Latest news with #near-Earth
22-07-2025
- Science
NASA says a plane-sized asteroid will pass Earth next week. Here's what to know.
A plane-sized asteroid scheduled to pass Earth next week is making headlines, but NASA experts want the public to understand why this encounter is more routine than remarkable. The asteroid is named 2025 OW and measures approximately 210 feet in length, according to NASA. It is set to pass Earth on July 28 at a distance of approximately 393,000 miles -- about 1.6 times the average distance to the Moon, according to the space agency. While it's traveling at an impressive speed of 46,908 miles per hour, NASA scientists emphasize this is normal and nothing to lose sleep over. "This is very routine," Ian J. O'Neill, media relations specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told ABC News. "If there was a threat, you would hear from us. We would always put out alerts on our planetary defense blog." Davide Farnocchia, an asteroid expert at NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), explains that space rocks passing by Earth are just business as usual in our solar system. "Close approaches happen all the time -- it's just part of the fabric of the solar system," Farnocchia told ABC News. His team usually tracks several asteroids passing Earth each week -- as of Tuesday, they're watching five for next week alone. While 2025 OW is large enough to be of interest to NASA scientists, its well-understood orbit means it poses no danger. "We know exactly where it's going to be. We'll probably know where it's going to be for the next 100 years," O'Neill said. For space enthusiasts hoping to catch a glimpse of 2025 OW, Farnocchia indicates it won't be visible with binoculars. However, he points to a more exciting upcoming event: the 2029 approach of asteroid Apophis. "Apophis will come within 38,000 kilometers of Earth in April 2029 -- closer than our geostationary satellites," Farnocchia said. Approximately 1,115 feet in length, and due to its exceptionally close approach, Apophis will be visible to the naked eye, offering a rare opportunity for public observation of an asteroid. Both Farnocchia and O'Neill emphasize that while Earth is struck by roughly 100 tons of space material daily, most of this is harmless dust. Larger, potentially hazardous impacts are extremely rare. "For an object the size of 2025 OW, while close approaches might happen yearly, an actual Earth impact would only occur roughly every 10,000 years," Farnocchia notes. NASA continues to monitor near-Earth objects through its planetary defense programs, maintaining public transparency about any potential risks while emphasizing that most asteroid headlines are more sensational than concerning.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Like finding a tropical seed in Arctic ice': How a surprise mineral could change the history of asteroid Ryugu
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A rogue mineral found in a dust grain from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, which was visited and sampled by the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission in 2020, could upend decades of perceived wisdom about the conditions in which some asteroids formed. The mineral in question is named "djerfisherite" (pronounced juh-fisher-ite) after the American mineralogist Daniel Jerome Fisher, is an iron-nickel sulfide containing potassium. It is typically found on asteroids and in meteorites called "enstatite chondrites." These are quite rare and formed in the inner solar system some 4.6 billion years ago, in temperatures exceeding 662 degrees Fahrenheit (350 degrees Celsius). So, imagine the surprise of researchers, led by planetary scientist Masaaki Miyahara of Hiroshima University in Japan, when they found djerfisherite in a grain sampled from Ryugu — a carbon-rich CI chondrite that instead formed in cooler conditions in the outer solar system. "Its occurrence is like finding a tropical seed in Arctic ice — indicating either an unexpected local environment or long-distance transport in the early solar system," said Miyahara in a statement. As a CI chondrite, Ryugu was thought to have experienced a very different history when compared to enstatite chondrites. Ryugu is believed to have once been part of a larger protoplanet, but was blasted off due to an impact at some point in the solar system's history. Born in the outer solar system, that parent body would have been relatively abundant in water- and carbon dioxide-ice. Enough heat should have also been generated within the body through the radioactive decay of radioisotopes locked up in its rocks — that would've melted the ice. Taking place about 3 million years after the parent body formed, that resulting liquid would have chemically altered Ryugu's composition. But importantly, temperatures from such radioisotopic heating are not expected to have exceeded 122 degrees F (50 degrees Celsius). And yet, somehow, there is a grain of djerfisherite in Ryugu samples. One possibility is the djerfisherite is not native to Ryugu, and is rather connected to the impact of an enstatite chondrite. The alternative is that the djerfisherite formed in situ on Ryugu — but this could only have occurred in potassium-bearing fluids and iron–nickel sulfides at temperatures greater than 662 degrees Fahrenheit. Isotopic data could offer a decent idea as to the origin of the djerfisherite, but that data is currently lacking, so there's no way to say for sure. However, based on their analysis, Miyahara's team leans towards the likelihood that the djerfisherite somehow indeed formed in situ on Ryugu. How the conditions arose to make this possible remains, however? That's a mystery for now. "The discovery of djerfisherite in a Ryugu grain suggests that materials with very different formation histories may have mixed early in the solar system's evolution, or that Ryugu experienced localized, chemically heterogeneous conditions not previously recognized," said Miyahara. "This finding challenges the notion that Ryugu is compositionally uniform and opens new questions about the complexity of primitive asteroids." RELATED STORIES — Asteroid Ryugu holds secrets of our solar system's past, present and future — Japan's priceless asteroid Ryugu sample got 'rapidly colonized' by Earth bacteria — Asteroid Ryugu contains dust older than the solar system Scientists will now be rushing to re-analyze their samples from Ryugu to try and learn whether this discovery of djerfisherite is a one-off, or whether there is more evidence that supports its in-situ formation. In doing so, scientists won't just solve a mystery. They will also come to better understand where and how different minerals formed in the protoplanetary disk around the young sun 4.6 billion years ago, how those minerals subsequently mixed and coalesced to form asteroids and planets, and how subsequent chemical reactions on those bodies produced more minerals. In doing so, they can chart the chemical evolution of the solar system. The discovery of djerfisherite was reported on May 28 in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
