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As it readies its constellation of <keyword id="21665619" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Earth-observation-satellites" source="keywords">Earth observation satellites</keyword>, <keyword id="22385578" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru-based-startup" source="keywords">Bengaluru-based startup</keyword> <keyword id="22317867" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pixxel-Space" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Pixxel Space" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Pixxel Space">Pixxel Space</keyword> has plans to map the Moon and <keyword id="20578027" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroids" source="keywords">asteroids</keyword>, and look for materials required to build settlements in outer space. In an interaction with PTI editors at the agency's headquarters here, Pixxel Space co-founder and CEO Awais Ahmed spelt out the long-term plans of the startup and these include exploration of asteroids with the intention of finding building materials or possible <keyword id="22407481" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fuel-sources" source="keywords">fuel sources</keyword> for future settlements in space. "We are building hyper-spectral cameras that look at the Earth. The same cameras can be turned outwards to look at other objects in space. We can send these spacecraft to the Moon, <keyword id="19901192" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars" source="keywords">Mars</keyword> or the asteroid belt, and build a map of the solar system," Ahmed said. He said the startup would also like to place satellites in orbits around the Moon -- cis-lunar orbits -- to explore the Earth's only natural satellite in greater detail. "We can go between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt and identify which of these asteroids are stunning and useless, and which of them have certain precious materials that can be useful in space," Ahmed said. Satellites can look for ice on asteroids which can be used as fuel by splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen, and can also be stored as water, he said. "So, when humanity expands towards space it does not make sense to mine all of that material from Earth when there's so much more material actually available in space," ahmed said. He said Elon Musk's SpaceX was building railroads for the space revolution, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and others were building habitats for space. "We want to be the ones to provide the material to sort of make it all happen. But very long term vision," Ahmed said. Pixxel Space plans to launch six hyper-spectral satellites later this year as part of its constellation to map the Earth in greater detail. Another 18 satellites are slated for launch next year that will complete the Bengaluru-based startup's constellation in low Earth orbit.

Bengaluru-based Pixxel Space plans to mine asteroids for building settlements in space

