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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Sampling a 'quasi-moon': What's next for China's newly launched Tianwen 2 asteroid-sampling mission
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. China's latest deep-space mission is underway. The Tianwen 2 asteroid-comet probe lifted off on Tuesday (May 28), riding into the final frontier atop a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China. Tianwen 2 marks another step forward in China's ever-advancing, ever-ambitious robotic exploration program. Here's a brief rundown of what the spacecraft will do over the next few years, and what milestones it will achieve for China. Tianwen 2 is headed for Kamo'oalewa (also known as 2016 HO3), a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) discovered in 2016 that's between 100 and 330 feet (40 and 100 meters) wide. Kamo'oalewa is no ordinary space rock; it's a "quasi-moon" of Earth, meaning it circles the sun on a path that keeps it close to our planet. Earth has seven known quasi-satellites, including Cardea, which was recently named via a contest organized by the International Astronomical Union and the science podcast Radiolab. Kamo'oalewa is among the most interesting of these cosmic fellow travelers. Unlike most NEAs, it doesn't appear to have come from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter; rather, astronomers think it's a chunk of the moon that was blasted out by a giant impact within the past 10 million years. Analysis of the space rock could confirm that theory; it could also shed light on the evolution of the solar system. Tianwen 2 will deliver some of this key data, if all goes according to plan. The probe is expected to reach Kamo'oalewa in July of 2026. It will perform up-close observations with a variety of science gear, including cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer and a dust analyzer. This work will reveal insights about the quasi-moon and help the team select a suitable sampling site. The probe will then swoop down to collect about 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of material from the space rock, apparently using two different methods: "touch and go" and "anchor and attach." The latter approach, which requires the use of one or more drills, has never been tried before, but touch and go is tried and true; NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe and Japan's Hayabusa2 used it to snag samples of the asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, respectively. Tianwen 2 will depart Kamo'oalewa in April 2027, hauling the space rock samples back to Earth. A capsule containing this precious material will land here about seven months later, but the mothership will fly on. Tianwen 2 will get a "gravity assist" from the Earth return, thanks to which it'll slingshot around our planet on its way to its second destination — the comet 311P/PANSTARRS, which resides in the asteroid belt. 311P/PANSTARRS, also known as P/2013 P5, was discovered in 2013 by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. Like Kamo'oalewa, 311P/PANSTARRS is something of an oddball; it has both asteroid and comet features and is therefore sometimes categorized as an "active asteroid." For example, the 1,570-foot-wide (480-meter-wide) 311P/PANSTARRS sports six dust tails, perhaps because it's spinning fast enough to fling considerable amounts of its surface material into space. Tianwen 2 will arrive in orbit around the comet in 2035, then measure the target using its onboard instrument suite (all from afar; Tianwen-2 will not land on or sample 311P/PANSTARRS). The probe's data could reveal insights about active asteroids and comets in general, and also help establish which type of small body is largely responsible for delivering water to Earth billions of years ago. Related stories: — China to launch Tianwen 2 asteroid-sampling mission in 2025 — Earth's weird 'quasi-moon' Kamo'oalewa is a fragment blasted out of big moon crater — Tianwen 1: China's first Mars mission Tianwen 2 is China's first-ever mission to an asteroid or a comet, and just its second planetary exploration effort overall. The first, Tianwen 1, sent an orbiter and a rover to Mars in 2020. More of these missions are coming; China aims to launch the Tianwen 3 Mars sample-return mission in 2028 and Tianwen 4, a joint Jupiter-Uranus project, two years later. In fact, Tianwen 2 isn't China's first sample-return mission; the nation has pulled off two already. Chang'e 5 hauled material from the moon's nearside to Earth in December 2020, and Chang'e 6 returned the first-ever samples from the lunar farside in June 2024.