Qatar Tribune
29-05-2025
- Science
- Qatar Tribune
China mission to retrieve asteroid samples
Beijing: China launched its first mission to collect rock samples from a near-Earth asteroid early Thursday, aiming to deepen understanding of the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system. The unmanned Tianwen-2 spacecraft successfully took off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in south-west China, according to state news agency Xinhua, citing the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The probe will travel for about one year to reach asteroid 2016 HO3, also called Kamo'oalewa. Upon arrival, it will orbit the asteroid to gain knowledge of the sampling area before collecting material from its surface. The samples are expected to be returned to Earth in a capsule by the end of 2027. (DPA)
Express Tribune
29-05-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
China launches first space mission to retrieve asteroid samples
An artistic concept of Tianwen-2 spacecraft near an asteroid. PHOTO: ORBITAL TODAY WEBSITE Listen to article China embarked on Thursday on its first mission to retrieve samples from a nearby asteroid, with the nighttime launch of its Tianwen-2 spacecraft, set to make the fast-growing space power the third nation to fetch pristine asteroid rocks. The decade-long mission is the latest in recent space efforts that include landing robots on the moon's far side, running a national space station in orbit and investing heavily in plans to send humans to the moon by 2030. The Long March 3B rocket lifted off at about 1:31 a.m. from the Xichang satellite launch center carrying the Tianwen-2 robotic probe. Over the next year it will approach the small near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, which is between 9 million miles and 24 million miles (15 million km and 39 million km) distant. China's official news agency Xinhua confirmed the launch of Tianwen-2, calling it a "complete success". Tianwen-2 is set to reach the asteroid in July 2026 and shoot a capsule packed with rocks back to Earth for a landing in November 2027. Then it will fly to its second target, main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS, on a journey lasting years, as the comet's closest distance to Earth is about 87 million miles. Located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Comet 311P is far closer to the Sun than the region where typical comets originate. The odd location makes it unlikely to have the surface ice of typical comets that, once vaporised, forms their characteristic tails. Tianwen-2 will make in-depth studies of the main features of Kamoʻoalewa and 311P, including possibly the material ejected by the latter, an official of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. Returning samples from Kamo'oalewa will be far more challenging than China's successful lunar missions, mainly because the asteroid's gravity is much lower than that of the moon, making landing and sampling much harder. Japan's Hayabusa, which fetched samples from a small asteroid in 2010, was the world's first such mission, followed by its Ryugu mission of 2019. In 2020, the first US asteroid retrieval mission, OSIRIS-REx, brought back samples from the Bennu asteroid. Kamoʻoalewa is known as a quasi-satellite of Earth, a close celestial neighbour that has orbited the sun for roughly a century, NASA says. Its size is anywhere between 120 feet and 300 feet (40 m and 100 m). Tianwen-2's predecessor, Tianwen-1, another uncrewed spacecraft launched in 2020, was China's first mission to Mars, successfully landing on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia after a six-month journey. China is already planning its third interplanetary mission, Tianwen-3, scheduled tentatively for 2028, which could make it the first country to retrieve samples from Mars. Last month CNSA announced payload capacity of 20 kg (44 lb) for foreign countries and research institutions aboard the orbiter and lander that will explore the red planet.
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First Post
29-05-2025
- Science
- First Post
China launches mission to retrieve asteroid samples
China has launched its Tianwen-2 spacecraft to collect samples from the asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and to return them by 2027. read more China has launched the Tianwen-2 spacecraft on a mission to collect samples from the asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, with plans to return them to Earth by 2027. (Photo: Space News) China on Wednesday embarked on its first mission to retrieve samples from a nearby asteroid with the nighttime launch of its Tianwen-2 spacecraft, a robotic probe that could make the fast-growing space power the third nation to fetch pristine asteroid rocks. China's Long March 3B rocket lifted off around 1:31 a.m. local time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying the Tianwen-2 spacecraft, which over the next year will approach the small near-Earth asteroid named 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, some 10 million miles away. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Chinese state media Xinhua confirmed the launch of Tianwen-2 and dubbed it a 'complete success.' Tianwen-2 is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in July 2026 and shoot a capsule packed with rocks back to Earth for a landing in November 2027. The mission is the latest example of China's swiftly expanding space programs, a streak of cosmic achievements in recent years that includes landing robots on the far side of the moon, running its own national space station in orbit and investing heavily in plans to send humans to the lunar surface by 2030. Japan's Hayabusa that fetched samples from a small asteroid in 2010 marked the world's first such mission. Japan did it again in 2019 with its Ryugu mission, followed by the first U.S. asteroid retrieval mission, OSIRIS-REx, that brought back samples from the Bennu asteroid in 2020. Kamoʻoalewa, the target asteroid for Tianwen-2, is known as a quasi-satellite of Earth, a close celestial neighbor that has orbited the sun for roughly a century, according to NASA. Its size is anywhere between 120 feet (40 meters) and 300 feet (100 meters). (Except headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff) STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
