<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="9531572" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="comet-neowise">Comet Neowise</keyword> has dazzled stargazers this week, but its surprise appearance highlights one of Earth's greatest vulnerabilities.</li><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> discovered the comet hurtling towards Earth three months ago, but only because one of its space <keyword id="62018" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Telescopes">telescopes</keyword> got lucky.</li><li>Our planet is woefully unprepared for the enormous, deadly rocks that hurtle towards us from deep space. But a telescope NASA is developing could track more dangerous <keyword id="81841" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Asteroids">asteroids</keyword>.</li></ul><p>A welcome distraction has turned the world's eyes to the sky this week. Comet Neowise, a 3-mile-wide chunk of space ice, is rocketing past our planet, creating a spectacle in the night: a brilliant ball of white light with long, colorful tails.</p><p>The comet is a benign and beautiful sight, but it highlights a global vulnerability. Tens of thousands of potentially dangerous objects regularly careen past Earth undetected, and some of them inevitably crash into it.</p><p><keyword id="51550" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="comets">Comets</keyword> — balls of space ice and dust — almost never pose a threat to Earth, but asteroids and meteors (smaller chunks of rock) come close more often. Although impacts are extremely rare, a space rock big enough to destroy a city (or worse) could hurtle towards Earth at any time, and scientists might not see it until it's far too late.</p><p>Nobody even knew Comet Neowise existed until a NASA space telescope discovered it approaching just three months ago. The spacecraft was scanning for asteroids and comets (balls of space ice and dust) that fly too close to Earth. The mission is called the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) — that's where the new comet gets its name.</p><p><div type="image" title="comet neowise belarus" height="1918" width="2557" msid="77038711" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"This is an example of an object coming out of deep space that our survey capabilities need to be able to spot," Lindley Johnson, a <keyword id="2812558" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="planetary-defense">planetary defense</keyword> officer at NASA, said in a press briefing about Comet Neowise on Wednesday. "In this case, we were lucky that it did cross the field of view of the NEOWISE spacecraft back in March."</p><p>Many "<keyword id="1821718" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="near-Earth-objects">near-Earth objects</keyword>" (NEOs) do not cross any telescope's line of sight, and several potentially dangerous asteroids have snuck up on Earth in recent years.</p><p>"Luck is not a plan," Richard Binzel, an asteroid researcher and professor of planetary sciences at MIT, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-space-telescope-to-detect-deadly-asteroids-2019-9">told Business Insider</a> in September.</p><h2>Dangerous asteroids can fly under the radar</h2><p><div type="image" title="Chicxulub_impact asteroid" height="2089" width="2785" msid="77038716" hostid="261"></div></p><p>A 6-mile-wide asteroid surprised the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when it crashed into Earth. The impact caused a mile-high tsunami, sparked wildfires, and released billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, blotting out the sun for years. That was the end of the age of big lizards.</p><p>In case scientists discover such an asteroid approaching Earth again, NASA has considered some ways to push it off its collision course: slamming a spacecraft into it, detonating an explosion near it, or firing lasers that heat and vaporize the rock enough to change its orbit.</p><p>But that takes time and the technology is unproven. What if nobody spots the asteroid until it's too late?</p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8zooPRmgUPI" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>In recent years, scientists have missed plenty of large, dangerous objects approaching Earth.</p><p>"We feel we've only found about a third of the population of asteroids that are out there that could represent an impact hazard to the Earth," Johnson said.</p><p>In 2013, a meteor measuring about 65 feet in diameter and traveling at 40,000 mph entered the atmosphere and exploded over Chelyabinsk in central Russia. The blast sent out a shock wave that broke windows and damaged buildings across the region, injuring more than 1,400 people.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-threat-of-meteor-crashing-into-earth-is-bigger-than-you-think-2019-5">According to NASA modeling</a>, an event like the Chelyabinsk meteor occurs about every 60 years. That same day, a larger asteroid came within 17,000 miles of Earth.</p><p><div type="image" title="asteroid russia Chelyabinsk" height="3744" width="5616" msid="77038726" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Then a year ago a 427-foot-wide, "city-killer" asteroid <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">flew within 45,000 miles of Earth</a>. NASA had almost no warning about it.</p><p>That's because right now, the only way scientists can track an NEO is by pointing a telescope toward the right place at the right time. Telescopes detect the sunlight that asteroids reflect, but the smaller the asteroid, the fainter the reflection. Plus, some asteroids just aren't very reflective.</p><p><div type="image" title="NEOWISE" height="1024" width="1365" msid="77038734" hostid="261"></div></p><p>NEOWISE (the NASA mission, not the comet) is not enough to protect us on its own, and it is living on borrowed time. Hunting asteroids is its second career, which came after it outlived its first mission: scanning the entire sky twice in infrared light. That initial project yielded copious data on distant stars and galaxies.</p><p>"This is a telescope that is well past its expiration date and, like a very old car, every day is a gift," Amy Mainzer, the telescope's principal investigator, said. "We're not really sure how much longer it's going to go. In theory, maybe another year at most."</p><p>When NEOWISE goes dark, it will leave Earth even more oblivious to threats from space.</p><h2>NASA is planning its first planetary defense spacecraft</h2><p><div type="image" title="neocam asteroid hunter spacecraft discovery nasa jpl caltech" height="1476" width="1968" msid="77038739" hostid="261"></div></p><p>A plan for better NEO surveillance finally gained some traction in September, when NASA announced plans for a new asteroid-hunting space telescope. The project is still in its early stages, though.</p><p>Called the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission (NEOSM), the spacecraft would feature heat-sensing infrared sensors capable of detecting even dark asteroids, which are the most difficult to find. (Because the sun warms up space rocks, they emit infrared light even if they don't reflect much visible light.)</p><p>Unlike NEOWISE, NEOSM would be dedicated to tracking objects near Earth. It would also fix a major blind spot: It could pick up on objects coming from the direction of the sun, where most telescopes can't look.</p><p>"This is the first time NASA has ever voiced a commitment to flying a space-based asteroid survey," Binzel said of the mission. "They've always said 'we'll study it, we'll study it,' and now they say 'we are going to do it.'"</p><p>The agency's 2020 budget allotted nearly $36 million for the telescope's development. If funding continues, it could launch as early as 2025.</p><p>"Having knowledge of what's out there is something that the planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> community has been advocating for for nearly 30 years," Binzel said. "This is a breakthrough decades in the making."</p>

Comet Neowise is a dazzling sight, but it's also a reminder of how woefully unprepared we are for dangerous asteroids

<ul><li>Asteroid 2019 GT3 is going to fly past Earth on Friday at a speed of 49,000 kilometers.<br /></li><li>The asteroid is about as big as a football stadium. <br /></li><li>It's not on a collision course for Earth but is still one of the asteroids classified as 'potentially hazardous' by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA).<br /></li></ul>The Earth is under <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">constant threat</a> of asteroids but most fly past and don't actually hit the planet. Asteroid 2019 GT3 is one such asteroid that is 'potentially hazardous' but will be at least 7.5 million kilometers away from the Earth.<br /><br />Asteroid 2019 GT3 is a new addition to the NASA's <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">Asteroid Watch</a> only discovered earlier this year in April 2019. It's about as big as a stadium with a diameter between 170 meters and 380 meters.<br /><br />When it blasts past Earth on 6 September 2019, it will be flying at a speed of 49,000 kilometers per hour.<br /><br />"Potentially hazardous asteroids are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid's potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth," states the Center for Near Earth Object Studies <br /><br />"Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance of 0.5 [astronomical units] or less and an absolute magnitude of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs," it added.<br /><br /><strong>Asteroid's 'potential' for destruction<br /></strong><br />There's no chance of Asteroid 2019 GT3 striking Earth. Even if it were to somehow be on a collision course for the planet, the asteroid wouldn't cause any kind of '<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-other-scientists-believe-asteroids-will-eventually-hit-earth/articleshow/70644547.cms">mass extinction</a>' but it would definitely take out a small city.<br /><br />Scientists believe that an asteroid impact would result in a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-happens-when-an-asteroid-actually-hits-earth/articleshow/70732006.cms">'nuclear'-like winter</a> on the planet.<br /><br />It would only take an asteroid as big as a house travelling at 48,000 kilometers an hour to have an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-last-major-asteroid-to-hit-earth-destroyed-500-square-kilometers-and-it-could-have-been-much-worse/articleshow/70782507.cms">impact equivalent</a> to that of the Hiroshima bomb blast.<br /><br />By that comparison, Asteroid 2019 GT3 is bigger and faster.<br /><br />And, it's even more concerning in light of even more massive asteroids that are planned to come uncomfortably close to Earth in the near future. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">1992 OR2</a>, for instance, is half the size of Everest and will only be 6.4 million kilometers from Earth as it flies by on 29 April 2020.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-10-biggest-asteroids-that-could-crash-into-earth-this-year/articleshow/70686096.cms">The 10 biggest asteroids that could crash into Earth in 2019</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-last-major-asteroid-to-hit-earth-destroyed-500-square-kilometers-and-it-could-have-been-much-worse/articleshow/70782507.cms">The last major asteroid to hit Earth destroyed 500 square kilometers — and it could have been much worse</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-other-scientists-believe-asteroids-will-eventually-hit-earth/articleshow/70644547.cms">It might not be 'dinosaur destroying' but it's only a matter of time before an asteroid hits Earth</a><br />