Vogue
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Director Jessica Grindstaff Talks Us Through Port(al), Her Innovative, Multimedia Collaboration With the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
When they first put their minds together a couple of years ago, Jessica Grindstaff and her creative partners on Port(al)—a sprawling, ambitious, innovative new collaborative production with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus that premiered this week at the Brooklyn Navy Yard—faced the kind of problem that certain artists always seem to relish. How could they do the impossible, and do it within some fairly precise constraints? The task at hand: to inhabit, animate, investigate, and otherwise bring back to life the 35,000-square-foot Agger Fish Building, the only still-unrenovated structure in the Brooklyn Navy Yard ('There are holes in the walls that birds are flying in and out of,' Grindstaff says before a full-dress run-through earlier this week), and to tell a new story about not just a building, but also a port, a city, a country at war, a way of life. While the kaleidoscopic team working alongside Grindstaff includes co-composer Paola Prestini (co-founder and artistic director of National Sawdust), co-composer and co-librettist Jad Abumrad (creator of the podcasts Radiolab and Dolly Parton's America), and co-choreographer Ogemdi Ude, the beating heart of Port(al) is the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, whose 44 members range in age from 12 to 18, led by founder and artistic director Dianne Berkun Menaker.
New York Times
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Little Island Welcomes an Ambitious Sophomore Season
Little Island, the floating park atop a collection of funnel-like columns in the Hudson River, will welcome a flurry of programming to its theaters with no walls this summer, the second season of programming funded by Barry Diller and his family foundation. Filling its three open-air performance spaces — the Amph, the Glade and the Playground — Little Island will present 110 live performances in its 18-week season. All for $25 or less. At a moment when the performing arts industry is shrinking,' said Zack Winokur, Little Island's producing artistic director, 'particularly when it comes to new work, we're doing more.' This season, Winokur added, he's 'thinking of the whole island as a canvas.' The premieres include a new song cycle written and performed by Whitney White, 'The Case of the Stranger'(June 25-56), which uses Shakespeare as a lens to explore themes of immigration; and a new play by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Suzan-Lori Parks, 'The Tune Up' (July 30-Aug. 3). The season opens with the world premiere of Dan Schlosberg's 'The Counterfeit Opera: A Beggar's Opera for a Grifter's City' (May 29-June 15), an adaptation of John Gay's comic 'The Beggar's Opera' (1728). The lineup will also feature a new full-length work by the choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, 'Seven Scenes' (Aug. 22-28), with a score composed and performed live by Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee of Ringdown; a new song cycle, 'The Lights,' by Matthew Aucoin, set to poetry by Ben Lerner (Aug. 2-3); a park takeover and live radio show from Radiolab (Aug. 6-7); and, on Aug. 10, a tribute night to the composer Arthur Russell, a marathon evening of free music and performance throughout the park, with performances by Laurie Anderson, Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire and Martha Wainwright, among others. Created and performed by more than 300 artists, the season will spotlight a new generation of directors, including Shayok Misha Chowdhury, who will direct the first New York production in more than 20 years of Lee Breuer's 'The Gospel at Colonus,' based on the Oedipus plays by Sophocles and told here in gospel (July 8-26); Eric Ting, who will direct Charles Ludlam's play 'Galas,' starring the opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo as a character based on the soprano Maria Callas (Sept. 6-28); and Rachel Chavkin, who will direct 'Eugene Onegin,' a bluegrass adaptation of Tchaikovsky's opera (July 30-31). 'People who, to me, represent a major part of my generation's most important and exciting theater makers across all disciplines are converging in one season in this place,' Winokur said. Other highlights include the Grammy-winner Meshell Ndegeocello's 'No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin' (June 21-25), a theatricalized adaptation of her album, which is a tribute to Baldwin's legacy during the centenary of his birth; and musical nights with the painter Amy Sherald (June 20-21), who will host her favorite performers. (It will run alongside her exhibition at the Whitney.) In addition, party seekers and passers-by can pop into a dance party — there will be eight, in August and September — in the Playground or the Glade hosted by the art and music nightlife collective Papi Juice. Live DJs and surprise performers will entertain as the sun sets into the water. 'People go there to enjoy green space, as we very often can't in the city,' Winokur said. 'And when performances are happening, the park is electric.'
