-frequency radar and main satellite structure, as well as the launch from a barrier island in the Bay of Bengal. It's the biggest space collaboration between the two countries. The satellite called NISAR — short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar — will operate from a near-polar-circling orbit 464 miles (747 kilometers) high. It will join dozens of Earth observation missions already in operation by the US and India.
