Latest news with #CenterforNearEarthObjectStudies
Nahar Net
12 hours ago
- Science
- Nahar Net
New interstellar comet will keep a safe distance from Earth, NASA says
by Naharnet Newsdesk 04 July 2025, 15:19 NASA has discovered an interstellar comet that's wandered into our backyard. The space agency spotted the quick-moving object with the Atlas telescope in Chile earlier this week, and confirmed it was a comet from another star system. It's officially the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system and poses no threat to Earth. "These things take millions of years to go from one stellar neighborhood to another, so this thing has likely been traveling through space for hundreds of millions of years, even billions of years," Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, said Thursday. "We don't know, and so we can't predict which star it came from." The newest visitor is 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) from the sun, out near Jupiter, and heading this way at a blistering 37 miles (59 kilometers) per second. NASA said the comet will make its closest approach to the sun in late October, scooting between the orbits of Mars and Earth — but closer to the red planet than us at a safe 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) away. Astronomers around the world are monitoring the icy snowball that's been officially designated as 3I/Atlas to determine its size and shape. Chodas told The Associated Press that there have been more than 100 observations since its discovery on July 1, with preliminary reports of a tail and a cloud of gas and dust around the comet's nucleus. The comet should be visible by telescope through September, before it gets too close to the sun, and reappear in December on the other side of the sun. Based on its brightness, the comet appears to be bigger than the first two interstellar interlopers, possibly several miles (tens of kilometers) across, Chodas said. It's coming in faster, too, from a different direction, and while its home star is unknown, scientists suspect it was closer to the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The first interstellar visitor observed from Earth was Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honor of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it in 2017. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own — 21/Borisov — was discovered in 2019 by a Crimean amateur astronomer with that name. It, too, is believed to be a comet. "We've been expecting to see interstellar objects for decades, frankly, and finally we're seeing them," Chodas said. "A visitor from another solar system, even though it's natural — it's not artificial, don't get excited because some people do ... It's just very exciting."
New York Post
a day ago
- Science
- New York Post
Mysterious Manhattan-sized interstellar comet spotted blasting through solar system: NASA
It's a stellar discovery. A Manhattan-sized interstellar comet was spotted blazing through our solar system — marking only the third time a mysterious object from beyond our cosmic neighborhood has been observed. The fast-moving comet — named 3I/ATLAS — was first discovered Tuesday by NASA's ATLAS telescope in Chile, sparking a race among astronomers to gather data as they traced its path back to June 14, the space agency announced Wednesday. Advertisement 'These things take millions of years to go from one stellar neighborhood to another, so this thing has likely been traveling through space for hundreds of millions of years, even billions of years,' Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, said Thursday. 3 Artist's concept of interstellar object 3I/Atlas. NASA / SWNS 'We don't know, and so we can't predict which star it came from.' The icy celestial visitor, believed to have come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, is expected to pass 150 million miles away from Earth in October and poses no threat, NASA said. Advertisement It is currently 416 million miles from the sun, near Jupiter, and hurtling through space at a scorching 37 miles per second, with early reports showing the comet sporting a glowing tail and surrounding cloud of gas and dust around its nucleus. Its origin remains unknown. 3 Image of interstellar object 3I/Atlas. K Ly/Deep Random Survey / SWNS Advertisement 3 Illustration of interstellar object 3I/Atlas. ESA/Hubble/NASA/ESO/ / SWNS 'We've been expecting to see interstellar objects for decades, frankly, and finally we're seeing them,' Chodas added, noting its size appears to span about 12 miles across — making it larger than the first two known spacefaring drifters. 'A visitor from another solar system, even though it's natural — it's not artificial, don't get excited because some people do … It's just very exciting.' The first interstellar object identified from Earth was Oumuamua, named after the Hawaiian observatory that found it in 2017. The second, known as 21/Borisov, was detected in 2019. Advertisement The latest cosmic nomad will remain visible by telescope through September before it nears the sun. It is expected to reappear on the other side of the sun in early December. With Post wires
Hindustan Times
10-06-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
'City killer' asteroid, headed earlier for Earth, now set to hit moon in 2032? NASA's latest update
Asteroid 2024 YR4, which was earlier seen as a threat to Earth, now appears to be on a collision course with the moon. Since its discovery last year, the asteroid had caught the attention of the world after it was revealed there was a slim possibility it might hit the Earth in 2032. Experts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Center for Near Earth Object Studies have updated the 2024 YR4's chance of hitting the Moon in 2032 to 4.3 per cent. According to NASA, the possibility of 2024 YR4 hitting the moon was updated after data from the James Webb telescope and other ground-based telescopes. 'The Webb data improved our knowledge of where the asteroid will be on December 22, 2032, by nearly 20%. As a result, the asteroid's probability of impacting the Moon has slightly increased from 3.8% to 4.3%. In the small chance that the asteroid was to impact, it would not alter the Moon's orbit,' a post on NASA's blog read. According to NASA, the asteroid is now too far away to observe with telescopes. Further observations will be conducted by the US space agency in 2028, when the asteroid's orbit around the Sun brings it back closer to Earth. As data comes in, the probability of the asteroid's impact may change. An international team led by Maryland-based Dr. Andy Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, made the observations about the asteroid in May using Webb's near-infrared camera. When the asteroid was first discovered in 2024, it had a very low probability of impacting the Earth. After investigation, NASA concluded that the asteroid would not pose a significant impact risk to the planet in 2032 and beyond. When the asteroid was discovered by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ALERT), it was called 'city destroyer' online due to its speed, size, and the possibility of it hitting the Earth. It was discovered on December 27, 2024, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. The asteroid is about 40 to 90 meters (130 to 300 feet) wide. As of now, there is no significant impact risk posed by the asteroid in 2032.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists think 'city killer' asteroid could now hit the moon
