NASA captures new images of large asteroid passing Earth

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2011) — NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. has captured new radar images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 passing close to Earth.

The asteroid safely will safely fly past our planet slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this size will be in 2028.

The image was taken on Nov. 7 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the asteroid was approximately 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers) away from Earth. Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid began at Goldstone at 9:30 a.m. PDT on Nov. 4 with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna and lasted about two hours, with an additional four hours of tracking planned each day from Nov. 6 -- 10.

Radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin Nov. 8, the same day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST (6:28 p.m. EST/1128 UTC).

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) as measured from the center of Earth, or about 0.85 times the distance from the moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on Earth, including tides and tectonic plates. Although the asteroid is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth, Venus and Mars, the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest it has come for at least the last 200 years.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes some of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The new radar images are online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/multimedia/yu55-20111107.html .

For more information about asteroids and near-Earth objects, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch .

More information about asteroid radar research is available online at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

For more information about NASA's Deep Space Network, visit: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

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Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mission to Mars is Stuck in Earth Orbit After Engines Fail to Fire

Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mission to Mars is Stuck in Earth Orbit After Engines Fail to Fire | Popular Science@import "/files/css/a1c433465f8fe485195cb11d70c36108.css";@import "/files/css/33f6b7ecb4513ed2fe6c670880a27187.css"; home Login/Register Newsletter Subscribe RSS GadgetsComputersCamerasSmartphonesVideo GamesCarsConceptsHybridsElectric CarsScienceFuture of the EnvironmentEnergyHealthTechnologyMilitaryAviationSpaceRobotsEngineeringDIYProjectsHacksToolsAuto DIYMore From Our Partner: Toolmonger GalleriesVideosColumnsThe GrouseSex FilesGreen Dream Innovation ChallengesHow It WorksFeatures Tweet Digg Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mission to Mars is Stuck in Earth Orbit After Engines Fail to Fire Engineers have three days to save the craft before its batteries run out By Clay Dillow Posted 11.09.2011 at 10:45 am 20 Comments
Phobos-Grunt and Upper Stage A model of the Phobos-Grunt probe with its upper state MKonair on Flickr

A day after the successful launch of the Phobos-Grunt probe from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian mission handlers are already scrambling to save their spacecraft from the fate that has befallen so many Russian Mars missions. Phobos-Grunt found orbit yesterday but then failed to fire the engines that would put it on a path for the Martian moon Phobos. The probe is now stuck in Earth orbit, and engineers have three days to fix the problem before the batteries run out.

Problems for the multi-year mission arose almost immediately after the spacecraft was dropped into elliptical orbit eleven minutes after launching. The orientation system was supposed to use the stars to turn itself toward Phobos, then initiate two firings of the huge cruise stage attached to the spacecraft that would first lift it from orbit and then set it on a path toward Phobos.

None of this happened.

Related ArticlesRussian Probe Launches Today, Heading to Mars' Runt MoonRussian Progress Cargo Spacecraft Crashes in Eastern Russia After Failing to Find OrbitKremlin's Favorite Innovator Pushes Dubious Science, Russian Researchers SayTagsTechnology, Clay Dillow, Mars, phobos, phobos-grunt, roscosmos, russian space agency, Space, space scienceHowever, all is not yet lost. “I would not say it’s a failure,” Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin told the media. “It’s a non-standard situation, but it is a working situation.”

Engineers are now racing against the clock the get Phobos-Grunt back online. If it’s a software glitch causing the problem, new commands can be uploaded and it’s likely the mission could be saved. But if it’s a hardware problem, the entire mission might be doomed before it gets out of Earth orbit.

Phobos-Grunt isn’t just Russia’s most ambitious space project in years, but the largest interplanetary science mission ever devised (after Cassini-Huygens) at more than 14 tons. The spacecraft is also carrying Yinghuo-1, China’s first Mars satellite. If lost, Phobos-Grunt would be something like the 16th Mars-related mission sent by Russia to the Red Planet since the ‘60s. None of the previous have completed their mission objectives.