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dinosaur-fossil-from-day-extinction-asteroid-hit-earth-scientists-claim-2022-4">asteroid that killed</a> most dinosaurs 66 million years ago left behind traces of its own origin.</li><li>Researchers think they know where the Chicxulub impactor came from based on levels of ruthenium.</li></ul>A team of researchers think they know the origin of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-impact-triggered-underwater-volcanic-eruptions-2018-2">massive space rock</a> that hit Earth and killed off almost all the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.Their findings could help NASA in its search for potentially hazardous asteroids that pose a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mass-extinction-earth-take-10-million-years-recover-2019-4">significant threat</a> to life on Earth.Asteroids have different chemical makeups depending on where they formed in our solar system.To determine the dino-killing asteroid's origin, researchers examined the various elements in samples taken from several locations dating to the time of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mass-extinction-earth-take-10-million-years-recover-2019-4">mass extinction</a>.In particular, they looked at the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oppenheimer-science-to-understand-physics-atomic-bombs-2023-7">element ruthenium</a>. It's a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/44/ruthenium">rare</a> metal on Earth but is more abundant in asteroids.Ruthenium levels can be a good indicator of whether an asteroid "originally formed in the outer solar system or in the inner solar system," Mario Fischer-Gödde, one of the researchers, told Business Insider.Fischer-Gödde and his colleagues found that, unlike many other impactors over the last 541 million years, the Chicxulub impactor that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-strike-cretaceous-paleogene-extinction-2017-11">killed the dinosaurs</a> and up to 75% of all life on Earth formed in the outer — not the inner — solar system.However, the impactor likely made its way to the inner solar system in the asteroid belt long before it hurtled toward Earth. That's because in the early days of the solar system, Jupiter migrated and its gravitational influence scattered more distant asteroids closer to the sun in the process, Fischer-Gödde said.<h2 id="42437828-e838-4325-833b-b21d3ef96f61">NASA doesn't know where all the dangerous asteroids are</h2><div type="image" title="A stegosaurus skeleton in front of a sign that reads &quot;Apex the Segosaurs&quot;" height="683" width="1024" msid="112576306" hostid="261" sizebytes="48450"></div>Despite the rarity of huge asteroid strikes, NASA and other space agencies are racing to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-built-largest-digital-camera-lsst-for-asteroids-dark-matter-2024-4">learn all they can</a> about potentially harmful rocks that could trigger another mass extinction event. Because it only takes one.There are still many unknowns about these rocks, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">where some of them are</a> and which types may pose the most threat.Understanding more about the origin of major asteroid strikes in Earth's past could help NASA know where to look for future risks.With the ruthenium findings, "we are a step further in zooming in on the exact object" that created the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-more-sulfur-rapid-climate-cooling-2017-11">Chicxulub crater</a>, Jan Smit, a professor emeritus at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider via email.<h2 id="bbfbaaec-0fb8-4e72-a632-37f1006840ab">An asteroid type that rarely hits Earth did unbelievable damage</h2><div type="image" title="An artist's illustration of a massive asteroid colliding with Earth" height="1414" width="2121" msid="112576307" hostid="261" sizebytes="186530"></div>Fischer-Gödde and his colleagues examined samples from five <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulation-experts-fear-congress-would-delay-action-2024-6">other impacts</a> that happened in the last 541 million years.Their levels of ruthenium showed that most of the objects were S-type asteroids, which are found in the inner solar system.Meanwhile, the samples taken from the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, where the Chicxulub impactor hit, suggested that the object was a C-type asteroid, which typically live in the outer solar system.Earlier studies <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=d979a6041b8f5d7121d348980127dd645a72bea6c355d8e6bd6ce429583ce309&amp;postID=66be5b0fb9a365362651ba40&amp;postSlug=origins-asteroid-killed-dinosaurs-help-prevent-future-mass-extinction-2024-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2F24322">suggested</a> the Chicxulub impactor was a C-type asteroid but this latest ruthenium data adds to the supporting evidence, Smit told BI.About 80% of the meteorites that have hit Earth are fragments of S-type asteroids, Fischer-Gödde said.It's not clear why S-type impactors are more common, but Fischer-Gödde thinks it might be that C-types tend to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-asteroid-couldnt-stop-impact-europe-2021-5">break apart more</a> and don't make it through the Earth's atmosphere."So far we cannot really say whether one or the other asteroid type would be more likely to cause a mass extinction event," Fischer-Gödde said in a follow-up email. He said asteroids may have contributed to older mass extinction events, like the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=31f1c3e012df1524f07e36095b624c954adf7b450ab4f9552ae32e03b640b8fe&amp;postID=66be5b0fb9a365362651ba40&amp;postSlug=origins-asteroid-killed-dinosaurs-help-prevent-future-mass-extinction-2024-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fmass-extinction">one</a> during the Late Devonian period. Future research could explain the origins of these asteroid strikes as well.However, the devastation from the Chicxulub impactor shows that a C-type can be disastrous for Earth. It was a combination of factors, from its size to where it hit, that led to its widespread destruction."It's a big kind of cosmic coincidence, and we all should be thankful for this because otherwise maybe the planet would look very different nowadays," Fischer-Gödde said.The researchers published their findings in the journal <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk4868">Science</a>.