An asteroid that could be up to 220 feet wide will now miss Earth - but the chances of the space rock slamming into the moon have doubled. Asteroid 2024 YR4 briefly had a small chance of hitting our planet in 2032, but NASA has now reduced this chance to 0.004%. However, the chances of the asteroid hitting the moon have doubled, from 1.7% to 3.8% based on new readings from the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA said, 'Experts at NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have updated 2024 YR4's chance of impacting the moon on Dec. 22, 2032 from 1.7% as of late February to 3.8% based on the Webb data and observations from ground-based telescopes. "There is still a 96.2% chance that the asteroid will miss the moon.' Recent telescope observations have reduced the likely size of the asteroid, but it's still the size of a ten-storey building. According to the latest data from the James Webb telescope, the asteroid is believed to be 174-220 feet across. If it had hit the Earth, the energy released at its impact would have been similar to a nuclear weapon - leading many to brand it a 'city killer'. So what would happen if it hit the moon? Obviously there are no cities to get in the way, but what is likely is it would just create a crater. The moon's surface is dotted with evidence of thousands of such craters. Crucially, according to NASA, it would not alter our satellite's orbit. But the impact could pose other issues, said astronomer and science writer David Whitehouse. Whitehouse told Yahoo News: "It would be scientifically fascinating, but it would be a disaster on many fronts. "The problem is that although a lot of the impact falls back to the moon very quickly, a lot of it wouldn't, and it would be dispersed into space and dispersed into the moon's orbit. And that would affect people travelling to the moon, and also eventually would start to rain down back and rain down on the earth. So it would affect satellites. It would increase the debris hazard considerably in orbit." 'Many' scientists are hoping that YR4 WILL hit the moon, simply so that they can observe its impact, the head of the European Space Agency's Planetary Defense Office said. Richard Moissl, head of the ESA's planetary defense office, said, "The possibility of getting a chance for an observation of a sizeable moon impact is indeed an interesting scenario from a scientific point of view.' The information from the impact could be 'valuable for planetary defence purposes', he said. Astronomers will target the James Webb Space Telescope at YR24 to get better readings of its position and size. The asteroid is currently heading away from Earth and it will pass out of view after May, and it will not be possible to get readings until it is on its return journey. The asteroid is more than 50 metres (164ft) in diameter, which means that it would have triggered planetary defence missions if there was more than a 1% chance of it hitting Earth in 2032. Among these options would be using a nuclear weapon to nudge the space rock into a different orbit. The 'nuclear option' would be most likely to be used with larger asteroids more than half a mile in diameter. Another option would be to use a large laser to evaporate the asteroid's surface, driving it onto a different trajectory, as suggested in a paper from the University of California, Santa Barbara. By far the most likely option to be used is an 'impactor' - a spacecraft that would be flown into the asteroid to knock it off course, said Whitehouse. NASA and the ESA have conducted research into how the trajectory of an asteroid can be changed by ramming it with a spacecraft. In September 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission impacted the asteroid Dimorphos. The collision changed Dimorphos's orbit successfully, and now scientists hope to study the space rock close-up to understand how to launch similar missions. The ESA's Hera spacecraft will enter the orbit of Dimorphos (and its larger companion Didymos) in October 2026. By analysing the results of DART, Hera will offer information which could be used to repeat the feat with other objects.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Experts say 'city killer' asteroid will miss Earth, but could still hit moon
Once declared to be on a collision course with Earth, an asteroid dubbed a 'city killer' is now expected to miss the planet. The moon, however, might not be spared. Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first detected in December 2024. Experts believed there was a 3% chance it would hit the Earth in 2032, but there's now a near-zero chance of that happening, NASA wrote in a recent update. Concerns about the so-called city killer were high earlier this year. Astronomer Andrew Rivkin conducted a five-hour observation of the space rock and found it might make impact on the moon, the New York Post reported. There's a 3.8% chance the asteroid, about the size of a football field, will hit the moon on Dec. 22, 2032, up from 1.7% in late February, based on data collected using the James Webb Space Telescope. There is a 96.2% chance the asteroid will miss entirely; however, if it were to make contact with the moon, it wouldn't alter the moon's orbit, experts at NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies said. 'Part of our motivation to continue observing this asteroid specifically is to figure out, is that number gonna go up or is it also going to go to zero,' Rivkin said. Previous reports regarding the asteroid's size were inaccurate, the Post reported, citing the New Scientist, adding the correct measurement is 60 metres or so. Scientists will study the asteroid with the Webb telescope again in May. After that, the giant space rock will disappear into the outer solar system for the next several years. Asteroid will likely hit Earth – but not for at least 100 years Aussie man thought he found gold but it was something rarer