[BBC]

Previous Article: Video: A Steerable Remote 'Telexistence' Robot that Transmits Sight, Sound, and Touch to the OperatorNext Article: New Super-Black Material Absorbs 99 Percent of All Light That Dares to Strike It 20 Comments Link to this comment scientific anomaly 11/09/11 at 10:58 am

told you so

-Knock knock
-Who's there?
-The Doctor.
-Doctor Who?
-Yes

Link to this comment lawsonrw 11/09/11 at 11:10 am

And these are the guys we're relying on to get our astronauts and equipment to space? Give me a break!

Link to this comment pheonix1012 11/09/11 at 11:17 am

Damn! Now we'll never get those microbes onto Phobos. Roscosmos has really gotta step it's game up. We're relying on them to send astronauts into LEO. If they got software and hardware issues this will spell disaster for future manned flights.

Link to this comment shutterpod 11/09/11 at 11:26 am

Lets hope they get it working...

Link to this comment Delkomatic 11/09/11 at 11:34 am

haha
Only thing good about Russia is the women

Link to this comment pheonix1012 11/09/11 at 11:36 am

I don't care how many unmanned vehicles they bust up. The one thing I don't want to wake up to is the news of several people dying on another launch or re-entry attempt.

Spaceflight advocacy is already at an all time low. The death of a few more astronauts will be just enough to kill support of human spaceflight all together.

Roscosmos needs to get their s### right if we're going to trust them with the lives of scientists, engineers, and technicians bound for space (this includes their own countrymen).

Link to this comment pheonix1012 11/09/11 at 11:37 am

@Delkomatic

I've heard Ukraine is where it's at.

Link to this comment pioneer10 11/09/11 at 11:39 am

There was a time I was only too happy to hear of yet another Russian Mars Mission failure. Mars96 was the first time I instead felt sympathy. Now, I feel as anxious as any of them to hear word that the mission, or any part of it can continue successfully. C'mon comrades, you can do it!

Link to this comment JediMindset 11/09/11 at 12:19 pm

lol im sorry i just had to laugh.

@Delkomatic, pheonix1012

yep you gotta love east European women!!

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

Link to this comment pheonix1012 11/09/11 at 12:32 pm

@JediMindset

Actually, I'm more into middle-eastern and latin women. Thing of beauty.

Link to this comment Grunt 11/09/11 at 1:07 pm

I like to see the next USA probe that lands on Mars or even orbit Mars to possess a high power laser. Each time Russia shots off another probe to Mars, we power up the old laser and zap into crash landing. They are so used to messing up their probes; they never suspect it was us, lol.
Ooops, I have said to much.

Link to this comment rg-5 11/09/11 at 1:32 pm

Go suck your Bawls JediMindSh'I't

Link to this comment Aldrons Last Hope 11/09/11 at 2:33 pm

@Grunt, you probably just revealed the plan for space dominance D'oh!!

I was worried that it would get lost on the way to Mars, kind of a non-issue now :-/

Link to this comment aarontco 11/09/11 at 3:09 pm

For the sake of science, I hope they grunt this little guy out of earth orbit and onto phobos. I have been envious for some time about the prospect of the Russians being the first nation to return materials from a martian moon. It should have been NASA, but our program can't do everything, and often has its priorities completely mixed up.

A phobos landing is another step toward becoming an interplanetary species, so let's hope they get lucky and succeed.

Link to this comment gizmowiz 11/09/11 at 5:45 pm

It's a shame mankind waste money on space when were not involved enough yet to dare show our faces to other civilizations anywhere. Mankind has a long way to go back here on planet earth which is where we need to focus our energies. NASA should be focusing on deep sea ventures instead.

Link to this comment JediMindset 11/09/11 at 6:50 pm

@pheonix1012
yep also Asian and African. come to think about it, i love them all!!

@rg-5
why do you say such mean things?

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

Link to this comment Robot 11/09/11 at 7:03 pm

Probes are wonderful. ;)

Link to this comment prime2011 11/09/11 at 9:36 pm

Eventually we will develop AI to be able to resolve much of these issues by itself, saving us poor humans the headache of going through reams of code trying to figure out where the glitch is. A AI could intercept a issue and attempt to make adjustments on the fly to correct issues, even re-programming aspects of itself.

The AI I am talking about is proper AI, like perhaps that on 2001 space odyssey but without the talking and irrational behaviour :)

Link to this comment Raynre 11/09/11 at 10:54 pm

Isn't this something like the third failed Russian launch in as many months?

