Latest news with #PlanetaryScienceJournal
Forbes
6 days ago
- Science
- Forbes
Strange New Object Found In Solar System ‘Dancing' With Neptune
Astronomers surveying the outer solar system have revealed that a rare object far beyond Neptune is moving in sync with the eighth planet in an unexpected way. Called 2020 VN40 and first discovered in 2020, it takes 1,655 Earth-years to orbit the sun. The news comes just weeks after 2023 KQ14 — nicknamed 'Ammonite' — was found beyond Neptune and Pluto. Together, these newly found objects change the way astronomers think distant objects move and how the solar system evolved. The orbital path of 2020 VN40 — in yellow — is tilted up and to the left from the orbits of most of ... More the objects in the solar system. PSI/Kathryn Volk 2020 VN40 is currently 140 times farther from the sun than Earth. For context, Neptune is 29 times farther from the sun than Earth. However, the object's orbit is highly elliptical, getting just 40 times farther from the sun than Earth. Most planets — including Earth — orbit the sun in nearly the same flat plane. Some distant objects, such as 2020 VN40, have orbits that are highly inclined relative to this plane. The object appears to be in a 10:1 resonance with Neptune, meaning that it orbits the sun once for every ten orbits Neptune completes. It's the first object ever found to do that. The size of 2020 VN40 is unknown because it's too far away to be directly measured. However, based on its brightness, it may have a diameter of around 56 miles (90 kilometers). Published this month in the American Astronomical Society's The Planetary Science Journal , the discovery supports the theory that many distant objects get captured by Neptune's gravity as they drift through the outer solar system. 'This is a big step in understanding the outer solar system,' said Rosemary Pike, lead researcher from the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 'It shows that even very distant regions influenced by Neptune can contain objects, and it gives us new clues about how the solar system evolved.' It could also shed light on the motion of objects in the outer solar system. 'This new motion is like finding a hidden rhythm in a song we thought we knew,' said Ruth Murray-Clay, co-author of the study, from the University of California in Santa Cruz. 'It could change how we think about the way distant objects move.' 2020 VN40 took six years to be discovered and for its orbit to be mapped. It was discovered by astronomers working on the Large Inclination Distant Objects survey, a search for unusual objects in the outer solar system with orbits that extend far above and below the plane of the solar system. It's a region of the solar system that few astronomers have studied. The researchers used the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Gemini North in Hawaii and Magellan Baade and Gemini South in Chile. The LiDO survey has now found over 140 distant objects. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which published its first stunning images in June, is expected to find many more objects in the outer solar system. 'With the imminent start of Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, we expect many more such discoveries to open a new window into the solar system's past,' said Kathryn Volk of the Planetary Science Institute. Rubin is also expected to find more interstellar objects — such as ancient comet 3I/ATLAS. Background Another newly discovered object that could reshape astronomers' understanding of the solar system's past is 'Ammonite,' or 2023 KQ14, an object discovered in the solar system beyond Neptune and Pluto. Classed as a sednoid — an object similar to Sedna, a dwarf planet candidate in the outer solar system found in 2003 — Ammonite orbits beyond Neptune and has a highly eccentric orbital path. It's thought to be between 137 and 236 miles (220 and 380 kilometers) in diameter and between 70 and 432 times farther from the sun than Earth. Further Reading Forbes Meet 'Ammonite' — A New World Just Found In The Solar System By Jamie Carter Forbes Complete Guide To 'Ammonite,' The Solar System's Latest Member By Jamie Carter Forbes See The First Jaw-Dropping Space Photos From Humanity's Biggest-Ever Camera By Jamie Carter Forbes World's Biggest Camera May Find 50 Interstellar Objects, Scientists Say By Jamie Carter Forbes Where Newly Found 'Ammonite' Is In Solar System — And Why It Matters By Jamie Carter
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Crashing into an asteroid creates chaotic space boulders
