Latest news with #Didymos
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
World Asteroid Day 2025: Watch live views of near-Earth asteroids for free online on June 30
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. World Asteroid Day 2025 is upon us! Here's how you can celebrate the event by livestreaming real-time views of near-Earth asteroids from the comfort of your home. June 30 is the 10th anniversary of World Asteroid Day, an annual United Nations-backed event wherein partners raise awareness of asteroids, their scientific value and how humanity is working to mitigate the risks posed by these wandering solar system bodies. The date coincides with the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska event, which saw a large meteor detonate over Siberia, flattening millions of trees and triggering widespread forest fires. The Virtual Telescope Program has announced a livestream to mark World Asteroid Day on June 30, which will feature real-time views of near-Earth asteroids while discussing the characteristics and impact risks posed by the enigmatic chunks of ancient debris. The stream will be hosted on the Virtual Telescope Project's YouTube channel starting at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on June 30 and will be free to watch. Our planet bears the scars of countless ancient asteroid strikes, the largest of which — such as the Chicxulub impactor — triggered the extinction of countless species, irrevocably altering the evolutionary trajectory of life on Earth. Thankfully, such events are exceedingly rare. Of the well over 30,000 near-Earth objects that have been discovered and tracked to date, no large asteroid capable of causing wide-spread destruction is expected to strike our planet in the next 100 years, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Protecting the planet from an impending asteroid strike may once once have been the stuff of Hollywood sci-fi movies, but recent decades have seen the international community take tangible steps towards preparing for a potential asteroid collision. A Planetary Defense Conference is held each year in which NASA, ESA and its partners work to prevent and react to a hypothetical asteroid impact. Each successive exercise has highlighted fresh challenges surrounding response strategies, ranging from the speed at which missions could be designed and launched to how to best gather intelligence and communicate with the general public. Of course preparations have also extended far beyond tabletop simulations. September 2022 saw NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made history when it slammed into the surface of the 160-meter-wide (252 feet) moonlet Dimorphos, which forms a binary pair with the larger asteroid Didymos. The mission proved that a kinetic impact could significantly deflect the trajectory of a small solar system body and so may be a viable strategy for defending Earth. The Didymos system is set to be visited by the European Space Agency's Hera mission in December 2026, which will observe the aftermath of the impact. On top of that, telescopic eyes are constantly scanning the night sky for evidence of potentially hazardous near Earth objects moving against the starfield beyond. The coming years will see these efforts significantly bolstered by the powerful telescopic eye of the Vera Rubin observatory. The Rubin Observatory's primary mission is to scan the entirety of the southern hemisphere night sky from its vantage point atop mount Cerro Pachon in Chile in a bid to shed light on the mysterious force known as 'dark energy' and an invisible component of the universe called 'dark matter'. However, its initial observations have also highlighted its credentials as an asteroid hunter. TOP TELESCOPE PICK Want to see asteroids in the night sky? The Celestron NexStar 4SE is ideal for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 4SE review. Over the course of just a few nights, astronomers were able to identify 2,104 new near-Earth objects as they passed over the Rubin observatory's field of view, with some astronomers estimating that the observatory could find up to five million more over the coming years. "This is five times more than all the astronomers in the world discovered during the last 200 years since the discovery of the first asteroid," Željko Ivezić, Deputy Director of Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, said during a press conference unveiling the observatory's first images on June 23. "We can outdo two centuries of effort in just a couple of years."