A 'potentially hazardous' asteroid will whiz past earth at 49,000 km/hr on Friday

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> has a slim chance of entering the <keyword id="6359982" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="earth">Earth</keyword>'s atmosphere on November 2.</li><li>That's one day before the US <keyword id="6359191" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="election">election</keyword>.</li><li>Because of its small size, the asteroid, dubbed 2018VP1, would burn off while hurtling toward the planet.</li></ul><p>An asteroid has a slim chance of entering the Earth's atmosphere on November 2, one day before the US election, according to <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>.</p><p>Named 2018VP1, the asteroid is pretty tiny, <a href="https://twitter.com/AsteroidWatch/status/1297576303206576133?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1297576303206576133%7Ctwgr%5E&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.as.com%2Fen%2F2020%2F08%2F24%2Flatest_news%2F1598229102_746126.htmlhtml">according to NASA data</a>.</p><p>It has only a 0.41% likelihood of entering Earth's atmosphere, but celestial objects that size tend to burn up anyway before reaching the ground, NASA told Business Insider.</p><p>"Asteroid 2018VP1 is very small, approximately 6.5 feet, and poses no threat to Earth," a NASA representative told Business Insider. That's about 2 meters long, like a refrigerator. "If it were to enter our planet's atmosphere, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size."</p><p>2018VP1 has had a few close encounters with Earth before, dating back to 1970. It most recently visited in November 2018, roughly when it was discovered <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/asteroid-earth-november-2020-scn-trnd/index.html">at California's Palomar Observatory</a>.</p><p>It's due back, after a <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2018VP1;old=0;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb">two-year orbit around the sun</a>, to come within 4,800 to 260,000 miles of our atmosphere, <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">NASA data shows</a>. For reference, the International <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword> Station sits about 254 miles above the planet.</p><p>The size of asteroids like this one makes them hard to spot until they get close to Earth, but most pass by much farther away than the moon, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7728">NASA said in a recent release</a>.</p><p>In fact, one dubbed 2020 QG passed just 1,830 miles above the Indian Ocean last week — the closest such encounter on record — and NASA didn't even see it coming, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asteroid-2020qg-closest-fly-by-earth-on-record-nasa-astronomers/">it said</a>.</p><p>In 2005, NASA was <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-search-for-asteroids-to-help-protect-earth-and-understand-our-history/">directed by Congress</a> to discover 90% of potentially dangerous asteroids larger than 459 feet in size by the end of 2020.</p><p>"It's quite an accomplishment to find these tiny close-in asteroids in the first place, because they pass by so fast," said Paul Chodas, the director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.</p><p>"There's typically only a short window of a couple of days before or after close approach when this small of an asteroid is close enough to Earth to be bright enough but not so close that it moves too fast in the sky to be detected by a telescope," he said.</p><p>Between the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> pandemic, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/george-floyd-protests-defining-history-politics-election-black-lives-matter-2020-6">a reckoning with racial justice</a>, sky-high <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/13/cdc-mental-health-pandemic-394832">depression and anxiety</a>, election season, and other recent events, people are joking about the asteroid's perceived embodiment of 2020.</p><p>"It seems like 2020 just won't let up," the Milwaukee-based Fox 6 Now <a href="https://twitter.com/fox6now/status/1297292466521960448">wrote on Twitter</a>.</p>

NASA: A fridge-size asteroid is headed toward Earth one day before the November election

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An asteroid the size of a car flew within about 1,830 miles of Earth this weekend — closer than any known <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rock has ever come without crashing into the planet.</li><li>A NASA-funded program detected the asteroid, called 2020 QG, six hours after its close approach.</li><li>If the asteroid had hit Earth, it probably would have exploded in the atmosphere in an airburst too high up to do any damage on the ground.</li><li>But the near miss highlights a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">major blind spot</a> in Earth's programs to search for dangerous <keyword id="81841" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Asteroids">asteroids</keyword>.</li></ul><p>A car-size asteroid flew within about 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) of Earth on Sunday.</p><p>That's a remarkably close shave — the closest ever recorded, in fact, according to asteroid trackers and a <a href="http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/sormano/teca.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">catalog</a> compiled by Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy. </p><p>Because of its size, the space rock most likely wouldn't have posed any danger to people on the ground had it struck our planet. But the close call is worrisome nonetheless, since astronomers had no idea the asteroid existed until after it passed by.</p><p>"The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun," Paul Chodas, the director of <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, told Business Insider. "We didn't see it coming."</p><p>Instead, the Palomar Observatory in California <a href="https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=2020+QG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first detected the space rock</a> about six hours <em>after</em> it flew by Earth.</p><p>Chodas confirmed the record-breaking nature of the event: "Yesterday's close approach is closest on record, if you discount a few known asteroids that have actually impacted our planet," he said.</p><p>NASA knows about only a fraction of <keyword id="1821718" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="near-Earth-objects">near-Earth objects</keyword> (NEOs) like this one. Many do not cross any telescope's line of sight, and several potentially dangerous asteroids have snuck up on scientists in recent years. If the wrong one slipped through the gaps in our NEO-surveillance systems, it could kill tens of thousands of people. </p><h2>2020 QG flew over the Southern Hemisphere</h2><p>This recent near-Earth asteroid was initially called <a href="https://www.projectpluto.com/neocp2/mpecs/ZTF0DxQ.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ZTF0DxQ</a> but is now formally known to astronomers as <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2020%20QG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2020 QG</a>. Business Insider first learned about it from Tony Dunn, the creator of the website orbitsimulator.com.</p><p>"Newly-discovered asteroid ZTF0DxQ passed less than 1/4 Earth diameter yesterday, making it the closest-known flyby that didn't hit our planet," Dunn <a href="https://twitter.com/tony873004/status/1295390969613840386" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> on Monday. He shared the animation below, republished here with permission.</p><p>The sped-up simulation shows the approximate orbital path of 2020 QG as it careened by at a speed of about 7.7 miles per second (12.4 kilometers per second) or about 27,600 mph.</p><iframe src="https://gfycat.com/ifr/AgileWhichAzurevase" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="100%" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;"></iframe><p>Early observations suggest the space rock flew over the Southern Hemisphere just after 4 a.m. Universal Time (midnight ET) on Sunday.</p><p>The animation above shows 2020 QG flying over the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. However, the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center calculated a slightly different trajectory. The group's <a href="https://minorplanetcenter.net/neo/view?date=2459077.65&amp;label=2020%20QG&amp;packed_desig=K20Q00G=K20Q00G" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rendering</a> (shown at the beginning of this story), suggests the asteroid flew over the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles east of Australia.</p><h2>Not dangerous, but definitely not welcome</h2><p>As far as space rocks go, 2020 QG wasn't too dangerous.</p><p>Telescope observations suggest the object is between 6 feet (2 meters) and 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide — somewhere between the size of a small car and an extended-cab pickup truck. But even if it was on the largest end of that spectrum and made of dense iron (most asteroids are rocky), only small pieces of such an asteroid may have reached the ground, according to the "<a href="https://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Impact Earth</a>" simulator from Purdue University and Imperial College London.</p><p>Such an asteroid would have exploded in the atmosphere, creating a brilliant fireball and unleashing an airburst equivalent to detonating a couple dozen kilotons of TNT. That's about the same as one of the atomic bombs the US dropped on Japan in 1945. But the airburst would have happened about 2 or 3 miles above the ground, so it wouldn't have sounded any louder than heavy traffic to people on the ground.</p><p>This doesn't make the asteroid's discovery much less unnerving, though — it does not take a huge space rock to create a big problem.</p><div type="image" title="chelyabinsk asteroid simulation darrel robertson sc15 nasa" height="1013" width="1500" msid="77602990" hostid="261"></div><p>Take, for example, the roughly 66-foot-wide (20-meter) asteroid that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chelyabinsk-meteor-mystery-3-years-later-2016-2">exploded without warning over Chelyabinsk, Russia</a>, in February 2013. That space rock created a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/no-one-saw-chelyabinsk-meteor-over-russia-coming-could-happen-again-2016-4">superbolide event</a>, unleashing an airburst equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT — about 30 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nukemap-virtual-reality-nuclear-bomb-explosion-simulator-new-york-city-2019-8">Hiroshima nuclear bombs</a>' worth of energy. The explosion, which began about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above Earth, triggered a blast wave that shattered windows in six Russian cities and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063317303884" target="_blank" rel="noopener">injured about 1,500 people</a>.</p><p>And in July 2019, a 427-foot (130-meter) asteroid called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">2019 OK passed within 45,000 miles</a> (72,400 kilometers) of our planet, or less than 20% of the distance between <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-moon-distance-edge-of-outer-space-2018-5">Earth and the moon</a>. Astronomers detected that rock less than a week before its closest approach, leading one scientist to tell The Washington Post that the asteroid essentially appeared "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/?utm_term=.68769f07439a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out of nowhere</a>."</p><p>In an unlikely direct hit to a city, such a wayward space rock <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073191" target="_blank" rel="noopener">might kill tens of thousands of people</a>.</p><p>NASA is actively scanning the skies for such threats, as Congress has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/1281/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener">required</a> it to do since 2005. However, the agency is mandated to detect only 90% of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-detection-mission-neocam-nasa-funding-astronaut-support-2018-11">"city killer" space rocks</a> larger than about 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter.</p><p>In May 2019, NASA said it had found <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/neoo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less than half of the estimated 25,000 objects</a> of that size or larger. And of course, that doesn't count smaller rocks such as the Chelyabinsk and 2019 OK asteroids.</p><p>Objects that come from the direction of the sun, meanwhile — like 2020 QG — are notoriously difficult to spot.</p><p>"There's not much we can do about detecting inbound asteroids coming from the sunward direction, as asteroids are detected using optical <keyword id="62018" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Telescopes">telescopes</keyword> only (like ZTF), and we can only search for them in the night sky," Chodas said. "The idea is that we discover them on one of their prior passages by our planet, and then make predictions years and decades in advance to see whether they have any possibility of impacting."</p><p>NASA has a plan to address these gaps in its asteroid-hunting program. The agency is in the early stages of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-space-telescope-to-detect-deadly-asteroids-2019-9">developing a space telescope</a> that could detect asteroids and comets coming from the sun's direction. NASA's 2020 budget allotted nearly $36 million for that telescope, called the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission. If funding continues, it could launch as early as 2025.</p><p><em>This story has been updated with new information.</em></p>

