Latest news with #RichardBinzel
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Meteor shower set to peak in early May. Here's what to know.
It's almost time to look up again. What's known as the Eta Aquariid meteor shower is just about to peak. While the meteor shower is known for the display it puts on in the southern hemisphere, it's still capable of dazzling above the equator with a show of about 10 to 30 meteors per hour. The Eta Aquariids appear in May and October of each year, according to What's more this particular meteor shower has a famous "parent." When can you see the shower, and when does it peak? Here's what to know. The Eta Aquariid meteor shower will be active from April 19 to May 28 but people can see the peak of the shower on the mornings of May 5 and 6. It's best to get up super early to see the meteor shower, especially during the peak. The Earthsky website states that people should be looking at the sky in the pre-dawn hours, around 3 a.m. before sunrise. While the peak of the shower is the best time to see the event, stargazers will be able to catch a glimpse of some meteors even when the shower isn't peaking. In a past interview with USA Today Network, Tim Brothers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology technical instructor and observatory manager, told Wicked Local that seeing meteor showers is possible with the naked eye, but with any case of stargazing, it's much better if you're using a good telescope or a pair of binoculars. Meteors are essentially pieces of space rock, which are chunks of big comets, according to Meteor showers are "basically debris from the tails of comets," Richard Binzel, an MIT planetary sciences professor, told Wicked Local in a past interview. The parent comet for the Eta Aquariid meteor shower is the well known, Halley's Comet, which was last viewable from Earth in 1986. Halley's Comet will be back in view from Earth in 2061. This article originally appeared on An Eta Aquariid meteor shower is coming. Here's when it peaks
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Lyrid meteor shower 2025. Here's when the dazzling show peaks
It's one of the oldest known meteor showers and you'll be able to see it as of this week. The Lyrids have been observed annually for about 2,700 years, according to NASA, and now you could be a part of that tradition just by looking up to the sky. The first recorded sighting of a Lyrid meteor shower was in 687 BC by the Chinese, Lyrids are also known for "meteor trains," which are trails of ionized gases that glow for a few seconds after the meteor has passed, according to the website, which added that "Lyrids are known to produce fireballs." The Lyrid meteors come from Comet Thatcher, a comet discovered in 1861 that orbits the sun every 415.5 years. In a past interview with Wicked Local, MIT planetary sciences professor Richard Binzel explained that meteor showers are "basically debris from the tails of comets." Do you want to see the upcoming Lyrid meteor shower? Here's what to know. It will occur starting today, Wednesday, April 16 and will last until April 29, according to which noted, "this time period is when we're passing through the meteor stream in space." The shower will peak on April 21-22, during which stargazers will see the best show. According to EarthSky, "The best time to watch is late evening on April 21 until the moon rises a few hours before dawn on April 22. Then, after the moon rises, place yourself in the moon's shadow." The EarthSky website explained that, "in a dark sky with no moon, you might see 10 to 15 Lyrids per hour" during the weeks that the meteor shower can be seen. But the view can be much more impressive than that. EarthSky added that people should "watch for meteors before the fat crescent moon rises after midnight. The Lyrids are known for uncommon surges that can sometimes bring rates of up to 100 per hour." The Lyrid meteor shower is visible in the northern hemisphere, though it can be seen in the southern hemisphere near where constellation of Lyra is visible. Your best bet for seeing it is to find dark skies away from light pollution. More: These isolated forests in Maine are 'dark skies sanctuaries:' See where In a past interview with Massachusetts Institute of Technology technical Instructor and observatory manager Tim Brothers, he explained that seeing meteor showers is possible with the naked eye, but with any case of stargazing, it's much better if you're using a good telescope or a pair of binoculars. He also explained at the time that moonlight detracts from being able to see astronomical events. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Lyrid meteor shower 2025: Here's the date for when it peaks
Forbes
13-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
‘God Of Chaos' Asteroid: It's Exactly Four Years Until The Rarest Space Event Of Our Lives
