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National Geographic
a day ago
- Science
- National Geographic
Asteroids with ‘unstable orbits' hide around Venus—do they threaten Earth?
NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured this image showing the nightside surface of Venus. A family of asteroids share the planet's orbit, and two new studies suggest that one day the space rocks could theoretically pose a danger to Earth. Photograph by NASA/APL/NRL Venus has groupies—a family of asteroids that share its orbit, either trailing it or leading it as the planet revolves around the sun. Researchers have known that such stealthy space rocks might exist for years, but now, a pair of papers (one published in a journal, and one a pre-print undergoing peer-review) conclude that some might develop unstable orbits and, over a very long period of time, arch toward Earth. But despite what several histrionic headlines have claimed, Earth is not at risk of one of these asteroids suddenly sneaking up on us and vaporizing a city. While some of these asteroids could be large enough to cause this sort of damage, there is no evidence whatsoever suggesting any of these Venus-pursuing asteroids are currently heading our way. 'I wouldn't say that these objects are not dangerous,' says Valerio Carruba, an asteroid dynamicist at the São Paulo State University in Brazil and a co-author of both studies. 'But I don't think there is any reason to panic.' These studies simply highlight that asteroids near Venus have the potential to fly our way on sometime in the next few thousand years or so. 'The likelihood of one colliding with Earth any time soon is extremely low,' says Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. who was not involved with the new research. 'There isn't too much to be worried about here.' Asteroids around Venus, shown in the background above during a 2012 transit, are difficult to track because they fall inside Earth's orbit and are obscured by the sun's glare. Research suggests that some of the asteroids that share Venus' orbit are large enough to take out a city on Earth. Illustration by David A. Hardy, Futures: 50 Years In Space/Science Photo Library The real problem, though, is that asteroids like this are remarkably difficult to find, and you can't protect yourself against a danger you cannot see. Fortunately, in the next few years, two of the most advanced observatories ever built are coming online. And together, they will find more asteroids—including those hiding near Venus—than the sum total already identified by the world's telescopes. Concealed by sunlight While the Japanese and European space agencies mostly request time on busy telescopes to search for these space rocks, NASA leads the pack: It funds a network of observatories solely dedicated to finding sketchy-looking asteroids. Planetary defenders are chiefly concerned about near-Earth asteroids. As the name suggests, these have orbits that hew close to Earth's own. Many of these asteroids were removed from the largely stable belt between Mars and Jupiter, either through the chaotic gravitational pull of the planets (often Jupiter, as it's the most massive) or through asteroid-on-asteroid collisions. If one gets within 4.6 million miles of Earth's orbit, there's a chance that, over time, both orbits cross and a collision becomes possible. And if that asteroid is 460 feet long, it's big enough to plunge through the atmosphere and (with a direct hit) destroy a city. Combined, these characteristics describe 'potentially hazardous asteroids'—and finding them is of paramount importance. Venus appears above giant sandstone cliffs amid the sand dunes of Tassili National Park in Algeria. Photograph by Babak Tafreshi, Nat Geo Image Collection Asteroids are first found because of the sunlight they reflect. That works well for most, but there are known to be asteroids hiding interior to Earth's orbit, toward the direction of the sun. And that's a problem. Astronomers seeking out these asteroids cannot just point their telescopes directly at the sun: It would be like trying to see a lit match in front of a nuclear explosion. Instead, they look in the vicinity of the sun in the few minutes just after sunset, or just before sunrise. Not only are these surveys severely time-limited, but by aiming close to the horizon, they are peering through more of the Earth's atmosphere, which distorts what they are looking at. 