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Science
- Hindustan Times
World Asteroid Day 2025: How to watch near-Earth asteroids live on June 30
On World Asteroid Day 2025, June 30, space enthusiasts and science lovers around the world can look forward to a special treat. On the 10th anniversary of the observation, a United Nations event will bring real-time views of near-Earth asteroids into people's homes for free. World Asteroid Day 2025 is on June 30 The UN began observing World Asteroid Day to raise awareness about the scientific value and potential risks of the asteroids. This event is held on the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska event when a massive meteor explosion over Siberia had flattened over 80 million trees. According to a report, the Virtual Telescope Project will be hosting a free livestream of near-Earth asteroids beginning at 5 pm EDT on June 30 to mark the occasion. Viewers can tune in via their official YouTube channel. Astronomers will also be discussing the characteristics of asteroids and the ongoing efforts to defend Earth from possible future impacts. Why do asteroids matter? Earth has been struck by asteroids multiple times through the years. Some impacts, like the Chicxulub impactor, led to mass extinction events including that of the dinosaurs. The report further cited NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies stating that over 30,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) have been identified. Fortunately, no major asteroid poses a risk of colliding with Earth in the next century. How are NASA and global partners working to prevent asteroid threats? According to the report, every year, global space agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) participate in the Planetary Defence Conference, where they simulate asteroid impact scenarios and refine response strategies. In 2022, NASA successfully conducted the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) by intentionally crashing a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a moonlet of asteroid Didymos, The NASA intended to test whether a collision could alter its trajectory and the test confirmed kinetic impact was a viable method for planetary defense. ESA's Hera mission will be revisiting the Didymos system in December 2026 to study the aftermath of the DART impact. Meanwhile, efforts to detect potentially hazardous asteroids are ramping up with the introduction of the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile. During initial scans, the observatory detected over 2,100 new near-Earth objects within days. Željko Ivezić, deputy director of Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, was quoted as saying that two centuries' worth of effort can be outdone in just a couple of years. The observatory is expected to discover up to five million new asteroids in the coming years, revolutionising our ability to monitor space threats. FAQs: 1. What is World Asteroid Day? World Asteroid Day is a UN-backed annual event held on June 30 to raise awareness about asteroids and space safety. 2. How can I watch the asteroid livestream? The Virtual Telescope Project will stream it live on their YouTube channel starting at 5 pm EDT on June 30. 3. Is Earth at risk from asteroids? According to NASA, no large asteroid is projected to hit Earth in the next 100 years. 4. What is the DART mission? NASA's DART mission tested whether crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid could deflect its path. It succeeded in altering Dimorphos's orbit.
Scroll.in
06-06-2025
- General
- Scroll.in
Fiction: Benyamin's new novel attempts a secular retelling of the life and times of Jesus Christ
Didymos lay awake, immersed in the intriguing rhythm of Peter's snores as he inhaled the whole of the universe with each breath and exhaled it at a curious pace. The release started slowly, increased steadily, reached a pinnacle and then subsided abruptly. After a brief silence, a few ugly sounds followed before the cycle began afresh. Didymos was not disturbed by these innocent remnants of speech, as his mind relished watching the state of deep sleep. He found Peter's snores rather charming in their cadence and flow. As if savouring that midnight curiosity, a subtle smile played on Didymos' face. After some time, when his mind remained alert despite the weariness of the day's journey, Didymos wondered at the reason. He had never had trouble sleeping except when his mind was overwrought. Had something happened to vex him today? Had any new hope or eagerness taken root? He could not recollect anything unusual. With the passage of time, Didymos experienced an unrecognisable, gnawing pain overwhelming his heart. Unable to bear the turbulence, he sat up, wandered around the room, and then stood by the window. He stared at the blanket of darkness outside, listening to the chirping of the cicadas, brooding all the while. Was it an inexplicable disease? Was his time up? Had the gypsy woman predicting death come calling so soon? Had any of his forebears passed away at this age? Tentacles of apprehension seized Didymos. He grieved the possibility of having to let go of his hopes and plans for the future. Didymos contemplated shaking Peter awake to share his unease with him. He reached Peter's side many times, but an intense discomfiture stalled his hand. Tossing and turning on his cot, a thought struck Didymos: it wasn't the symptom of any sickness, but the ripples of a sweet agony that was brimming in his heart. Didymos realised that he was being graced with a sacred moment, one that cradled the essence of all his past dreams. He was left wondering whether he had been praying