And we rely on them to get our astronauts into orbit. So comforting...

Link to this comment lyls14 11/10/11 at 12:04 am

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Planet-sized object as cool as Earth revealed in record-breaking photo

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2011) — The photo of a nearby star and its orbiting companion -- whose temperature is like a hot summer day in Arizona -- will be presented by Penn State Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kevin Luhman during the Signposts of Planets conference at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on Oct. 20, 2011.

A paper describing the discovery will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

"This planet-like companion is the coldest object ever directly photographed outside our solar system," said Luhman, who led the discovery team. "Its mass is about the same as many of the known extra-solar planets -- about six to nine times the mass of Jupiter -- but in other ways it is more like a star. Essentially, what we have found is a very small star with an atmospheric temperature about cool as the Earth's."

Luhman classifies this object as a "brown dwarf," an object that formed just like a star out of a massive cloud of dust and gas. But the mass that a brown dwarf accumulates is not enough to ignite thermonuclear reactions in its core, resulting in a failed star that is very cool. In the case of the new brown dwarf, the scientists have gauged the temperature of its surface to be between 80 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit -- possibly as cool as a human.

Ever since brown dwarfs first were discovered in 1995, astronomers have been trying to find new record holders for the coldest brown dwarfs because these objects are valuable as laboratories for studying the atmospheres of planets with Earth-like temperatures outside our solar system.

Astronomers have named the brown dwarf "WD 0806-661 B" because it is the orbiting companion of an object named "WD 0806-661" -- the "white dwarf" core of a star that was like the Sun until its outer layers were expelled into space during the final phase of its evolution. "The distance of this white dwarf from the Sun is 63 light years, which is very near our solar system compared with most stars in our galaxy," Luhman said.

"The distance of this white dwarf from its brown-dwarf companion is 2500 astronomical units (AU) -- about 2500 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, so its orbit is very large as compared with the orbits of planets, which form within a disk of dust swirling close around a newborn star," said Adam Burgasser at the University of California, San Diego, a member of the discovery team. Because it has such a large orbit, the astronomers say this companion most probably was born in the same manner as binary stars, which are known to be separated as far apart as this pair, while remaining gravitationally bound to each other.

Luhman and his colleagues presented this new candidate for the coldest known brown dwarf in a paper published in spring 2011, and they now have confirmed its record-setting cool temperature in a new paper that will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

To make their discovery, Luhman and his colleagues searched through infrared images of over six hundred stars near our solar system. They compared images of nearby stars taken a few years apart, searching for any faint points of light that showed the same motion across the sky as the targeted star. "Objects with cool temperatures like the Earth are brightest at infrared wavelengths," Luhman said. "We used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope because it is the most sensitive infrared telescope available."

Luhman and his team discovered the brown dwarf WD 0806-661 B moving in tandem with the white dwarf WD 0806-661 in two Spitzer images taken in 2004 and 2009. The images, which together show the movement of the objects, are available online (http://science.psu.edu/alert/photos/research-photos/astro/Luhman-moving-labels.gif). "This animation is a fun illustration of our technique because it resembles the method used to discovery Pluto in our own solar system," Luhman said.

In a related new discovery involving a different cool brown dwarf, Penn State Postdoctoral Scholar John Bochanski and his colleagues have made the most detailed measurement yet of ammonia in the atmosphere of an object outside our solar system. "These new data are much higher quality that previously achieved, making it possible to study, in much more detail than ever before, the atmospheres of the coldest brown dwarfs, which most closely resemble the atmospheres that are possible around planets," Bochanski said.

"Brown dwarfs that are far from their companion stars are much easier to study than are planets, which typically are difficult to observe because they get lost in the glare of the stars they orbit," Burgasser said. "Brown dwarfs with Earth-like temperatures allow us to refine theories about the atmospheres of objects outside our solar system that have comparatively cool atmospheres like that of our own planet."

This research was sponsored by grants from the National Science Foundation and the NASA Astrophysics Theory Program.

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Scientists discover way to determine when water was present on Mars and Earth

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) — The discovery of the mineral jarosite in rocks analyzed by the Mars Rover, Opportunity, on the Martian surface had special meaning for a team of Syracuse University scientists who study the mineral here on Earth. Jarosite can only form in the presence of water. Its presence on Mars means that water had to exist at some point in the past. The trick is in figuring out if jarosite can be used as a proxy for determining when, and under what conditions, water was present on the planet.

