near earth objects

A collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2006 DP14 was generated by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., on the night of Feb. 11, 2014.

Delay-Doppler radar imaging revealed that the asteroid is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) long, 660 feet (200 meters) wide, and shaped somewhat like a big peanut. The asteroid’s period of rotation is about six hours. The asteroid is of a type known as a “contact binary” because it has two large lobes on either end that appear to be in contact. Previous radar data from Goldstone and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has shown that at least 10 percent of near-Earth asteroids larger than about 650 feet (200 meters) have contact binary shapes like that of 2006 DP14.

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Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid’s size, shape, rotation state, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than if radar observations weren’t available.

NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the United States has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth objects.

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the nature of: asteroid quakes

In 2010, Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary sciences at MIT, identified a likely explanation: Asteroids orbiting in our solar system’s main asteroid belt, situated between Mars and Jupiter, are exposed to cosmic radiation, changing the chemical nature of their surfaces and reddening them over time. By contrast, Binzel found that asteroids that venture out […]

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Mars-crossers that are also Earth-crossers or grazers

These objects are not catalogued as Mars-crossers in databases such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s online Small-body Database Browser. Instead, they are categorized as Near Earth Objects (NEOs).

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The mammoth asteroid set to fly by Earth last night just disappeared

The most likely explanation is that its orbit was miscalculated. Even with its current whereabouts unknown, the near earth asteroid poses no present danger to Earth — in fact, if anything, its loss indicates that 2000 EM26 is probably further out in space that was originally thought.

The mammoth asteroid set to fly by Earth last night just disappeared

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sagansense:

‘Space Cannon’ To Be Fired Into Asteroid

Japanese craft to fire “space cannon” into asteroid in search for origins of the universe

Japan’s space agency has successfully test-fired a “space cannon” designed to launch a projectile into an asteroid as part of the search for the origins of the universe.

The device will be aboard the Hayabusa-2 space probe that is scheduled to take off in 2014 and rendezvous with an asteroid identified as 1999JU3 that orbits between Earth and Mars in 2018.

Once in position close to the asteroid, the space cannon will detach itself and remotely fire a 4lb metal projectile into the surface of the miniature planet.

“An artificial crater that can be created by the device is expected to be a small one, a few meters in diameter, but … by acquiring samples from the surface that is exposed by the collision, we can get fresh samples that are less weathered by the space environment or heat,” the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a statement.

The mother craft will then land close to the crater and use a small rover to collect samples that would have otherwise been below the surface of the asteroid and return to Earth in late 2020. In all, JAXA scientists say the craft will shadow the 2,950-foot-diameter asteroid for around 18 months.

The project has “the potential to revolutionise our understanding of pristine materials essential to understanding the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life,” JAXA said.

“It can provide important information needed to develop strategies to protect the Earth from potential hazards,” the agency added.

“Moreover, robotic sampling missions to primitive bodies will be pathfinders for … human missions that might use asteroid resources to facilitate human exploration and the development of space.”

Hayabusa-2 is the second project to recover particles from deep space and will build on the success of Hayabusa, which in 2010 gathered surface dust from an asteroid and returned to Earth.

Source: telegraph UK

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