Precisely four years from today — on Friday, April 13, 2029 — an asteroid as wide as the Empire State Building is wide will come closer to Earth than orbiting geosynchronous satellites in a very rare event. Apophis will not impact Earth, but could its remarkably close pass store up trouble for the future? If so, the close pass is a chance to gather data critical for humanity's future. Asteroid 99942 Apophis (named for the serpent god of chaos in ancient Egypt) is a 1,100-foot (340-meter) wide space rock that will get to within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of our planet. If Apophis did strike Earth, it could spread devastation across a radius of hundreds of miles, according to killing millions of people if it struck a highly populated metropolitan area. At a gathering of scientists this week in Tokyo, Japan, plans were unveiled during the Apophis T-4 Years Workshop for radar observations before, during and after the approach, with one abstract describing the close encounter as a chance for a 'once-per-thousand-year natural science opportunity.' According to NASA, when Apophis was discovered in 2004, scientists calculated that it might strike Earth in 2029, 2036 or 2068. Its orbit has since been refined a few times, and, as it stands, we're safe — for now. However, it's possible that the gravitational effect on Apophis of Earth on April 29, 2029, could cause it to alter its trajectory slightly and be a danger in the future. So could a chance encounter with another asteroid in deep space. For now, its future trajectory is unknowable, but scientists are certain of one thing — we should use its close pass in 2029 to study it closely. After all, in 2060 or 2068, it could one day live up to its 'God of Chaos' moniker. Asteroid 99942 Apophis (named for the serpent god of chaos in ancient Egypt) is a 1,100-foot (340-meter) wide space rock that will get to within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of our planet. 'On April 13, 2029, all of Earth will be watching,' reads an abstract from Richard Binzel, professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and inventor of the Torino Scale that categorizes the impact hazard of near-Earth objects. 'Apophis will be visible to the naked eye speeding across the evening sky for an estimated two billion people spanning western Europe and western Africa." It already has. In October 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART — the world's first full-scale planetary defense mission — saw a 500kg spacecraft smash into binary asteroid 65803 Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos at 15,000 miles per hour. It successfully changed its orbit slightly, proving that one day, it might be possible to nudge a dangerous asteroid onto a safe trajectory. DART's inspiration? Apophis. The European Space Agency's Rapid Apophis Mission for SEcurity and Safety (RAMSES) mission will likely launch in spring 2028 and reach Apophis in February 2029, just prior to its close encounter with Earth. That will give scientists data on how Apophis interacts with Earth's gravity — 'a rare natural experiment that may not occur again for thousands of years,' according to another abstract — and how it physically changes after the close encounter. NASA's OSIRIS–Apophis Explorer (APEX) mission will rendezvous with Apophis just after it's closely passed Earth in 2029 and orbit it until November 2030 to see how its trajectory changes. One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space. In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's Terms of Service. We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil. Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain: User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in: So, how can you be a power user? Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's Terms of Service.
CNN
25-02-2025
- Science
- CNN
Asteroid 2024 YR4's chances of colliding with Earth drop near zero
Asteroid 2024 YR4, deemed the riskiest asteroid on record last week, now has nearly a zero percent chance of impacting Earth in 2032, according to NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA estimates that the space rock has a 0.0017% chance of hitting Earth in December 2032, while the ESA has a similar risk assessment of 0.002%. That's a 1 in 59,000 possibility of impact, meaning there is a 99.9983% chance that the asteroid will safely zip by Earth in seven years, according to NASA. The agency also shared that the new data suggested that the asteroid had a 1.7% chance of hitting the moon, but those slight odds of impact do not pose a risk to Earth. 'When first discovered, asteroid 2024 YR4 had a very small, but notable chance of impacting our planet in 2032,' the agency shared on Monday. 'As observations of the asteroid continued to be submitted to the Minor Planet Center, experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies were able to calculate more precise models of the asteroid's trajectory and now have found there is no significant potential for this asteroid to impact our planet for the next century. The latest observations have further reduced the uncertainty of its future trajectory, and the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on Dec. 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth.' Over the weekend, the asteroid also dropped to a ranking of 0 out of 10 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, a tool for categorizing potential collisions of space objects with Earth. The ranking indicates 'the likelihood of a collision is zero, or is so low as to be effectively zero. Also applies to small objects such as meteors and bodies that burn up in the atmosphere as well as infrequent meteorite falls that rarely cause damage.' Asteroid 2024 YR4, detected by telescopes on December 27, 2024, is estimated to be 131 to 295 feet (40 to 90 meters) wide, comparable to a large building, and could cause local devastation if it were to collide with our planet. The quick de-escalation of the asteroid's risk assessment is thanks to 'unsung, meticulous work by astronomers' who conducted a steady stream of follow-up observations of the space rock using telescopes across the globe, said Richard Binzel, inventor of the Torino Scale. Binzel is a professor of planetary sciences, joint professor of aerospace engineering and MacVicar Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'I'm pleasantly surprised that we could reduce the probability numbers so quickly,' Binzel said. 