A car-size asteroid flew within 1,830 miles of Earth over the weekend — the closest pass ever — and we didn't see it coming

<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56f1ba9cdd0895131c8b46db-1000/shutterstock297359225.jpg" border="0" alt="asteroid meteor armageddon shutterstock" data-mce-source="Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock" data-link="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;language=en&amp;ref_site=photo&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;use_local_boost=1&amp;autocomplete_id=&amp;searchterm=asteroid&amp;show_color_wheel=1&amp;orient=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;media_type=images&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;color=&amp;page=1&amp;inline=297359225" /></div></div></div></span></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Yesterday, <span>a 427-foot-wide asteroid passed within 45,000 miles of Earth.</span></li><li>Small asteroids can <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/asteroid-impacts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strike Earth</a> with the force of many nuclear weapons and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-sizes-that-can-damage-cities-states-planet-2018-6">destroy entire cities</a>.</li><li>NASA and other agencies have tools to spot these objects in space, but it's difficult <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-detection-mission-neocam-nasa-funding-astronaut-support-2018-11">to track</a> every near-Earth asteroid.</li><li>Astronomers weren't aware of this particular asteroid, named 2019 OK, until just days before it flew by. That isn't enough time for any existing technology to deflect, destroy, or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-stopping-asteroid-fragment-hitting-new-york-city-2019-5">divert an oncoming space object</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.&#xa0;</li></ul><p><span>A 427-foot-wide asteroid whizzed within 45,000 miles of Earth yesterday.</span></p><p><span>While that may sound far away, 45,000 miles is what astronomers consider a close shave: It's less than 20% of the distance between Earth and the moon. This was the closest we've come to an Armageddon-like scenario in at least <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">a few years</a>.&#xa0;</span></p><p>Scientists didn't know the asteroid - named 2019 OK - might be a threat to Earth until it was far too late for humanity to do anything about the gargantuan space rock.</p><p><span>No one in the astronomy community had been tracking this particular asteroid. I</span><span>t seemed to come "out of nowhere," Michael Brown, an astronomer in Australia, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/?utm_term=.68769f07439a">told the Washington Post</a> - barreling in our direction at 54,000 miles per hour.&#xa0;</span></p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-detection-mission-neocam-nasa-funding-astronaut-support-2018-11">Astronaut says a neglected telescope is NASA's best chance of defending Earth from 'city killer' asteroids - 'for God's sake, fund it'</a></em></p><p>The gif below shows how close a shave it was, as 2019 OK squeaks between Earth and Venus' orbits.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><h2>The asteroid was a 'city-killer'</h2><p>Although 2019 OK was wider than the Statue of Liberty is tall, it's relatively small compared to the 6-mile-wide rock that hit modern-day Mexico and wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. NASA tracks about 90% of those types of big asteroids (the ones half a mile in diameter or more).</p><p>But an asteroid doesn't need to be miles wide to cause significant damage.&#xa0;<span>In 1908, a space rock estimated to be several hundred feet in diameter (a bit smaller than 2019 OK) screamed into Earth's atmosphere traveling many thousands of miles per hour. It exploded over the remote Tunguska region of Siberia with the force of a thermonuclear weapon,</span> flattening trees in an area nearly twice the size of New York City.</p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bec6166d1e844137324b271-2400/greenland-asteroid-impact-illustration-kjaer5hr.jpg" border="0" alt="greenland asteroid impact illustration kjaer5HR" data-mce-source="Natural History Museum of Denmark/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center" data-mce-caption="An illustration of asteroids careening toward northern Greenland." data-link="https://snm.ku.dk/english/" /></div></div></div></span></p><p>Scientists have dubbed such asteroids "city-killers."</p><p>In 2005, Congress directed NASA to track down 90% of near-Earth asteroids with a width of 460 feet (140 meters) or more by 2020. As of December 2018, however, telescopes on Earth and in space had found <a href="https://spacenews.com/op-ed-policing-the-cosmic-neighborhood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less than one third</a> of these near-Earth objects (NEOs).&#xa0;</p><p>Keeping tabs on small asteroids is challenging, since scientists can only track an NEO by pointing a t<span>elescope in the right place at the right time.&#xa0;</span><span>Telescopes detect the sunlight that these asteroids reflect, but the smaller the asteroid, the fainter the reflection, and the harder it is for a telescope to spot the rock.&#xa0;</span></p><h2>Scientists had almost no warning about <span>2019 OK</span></h2><p><span>Research teams in <a href="https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K19/K19O56.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brazil and the United States</a> didn't discover that 2019 OK was approaching until less than a week before it passed by. Astronomers didn't release information about how big the asteroid was or where it was heading until mere hours before it flew by Earth, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/?utm_term=.68769f07439a">Brown told the Post</a>.</span></p><p><span>"People are only sort of realizing what happened pretty much after it's already flung past us," he added.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d3b2fd5454a392f9b2e8822-1024/full%201024x1024.jpeg" border="0" alt="Bennu" data-mce-source="NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona" data-mce-caption="This image was captured by OSIRIS-REx's MapCam imager on Dec. 17, 2018 as the spacecraft flew under Bennu's south pole during the mission's Preliminary Survey of the asteroid." /></div></div></div></span></p><p><span>Having as much advance notice of an impending collision as possible is imperative, because more lead-up time gives scientists a better chance of figuring out how to divert an asteroid from its current path.</span></p><p><span>"With just a day or week's notice, we would be in real trouble, but with more notice there are options," Brown wrote in an article <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/an-asteroid-just-buzzed-past-earth-and-we-barely-noticed-in-time">for The Conversation</a>.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span>One of those options is to launch an object into space to ram the incoming space rock head-on. Another involves what's called a gravity tractor: It would involve sending a spacecraft to fly alongside an asteroid for a long period of time - years to decades, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor">according to NASA</a> - and slowly pull it away from its Earth-bound path.</span></p><p><span>But for this tractor plan to work, scientists would need to know about NEOs years ahead. And to give that kind of notice, researchers at space agencies like NASA would have to make asteroid-detection work a bigger priority.</span></p><p data-elm-loc="25">"We don't have to go the way of the dinosaurs," Australian astronomer <span>Alan Duffy <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/?utm_term=.68769f07439a">told the Post</a>. </span>"We actually have the technology to find and deflect certainly these smaller asteroids if we commit to it now."</p><div><iframe src="https://gfycat.com/ifr/MarvelousGraciousCommongonolek" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" width="640" height="438"></iframe><p> <a href="https://gfycat.com/marvelousgraciouscommongonolek">via Gfycat</a></p></div>