Scientists think they've found the origin of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. It could help prevent a future mass extinction on Earth.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers have uncovered fragments of a 6-foot-wide <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> that struck <keyword id="6489982" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="botswana">Botswana</keyword> in 2018.</li><li>According to a new study of those fragments, the <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rock originated from the <keyword id="1898611" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Asteroid-belt">asteroid belt</keyword>.</li><li>Scientists estimate the asteroid's journey across the solar system took nearly 23 million years. </li></ul>In the early hours of June 2, 2018, astronomers at the University of Arizona saw a faint dot of light moving across the sky.It was an asteroid, which loomed larger and larger as it approached Earth. A few hours later, the 6-foot-wide space rock - named 2018 LA - caught fire as it roared through the atmosphere at a blistering <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tiny-asteroid-discovered-saturday-disintegrates-hours-later-over-southern-africa">38,000 miles per hour</a>. It broke into tiny fragments that rained down across Botswana.A group of researchers raced to the end of that fireball's path to hunt for the rare fragments, since they held clues about the asteroid's origins. "This is only the second time we have spotted an asteroid in space before it hit Earth over land," Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, said <a href="https://www.seti.org/press-release/asteroid-hit-botswana-2018-likely-came-vesta">in a press release</a>.Jenniskens' team eventually found 23 pieces of the asteroid in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve. According to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/maps.13653">a new study</a> from the group, an analysis of those fragments showed that 2018 LA was actually a piece of a larger asteroid called <keyword id="1370560" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vesta">Vesta</keyword>, which is the brightest and second-largest asteroid in our solar system. By dating the elements inside the asteroid fragments, Jenniskens' team determined that the space rock had been traveling for nearly 23 million years after it broke off Vesta.<h2>'A national treasure of Botswana'</h2><div type="image" title="vesta fragment botswana 2018 LA" height="1908" width="1264" msid="82343666" hostid="261"></div>Jenniskens' team almost struck out in their first hunt for asteroid fragments. But five days in, on their last day searching in the game reserve, the group found their first meteorite just 100 feet from their camp. (Asteroids that reach Earth's surface are called <a href="https://meteorites.asu.edu/meteorites/meteorite-origins" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meteorites</a>.)It was just over an inch long and weighed 18 grams, he said. "The meteorite is named 'Motopi Pan' after a local watering hole," Mohutsiwa Gabadirwe, a researcher from the Botswana Geoscience Institute who co-authored the study, said in the release. "This meteorite is a national treasure of Botswana."During a second expedition in October 2018, the team found the other 22 meteorite pieces.<div type="image" title="asteroid belt vega" height="585" width="1041" msid="82343667" hostid="261"></div>The researchers analyzed the metal content and make-up of those fragments, and determined that they belong to a class of meteorites called Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) meteorites. This whole group likely originated from Vesta, in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.According to the study authors, one-third of all HED meteorites found on Earth broke off of Vesta nearly 23 million years ago, when it was struck by another space object. They think that's true of this asteroid, too.<div type="image" title="asteroid vesta" height="1001" width="1334" msid="82343669" hostid="261"></div>The fragments' composition also offers hints about Vesta's violent past. An examination of the minerals inside Motopi Pan suggest the rock melted and reformed twice: 4.6 billion years ago then 4.2 billion years ago. "Billions of years ago, two giant impacts on Vesta created a family of larger, more dangerous asteroids," Jenniskens said. "The newly recovered meteorites gave us a clue on when those impacts might have happened."

A small asteroid that hit Botswana took 23 million years to get here from the asteroid belt, astronomers found

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA successfully launched a probe headed for an asteroid that may be worth $10 quintillion.</li><li>The outer-world body is composed of metals such as gold, nickel, and iron.</li></ul>A NASA spacecraft is en route toward an asteroid believed to be brimming with an astronomical amount of metal riches.The space agency successfully launched a probe Friday morning, carried by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It is on a nearly six-year journey, with the "Psyche" spacecraft expected to reach the Main Asteroid Belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, in 2029.Once there, it will orbit the asteroid for 26 months, studying and photographing the body to learn its history and mineral composition.The 176-mile-wide asteroid, which is called 16 Psyche, has piqued interest on Earth. The celestial body is believed to be composed of high-value commodities such as platinum, gold, nickel, and iron. Altogether, estimates have valued 16 Psyche's ore at <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/asteroid-psyche-iron-nickel-gold-nasa-10-quintillion-metals-spacex-2023-7">around $10 quintillion</a>. To be sure, NASA's aim in reaching the asteroid is for scientific observation, not commercial mining. Scientists have suggested the asteroid may be the exposed core of an ancient planet, or a primal mash-up of early minerals that came together at the start of the solar system, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67099605" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC reports</a>.But excitement over 16 Psyche's mineral composition also puts focus on the blossoming commercial potential of space, with asteroid mining seen as a possible source of future revenue. Under the 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, private firms have a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">legal right</a> to materials extracted from outer-world bodies, and startups have taken off as a result.Even the Moon may be a target, as nations such as India, the US, China, and Russia, are all eyeing its potential resources, including water and rare-earth metals. Though valuations for the Moon's commodities range widely, some have <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/moon-mining-space-race-helium-metals-india-chandrayaan-russia-luna-2023-8">topped $1 quadrillion</a>.Meanwhile, other high-value asteroids exist in the Main Asteroid Belt, which collectively could be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/asteroids-contain-metals-worth-quintillions-of-dollars-but-mining-them-wont-necessarily-make-your-richer-than-bezos-or-musk/articleshow/83989878.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">valued at $700 quintillion</a>. Of course, even if companies manage to mine celestial bodies successfully, a massive inflow of space-based supplies would send commodity prices on Earth plummeting.