New York Times
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Heavyweight,' an Acclaimed Narrative Podcast, Returns
Almost nine years ago, a Minneapolis writer revealed a family skeleton to a podcast host. Steve Marsh had a 'secret sister' — an older sibling his parents had placed for adoption before they were married, when they were not ready to raise a child. He wanted help finding her. Luckily for Mr. Marsh, his thorny problem fit neatly into the premise of a new podcast: 'Heavyweight' was dedicated to ultra-personal quests, confronting regrets and healing resentments. It was hosted by Jonathan Goldstein, a longtime audio journalist who blanketed the show's vulnerability in dry humor. 'This conceit of having this nervous Jewish fellow who has to insert himself into the most sensitive parts in people's lives — it's just entertaining,' said Mr. Marsh, whose episode took almost three years to produce, as (spoiler alert) his family contacted and got to know his sister. 'Heavyweight' was an early hit, reaching No. 1 on Apple Podcasts shortly after its 2016 debut and earning wide critical acclaim. A co-host of the 'Longform' podcast called it 'one of the most compelling and moving things that anyone puts out in media anywhere.' The podcast was canceled by Spotify in 2023, as the audio giant made significant company layoffs. And as more time passed after the final episode of 'Heavyweight' — about stoic twin brothers tracking down their deceased younger brother's pet parrot — it seemed more unlikely the show would return. But on Tuesday, the media company Pushkin Industries, co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell, announced that 'Heavyweight' had joined its podcast network and would release new episodes this year. Pushkin's investment is a bet that narrative audio can still win audiences' hearts, even in a landscape now crowded with year-round interview shows. Though documentary storytelling thrived in the early 2010s, led by 'This American Life' and 'Radiolab,' today the most popular and influential podcasts are lengthy (and easier to produce) interview programs, many released as videos. Some are very lucrative: Alex Cooper, Joe Rogan and the Kelce brothers have turned their chat shows into diversified media empires. 'I listen to a lot of interview shows myself,' Mr. Goldstein said. 'I just feel like there should be a different name. It's unfortunate that they all fall under the banner of 'podcasts,' because what we're doing is more documentary.' Pushkin's deal with 'Heavyweight' does not resemble the kind of eye-popping contracts that make headlines when a top podcaster sells off rights to advertising and distribution, with figures exceeding $100 million or $200 million. Rather it involves making Mr. Goldstein and his two longtime producers full-time employees of Pushkin, with benefits and access to technical, research, legal and operations support. (Advertising and distribution for Pushkin's shows are supported by iHeartPodcasts.) While the deal includes standard revenue-sharing agreements, there was no large advance check cut to Mr. Goldstein, said Gretta Cohn, chief executive of Pushkin. She characterized the arrangement as 'unique' and declined to disclose the show's budget. Mr. Goldstein, now 55 and based in Minneapolis, created 'Heavyweight' with Gimlet Media, a narrative-focused podcast company founded in Brooklyn that Spotify acquired for $230 million in early 2019 — a boom era for podcasts. By 2023, Spotify's podcasting division underwent a 'strategic realignment' as the advertising market faltered. The company laid off 200 people and folded Gimlet into Spotify Studios. Later that year, 'Heavyweight,' which had expanded from focusing on Mr. Goldstein and his circle of family and friends to his listeners, was canceled. Over the next year, Mr. Goldstein spoke to several companies in his search for a new home for 'Heavyweight,' he said — major networks but also, at one point, The Washington Post. While the show has an eager fan base (on Reddit, listeners still swap their 'teariest' episodes), it is complicated to produce, Mr. Goldstein said. Fewer than half of all story leads become full episodes, he said, and each unfolds on a different timetable. 'Heavyweight' hinges on the emotional stakes of confrontation and resolution, which are difficult to capture if, for example, the confronted party refuses to cooperate. Mr. Goldstein said he had briefly considered a subscriber-supported option, like Patreon, but found he lacked interest in running an independent business. He first met Ms. Cohn last year at South by Southwest. An Apple Podcasts executive introduced them at the iHeartPodcast Awards, where Mr. Goldstein was being honored, and where they 'sneakily' watched the actor Kyle MacLachlan tear up a dance floor, Ms. Cohn said. Pushkin did not make an offer until months later. 'The shows are investigative, but they're so intimate,' Ms. Cohn said. 'When you think of investigation, you might think of crime or hard news. He's taking that style and that depth of craft but applying it to human relationships.' Pushkin will benefit financially from the 'Heavyweight' podcast's back catalog and intellectual property potential, Ms. Cohn added. But 'Heavyweight' will also be expected to produce more content. Pushkin anticipates releasing a full 10-episode season late in 2025, after some less intensive episodes this spring. Some of those shorter installments may involve follow-ups of past episodes — like the story of Gregor, a friend of Mr. Goldstein's who carried a yearslong grudge against the musician Moby. Mr. Goldstein said he had also recorded some audio during the hiatus about his experience quitting drinking. 'There was a time when I felt like 'Heavyweight' would release six episodes per year and then kind of call it a day,' Ms. Cohn said. 'That just is not a possibility at this point.'