'All of these factors make it hard to search for and discover asteroids near Venus' orbit,' says Sheppard. (Here's how researchers track asteroids that might hit Earth.) The invisible Venusian fleet Asteroids have occasionally been spotted in this sun-bleached corner of space. And twenty of them have been found scooting along the same orbital highway Venus uses to orbit the sun. These are known as co-orbital asteroids; similar rocks can be found either following or trailing other planets, most notably Jupiter. Co-orbiting asteroids tend to cluster around several gravitationally stable sections, known as Lagrange points, along the planet's orbital path. But over a timescale of about 12,000 years or so, it's thought that the Venus co-orbital asteroids can dramatically alter their orbits. They remain on the same orbital path as Venus, but instead of maintaining a circular orbit, they get creative: Some migrate to a different Lagrange point, while others zip about in a horseshoe pattern around several Lagrange points. Some of these new, exotic orbits become quite stretched-out and elliptical—and, in some cases, these orbits can eventually bring these asteroids closer to Earth. When they do, 'there is a higher chance of a collision,' says Carruba. In their first study, published in the journal Icarus earlier this year, Carruba and his team looked at the 20 known co-orbital asteroids of Venus. Their simulations forecast how their orbits would evolve over time and show that three of the space rocks—each between 1,000 and 1,300 feet or so—could approach within 46,500 miles of Earth's orbit. (For reference, the moon is an average of 240,000 miles from our planet.) That proximity may make them potentially hazardous asteroids. But there's no need to worry—it can take as long as 12,000 years for an asteroid to end up on an elliptical, near-Earth orbit. Perhaps they will be a problem for our very, very distant descendants. The asteroids that hang out in the orbit of Venus (shown above in simulated color) are largely unknown. This illustration shows the orbits of the binary near-Earth asteroid Didymos (labelled) and another 2,200 potentially hazardous asteroids (fainter lines) around the sun. Illustration by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Science Photo Library The team's latest study, uploaded to the pre-print server arXiv last month, delves into how easy it might be for any of Venus' co-orbital asteroids—including those astronomers have yet to find—to end up on these precarious orbits. To find out, they created virtual asteroids and simulated their many potential orbital voyages 36,000 years into the future. Many things could perturb the orbits of asteroids over that many years, so any truly accurate predictions are impossible. But the simulations came to some broad conclusions. The first is that a Venus co-orbital asteroid is more likely to approach Earth if it switches from a circular to a considerably elongated orbit—it's zooming over a larger patch of the inner solar system, including our own planet's neighborhood. The second, more surprising thing, is that some asteroids still manage to reach near-Earth space even they start out with only a mildly stretched-out orbit. It seems that their chaotic journeys through space, filled with gravitational disturbances, can still end up throwing them our way. But to be clear, these potentially worrisome orbits develop over the course of many millennia. 'This is not something to be alarmed about, as these asteroids are still relatively dynamically stable on human timescales,' says Sheppard. (These five asteroids pose the highest risk to Earth.) A new asteroid-hunting dawn For Marco Fenucci, a near-Earth object dynamicist at the European Space Agency, the paper raises awareness about these relatively mysterious asteroids in Venus' orbit. And that is a good point to make, he adds: We don't know much about these asteroids, including their population size, their dimensions, and their orbits, because we struggle to find them with today's telescopes. Two upcoming facilities are about to make this task considerably easier. The first, the U.S.-owned Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is set to officially come online in the next few weeks. With a huge field-of-view, it can see huge swathes of the night sky at once, and its giant nest of mirrors can gather so much starlight than even the smallest, faintest objects can be seen. In just three to six months, the observatory could find as many as a million new asteroids, effectively doubling the current total. Meg Schwamb, a planetary scientist at Queen's University Belfast who was not involved with the new research, explains that Rubin will also conduct its own twilight surveys, the very sort used today to search for near-Venus asteroids. If these surveys are conducted over the next decade, 'Rubin could find as many as 40 to 50 percent of all objects larger than about [1,150 feet] in the interior-to-Venus-orbit population,' says Mario Jurić, an astronomer at the University of Washington and who was not involved with the new research. But, as with all ground-based optical telescopes, Rubin will still have the sun's glare, and Earth's atmosphere, to contend with. As long as the federal government decides to continue to fund the mission—something that is not guaranteed—NASA will also launch a dedicated asteroid-hunting space observatory, the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, in the next few years. Unobstructed by Earth's atmosphere, it will seek out space rocks by viewing them through a highly-sensitive infrared scope, meaning it can see those hidden by the luminous sun. Even those asteroids sneaking around near Venus won't be able to hide from NEO Surveyor. And, finally, says Carruba, 'we can see if the impact threat is real, or not.'