NASA probe heads for metal-rich asteroid worth $10 quintillion after launch on SpaceX rocket

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA says it's under 100 days away from launching a spacecraft to study a valuable asteroid.</li><li>The asteroid is thought to be made up of $10 quintillion worth of gold, iron, and nickel.</li></ul>NASA <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-psyche-mission-enters-home-stretch-before-launch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> Tuesday that it was under 100 days away from launching a spacecraft designed to study an asteroid potentially worth $10 quintillion.The space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab said it had recently completed a comprehensive test of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft. That cleared a key hurdle that caused the probe to miss its original 2022 launch date.The 173-mile-wide asteroid is known as 16 Psyche and is thought to be made up of gold, iron, and nickel. The ore on the asteroid has been estimated to be worth about $10 quintillion. NASA announced in 2020 that it would <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51858259" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collaborate with Elon Musk's SpaceX</a> to reach the metal-rich body.The 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act gives companies the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">legal right to the materials mined</a> from celestial bodies. And firms have already sprung up to test technology that could theoretically make this work.Meanwhile, NASA's mission is scientific and geared toward learning more about planetary cores and how planets form. The spacecraft is set to launch in October on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket before heading on a six-year trek to the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.The satellite would then orbit the asteroid for 26 months, studying and photographing the body to learn its history and mineral composition.While NASA focuses on 16 Psyche, the agency previously said that the belt it resided in was full of ore-rich asteroids worth $700 quintillion. The most valuable asteroid in the belt, Davida, is thought to be worth $27 quintillion.Though a potentially lucrative business for the future, the inflow of valuable minerals from space may not actually <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/asteroids-contain-metals-worth-quintillions-of-dollars-but-mining-them-wont-necessarily-make-your-richer-than-bezos-or-musk/articleshow/83989878.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">produce a bunch of billionaires</a>. That's because a sudden supply glut would drive metal prices down.

An asteroid loaded with $10 quintillion worth of metals edges closer to US reach

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists think an asteroid could contain previously unknown elements. </li><li>Asteroid 33 Polyhymnia appears to be denser than the densest element in the Periodic Table. </li></ul>An <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">asteroid</a> in the solar system's asteroid belt is so dense that scientists believe it could contain elements never before seen on Earth, according to a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04454-8">study</a> published in The European Physical Journal Plus in September. All known chemical elements on Earth are documented in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/this-very-cool-periodic-table-explains-how-we-use-all-the-elements-2016-11?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=referral">Periodic Table</a>. There are 118 elements that make up the Periodic Table, organized by their atomic number — the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/physics-atoms-empty-space-2016-9">number of protons</a> in the element's atomic nucleus.Over the years, scientists have been jamming more protons into nuclei to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-periodic-element-names-2016-6">create new elements</a>. But how many protons you can ultimately pack into one space is a scientific mystery. Some experts argue the threshold is 164. For their new study, researchers from the University of Arizona, suggest that asteroid 33 Polyhymnia might contain never-before-seen material that reaches that exact threshold.They calculated what the density of an element with a whopping atomic number of 164 would be — generally speaking, the higher the atomic number of an element, the denser it'll be, though there are definitely exceptions.The researchers found that the density of an element with atomic number 164 was roughly the same density as what other experts have already measured for asteroid Polyhymnia.It "would have a density between 36.0 and 68.4 g/cm3: a range that approaches the expected value for asteroid Polyhymnia," according to a <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/research-news/all-english-research-news/statistical-method-recreates-the-history-of-a-long-abandoned-vil/26142538">press release</a>.<h2>The densest element on Earth can't compare</h2>Asteroid 33 Polyhymnia might be what's called a compact ultradense object, or CUDO. These objects are thought to have densities far greater than the density of anything on Earth and therefore contain elements scientists have yet to discover. For example, the densest element on Earth, Osmium, contains 76 protons packed into each atomic nucleus. If the scientists' new calculations are correct, it would mean CUDOs like asteroid Polyhymnia could be made of material that contains elements with as many as 164 protons per atomic nucleus. One of the study's authors, Jan Rafelski, said in the press release: "The idea that some of these might be stable enough to be obtained from within our solar system is an exciting one."