'It would not have done anyone any good to have this probability hang around for a long time because it was going to go to zero. The reason I say it was going to go to zero is at the end of the day, the probability is either zero and it misses you, or it's one and it hits you. Any number in between is just the space of your uncertainty. We didn't want us to have to sit in that time and space of uncertainty for months and months.' From record-breaking to nonthreatening Early last week, 2024 YR4 briefly broke a record once reached by the asteroid Apophis after it was first spotted in 2004. At its peak threat level, 2024 YR4 reached a 3 on the Torino Scale and had an estimated 3.1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032, according to NASA. The ESA's observations reached a peak of a 2.8% risk. The narrow difference was due to the two agencies' use of different tools for determining the asteroid's orbit and modeling its potential impact. But both percentages rose above the 2.7% chance of collision once associated with Apophis, making 2024 YR4 the most significant space rock to be spotted within the past two decades. However, as with Apophis, astronomers expected the risk for 2024 YR4 to spike and then fall to zero as they obtained more observational data to reduce uncertainties about the asteroid's path. Measuring 1,148 feet (350 meters) in diameter, Apophis was previously considered one of the most hazardous asteroids, with a chance of hitting our planet and reaching a 4 out of 10 on the Torino Scale. The rating meant that the asteroid merited astronomers' attention and tracking. Apophis reached a 4 because it was a larger object capable of regional damage, while 2024 YR4 garnered a 3 because it would cause local damage, Binzel said. But like 2024 YR4, Apophis also quickly dropped from a 4 to a 0 on the Torino Scale after astronomers spotted archival observations of the asteroid that more precisely clarified its orbit. While Apophis is still set to make a close flyby of Earth in 2029 that will be studied by multiple spacecraft, it poses no risk to Earth within this century. The biggest obstacle astronomers face when trying to determine the risk posed by newly discovered asteroids is calculating the unknowns. In the case of 2024 YR4, that includes the space rock's size as well as its orbit. Observations taken during the dark skies necessary for ground-based telescopes to track faint, small asteroids after February's full moon, which shone brightly in the night sky on February 12, helped astronomers quickly decrease the risk assessment for 2024 YR4. Key telescopes have included the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the Subaru Telescope and Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope North, all located in the Hawaiian Islands, as well as New Mexico's Magdalena Ridge Observatory, the Gemini South Observatory in the Chilean Andes, Arizona's Lowell Discovery Telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands. 'The atmosphere above Maunakea tends to be very stable, and it enables telescopes to produce very sharp images, sharper than most other observatory locations,' said David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, in a statement. The likelihood of 2024 YR4's impact has dropped just in time. Astronomers were concerned because the space rock's trajectory, carrying it away from Earth in a straight line, meant the asteroid would be out of reach of ground-based telescopes in April and wouldn't reappear until June 2028. However, astronomers plan to remain vigilant in observing the space rock to ensure that 2024 YR4 poses no risk, and the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to observe the asteroid in early March to pin down more details about its orbit and exact size.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The riskiest asteroid on record now has near-zero chance of hitting Earth
Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Asteroid 2024 YR4, deemed the riskiest asteroid on record last week, now has nearly a zero percent chance of impacting Earth in 2032, according to NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA estimates that the space rock has a 0.0017% chance of hitting Earth in December 2032, while the ESA has a similar risk assessment of 0.002%. That's a 1 in 59,000 possibility of impact, meaning there is a 99.9983% chance that the asteroid will safely zip by Earth in seven years, according to NASA. The agency also shared that the new data suggested that the asteroid had a 1.7% chance of hitting the moon, but those slight odds of impact do not pose a risk to Earth. 'When first discovered, asteroid 2024 YR4 had a very small, but notable chance of impacting our planet in 2032,' the agency shared on Monday. 