A 'city-killer' asteroid got scarily close to Earth yesterday, and astronomers didn't know about it until it was just days away

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d8941422e22af2e7003bcd5-1968/neocam-asteroid-hunter-spacecraft-discovery-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg" border="0" alt="neocam asteroid hunter spacecraft discovery nasa jpl caltech" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" data-mce-caption="An artist's concept of the NEOCam asteroid-hunting mission." data-link="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4727" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4727">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">An artist's concept of the NEOCam asteroid-hunting mission.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA plans to launch an infrared telescope into space to detect potentially <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-stopping-asteroid-fragment-hitting-new-york-city-2019-5">deadly near-Earth objects (NEOs)</a>. </li><li>It's "a breakthrough decades in the making," one asteroid researcher said.</li><li>The announcement is a step forward after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neocam-mission-not-fully-funded-nasa-2017-1">NASA failed to fund a similar telescope</a>, NEOCam, in 2017.</li><li>Space agencies have limited ability to detect objects flying near Earth. That's why <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">a "city-killer" asteroid</a> took scientists by surprise when it passed close to Earth in July.</li><li>The forthcoming asteroid-detecting space telescope will use infrared radiation to detect the heat of rocks hurtling through space.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>NASA is finally getting serious about a major threat to life on Earth.</p><p>Administrators announced on Monday that the agency is planning to launch a space telescope to watch for hazardous asteroids as part of its planetary defense strategy.</p><p>The telescope will use infrared radiation to detect the heat of rocks hurtling through space. For now, NASA administrators are calling it the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission (NEOSM).</p><p>"This is a great step forward for thinking about human destiny, because the dinosaurs certainly did not have an asteroid survey program to protect themselves," Richard Binzel, an asteroid researcher and professor of planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>s at MIT, told Business Insider. "Having knowledge of what's out there is something that the planetary science community has been advocating for for nearly 30 years. So this is a breakthrough decades in the making."</p><p>NASA's new mission is expected to cost between $500 million and $600 million. It could launch as early as 2025, though that's not an official timeline.</p><p>"We're finally in a position where we can say we're ready to move forward," Lori Glaze, director of the agency's Planetary Science Division, said in a NASA committee meeting. "It's a really big deal that we're at this point."</p><h2>'Planet defense is something that we have to deal with'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/560154cfdd08952b148b4583-1200/asteroid-impact-nasa.jpg" border="0" alt="asteroid impact strike hit nasa" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="NASA/Don Davis" data-link="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/planet_growth_spurt_prt.htm" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/planet_growth_spurt_prt.htm">NASA/Don Davis</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Any space rock with an orbit that takes it within 125 million miles (200 million kilometers) of the sun is considered an NEO (near-Earth object). So far, humanity has located about 15,500 such objects.</p><p>The goal in monitoring NEOs is to avoid a surprise like the dinosaurs got 65 million years ago, when a 6-mile-wide asteroid crashed into Earth's surface. The impact caused a mile-high tsunami, sparked wildfires, and released billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, blotting out the sun for years. That was the end of the age of big lizards.</p><p>But so far, scientists have missed plenty of large, dangerous objects that approached Earth. In 2013, a meteor measuring 20 meters (about 65 feet) in diameter and traveling at 40,000 mph entered the atmosphere and exploded over Chelyabinsk in central Russia. The blast sent out a shock wave that broke windows and damaged buildings across the region, injuring more than 1,400 people.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-threat-of-meteor-crashing-into-earth-is-bigger-than-you-think-2019-5">According to NASA modeling</a>, an event like the Chelyabinsk meteor occurs about every 60 years. That same day, another, larger asteroid came within 17,000 miles of Earth.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/525f08e9ecad047a40916a15-2400/asteroid-russia-chelyabinsk.jpg" border="0" alt="asteroid russia Chelyabinsk" data-mce-source="AP" /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">The Chelyabinsk meteor is seen streaking across the Russian sky.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p> </p><p>"Space reminds us from time to time that, yes, on a historic timescale, a geologic timescale for sure, planet defense is something that we have to deal with," Thomas Zurbuchen, an associate administrator at NASA, said in the committee meeting.</p><p>Space sent us another such reminder in July, when a 427-foot-wide, "city-killer" asteroid flew within 45,000 miles of Earth.</p><p>NASA had almost no warning about that rock because right now, the only way scientists can track an NEO is by pointing a telescope in the right place at the right time. Telescopes detect the sunlight that asteroids reflect, but the smaller the asteroid, the fainter the reflection; plus, some asteroids just aren't very reflective.</p><p>"Luck is not a plan, and up to now we've been relying on luck," Binzel said.</p><p>NASA hopes to address that problem with the NEOSM telescope. The agency hasn't released design plans or an official timeline for the project yet, but said it will make use of previous plans for a similar mission, called NEOCam, which never got fully funded. The NEOCam telescope would have orbited Earth and scanned the sky for NEOs larger than 140 meters (460 feet) ⁠- large enough to cause regional damage if the object crashed into Earth.</p><p>Similarly, the plan for the new asteroid-hunting telescope calls for heat-sensing infrared sensors capable of detecting even dark asteroids, which are the most difficult to find. (Since space rocks get warmed by the sun, they emit infrared light, even when they're too dark for ground-based telescopes to see.) The infrared sensors will also allow the telescope to measure the shape, size, composition, and orbit of incoming objects.</p><p>NASA's 8-year-old Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope has used a similar infrared-monitoring approach to find at least 230 NEOs.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d89476e2e22af305065c379-1365/neowise.jpg" border="0" alt="NEOWISE" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" data-mce-caption="This artist's concept shows the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE spacecraft, in its orbit around Earth." data-link="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4767" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4767">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">An artist's concept shows the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer in orbit around Earth.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>However, WISE is less powerful than NEOCam would have been, has a smaller field of view, and relies on an older camera that requires cryogenic cooling. Plus, WISE wasn't designed solely to hunt asteroids. Its primary mission, which it completed in 2011, was to image the entire sky twice, rendering remote galaxies, stars, and asteroids in detail.</p><h2>'A huge step forward'</h2><p>In 2005, Congress directed NASA to track down 90% of near-Earth asteroids with a width of 140 meters or more by 2020. As of December, however, telescopes on Earth and in space had found less than one-third of these NEOs.</p><p>The proposal for NEOCam was put forward in 2006, then again in 2010. NASA selected the 2010 proposal for technology development, but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neocam-mission-not-fully-funded-nasa-2017-1">chose to fund other projects for launch</a> when it came time to pick new missions in 2017.</p><p>"There's just been this impasse between NASA and the Congress over how to do it and how to pay for it, and what happened today was a huge step forward," Binzel said. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d8946842e22af2ef24c7424-1200/neocam-infrared-camera-sensor-teledyne.jpg" border="0" alt="neocam infrared camera sensor teledyne" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Teledyne" data-mce-caption="The infrared camera sensor for the proposed NEOCam asteroid-hunting mission." data-link="http://teledyne-si.com/learn-more-neocam.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://teledyne-si.com/learn-more-neocam.html">Teledyne</a></span></p><p class="caption">The infrared camera sensor for the proposed NEOCam asteroid-hunting mission.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>He added that the new telescope "sounds like NEOCam in every way except name."</p><p>But there's one key difference: The new telescope will employ a new team of scientists. </p><p>"It's nice to have it move forward, but when you start changing the team up, then that creates additional risk," Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute and a scientist on the NEOCam team, told Business Insider. "It just increases the probability of not the best decisions being made. That could impact how well a mission operates and what we get out of it."</p><p>Zurbuchen said the project will still involve the NEOCam team, though. And ultimately, the decision is a step toward getting an asteroid-hunting telescope into orbit.</p><p>"This is the first time NASA has ever voiced a commitment to flying a space-based asteroid survey," Binzel said. "They've always said 'we'll study it, we'll study it,' and now they say 'we are going to do it.'"</p><p><em>Dave Mosher contributed reporting to this story.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-plan-handle-killer-asteroid-2017-6">NASA's 5-step plan for when it discovers a giant, killer asteroid headed straight for Earth</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/D4RFvaOV-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