In the almost three years since NASA proved that it could successfully deflect an asteroid, we've learned a lot about these space rocks. The September 2022 collision of a spacecraft into the asteroid moon Dimorphos completely changed the space rock's orbit. However, this groundbreaking test also showed smashing into an asteroid can trigger a barrage of boulders. The resulting chunks of rock carried more than three times the momentum of the spacecraft that crashed into Dimorphos. The ejected boulders created forces in unexpected directions that could complicate other attempts to deflect an asteroid, according to a study published this month in the Planetary Science Journal. 'We succeeded in deflecting an asteroid, moving it from its orbit,' study co-author and University of Maryland astronomer Tony Farnham said in a statement. 'Our research shows that while the direct impact of the DART spacecraft caused this change, the boulders ejected gave an additional kick that was almost as big. That additional factor changes the physics we need to consider when planning these types of missions.' The team used images taken by LICIACube, a small Italian spacecraft that observed DART's aftermath. They tracked 104 boulders ranging from 0.2 to 3.6 meters (about half a foot to 11 feet) in radius as they shot across space away from Dimorphos at speeds up to 52 meters per second (116 miles per hour). Using those images, the astronomers determined the three-dimensional locations and velocities of the ejected rocks. 'We saw that the boulders weren't scattered randomly in space,' Farnham said. 'Instead, they were clustered in two pretty distinct groups, with an absence of material elsewhere, which means that something unknown is at work here.' [ Related: 5 ways we know DART crushed that asteroid (but not literally). ] The largest debris cluster they studied contains about 70 percent of the objects measured in the study. It was ejected south of the asteroid at high velocities and shallow angles. The authors believe that these ejected boulders likely came from specific sources. One source could be the larger boulders on Dimorphos that were shattered by DART's solar panels in the seconds before the main body of the car-sized spacecraft hit its surface. 'DART's solar panels likely hit two big boulders, called Atabaque and Bodhran, on the asteroid,' added study co-author and astronomer Jessica Sunshine. 'Evidence suggests that the southern cluster of ejected material is probably made up of fragments from Atabaque, a 3.3-meter-radius boulder.' Sunshine served as deputy principal investigator for the NASA Deep Impact mission to probe the surface of Comet P/Tempel 1. She compared DART's results with Deep Impact's, noting that the surface features and target composition of the space rock fundamentally shape the impact outcomes. 'Deep Impact hit a surface that was essentially very small, uniform particles, so its ejecta was relatively smooth and continuous,' Sunshine explained. 'And here, we see that DART hit a surface that was rocky and full of large boulders, resulting in chaotic and filamentary structures in its ejecta patterns. Comparing these two missions side-by-side gives us this insight into how different types of celestial bodies respond to impacts, which is crucial to ensuring that a planetary defense mission is successful.' Additionally, the momentum from the DART impact's ejected boulders was mostly perpendicular to the spacecraft's trajectory. This indicates that it could have tilted Dimorphos' orbital plane by up to one degree–potentially sending it tumbling into space. Understanding the effect that this boulder debris has will be key to the European Space Agency's Hera mission, which will arrive at the Didymos-Dimorphos system in 2026. 'Data gathered from LICIACube provides additional perspectives on impact events, especially as DART was originally designed to solely rely on Earth-based observations,' Farnham said. 'Hera will do the same by giving us another direct view of the impact's aftermath, relying on the predictions we've made using data gathered from DART.' Farnham notes that these perspectives and close-up images from LICIACube gave the DART team crucial information that would have been impossible to detect from Earth. This includes the data on the asteroid boulders themselves. This new study suggests the importance of considering all of these variables when planning future asteroid deflection missions. 'If an asteroid was tumbling toward us, and we knew we had to move it a specific amount to prevent it from hitting Earth, then all these subtleties become very, very important,' Sunshine added. 'You can think of it as a cosmic pool game. We might miss the pocket if we don't consider all the variables.'