Asteroid 33 Polyhymnia is so dense it may actually contain elements never before seen on Earth, according to a new study

The 10 biggest asteroids that pose a threat to Earth in 2020

An asteroid roughly the size of Rome's Colosseum, between 300 and 650 feet, or 100 and 200 metres, in length, has been detected by scientists using <keyword id="6360409" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s James <keyword id="373653" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="webb" source="Orion">Webb</keyword> Space Telescope, according to a new research. The object, detected by the international team of European astronomers, is likely the smallest observed to date by Webb, the research said. It may also be an example of an object measuring under 0.6 miles, or 1 kilometer, one of the smallest in length within the main asteroid belt located between <keyword id="47638" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mars" source="Orion">Mars</keyword> and <keyword id="34757" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="jupiter" source="Orion">Jupiter</keyword>, the research said. The team's project used data from the calibration of the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (<keyword id="2022998" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="miri" source="Orion">MIRI</keyword>), in which the team serendipitously detected an interloping asteroid, the research published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics said. Calibration is the act of checking or adjusting the accuracy of a measuring instrument by comparison with a standard. More observations are needed to better characterize this object's nature and properties, the research said. "We - completely unexpectedly - detected a small asteroid in publicly available MIRI calibration observations," explained Thomas Mueller, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. "The measurements are some of the first MIRI measurements targeting the ecliptic plane and our work suggests that many new objects will be detected with this instrument," said Mueller. According to the research, these Webb observations, were not designed to hunt for new asteroids - in fact, they were calibration images of the main belt asteroid (10920) 1998 BC1, which astronomers discovered in 1998. The Webb observations were conducted to test the performance of some of MIRI's filters, but the calibration team considered them to have failed for technical reasons due to the brightness of the target and an offset telescope pointing. Despite this, the data on asteroid 10920 were used by the team to establish and test a new technique to constrain an object's orbit and to estimate its size, the research said. The validity of the method was demonstrated for asteroid 10920 using the MIRI observations combined with data from ground-based telescopes and ESA's Gaia mission. In the course of the analysis of the MIRI data, the team found the smaller interloper in the same field of view, the research said. The team's results suggested that the object measured 100-200 metres, occupied a very low-inclination orbit, and was located in the inner main-belt region at the time of the Webb observations. "Our results show that even 'failed' Webb observations can be scientifically useful, if you have the right mindset and a little bit of luck," elaborated Mueller. "Our detection lies in the main asteroid belt, but Webb's incredible sensitivity made it possible to see this roughly 100-metre object at a distance of more than 100 million kilometers," said Mueller. If confirmed as a new asteroid discovery, the detection of this asteroid would have important implications for our understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system, the research said. According to the research, current models predict the occurrence of asteroids down to very small sizes, but small asteroids have been studied in less detail than their larger counterparts owing to the difficulty of observing these objects. Future dedicated Webb observations will allow astronomers to study asteroids smaller than 1 kilometer in size, it said. This result also suggested that Webb will also be able to serendipitously contribute to the detection of new asteroids. The team suspects that even short MIRI observations close to the plane of the solar system will always include a few asteroids, most of which will be unknown objects, the research said. In order to confirm that the object detected is a newly discovered asteroid, more position data relative to background stars is required from follow-up studies to constrain the object's orbit, the research said. "This is a fantastic result which highlights the capabilities of MIRI to serendipitously detect a previously undetectable size of asteroid in the main belt," concluded Bryan Holler, Webb support scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "Repeats of these observations are in the process of being scheduled, and we are fully expecting new asteroid interlopers in those images," said Holler. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/tata-steel-shares-decline-nearly-4-after-q3-loss/articleshow/97683446.cms">Tata Steel shares decline nearly 4% after Q3 loss</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/betting-casino-companies-find-new-advertising-avenues-despite-govt-ban/articleshow/97683128.cms">Betting, casino companies find new advertising avenues despite govt ban</a>

James Webb telescope detects an asteroid roughly the size of Rome's Colosseum

<ul><li>Samples collected from a sea-otter shaped <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> named Itokawa contain water. </li><li>Itokawa and other asteroids like it might have brought water for half of the world’s oceans when they bombarded into Earth billions of years ago. </li><li>Finding water on the second most common type of asteroid in the <keyword id="52393" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Solar-System">Solar System</keyword> makes them a "high priority target for exploration” according to one of the members of the team that made the discovery.</li></ul> Normally, you wouldn’t think to look for water on an asteroid, especially in a nominally dry asteroid like Itokawa. Samples from another asteroid, Ryugu, had nearly <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6437/eaaw0422">no water</a> at all. 
	<div type="image" title="itokawa" msid="69139394" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;In 2005, JAXA&amp;#39;s Hayabusa spacecraft landed on asteroid Itokawa (above) and collected samples that were returned to Earth&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