The SU scientists have done just that. In a recent study published in an October issue issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Suzanne Baldwin, professor of Earth Sciences in SU's College of Arts and Sciences; and Joseph Kula, research associate and corresponding author for the study, established the "diffusion parameters" for argon in jarosite. In simpler terms, they discovered a way to use the noble gas argon, which accumulates in jarosite over time, to determine the age of the mineral and the surface conditions under which it formed.

The new study is the first in a series of experiments designed to provide a roadmap of sorts for scientists who may someday study Martian samples brought back to Earth. "Our experiments indicate that over billion-year timescales and at surface temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) or colder, jarosite will preserve the amount of argon that has accumulated since the crystal formed," Kula says, "which simply means that jarosite is a good marker for measuring the amount of time that has passed since water was present on Mars."

Moreover, since the development of life requires water, knowing when and for how long water was present on the Martian surface has implications for the search for potential habitats harboring life, the scientists say. "Jarosite requires water for its formation, but dry conditions for its preservation," Baldwin says. "We'd like to know when water formed on the surface of Mars and how long it was there. Studying jarosite may help answer some of these questions."

Jarosite is a byproduct of the weathering of rocks exposed at the surface of a planet (such as Earth and Mars). The mineral forms when the right mixture of oxygen, iron, sulfur, potassium and water is present. Once formed, the crystals begin to accumulate argon, which is produced when certain potassium isotopes in the crystals decay. Potassium decay is a radioactive process that occurs at a known rate. By measuring the isotopes of argon trapped within the crystals, scientists can determine the age of the crystals.

However, because argon is a gas, it can potentially escape rapidly from the crystals under hot conditions or slowly over long durations at cold conditions. In order to determine the reliability of the "argon clock" in jarosite, the scientists had to determine the temperature limits to which the crystals could be subjected and still retain the argon. Using a combination of experiments and computer modeling, the team found that argon remains trapped inside the crystals for long periods of time over a range of planetary surface temperatures.

"Our results suggest that 4 billion-year-old jarosite will preserve its argon and, along with it, a record of the climate conditions that existed at the time it formed," Baldwin says. The scientists are in the process of conducting further studies on jarosite that formed less than 50 million years ago in the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming, which they hope will reveal when the minerals formed and how fast environmental conditions changed from water-saturated to dry. The results can be used as a context for interpreting findings on other planets.

Baldwin and Kula are members of the NASA-funded New York Center for Astrobiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. The center is one of 10 such centers nationally that are part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, located at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Their jarosite research is funded by NASA.

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Journal Reference:

Joseph Kula, Suzanne L. Baldwin. Jarosite, argon diffusion, and dating aqueous mineralization on Earth and Mars. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2011; 310 (3-4): 314 DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.08.006

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Germany's ROSAT Satellite Could Come Crashing Down Somewhere On Earth As Soon As Friday

Germany's ROSAT Satellite Could Come Crashing Down Somewhere On Earth As Soon As Friday | Popular Science@import "/files/css/1857af3413d9ad8bd2f9d3926af8ec39.css";@import "/files/css/33f6b7ecb4513ed2fe6c670880a27187.css"; home Login/Register Newsletter Subscribe RSS GadgetsComputersCamerasSmartphonesVideo GamesCarsConceptsHybridsElectric CarsScienceFuture of the EnvironmentEnergyHealthPopSci Eco TourTechnologyMilitaryAviationSpaceRobotsEngineeringDIYProjectsHacksToolsAuto DIYMore From Our Partner: Toolmonger GalleriesVideosColumnsThe GrouseSex FilesGreen Dream Innovation ChallengesHow It WorksFeatures Tweet Digg Germany's ROSAT Satellite Could Come Crashing Down Somewhere On Earth As Soon As Friday By Clay Dillow Posted 10.19.2011 at 11:59 am 6 Comments
ROSAT Artist's rendering. German Aerospace Center View Photo Gallery

If you’re feeling lucky after NASA’s UARS satellite fell safely from orbit into the middle of the Pacific--rather than into the middle of Portland--let’s hope your luck doesn’t run out. The German Aerospace Center says the retired ROSAT satellite’s orbit is rapidly decaying, and pieces of it could start falling from the sky as early as Friday and up until Monday. That should make for an exciting weekend.