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
128 New Moons Found Orbiting Saturn in Mindblowing Discovery
The race between Jupiter and Saturn for the most moons in the Solar System may have just finally come screeching to a halt. A team of scientists has found a whopping 128 previously unknown moons hanging around Saturn, in a discovery officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union. This brings the planet's total number of known moons to 274, leaving Jupiter, with its mere 95 moons, in the dust. The first hint that there were more moons awaiting discovery came between 2019 and 2021, when 62 such objects were identified. Other small objects were also spotted at the time that couldn't yet be designated. "With the knowledge that these were probably moons, and that there were likely even more waiting to be discovered, we revisited the same sky fields for three consecutive months in 2023," says astronomer Edward Ashton of Academia Sincia in Taiwan. "Sure enough, we found 128 new moons. Based on our projections, I don't think Jupiter will ever catch up." These moons, to be clear, are not like Earth's Moon, nice and large and pleasingly spherical. They are tiny moonlets, all blobby and potato-shaped, just a few kilometers across – what are known as irregular moons. The researchers believe that they originally comprised a small group of objects captured by gravity in Saturn's orbit early in the Solar System's history. A subsequent series of collisions would have smashed them to moony bits, resulting in the preponderance of small rocks the astronomers have found. In fact, they believe a collision must have taken place as recently as 100 million years ago, which is a very short eyeblink of time for a planet. The location of the moons, too, within the Norse group of Saturn's moons, suggests that this is the place where the recent collision occurred. The Norse group are moons that orbit in a retrograde direction, at inclined angles, and on elliptical paths, outside Saturn's rings. Like the newly discovered moons, they, too, are relatively potatoey. Potatoes. Rings. Sounds familiar, somehow… One haul of 64 moons has been detailed in a new paper submitted to the Planetary Science Journal. The preprint is available on arXiv. Space Force's Secret Plane Returns After More Than a Year in Orbit Study Traces Our Solar System's Journey Through a Massive Galactic Wave Our Moon Is About to Turn Blood Red. Here's Why.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Think Visitors From Another Star System May Have Infiltrated Our Galactic Neighborhood
Alpha Centauri is the star system closest to our Solar System, and it is likely that particles from it could be making their way over to or already be in our stellar neighborhood. To know what to expect, researchers used existing models to predict how many particles of different sizes may already exist in the Solar System and are possibly coming in from Alpha Centauri every year. Studying the ejection and transfer of particles from Alpha Centauri could tell us more about how material is exchanged between star systems. While interstellar objects ('Oumuamua, anyone?) have passed through our Solar System before, the origins of many of these objects remain unknown. Did they originate in a nearby star system? A distant one? A completely different galaxy? Unfortunately, it's not currently possible to track 'Oumuamua down for further study. Its highly eccentric orbit will take it too far for any spacecraft to reach or any telescope to observe. But that doesn't mean we have no interstellar subjects available for study—in fact, it turns out we have plenty of particles from another star system already here. The closest stellar system to us is the triple system Alpha Centauri. It's currently creeping closer to our Solar System at 79,000 km per hour (about 49,709 mph), and should be at its closest around 27,700 years from now. With that in mind, researchers Cole Gregg and Paul Wiegert from the University of Western Ontario decided to see how many Alpha Centauri objects might have made it to us already, and how many could eventually make it here in the future. 'A small number [less than 10 meteors] may currently be entering Earth's atmosphere every year,' Gregg and Wiegert said in a study soon to be published in the Planetary Science Journal, '[and] is expected to increase as Alpha Centauri approaches.' Alpha Centauri is a mature star system, at 5 billion years old. This means that most of the material in this system's protoplanetary disk has likely already dissipated, so it is not expected to release much debris out into space (though there might be material from the system in our asteroid belt and our distant Oort cloud). That said, the gravitational forces of more stars and planets make it more likely for material to scatter, and there may be planets orbiting its three stars (though, none have yet been confirmed). To find out if Alpha Centauri could be currently ejecting material, the researchers turned to existing models of how star systems usually eject debris. The models predicted that, despite the small number of objects from Alpha Centauri that are expected to make it all the way to Earth every year, there could be as many as a million over-one-hundred-meter-in-diameter-sized objects from the system already lurking in our Oort cloud (many smaller object and particles may also be among them). The problem is that the Oort cloud is on the outer edge of the Solar System. This would make potential Alpha Centauri objects—if they really are somewhere in there—difficult to