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Solar storms are a national security threat: Why NASA warns the next threat could come from the sun
While solar storms tend to grab public headlines with stunning auroras and fleeting technology glitches, scientists and security analysts are ringing an underlying alarm. NASA sounded an uncommon warning after a major solar storm erupted on its way to Earth, prompting fears of disruptions to power grids, satellites, and communications networks occurrence can also present a resplendent upside: an aurora sighting of uncommon occurrence seen in areas far outside of its typical reach. A threat to strategic stability Solar storms on the surface could look like natural wonders. But beneath their splendor is a dangerous force threatening to blow up military activities and locking nations in communication darkness. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued an alert that the Earth is headed into the most active part of Solar Cycle 25 , set to peak between 2024 and 2026. How will it go during this time? During this time, the possibility of coronal mass ejections, the huge bursts of solar plasma and magnetic fields, becomes very high. If it impacts directly on the Earth, the consequence may be a devastating geomagnetic storm powerful enough to disrupt the GPS system, power grid, and military communications . What role does NASA play in space weather defense? NASA operates several satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Parker Solar Probe. These special spacecraft help forecast space weather events, giving defense systems and utility providers crucial hours of warning. Satellite-based technologies are greatly relied on by contemporary defense systems and warfare for surveillance, targeting, navigation, and positioning. In addition to this, nuclear command and control systems are increasingly a source of concern where they greatly depend on high-frequency radio waves. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy Brass Idols - Handmade Brass Statues for Home & Gifting Luxeartisanship Buy Now Undo Will this become an international security issue? This is not particularly an American issue. A number of other space agencies, Russia and China among them, are indeed exploring space weather defense contrast to climate change or pandemics, there is no international treaty or regulatory framework for addressing large-scale space weather events. Added to this are the geopolitical risks. A solar storm-induced communications blackout might be misunderstood as a cyberattack or hostile act, triggering unintended escalation between competing powers.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Storms Subside, Windows of Sunshine Ahead!
Tonight will see our scattered thunderstorms fizzle out as we approach sundown. The decreasing temperatures will dampen the instability seen earlier today. We will see these scattered thunderstorms turn to scattered showers, eventually drying out as we reach lows in the upper 40s. Tomorrow, get ready for those showers and storms to return. Much like today's storms, these will be scattered in nature. The severity of these storms, however, will be lower. The main hazards of these storms will be wind damage and hail in some spots. These storms will begin popping up as temperatures warm up to the mid 60s. Tuesday will see some leftover showers in the afternoon after we dip to lows in the upper 40s. Highs will be cooler, reaching the low 60s. Overall, rain will be slowing down just in time for Wednesday. Wednesday will bring abundant sunshine and clear skies, starting out in the mid 40s. The sunshine and drier air will allow temperatures to jump to the upper 60s, making it a great day for any outdoor chores or activities. Thursday will see similar conditions to Wednesday with increased cloud cover. Rising moisture will keep lows a little higher, with temperatures rising from the low 50s to the low 70s. A stationary front along the southern border of our state will yield some sprinkles, but most will stay dry. Spring allergies are back. Here's how to check pollen levels and keep from sneezing Friday sees high pressure settle in over the Great Lakes, keeping away the rain for a little while longer. Clear skies will bring lows in the mid 40s and highs in the upper 60s. By Friday, most trails should be dry, making it a great day for a hike! Saturday sees that high pressure holding strong with clear, blue skies. The air will be drier, and the temperatures will be higher, rising from the upper 40s to the low 70s. NASA's Parker Solar Probe aims to fly closer to the sun like never before Sunday, low pressure over Maine brings a very weak cold front. Our showers will be light, and the temperature impact will be minimal as we continue to rise in temperature throughout the week. We will see temperatures rise from the low 50s to the low 70s. Looking ahead, we can expect our temperatures to keep rising, approaching the mid 70s by Wednesday, where we will see our rain make a return. TONIGHT: Storms weaken as temperature drops. Lows in the mid Showers and T-storms return. Highs in the mid Scattered showers. Highs in the low Clear Skies. Highs near Clouds roll in. Highs near High pressure settles in. Highs in the upper Lots of sunshine. Highs near Light rain. Highs in the low Sunny day. Highs in the low Scattered Showers. Highs near PM Showers. Highs in the mid 70s. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Pulsar Fusion unveils vision for ‘Sunbird' nuclear rocket to reach Mars in half the time (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. When it comes to the future of space travel, nothing exceeds like excess. Pulsar Fusion hopes to demonstrate that axiom with its planned Sunbird nuclear fusion rocket, which is designed to travel at speeds of 329,000 mph (500,000 kph). That would make it the fastest self-propelled object ever created by humankind. (NASA's Parker Solar Probe has reached greater velocities during close solar flybys, thanks to the sun's powerful gravitational pull.) Pulsar Fusion — a U.K.-based aerospace startup founded by entrepreneur Richard Dinan — recently released a new concept design video that lays out the operational capabilities of Sunbird, a visionary project that won't rely on gravitational assistance to reach peak velocity. Theoretically, Sunbird's tremendous speeds could cut mission times to Mars in half, from seven to eight months to about four. Pulsar Fusion views the vehicle as an interplanetary tug; Sunbird would attach to other craft in space and give them a fusion-powered boost to reach their destinations. Related: Nuclear fusion breakthrough: What does it mean for space exploration? Pulsar Fusion has received funding from the U.K. Space agency. The startup is planning to begin in-orbit testing of Sunbird's Dual Direct Fusion Drive in late 2025, with an objective of reaching successful nuclear fusion in space by 2027. These goals are ambitious, of course. Nuclear fusion — the process that powers the sun and other stars — has not yet been harnessed as a large-scale energy source here on Earth.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Nuclear-powered rocket concept could cut journey time to Mars in half
The dream of nuclear fusion has been chased by some of the world's brightest minds for decades. It's easy to see why — replicating the inner workings of stars here on Earth would mean virtually unlimited clean energy. Despite a long history of attempts, and several breakthroughs, the dream hasn't turned to reality yet, and we're likely many years away from seeing a fusion power plant anywhere on the planet. Carrying out the process in space might sound like adding an extra layer of complexity to an already complex technology, but it could theoretically happen sooner than on Earth. And it could help spacecraft achieve speeds of up to 500,000 miles (805,000 kilometers) per hour — more than the fastest object ever built, NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which peaked at 430,000 miles (692,000 kilometers) per hour. With funding from the UK Space Agency, British startup Pulsar Fusion has unveiled Sunbird, a space rocket concept designed to meet spacecraft in orbit, attach to them, and carry them to their destination at breakneck speed using nuclear fusion. 'It's very unnatural to do fusion on Earth,' says Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar. 'Fusion doesn't want to work in an atmosphere. Space is a far more logical, sensible place to do fusion, because that's where it wants to happen anyway.' For now, Sunbird is in the very early stages of construction and it has exceptional engineering challenges to overcome, but Pulsar says it hopes to achieve fusion in orbit for the first time in 2027. If the rocket ever becomes operational, it could one day cut the journey time of a potential mission to Mars in half. Nuclear fusion is different from nuclear fission, which is what powers current nuclear power plants. Fission works by splitting heavy, radioactive elements like uranium into lighter ones, using neutrons. The vast amount of energy released in this process is used to make electricity. Fusion does the opposite: it combines very light elements like hydrogen into heavier ones, using high temperature and pressure. 'The sun and the stars are all fusion reactors,' says Dinan. 'They are element cookers — cooking hydrogen into helium — and then as they die, they create the heavy elements that make up everything. Ultimately the universe is mostly hydrogen and helium, and everything else was cooked in a star by fusion.' Fusion is sought after because it releases four times more energy than fission, and four million times more energy than fossil fuels. But unlike fission, fusion doesn't require dangerous radioactive materials — instead, fusion reactors would use deuterium and tritium, heavy hydrogen atoms that have extra neutrons. They would work on minute quantities of fuel and produce no dangerous waste. However, fusion requires a lot of energy to start, because conditions similar to the core of a star must be created — extremely high temperature and pressure, along with effective confinement to keep the reaction going. The challenge on Earth has been to create more energy from fusion than is put in to start, but so far we've barely broken even. But if power generation is not the goal, things become less complicated, Dinan says — only the simpler goal of creating a faster exhaust speed. The reactions that power nuclear fusion take place inside a plasma — a hot, electrically charged gas. Just like proposed reactors on Earth, Sunbird would use strong magnets to heat up a plasma and create the conditions for the fuel — which would be in the order of grams — to smash together and fuse. But while on Earth reactors are circular, to prevent particles from escaping, on Sunbird they would be linear – because the escaping particles would propel the spacecraft. Lastly, it would not produce neutrons from the fusion reaction, which reactors on Earth use to generate heat; Sunbird would instead use a more expensive type of fuel called helium-3 to make protons, which can be used as a 'nuclear exhaust' to provide propulsion. The Sunbird process would be expensive and unsuitable for energy production on Earth, Dinan says, but because the objective is not to make energy, the process can be inefficient and expensive, but still be valuable because it would save fuel costs, reduce the weight of spacecraft and get it to its destination much faster. Sunbirds would operate similarly to city bikes at docking stations, according to Dinan: 'We launch them into space, and we would have a charging station where they could sit and then meet your ship,' he says. 