The 2.69-ton ROSAT is roughly the size of a minivan, and though parts of it will burn up in the atmosphere upon reentry, experts think as many as 30 pieces will survive the plunge to Earth. There’s no telling where they might land, of course, and pretty much every bit of real estate between 53 degrees north and 53 degrees south is a candidate landing zone.

See our gallery of the space race's greatest falls to Earth. (List compiled by Jonathan's Space Report.)

Related ArticlesNASA's Falling UARS Satellite Found in Remote South PacificSolar Storm Turns Communication Satellite to an Out-of-Control 'Zombiesat'As Zombiesat Approaches, Other Satellites Have to Flee Along Intricate PathsTagsTechnology, Clay Dillow, falling satellites, german aerospace center, rosat, satellites, SpaceThat landing will be rough. ROSAT rings the Earth once every 90 minutes. Its reentry speed will be some 17,400 miles per hour, though it will slow considerably as it enters the atmosphere. Moreover, it won’t land in any one place. When UARS returned to Earth last month, two dozen pieces are believed to have scattered across a 500-mile swath of ocean. If ROSAT were to come down upon a populated land area, the impact points would be many.

But remain calm. The odds of that happening are very slim. In fact, the likelihood of someone somewhere on Earth being struck by a piece of ROSAT has been roughly calculated to 1-in-2,000--slightly higher than the odds with UARS because there are more and larger pieces coming down this time. But spread those already-long odds among the billions of people living between 53 degrees north and 53 degrees south, and your personal odds of being struck down by space debris are more like 1-in-14 trillion.

[AP]

Previous Article: Smartphone Accelerometers Could Be Used To Eavesdrop On Nearby DevicesNext Article: European Alternative to GPS Lifts Off Tomorrow From South America, Via Russian Rocket 6 Comments Link to this comment Sprite 10/19/11 at 12:58 pm

Another one bites the dust! Hey! Hey!

Link to this comment Grunt 10/19/11 at 2:15 pm

Interesting side note of hacking, and so on....

Allegations of cyber-attacks causing the failureIn 2008, NASA investigators were reported to have found that the ROSAT failure was linked to a cyber-intrusion at Goddard Space Flight Center. This was also reported through Bruce Schneier's blog, a highly-regarded commentary on IT security issues.

The root of this allegation is a 1999 advisory report by Thomas Talleur, senior investigator for cyber-security at NASA. This advisory is reported to describe a series of attacks from Russia that reached computers in the X-ray Astrophysics Section (i.e. ROSAT's) at Goddard, and took control of computers used for the control of satellites, not just a passive "snooping" attack. The advisory stated:

"Hostile activities compromised [NASA] computer systems that directly and indirectly deal with the design, testing, and transferring of satellite package command-and-control codes."

The advisory is further reported as claiming that the ROSAT incident was "coincident with the intrusion" and that, "Operational characteristics and commanding of the ROSAT were sufficiently similar to other space assets to provide intruders with valuable information about how such platforms are commanded,". Without public access to the advisory, it is obviously impossible to comment in detail. However it does seem to describe a real intrusion, there is a plausible "no attack" explanation for ROSAT's failure, and the report is claimed to link the two incidents as no more than "coincident". IT security remains a significant issue for NASA, other systems including the Earth Observing System having also been attacked.

Link to this comment JediMindset 10/19/11 at 3:02 pm

@Grunt,
wtf are you talking about.

on a serious note, i hope a piece lands on my lawn.

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

Link to this comment Grunt 10/19/11 at 3:24 pm

JediMindset,
Fair question, I found the above information near the bottom of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROSAT

I was just adding more interesting information to this article, other than another satellite falls down.

Link to this comment JediMindset 10/19/11 at 5:07 pm

@Grunt,

ohhh ok. thanks for the information.

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

Link to this comment Grunt 10/21/11 at 8:08 am

I hoped bringing up the hacking would inspire more conversation. I guess it did not help.

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October 2011: The Search for Alien Life

This month, we examine all the ways we're looking for extraterrestrial life, within our solar system and beyond.

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