observe. Though, it wouldn't be impossible. NASA's New Horizons Mission has a dust detector actively picking up on particles in the Kuiper belt that might have been leftovers from the formation of our Solar System. The Oort cloud is even further out, but despite a dwindling fuel supply, New Horizons may be able to hold on long enough to get out there and scan for the presence of something from Alpha Centauri. That said, the presence of these objects is not certain. There is also the issue of smaller particles from Alpha Centauri potentially not surviving the journey to the Solar System. They could be deflected by magnetic fields, slow down significantly due to drag in the interstellar medium, or end up decimated by extremely fast gas atoms or collisions with each other. For any particles that do survive and manage to enter the inner Solar System, the Sun's gravity will increase their velocity significantly. Even more particles could come from hypothetical comets—at least, they could if Alpha Centauri ejects as many as our Solar System—but these are unlikely to be observed. Whether these potential particles are actually detectable remains to be seen. 'A thorough understanding of the mechanisms by which material could be transferred from Alpha Centauri to the Solar System not only deepens our knowledge of interstellar transport,' the researchers said in the same study, 'but also opens new pathways for exploring the interconnectedness of stellar systems and the potential for material exchange across the galaxy.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Alpha Centauri Sending Stream of Objects Into Our Solar System, Scientists Propose
The detection of a large interstellar object in 2017 named 'Oumuamua was a landmark discovery. Figuring out where the wayward traveler came from, though, is another challenge entirely, especially since it subsequently cruised back out of our star system. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped intrepid astronomers from trying. In a case study published in the Planetary Science Journal and spotlighted by Universe Today, the researchers from The University of Western Ontario hypothesize a scenario in which our nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri, may be sending a steady stream of "interstellar material" our way. And tantalizingly, what they found suggests that our solar system may already be flooded with visitors from the star system, which is about 4.25 light years away. These objects range from microscopic in size to well over 100 yards in diameter — a far more significant presence than the background level of gas and dust diffused throughout the cosmos. However, the odds of encountering one of these objects within the heart our solar system remain exceedingly low, with only a one-in-a-million chance that an interstellar visitor is located within ten astronomical units, or just short of one billion miles, of the Sun, according to the scientists. Though it appears as a single bright speck in the sky, Alpha Centauri is actually a triple star system, with several suspected exoplanets, including a super-Earth called Proxima Centauri b, with more thought to be lurking in the shadows. Two of the stars are Sun-like ones locked in a binary dance, while another star, a dim red dwarf, acts as the proverbial third wheel. And with all those big personalities involved and clashing gravitational egos, it's likely that Alpha Centauri boots out a significant amount of material, some of which may have reached the Oort Cloud, a shell of icy objects that surrounds the solar system, the researchers said. Alpha Centauri is also moving towards us, and in some 28,000 years from now, it'll reach its closest point at a distance of a little over three light years away, raising the odds of an interstellar influx in the future, too. "Though mature star systems likely eject less material than those in their planet-forming years, the presence of multiple stars and planets increases the likelihood of gravitational scattering of members from any remnant planetesimal reservoirs, much as asteroids or comets are currently being ejected from our solar system," the researchers wrote in the study. In fact, the astronomers estimated there could be over 1,000,000 objects larger than 328 feet in diameter from the nearby system lurking in the Oort Cloud. For reference, 'Oumuamua is believed to be anywhere between 328 to 3,280 feet long. That's a lot of refugees. It's unlikely we'll ever detect the vast majority of them, though. And when you consider the astronomers determined that particles as small as just ten microns, or about the size of a human blood cell, could survive the ten million-year journey over, it sounds like our corner of the universe may be awash with interstellar particles that even our most advanced instruments will have no chance of picking up on. A silver lining: the authors predict that around ten Alpha Centauri rejects could enter the Earth's atmosphere, where they'd be detectable as meteorites. With any luck, some of them could originate from one of the star system's exoplanets, providing a potential glimpse of worlds light years away. "A thorough understanding of the mechanisms by which material could be transferred from Alpha Centauri to the solar system not only deepens our knowledge of interstellar transport but also opens new pathways for exploring the interconnectedness of stellar systems and the potential for material exchange across the Galaxy," the paper reads. More on space: Don't Panic, But the Chances of That City Killer Asteroid Hitting Earth Just Almost Doubled