NASA is finally planning to launch a space telescope to detect deadly asteroids before they hit Earth. Here's how it could work.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c6f49ae1631a3162866918d-1920/63f57a1f56da4b249143d0e482ba7da8.jpg" border="0" alt="FILE - This computer graphic image provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the Japanese unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 approaching on the asteroid Ryugu. Hayabusa2 is approaching the surface of an asteroid about 280 million kilometers (170 million miles) from Earth. The JAXA said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019 that Hayabusa2 began its approach at 1:15 p.m.  (JAXA via AP, File)" data-mce-source="Associated Press" data-mce-caption="FILE - This computer graphic image provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the Japanese unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 approaching on the asteroid Ryugu. Hayabusa2 is approaching the surface of an asteroid about 280 million kilometers (170 million miles) from Earth. The JAXA said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019 that Hayabusa2 began its approach at 1:15 p.m.  (JAXA via AP, File)"><p class="source"><span>Associated Press</span></p><p class="caption">A computer graphic image provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the Japanese unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa-2 approaching the asteroid Ryugu.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-says-space-probe-landed-on-asteroid-to-get-soil-sample-2019-7">Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2</a> has landed on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/here-are-the-first-pictures-from-the-rovers-japan-just-landed-on-an-asteroid-280-million-km-away-2018-9">surface</a> of an asteroid called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/category/ryugu">Ryugu</a> that's over 5.5 million miles from Earth.</li><li>Ryugu is a carbon-rich rock that could hold clues to the history of our solar system. The rock might contain amino acids, the essential building blocks of life.</li><li>Hayabusa-2 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japans-hayabusa2-spacecraft-drops-bomb-on-ryugu-asteroid-2019-4">blasted a hole</a> in the asteroid in April in order to collect samples from subsurface rock that's been sheltered from the wear and tear of space.</li><li>NASA is also conducting a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-approach-nasa-tv-youtube-2018-12">mission</a> to visit an asteroid and collect samples, but without the explosives.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>The life of an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-telescope-gault-asteroid-spinning-apart-images-2019-3">asteroid</a> is lonely. The rocks spend eons drifting through the cold vacuum of space.</p><p>But on Wednesday, the asteroid Ryugu welcomed a special visitor: Japan's Hayabusa-2 probe successfully <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-says-space-probe-landed-on-asteroid-to-get-soil-sample-2019-7">landed</a> on the asteroid's surface&#xa0;at <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20190711e_PPTD_ImageBulletin/">9:06 p.m. ET</a>.</p><p>The <a href="https://global.jaxa.jp/">Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)</a>&#xa0;launched <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/">Hayabusa-2</a> into space in December 2014. Its mission: explore and collect samples from Ryugu, a primitive asteroid half-a-mile in diameter that orbits the sun at a distance up to 131 million miles (211 million kilometers).</p><p>The probe <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-japan-probe-arrives-at-asteroid-after-nearly-four-year-space-odyssey-2018-6">reached</a> its destination in June 2018, then got to work making observations, measuring the asteroid's gravity, and rehearsing to touch down. It blasted the asteroid with a copper plate and a box of explosives in April in order to loosen rocks and expose material under the surface, then successfully landed on Ryugu last night to gather up the rock and soil debris.</p><p>The spacecraft captured the images below as it left the asteroid's surface.&#xa0;</p><p>"First photo was taken at 10:06:32 JST (on-board time) and you can see the gravel flying upwards. Second shot was at 10:08:53 where the darker region near the centre is due to touchdown," JAXA <a href="https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1149223290684108801">tweeted</a>.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d27a266a17d6c2e182a830e-1000/pjimage.jpg" border="0" alt="Ryugu asteroid landing" data-mce-source="JAXA/Associated Press" data-mce-caption="These images were taken right before Hayabusa-2 touched down on Ryugu asteroid on July 11, 2019. The image on the left shows gravel flying upwards. The right image, taken about two minutes later, shows a dark spot due to touchdown."><p class="source"><span>JAXA/Associated Press</span></p><p class="caption">These images were taken right after Hayabusa-2 touched down on Ryugu asteroid on July 11, 2019.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><h2>Ancient rock samples</h2><p>Asteroids are made of rock and metal, and they take all kinds of quirky shapes, ranging in size from pebbles to 600-mile megaliths. Most of them hang out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, though Ryugu's orbit sometimes takes it between Mars and Earth.</p><p>Some asteroids date back to the dawn of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, when materials leftover from the formation of planets coalesced into these chunks of rock. In that sense, asteroids can serve as time capsules: What scientists find in those primitive rocks could tell us a lot about the solar system's history.</p><p>Ryugu is a C-type asteroid, which means it's rich with organic carbon molecules, water, and possibly amino acids. Amino acids form the building blocks for protein and were essential to the evolution of life on Earth. Some theories posit that an asteroid first brought amino acids here, gifting our planet with the seeds of life, though that's still debated.&#xa0;</p><p>About three-quarters of our solar system's asteroids are C-type. Hayabusa-2 aims to be the first mission to bring samples from such an asteroid back to Earth.&#xa0;</p><p>The probe initially <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-spacecraft-touches-down-on-asteroid-to-get-samples-2019-2">landed</a> on Ryugu in February and collected shallow samples from just below the surface, but mission managers decided to gather some deeper rock samples as well, since that material hasn't been exposed to harsh weathering from space. To accomplish that, the probe had to<span> lift back off the asteroid, then blast a <a href="http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/what-to-expect-hayabusa2-sci.html">10-meter crater</a> into the surface in order to</span> access to the rock beneath.</p><p>So in April, Hayabusa-2 released and detonated a box of explosives in space that shot a copper plate into the asteroid.</p><p>Wednesday's landing then made a splash in all that freed-up material.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d27a39da17d6c1b4730acf4-1000/pjimage%201.jpg" border="0" alt="Hayabusa2 Ryuku asteroid landing" data-mce-source="JAXA/Associated Press" data-mce-caption="The Japanese Hayabusa-2 spacecraft lands on an asteroid to collect samples."><p class="source"><span>JAXA/Associated Press</span></p><p class="caption">The Japanese Hayabusa-2 spacecraft lands on an asteroid to collect samples.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>"These images were taken before and after touchdown by the small monitor camera (CAM-H). The first is 4 seconds before touchdown, the second is at touchdown itself and the third is 4 seconds after touchdown. In the third image, you can see the amount of rocks that rise," JAXA <a href="https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1149223290684108801">tweeted</a>.</p><p>After it touched down, Hayabusa-2 then collected a new set of samples and left Ryugu's surface. At the end of this year, it will begin the 5.5 million-mile (9 million-kilometer) journey home. So far, everything is <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/news/schedule/">on schedule</a>.&#xa0;</p><p>&#xa0;</p><h2>NASA is on a similar mission</h2><p>NASA is also studying a far-off asteroid.</p><p>The agency's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex">OSIRIS-REx</a> mission <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nasa-s-osiris-rex-spacecraft-arrives-at-asteroid-bennu-1027777174">reached</a> a much smaller C-type asteroid, Bennu, in August 2018. But the probe didn't land on Bennu's surface; instead, it's been orbiting at a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/osiris-rex-breaks-another-orbit-record">record-breakingly close</a> distance.</p><p>The plan is for OSIRIS-REx to approach Bennu's surface in July 2020, but the spacecraft will only make contact for about five seconds. During that quick instant, it will blow nitrogen gas to stir up dust and pebbles and collect the samples. If all goes according to plan, it will return that material to Earth in 2023.&#xa0;</p><p>The asteroid's surface has turned out to be rougher than expected, however, and debris flying off the space rock can pose a threat to the orbiting spacecraft. So NASA is still <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-invites-public-to-help-asteroid-mission-choose-sample-site">choosing</a> its sampling site.</p><p>But Bennu has already made a significant finding: In December, before it entered orbit around Bennu, the probe <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-nasa-probe-finds-signs-of-water-on-nearby-asteroid-bennu-2018-12">discovered</a> that the asteroid harbored ingredients for water (oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded together). Though Bennu is too small to host liquid water, it's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-newly-arrived-osiris-rex-spacecraft-already-discovers-water-on-asteroid">possible</a> that water could have once existed on its parent asteroid, which Bennu broke away from between 700 million and 2 billion years ago.</p><p>Though NASA's asteroid-exploration mission will collect a larger quantity of sample material than Japan's, the JAXA team <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20190625_ver5_en2.pdf">hopes</a> that comparing the samples from two different sites on the same asteroid will yield novel information about how long-term space exposure changes asteroids over time.</p><p>Both Bennu and Ryugu could also teach scientists a lot about the history of the solar system and potentially - if they contain organic materials - about the origins of life on Earth.</p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>[PPTD] Thank you for your support from all over the world! Everyone in the control room is making a cheerful V-sign for the second touchdown! <a href="https://t.co/YUz7sVmQPb">pic.twitter.com/YUz7sVmQPb</a></p>- HAYABUSA2@JAXA  (@haya2e_jaxa) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1149273278248153088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2019</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-japan-land-hopping-robots-on-asteroid-ryugu-2018-9">Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/hZZHH8z3-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