'As observations of the asteroid continued to be submitted to the Minor Planet Center, experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies were able to calculate more precise models of the asteroid's trajectory and now have found there is no significant potential for this asteroid to impact our planet for the next century. The latest observations have further reduced the uncertainty of its future trajectory, and the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on Dec. 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth.' Over the weekend, the asteroid also dropped to a ranking of 0 out of 10 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, a tool for categorizing potential collisions of space objects with Earth. The ranking indicates 'the likelihood of a collision is zero, or is so low as to be effectively zero. Also applies to small objects such as meteors and bodies that burn up in the atmosphere as well as infrequent meteorite falls that rarely cause damage.' Asteroid 2024 YR4, detected by telescopes on December 27, 2024, is estimated to be 131 to 295 feet (40 to 90 meters) wide, comparable to a large building, and could cause local devastation if it were to collide with our planet. The quick de-escalation of the asteroid's risk assessment is thanks to 'unsung, meticulous work by astronomers' who conducted a steady stream of follow-up observations of the space rock using telescopes across the globe, said Richard Binzel, inventor of the Torino Scale. Binzel is a professor of planetary sciences, joint professor of aerospace engineering and MacVicar Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'I'm pleasantly surprised that we could reduce the probability numbers so quickly,' Binzel said. 'It would not have done anyone any good to have this probability hang around for a long time because it was going to go to zero. The reason I say it was going to go to zero is at the end of the day, the probability is either zero and it misses you, or it's one and it hits you. Any number in between is just the space of your uncertainty. We didn't want us to have to sit in that time and space of uncertainty for months and months.' Early last week, 2024 YR4 briefly broke a record once reached by the asteroid Apophis after it was first spotted in 2004. At its peak threat level, 2024 YR4 reached a 3 on the Torino Scale and had an estimated 3.1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032, according to NASA. The ESA's observations reached a peak of a 2.8% risk. The narrow difference was due to the two agencies' use of different tools for determining the asteroid's orbit and modeling its potential impact. But both percentages rose above the 2.7% chance of collision once associated with Apophis, making 2024 YR4 the most significant space rock to be spotted within the past two decades. However, as with Apophis, astronomers expected the risk for 2024 YR4 to spike and then fall to zero as they obtained more observational data to reduce uncertainties about the asteroid's path. Measuring 1,148 feet (350 meters) in diameter, Apophis was previously considered one of the most hazardous asteroids, with a chance of hitting our planet and reaching a 4 out of 10 on the Torino Scale. The rating meant that the asteroid merited astronomers' attention and tracking. Apophis reached a 4 because it was a larger object capable of regional damage, while 2024 YR4 garnered a 3 because it would cause local damage, Binzel said. But like 2024 YR4, Apophis also quickly dropped from a 4 to a 0 on the Torino Scale after astronomers spotted archival observations of the asteroid that more precisely clarified its orbit. While Apophis is still set to make a close flyby of Earth in 2029 that will be studied by multiple spacecraft, it poses no risk to Earth within this century. The biggest obstacle astronomers face when trying to determine the risk posed by newly discovered asteroids is calculating the unknowns. In the case of 2024 YR4, that includes the space rock's size as well as its orbit. Observations taken during the dark skies necessary for ground-based telescopes to track faint, small asteroids after February's full moon, which shone brightly in the night sky on February 12, helped astronomers quickly decrease the risk assessment for 2024 YR4. Key telescopes have included the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the Subaru Telescope and Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope North, all located in the Hawaiian Islands, as well as New Mexico's Magdalena Ridge Observatory, the Gemini South Observatory in the Chilean Andes, Arizona's Lowell Discovery Telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands. 'The atmosphere above Maunakea tends to be very stable, and it enables telescopes to produce very sharp images, sharper than most other observatory locations,' said David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, in a statement. The likelihood of 2024 YR4's impact has dropped just in time. Astronomers were concerned because the space rock's trajectory, carrying it away from Earth in a straight line, meant the asteroid would be out of reach of ground-based telescopes in April and wouldn't reappear until June 2028. However, astronomers plan to remain vigilant in observing the space rock to ensure that 2024 YR4 poses no risk, and the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to observe the asteroid in early March to pin down more details about its orbit and exact size.