 Yet, two cosmochemists at the <a href="https://asunow.asu.edu/20190501-discoveries-asu-researchers-find-water-in-asteroid-itokawa-samples">Arizona State University (ASU)</a> followed their hunch to find that not only did Itokawa contain water but that half of the world’s oceans could be a by product of hundreds of asteroids just like it. 
 <div type="ExtQuote" text="Until we proposed it, no one thought to look for water. I'm happy to report that our hunch paid off." auname="Maitrayee Bose, Assistant Professor, ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration"></div>



 Finding water on asteroids isn’t just about determining Earth’s origins but also about finding alternative sources for a resource that is increasingly becoming scarce on Earth. 
 <div type="ExtQuote" text="That makes these asteroids high-priority targets for exploration." auname="Maitrayee Bose, Assistant Professor, ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration"></div>



 Itokawa, having been in its <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/25143-itokawa/in-depth/">current state</a> for 8 million years, has been subject to multiple impacts, shocks and fragmentation. This, in turn, should raise its temperature to drive off water. So, in order to see exactly how much water was in the sample collected from Itokawa — the first ever asteroid samples to return to Earth for examination — the team at ASU used a Nanoscale Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (NanoSIMS). To the team’s surprise, the results indicated that the samples from Itokawa were unexpectedly rich in water — even though they came from the surface of the asteroid where they were the most susceptible to damage. 
 <div type="ExtQuote" text="The minerals have hydrogen isotopic compositions that are indistinguishable from Earth." auname="Zilliang Jin, a postdoctoral scholar,ASU’S School of Earth and Space Exploration"></div>



 Itokawa isn’t the only one of its kind. According to Maitrayee Bose, one of the authors of the discovery, "S-type asteroids are one of the most common objects in the <keyword id="1898611" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Asteroid-belt">asteroid belt</keyword>.” In fact, they’re the second-most common type of asteroid in our Solar System.

There’s now proof that half of the world’s oceans came from outer space

<ul><li>Hygiea, classified as an asteroid so far, might actually be a dwarf planet. </li><li>The European Southern Observatory has been able to confirm that Hygiea has a spherical shape. </li><li>But, Hygiea is missing a large impact crater normally found on asteroids after they have broken off from the parent asteroid. </li></ul>The asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars is home to many asteroids and planets. Now European Southern Observatory (<a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1918/">ESO</a>) thinks one of the objects floating along the main belt might be the <keyword id="8270160" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="smallest-dwarf-planet">smallest dwarf planet</keyword> in our solar system — an asteroid known as Hygiea. Hygiea isn’t a new discovery but the fact that it meets the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) requirements to be classified as a dwarf planet is new. It orbits the Sun, and not another planet, so that rules it out from being a Moon. But unlike an actual planet, it hasn’t pushed away or pulled in any of the objects that are cluttering its orbit. ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) was able to capture a third detail that puts Hygiea in the running for a dwarf planet — it has just enough mass for its gravity to pull it together in a spherical shape. "Thanks to the unique capability of the SPHERE instrument on the VLT, which is one of the most powerful imaging systems in the world, we could resolve Hygiea’s shape, which turns out to be nearly spherical," said lead researcher Pierre Vernazza. Dwarf planets in the universe’s remnants When the big bang first happened and planets were formed, the asteroid belt basically contained whatever was left over. The clumps could have formed a planet but scientists believe that Jupiter’s gravity was so strong that the space objects continued to orbit the Sun instead, colliding every so often. These collisions led to bigger parent bodies breaking into smaller asteroids. Hygiea is supposed to be a part of a 7000 member family and it’s separation from the parent space object should have left a large impact crater — but it’s nowhere to be found. "This result came as a real surprise as we were expecting the presence of a large impact basin, as is the case on Vesta," says Vernazza. According to the team’s deductions, it’s possible that Hygiea’s parent asteroid collided into a large object between 75 to 150 kilometers wide and the resulting collision was so violent that it completely shattered it. Their study states that as the left-over pieces of the collision reassembled, Hygiea got its round shape — fulfilling the third parameter to be be classified as a dwarf planet. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/16-recently-discovered-exoplanets-could-offer-our-best-chance-of-finding-alien-life-outside-the-solar-system/articleshow/71397812.cms">16 recently discovered exoplanets could offer our best chance of finding alien life outside the solar system</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-ridiculous-yet-simple-animation-by-a-nasa-scientist-shows-how-long-it-takes-light-to-reach-pluto-if-you-plan-to-watch-it-take-a-day-off-work-/articleshow/67905830.cms">Pluto has a heart of ice that might not be so frozen after all</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-ridiculous-yet-simple-animation-by-a-nasa-scientist-shows-how-long-it-takes-light-to-reach-pluto-if-you-plan-to-watch-it-take-a-day-off-work-/articleshow/67905830.cms">A 'ridiculous' yet simple animation by a NASA scientist shows how long it takes light to reach Pluto. If you plan to watch it, take a day off work</a>