A Japanese spacecraft has landed on an asteroid after blasting it with a bullet. The mission will bring back rock samples to Earth.

<br /><ul><li>Messier 87, star of the first image of the <keyword id="6409890" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="black-hole">black hole</keyword>, is spinning between 2.4 to 6.3 times faster than the <keyword id="111427" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="speed-of-light">speed of light</keyword>. </li><li>According to the laws of physics, the speed of light is the universal speed limit. </li><li>The study presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) calls it ‘superluminal motion’.</li></ul>The Chandra X-ray Observatory has <a href="https://chandra.si.edu/press/20_releases/press_010620.html">spotted</a> a black hole spinning so far that it’s close to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/isro-nasa-just-spotted-a-black-hole-spinning-so-fast-that-it-could-be-making-space-itself-rotate/articleshow/66416605.cms">breaking the laws of physics</a>. Messier 87 (M87), recently named Powehi, is a black hole 54 million light-years from Earth - yet it’s one of the most famous phenomenons on the planet. <br /><br />Its claim to fame came last year when the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-first-ever-picture-of-a-black-hole-is-fuzzy-these-incredible-illustrations-help-explain-what-it-shows-/articleshow/68821941.cms">Event Horizon Telescope</a> was able to capture it in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/like-looking-at-the-gates-of-hell-astronomers-just-showed-off-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole-and-its-a-monster/articleshow/68818000.cms">first image of the black hole</a>. <br /><br />
  
  
  
  <div type="image" title="blackhole" msid="73137200" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The first ever image of the M87 black hole&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









<br />"It’s like the Event Horizon Telescope is giving a close-up view of a rocket launcher and Chandra is showing us the rockets in flight," said Paul Nulsen, co-author of the study presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting on Monday.<br /><br /><strong>Going faster than the speed of light<br /></strong>Even before its famous picture, M87 was already well known in the scientific community for the powerful jet of material being ejected from its core. Astronomers agreed that the black hole was spinning really fast, but obviously not as faster than the speed of light — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/how-to-break-the-speed-of-light-in-your-own-backyard/amp_articleshow/40311828.cms">the universal speed limit</a>.<br /><br />
	
  
  
  
  <div type="image" title="blackhole5" msid="73137240" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;M 87 captured by the ALMA telescope array in Chile&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>










<br />Yet, Chandra’s X-ray data showed that M87 was spinning between 2.4 to 6.3 times faster. <br /><br />"One of the unbreakable laws of physics is that nothing can move faster than the speed of light," said Brad Snios, another co-author of the study.<br /><br /><strong>So, how did M87 break the laws of physics?<br /></strong>The answer is simple. It didn’t. The supermassive black hole with 7 billion times the mass of our Sun isn’t going faster than the speed of light, it only looks like it.<br /><br />
  
  
  
  <div type="image" title="blackhole4" msid="73137257" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A close-up image of the core of the M87 galaxy, imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









<br />"We haven’t broken physics, but we have found an example of an amazing phenomenon called superluminal motion," Snios explained. <br /><br />Superluminal motion is when "objects travel close to the speed of light along a direction that is close to our line of sight." With M87, the black hole pointing nearly directly at us. And, it’s still going at 99% of the speed of light. The combination managed to fool the readings on Chandra’s cosmic speed gun. <br /><br />
  
  
  
  <div type="image" title="blackhole2" msid="73137358" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;u&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/u&amp;gt;M87: Elliptical Galaxy with Jet&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









<br /><strong>99% speed of light is still pretty fast<br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/new-videos-of-the-farthest-object-humanity-has-ever-explored-show-that-it-flips-like-a-giant-hourglass/articleshow/67564671.cms">New Horizons</a>, the planet’s fastest rocket ship, is capable of reaching 58,000 kilometres per hour (kph). The fastest <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/the-10-biggest-asteroids-that-pose-a-threat-to-earth-in-2020/articleshow/73054066.cms">asteroid to approach Earth this year</a>, 2020 AQ1, will be travelling at 27 kilometres per second (kps). <br /><br />Speed of light, on the other hand, is 299,792 kps. That’s over 11,000 times the speed of an asteroid and millions of times faster than any object on Earth. <br /><br />
  
  
  
  <div type="image" title="blackhole3" msid="73137341" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The galaxy M87, imaged here by NASA&amp;#39;s Spitzer Space Telescope, is home to a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space at nearly the speed of light&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









<br />"Our work gives the strongest evidence yet that particles in M87*’s jet are actually travelling at close to the cosmic speed limit," said Snios.<br /><br />This discovery paves the road for Chandra to measure the speeds of those celestial phenomenons in the universe. Where optical and radio observations have failed, Chandra’s X-ray data succeeded. <br /><br /><strong>See also:</strong><strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/supermassive-black-hole-bigger-than-7-billion-suns-is-spinning-so-fast-that-its-close-to-breaking-the-laws-of-physics/articleshow/73137059.cms">Supermassive black hole bigger than 7 billion Suns is spinning so fast that it's close to breaking the laws of physics</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasas-planet-hunter-uncovers-its-first-world-with-two-stars-1300-light-years-away/articleshow/73133158.cms">NASA's planet-hunter uncovers its first world with two stars 1,300 light-years away</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/scientists-predict-a-star-thats-slowly-been-getting-brighter-over-the-past-decades-will-explode-in-2083/articleshow/73138295.cms?src=hp_latest"><strong>A star that's slowly been getting brighter over the past decades will explode in 2083</strong></a><br />

Supermassive black hole bigger than 7 billion Suns is spinning so fast that it's close to breaking the laws of physics