'You turn off your inefficient combustion engines, and use nuclear fusion for the greater part of your journey. Ideally, you'd have a station somewhere near Mars, and you'd have a station on low Earth orbit, and the (Sunbirds) would just go back and forth.' Some components will have an orbit demonstration this year. 'They're basically circuit boards that go up to be tested, to make sure they work. Not very exciting, because there's no fusion, but we have to do it,' says Dinan. 'Then, in 2027, we're going to send a small part of Sunbird in orbit, just to check that the physics is working as the computer assumes it's working. That's our first in-orbit demonstration, where we hope to do fusion in space. And we hope that Pulsar will be the first company to actually achieve that.' That prototype will cost about $70 million, according to Dinan, and it won't be a full Sunbird, but rather a 'linear fusion experiment' to prove the concept. The first functional Sunbird will be ready four to five years later, he says, provided the necessary funding is secured. Initially, the Sunbirds will be offered for shuttling satellites in orbit, but their true potential would come into play with interplanetary missions. The company illustrates a few examples of the missions that Sunbird could unlock, such as delivering up to 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of cargo to Mars in under six months, deploying probes to Jupiter or Saturn in two to four years (NASA's Europa Clipper, launched in 2024 towards one of Jupiter's moons, will arrive after 5.5 years), and an asteroid mining mission that would complete a round trip to a near-Earth asteroid in one to two years instead of three. Other companies are working on nuclear fusion engines for space propulsion, including Pasadena-based Helicity Space, which received investment from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin in 2024. San Diego-based General Atomics and NASA are working on another type of nuclear reactor – based on fission rather than fusion – which they plan to test in space in 2027. It is also meant as a more efficient propulsion system for a crewed mission to Mars compared to current options. According to Aaron Knoll, a senior lecturer in the field of plasma propulsion for spacecraft at Imperial College London, who's not involved with Pulsar Fusion, there is a huge potential for harnessing fusion power for spacecraft propulsion. 'While we are still some years away from making fusion energy a viable technology for power generation on Earth, we don't need to wait to start using this power source for spacecraft propulsion,' he says. The reason, he adds, is that to generate power on Earth, the amount of energy output needs to be greater than the energy input. But when using fusion power on a spacecraft to generate thrust, any energy output is useful — even if it's less than the energy being supplied. All of that combined energy, coming from the external power supply and the fusion reactions together, will act to increase the thrust and efficiency of the propulsion system. However, he adds, there are significant technical hurdles in making fusion technology in space a reality. 'Current fusion reactor designs on Earth are large and heavy systems, requiring an infrastructure of supporting equipment, like energy storage, power supplies, gas delivery systems, magnets and vacuum pumping equipment,' he says. 'Miniaturizing these systems and making them lightweight is a considerable engineering challenge.' Bhuvana Srinivasan, a professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics at the University of Washington, who's also not involved with Pulsar, agrees that nuclear fusion propulsion holds a substantial promise for spaceflight: 'It would be extremely beneficial even for a trip to the Moon, because it could provide the means to deploy an entire lunar base with crew in a single mission. If successful, it would outperform existing propulsion technologies not just incrementally but dramatically,' she says. However, she also points out the difficulties in making it compact and lightweight, an added engineering challenge which is a lesser consideration for terrestrial energy. Unlocking fusion propulsion, according to Srinivasan, would not only allow humans to travel farther in space, but be a game-changer for uncrewed missions, for example to gather resources like helium-3, a fusion fuel that is rare on Earth and must be created artificially, but may be abundant on the Moon: 'If we can build a lunar base that could be a launching point for deep space exploration, having access to a potential helium-3 reserve could be invaluable,' she says. 'Exploration of planets, moons, and solar systems farther away is fundamental to our curious and exploratory nature as humans while also potentially leading to substantial financial and societal benefit in ways that we may not yet realize.'