The smallest dwarf planet in our solar system was hiding in the asteroid belt

<ul class="summary-list"><li>On Saturday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-advances-asteroid-tracking-space-telescope-after-years-of-limbo-2021-6">NASA</a> plans to launch its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/osiris-rex-spacecraft-asteroids-trojan-2016-12">Lucy</a> probe to the Trojan <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-hit-ancient-middle-eastern-city-inspired-sodom-bible-story-2021-9">asteroids</a> that orbit the sun with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-years-of-stunning-jupiter-photos-nasa-juno-mission-2021-9">Jupiter</a>. </li><li>The Trojans are like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fossil-footprints-humans-occupied-north-america-ice-age-2021-9">fossils</a>, unchanged since the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-animation-reveals-planets-wildly-different-speeds-2021-8">solar system</a> was born 4.6 billion years ago.</li><li><keyword id="12264053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="lucy" source="Orion">Lucy</keyword> aims to visit eight <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">asteroids</a> - a record number of encounters.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-space-telescope-wind-changes-jupiter-great-red-spot-2021-9">NASA</a> is about to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-launching-film-crew-to-space-station-2021-9">launch</a> an ambitious mission to explore swarms of <keyword id="12253294" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroids" source="Orion">asteroids</keyword> as old as our <keyword id="11910185" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="solar-system" source="Orion">solar system</keyword>.Those asteroids, called Trojans, orbit the sun alongside <keyword id="11949137" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jupiter" source="Orion">Jupiter</keyword>. One group of them leads the gas giant along its orbital path, and another group trails behind. These space rocks formed during the birth of our solar system nearly 4.6 billion years ago and have remained largely unchanged ever since.<div type="image" title="atlas v rocket lifting off" height="1920" width="1279" msid="87050188" hostid="261"></div>Scientists want to find out what those time capsules hold, so <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> is sending a 52-foot-wide spacecraft, called Lucy, to investigate. The probe is set to launch aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday morning.Lucy is scheduled to visit eight asteroids over the next 12 years. One of those space rocks is in the solar system's main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, which Lucy will pass on its way to the other seven asteroids, which are part of the Trojans."These objects we view as being the fossils of planet formation," Hal Levison, the mission's principal investigator, said in a briefing last month.<div type="image" title="animated diagram of trojan asteroid leading following jupiter on orbit around the sun" height="500" width="500" msid="86839250" hostid="261"></div>That's where Lucy gets its name - it's a reference to the famous 3.2-million-year-old fossilized human ancestor. At the time of her discovery, in 1974, Lucy was the oldest, most complete hominin skeleton ever found. She was evidence that human ancestors walked upright, which helped paleoanthropologists piece together humans' evolutionary history. Scientists hope that <keyword id="12264054" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trojan-asteroids" source="Orion">Trojan asteroids</keyword> can do the same for the outer solar system."Some of the most important planetary <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">science</keyword> questions we're trying to answer are focused on the origin and the evolution of the solar system. Asteroids and other small bodies are really important keys to understanding that history," Lori Glaze, NASA's director of planetary science, said in the briefing.<div type="image" title="lucy spacecraft folded up with rocket shell closing around it" height="2136" width="1700" msid="86839251" hostid="261"></div>Lucy's planned journey would lead it to visit more asteroids than any prior spacecraft. It will also venture further from the sun than any solar-powered probe has ever gone.<h2>Watch live as Lucy launches into space</h2>Liftoff is scheduled for 5:34 a.m. ET on Saturday. NASA plans to start its live launch broadcast at 5 a.m. in the video embedded below.If weather delays the launch, NASA has another 22 days in its window, with an hour-long launch opportunity each morning.