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers have spotted a newly-referenced comet that is heading towards Earth. </li><li>The comet is likely to be so bright it could outshine our stars. </li></ul><p>A recently-spotted comet is expected to shine brighter than the stars in the night sky as it passes our planet, according to astronomers.</p><p><a href="https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23D77.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The comet, named C/2023 A3,</a> is hurtling toward the Earth at about 180,610 mph, per space.com. </p><p>If all goes well, the comet, which last passed by the Earth about 80,000 years ago, will start being visible with the naked eye around October 2024, <a href="https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23D77.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to data from the Minor Planet Center.</a></p><p>It could be as bright or brighter as our stars, and much more brilliant than the recent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-what-look-like-see-photos-2023-1">ZTF green comet</a> that passed the Earth last month. </p><h2>Brighter than the Green Comet</h2><p>C/2023 A3 is expected to reach a brightness magnitude between -0.7 and -5, per space.com. That technical term means it will potentially be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-venus-during-daytime-2013-12">as bright as Venus</a> in our night skies.</p><p>By comparison, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-green-comet-science-explains-its-glow-2023-1?r=US&amp;IR=T">recent Green Comet ZTF</a> had a brightness of around magnitude +4.6 (the lower the magnitude, the brighter), per space.com.</p><div type="image" title="Comet ZTF is shown against the night sky." height="1500" width="2000" msid="98478948" hostid="261" sizebytes="266958"></div><p>That means C/2023 A3 has the potential to be at least about 100 times brighter than ZTF, and six times brighter than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-passing-close-to-earth-dazzling-photos-videos-2020-7">NEOWISE</a>, a comet that grazed the Earth in 2020, according to Ukrainian astronomy magazine The Universe. Space. Tech. </p><p>But of course, these are just predictions, and a lot could happen to the comet before then.</p><p>For one, the comet will have to survive the sun. The ball of gas, ice, and dust is now heading toward our star and it will have to survive its smoldering rays. The critical moment will be its perihelion — its closest approach to the sun — on September 24, 2024. </p><p>Still, scientists are hopeful, according to <a href="https://universemagazine.com/en/main-comet-of-2024-gets-the-name/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Universe. Space. Tech.</a>, because the comet is expected to be quite large and its perihelion is far from the sun, about 36 million miles away. </p><h2>NASA keeps a close eye out for objects that graze the Earth</h2><p>C/2023 A3 was spotted on February 22 by the NASA-funded asteroid early detection system Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).</p><p>The system, operated by the University of Hawaii, is made up of four telescopes placed in Hawaii, Chile, and South Africa. These automatically scan the sky to spot potential threats to Earth coming from the sky. </p><p>NASA keeps a close eye on near-Earth objects that could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-killer-asteroid-could-threaten-earth-in-a-few-millennia-2022-10?r=US&amp;IR=T">hurt our planet,</a> but it doesn't always catch them this early.</p><p>For instance, NEOWISE was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">spotted only three months before</a> it passed by the Earth in 2020. On that occasion, we were lucky and the comet only passed our planet, offering spectacular vistas to onlookers. </p><p>C/2023 A3, however, isn't expected to be a planetary threat. Astronomers think it will pass about 0.5 Astronomical Units, or 44 million miles, from our planet. </p>

A bright comet is heading towards Earth and could outshine the stars in the sky, say astronomers

To bring transparency in expenses and curb mis-selling, markets regulator SEBI has asked alternative investment funds (<keyword id="1006423" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="aifs" source="Orion">AIFs</keyword>) to provide an option of "direct plan" for investors and introduced a trail model for distribution commission. In addition, the regulator came out with guidelines with respect to excluding an investor from an investment in <keyword id="161906" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="aif" source="Orion">AIF</keyword>. <br /><br /> This came after the regulator observed inconsistency and lack of adequate disclosure in Private <keyword id="17098646" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="placement-memorandum" source="Orion">Placement Memorandum</keyword> (PPM) with respect to certain industry practices. <br /><br /> The new rules are aimed at providing flexibility to investors for investing in AIFs, bringing transparency in expenses and curbing mis-selling, the <keyword id="6355630" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="securities-and-exchange-board-of-india" source="Orion">Securities and Exchange Board of India</keyword> (SEBI) said in two separate circulars. <br /><br /> The framework pertaining to the direct plan will come into force from May 1, while those related to excluding an investor from an AIF investment will become effective immediately. <br /><br /> Directing AIFs, SEBI said,"schemes of AIFs shall have an option of 'Direct Plan' for investors" and through such direct plans, investors will have the opportunity to participate in an AIF without having to pay any distribution fee or placement fee. <br /><br /> AIFs will have to ensure that investors who approach the AIF through a registered intermediary, which is separately charging the investor any fee such as an advisory fee or portfolio management fee, are on-boarded through a direct plan only. <br /><br /> Introducing a trail model for distribution commission, SEBI said that category III AIFs would charge distribution fee from investors only on an equal trail basis. It means no upfront distribution fee would be charged by such AIFs directly or indirectly from their investors. <br /><br /> Further, any distribution charge paid would be only from the management fee received by the managers of such category III AIFs. <br /><br /> For other two categories, AIFs may pay up to one-third of the total distribution fee to the distributors on upfront basis, and the remaining distribution fee would be paid to the distributors on equal trail basis over the tenure of the fund. <br /><br /> Also, SEBI asked AIFs to disclose distribution fees to the investors at the time of on-boarding. <br /><br /> The capital markets regulator has already barred upfront commissions for portfolio management services and mutual funds. <br /><br /> Upfront commission is a one-time payment made by a fund to a distributor on selling a scheme to an investor. Trail commission, on the other hand, is a recurring fee paid to a distributor until the investment is withdrawn. <br /><br /> With regard to excusing or excluding an investor, SEBI said that an AIF may excuse its investor from participating in a particular investment in certain circumstances. <br /><br /> Those circumstances include if an investor, based on the opinion of a legal professional, confirms that its participation in the investment opportunity would be in violation of rule; or if the investor, as part of an agreement signed with the AIF, had disclosed to the manager that its participation in such investment opportunity would be in contravention to the internal policy of the investor. <br /><br /> Further, the manager will have to ensure that terms of such agreement with the investor include reporting of any change in the disclosed internal policy, to the AIF, within 15 days of such change. <br /><br /> Moreover, an AIF may exclude an investor from participating in a particular investment opportunity, if the manager of the AIF is satisfied that the participation of such investor in the investment opportunity would lead to the scheme of the AIF being in violation of rule or would result in material adverse effect on the scheme of the AIF. <br /><br /> If the investor of an AIF is also an AIF or any other investment vehicle, such investor may be partially excluded from participation in an investment opportunity, to the extent of the contribution of the investment vehicle's underlying investors who are to be excused from such investment opportunity. <br /><br /> The manager will have to record the rationale for such exclusions along with the supporting documents. <br /><br /> In February 2020, the regulator introduced a template for PPM for AIFs, in order to ascertain that a certain minimum level of information in a simple and comparable format is disclosed to investors. <br /><br /> The PPM template provides for disclosure with respect to direct plan for investors, and constituents of fees that may be charged by the AIF, including distribution fee.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/a-giant-asteroid-the-size-of-qutub-minar-to-pass-dangerously-close-to-earth-at-30-times-the-speed-of-sound/articleshow/99406843.cms">Just Look Up: Giant asteroid the size of Qutub Minar to pass dangerously close to Earth</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/nse-indices-launches-indias-first-ever-reits-and-invits-index/articleshow/99407069.cms">NSE Indices launches India's first-ever REITs and InvITs index</a></strong>

SEBI asks AIFs to provide "direct plan" option to investors; introduces trail model for distribution commission