<h2>Close encounters of the asteroid kind</h2><div type="image" title="trojan asteroids illustration rocks in space leading and following jupiter" height="1440" width="1920" msid="86839252" hostid="261"></div>Lucy's mission is seven years in the making. The original plan called for visits to just two asteroids, but NASA grew more ambitious as engineers and scientists designed the spacecraft and plotted its journey.Now, the probe has a record-breaking lineup. Some of its eight stops are two-for-ones: One asteroid has its own satellite - a smaller rock trapped in its orbit - and two of Lucy's targets are a pair of binary asteroids that circle each other.But Lucy's encounter with each space rock will be brief. The spacecraft can't slow down or land - that would require too much propellant - so it will zip within 600 miles of their surfaces, moving 3 to five 5 miles per second.During the few hours in which it approaches and passes the asteroids, Lucy's scientific instruments will collect data on their composition, density, and size. It could even discover rocks or rings circling the asteroids - features too small to see from Earth.By the end of Lucy's journey, NASA expects to have spent $981.1 million on the mission, according to Glaze.<h2>Lucy has to revisit Earth 3 times to hit its targets</h2><div type="image" title="lucy spacecraft trajectory diagram" height="2813" width="3750" msid="86839253" hostid="261"></div>Scientists have identified over 7,000 Trojan asteroids, split into three major types. One group resembles the space rocks in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, while the other two resemble icy objects in the Kuiper Belt on the outskirts of the solar system.This suggests that the various types of Trojans formed through different processes, and in different parts of the solar system. Scientists aren't sure how they ended up together along Jupiter's orbit. So Lucy will visit asteroids of each type in an attempt to find out."Covering this diversity is key. And finding a trajectory that actually will allow us to visit all these types of objects has been a real chore," Levison said.To reach all of its destinations, in fact, Lucy has to circle back to Earth three times to get a momentum boost from our planet's gravity. That will make it the first spacecraft to travel to Jupiter's orbit and back.<h2>NASA is going all in on asteroids</h2><div type="image" title="DART nasa mission approaching asteroid image edited for thumbnail" height="1406" width="2500" msid="86839254" hostid="261"></div>NASA is sending probes to asteroids scattered all over the solar system."Lucy is part of a collection of ambitious missions to study the diversity of these asteroid populations that will help us fill in more pieces of that cosmic puzzle," Glaze said.NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has been studying asteroids and other objects in the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune, since it flew past Pluto in 2015.The agency's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-bennu-is-hollow-spinning-to-death-2020-11">OSIRIS-REx</a> spacecraft, meanwhile, landed on an asteroid last year, punched into its surface, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-spacecraft-stored-pounds-of-rock-2020-10">scooped a sample of rock</a>. That probe is on its way back to Earth with the sample in tow. Japan recently completed a similar mission and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-japan-asteroid-sample-treasure-box-returns-2020-12">brought its own asteroid samples to Earth</a>, so NASA and Japan's space agency plan to trade bits of their samples.<div type="image" title="osiris rex landing crush rock" height="1024" width="1024" msid="86839255" hostid="261"></div>Other missions aim to prepare for the possibility that an asteroid could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dinosaurs-going-extinct-before-asteroid-hit-earth-study-2021-6">strike our planet</a>. Next month, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to slam into a nearby asteroid. That mission, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), is testing a method that could deflect space rocks off of a collision course with Earth. NASA is also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-advances-asteroid-tracking-space-telescope-after-years-of-limbo-2021-6">working on a new space telescope, called NEO (near-Earth object) Surveyor,</a> which would help scientists catalogue dangerous asteroids in our neighborhood.Next year, NASA plans to launch yet another probe, called Psyche, to a metallic asteroid that could be the leftover core of an ancient planet."All of these are incredibly interesting destinations. And in each case, we're exploring places no spacecraft has ever been, so we won't know for sure what we'll discover till we get there," Glaze said. "But we know that whatever Lucy finds will give us vital clues about the formation of our solar system."This post has been updated. It was originally published on October 7, 2021.

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