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> has confirmed that a mysterious object that just flew past Earth is the dead booster of a 1960s Centaur rocket.</li><li>Earth's gravity briefly captured the booster this year, causing it to loop the planet twice before returning to an orbit around the sun.</li><li>Scientists confirmed that the object was a Centaur booster by comparing its electromagnetic fingerprint to that of a known Centaur booster in space.</li></ul><p>A mysterious object zipped past Earth on Tuesday, coming within 32,000 miles of our planet. After months of head-scratching, scientists finally identified this visitor from beyond.</p><p>It's not an asteroid. It's not a comet. It's not an alien spaceship. On Wednesday, NASA confirmed that the object, formerly known as 2020 SO, is the booster of a Centaur rocket that launched in 1966.</p><div type="image" title="centaur rocket second stage" height="1536" width="2048" msid="79538692" hostid="261"></div><p>The rocket carried the Surveyor 2 mission, which was set to land on the moon, but went into a death spiral when one of its thrusters failed to fire with the others. Surveyor 2 crashed into the lunar surface, but the rocket booster had separated from the spacecraft shortly after pushing it towards its lunar destination. The booster then drifted, unseen, into the abyss of space.</p><p>Now Earth's gravity has briefly captured the rocket booster once again, like a tiny moon orbiting our planet. It's set to loop Earth twice before escaping the planet's pull in March 2021. Then it will continue on a new orbit around the sun.</p><div type="image" title="2020 so rocket booster orbit" height="670" width="1168" msid="79538693" hostid="261"></div><p>Its Tuesday flyby was the dead booster's closest approach to our planet.</p><p>A telescope on the Hawaiian island Maui first spotted the new space object in September. Its orbit seemed unnatural, following unusually close to Earth and remaining within the same plane as our planet. Most asteroids have tilted orbits, dipping above or below Earth as they journey around the sun.</p><p>"I was suspicious immediately," Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/science/nasa-rocket-orbit.html">told the New York Times</a>.</p><p>Like Chodas, many scientists had suspected that this object was the Surveyor 2 booster, since reverse simulations of its orbit placed it so close to Earth in September 1966 that it could have easily come from our planet.</p><p>To test the theory, scientists used a NASA telescope on Hawaii's Maunakea to watch 2020 SO as it flew past Earth. They logged the object's spectrum data — wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that act like fingerprints for objects in space. Different wavelengths represent different chemical compounds.</p><p>Scientists then compared the 2020 SO spectra to that of a known Centaur rocket booster, which has been orbiting Earth since it launched a satellite in 1971. The fingerprints matched.</p><p>"This conclusion was the result of a tremendous team effort," Vishnu Reddy, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona who led the study, said in a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-data-confirm-2020-so-to-be-the-upper-centaur-rocket-booster-from-the-1960-s">press release</a>. "We were finally able to solve this mystery."</p>

Mystery solved: NASA confirmed the space object that just zipped past Earth is a 1960s rocket booster

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-first-interplanetary-helicopter-in-perseverance-mars-rover-belly-2020-7">NASA</a>, <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>, and the <keyword id="6354870" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="United-Arab-Emirates">United Arab Emirates</keyword> each have a mission speeding towards <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword> — all set to arrive in February.</li><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moxie-robot-nasa-mars-rover-turns-co2-into-oxygen-2020-7">Perseverance rover</a> is equipped to sniff out signs of alien life, while China's <keyword id="9109397" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tianwen-1">Tianwen-1</keyword> <keyword id="155626" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rover">rover</keyword> could find underground water.</li><li>The UAE's Hope orbiter aims to make a global map of the Martian climate.</li></ul><p>After six months of careening through space, three sets of robots finally have Mars in their sights.</p><p>The missions - from NASA, China, and the United Arab Emirates -  are set to reach the red planet this month, either falling into orbit around Mars or landing on its dusty red surface. Once there, they aim to search for signs of alien life, scan for underground reservoirs of water, and map the planet's changing seasons.</p><p>The three space agencies' missions all <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-misions-launching-to-mars-in-july-from-3-countries-2020-7">launched in July 2020</a>. Their timelines align because they are taking advantage of the same short window of time when Mars passes close to Earth in the planets' orbits around the sun. That significantly reduces the travel time and cost of anything launched toward Mars. </p><p>As a result, Mars is about to welcome two rovers, two orbiters, and one helicopter.</p><p>Here's what each of the robots is designed to do once it reaches the red planet.</p><h2>NASA's Perseverance rover will hunt for alien life and deploy a helicopter</h2><div type="image" title="mars rover sample return mission perseverance" height="950" width="1267" msid="80489115" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-launch-2020-7">NASA built its newest Mars rover</a>, Perseverance, to scan and drill Martian soil for signs of alien life. The nuclear-powered robot is programmed to stash those soil samples away so that a future mission can bring them back to Earth.</p><p>"This is the first time in history when NASA has dedicated a mission to what we call astrobiology: the search for life - either maybe now, or ancient life - on another world," Jim Bridenstine, who served as the NASA Administrator during the Trump administration, said ahead of the rover's launch.</p><p>If all goes well, NASA's spacecraft will plow through the Martian atmosphere on February 18, deploy a parachute to slow its fall, then deposit the rover in Mars' Jezero crater - an ancient riverbed that could harbor signs of past microbial life.</p><div type="image" title="mars perseverance rover landing entry descent nasa" height="1519" width="2700" msid="80489116" hostid="261"></div><p>After a few months of checking and calibrating its scientific instruments, Perseverance is set to release <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-first-interplanetary-helicopter-in-perseverance-mars-rover-belly-2020-7">the first interplanetary drone</a> from its belly: a helicopter called Ingenuity.</p><p>The 4-pound drone is programmed to carry out a series of test flights, first hovering about 10 feet in the air, then building up to more difficult demonstrations. Ultimately, it could cruise over distances of nearly 980 feet (300 meters) across the Jezero Crater. </p><p>Ingenuity is just a technological demonstration, but it could kick off a new approach to exploring other planets.</p><div type="image" title="mars helicopter ingenuity flight nasa gif" height="360" width="640" msid="80489117" hostid="261"></div><p>"In the future, it could transform how we do planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> on these other worlds, and eventually be a scout so that we can figure out where exactly do we need to send our robots," Bridenstine said.</p><p>Perseverance also carries <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moxie-robot-nasa-mars-rover-turns-co2-into-oxygen-2020-7">a device that converts carbon dioxide into oxygen</a>. By testing its abilities on Mars, scientists can learn whether this technology could make oxygen for future Mars astronauts to breathe or turn into rocket fuel.</p><h2>China is sending an orbiter, lander, and rover</h2><div type="image" title="china mars global remote sensing and small rover hx 1 martian mission illustration rendering cas xinhua" height="995" width="1327" msid="80489118" hostid="261"></div><p>If successful, China's Tianwen-1 will be the first Mars mission to send a spacecraft into orbit, drop a landing platform, and deploy a rover all in one expedition.</p><p>It's ambitious for the country's first interplanetary mission. China attempted to send a simple orbiter to Mars in 2011, but the Russian spacecraft that was meant to carry it there stalled in Earth's orbit and never left.</p><p>This time, China launched with its own space vehicle. A NASA camera that watches for asteroids captured the spacecraft speeding away in July.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">—NASA Asteroid Watch  (@AsteroidWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1286665542624043009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2020</a></blockquote><p>Chinese state media reports that the spacecraft is set to fall into Martian orbit on February 10, according to <a href="https://www.space.com/china-tianwen-1-mars-orbit-insertion-february-2021#:~:text=China's%20Tianwen%2D1%20spacecraft%20will%20reach%20Mars%20orbit%20on%20February%2010&amp;text=The%20rover%20won't%20land,15%20million%20miles%20from%20Earth.rth.">Space.com</a>.</p><p>After the orbiter spends a couple months surveying the landing site, it should drop the lander and rover to Utopia Planitia, a vast field of volcanic rock. Then the lander is set to deploy a ramp for the rover to roll off its platform and onto the Martian ground. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) <a href="http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465652/n6465653/c6810856/content.html">says</a> the landing will happen in May. </p><p>The rover is equipped with a radar system that can detect underground pockets of water. It aims to sniff out ancient reservoirs that could harbor life. It will also help China prepare for a mission to return its own sample from Mars to Earth.</p><h2>The UAE's Hope orbiter aims to map a year of Martian seasons</h2><div type="image" title="uae hope orbiter probe mars united arab emirates" height="2001" width="3000" msid="80489120" hostid="261"></div><p>The UAE's orbiter - called "Al-Amal," or "Hope" - is the Arab world's first mission to Mars. It aims to chart a global map of the planet's climate across one Martian year (about two Earth years). It would be humanity's first such picture of Mars' atmosphere.</p><p>The SUV-sized spacecraft is set to arrive at the red planet on <a href="https://twitter.com/HHShkMohd/status/1334509208151216132">February 9</a>, then fall into an oval-shaped orbit that allows it to survey most of the planet every 55 hours in infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light. While it orbits, the satellite will study the Martian atmosphere by monitoring how it interacts with solar wind and tracking the loss of hydrogen and oxygen.</p><p>"We'll be able to cover all of Mars, through all times of day, through an entire Martian year," Sarah Al Amiri, the mission's science lead, told <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01861-0">Nature</a> before the orbiter launched.</p><p>This data could help scientists better understand Mars' changing seasons and how it lost the thick atmosphere of its youth 4 billion years ago.</p><p><em>This post has been updated. It was originally published at 2:45 p.m. EST on January 27, 2021.</em></p>

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