for such a blessing all his life. For what he was experiencing was the divine sweetness of love! A face, which appeared as an ache in the depths of his heart, became increasingly distinct as the moments passed and then vanished suddenly. The very next instant, it returned with luminous clarity. Didymos could not recall when his eyes had captured, with such precision, the subtlest expressions of that face, nor when they had taken residence so intensely in his heart. It was so unexpected, so unusual and vulnerable to derision! Having determined the reason for his heart's discomfort, Didymos now found himself wishing that sleep would continue to elude him. What if he lost the memories of that lovely face as he slept? In all his years, he had never encountered such perfection of beauty in a Greek maiden. The innocence of that face was deserving of worship – a divinity that should be adored only with a spotless mind! The beauty was luminous and pure, without the embellishment of any ornament or adornment. Effortlessly, it surpassed all elevated yardsticks of loveliness. My Lord! Never, ever remove this face from my memories! Didymos fell asleep very late that night. Had Peter not woken him in the morning, he might have slumbered on till the afternoon. It was with the heartening warmth of someone who felt privileged to have reunited with his friends after a long time that Lazarus bid them farewell. Though Didymos and Peter protested, he insisted on them staying for breakfast. He reminded them of the distance they still had to cover, warned them about the heat of the day and affectionately reprimanded them for setting off without water. At that moment, Mariam hurried up with waterskins for their journey. Peter was deeply touched by her gesture. Had he a sister in real life, would she have cared so much? Lazarus openly praised his sister's percipient action. Lazarus accompanied them to the gate. The sisters stood watching from the porch. Didymos had no idea whether he would receive the hospitality of that home again, but he deeply hoped he would. Walking through the alleys, the duo reached the main street. At that point, their paths diverged. 'We are going in different directions, aren't we?' Peter's voice was heavy with regret. 'Two people who know each other's secrets,' Didymos gently reminded him. 'I have no doubt we shall be faithful to one another,' responded Peter. 'I have met a thousand Jews in my journeys, broken bread with many, but never before have I revealed my identity to anyone,' said Didymos, suddenly catching hold of Peter's hand. 'But Peter, I have told you everything about myself. Though our acquaintance has lasted only a night, I feel as if I have known you all my life!' 'A herald of the future has probably brought us together.' 'Exactly! I was never meant to be here at all. You know that I was looking for John the Baptist. Judea is unfamiliar to me. I realized that John's Bethany was a different place only after arriving here. Indeed, I felt furious and frustrated then. But now, I feel that losing my way was preordained.' They embraced each other warmly, as if neither wished to let go. Didymos felt tears prickling his eyes. Bidding farewell silently, they parted ways. One walked towards Jordan and the other to Jerusalem.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
US Representatives worry Trump's NASA budget plan will make it harder to track dangerous asteroids
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On Thursday (May 15), the U.S. House Committee on Space, Science and Technology convened with scientists to discuss a rather exciting topic: What can NASA do if we identify a dangerous asteroid on a collision course with Earth? It was an especially prudent subject given all the recent fuss about asteroid 2024 YR4, which had a notable chance of hitting our planet before scientists refined its position and deemed it harmless. Most of Thursday's conversation surrounded the agency's highly anticipated Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, which should greatly improve hazardous asteroid detection capabilities as a whole. However, there were also many efforts to address the elephant in the room: the Trump administration's recently announced intention to slash NASA's top-line funding by 24% for the upcoming fiscal year. The proposed cut to the agency's science programs — which includes its planetary defense work — is even deeper, at 47%. Outlined in the White House's "skinny budget proposal," as it's called, the top-line reduction would be the "largest single-year cut to NASA in American history." "If enacted, the Trump administration's skinny budget proposal risks putting NASA on a path to irrelevance," Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-North Carolina) said during the hearing. "It threatens our economic and national security, surrenders U.S. leadership and space to our adversaries, and jeopardizes our competitiveness and standing on the world stage. That's a strategic posture I simply cannot accept." The NEO Surveyor mission is the first space telescope that'll be dedicated to locating asteroids that could threaten Earth, NASA says. It's the agency's next big step in upping the nation's planetary defense game, which was really brought to the forefront for the public in 2022 with the DART mission. DART, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, sent a spacecraft to smash into an asteroid called Dimorpohos. Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid, called Didymos. Neither threatened us, to be clear, as this was just a proof-of-concept mission. The goal was to see whether this impact would adjust Dimorphos' trajectory around Didymos; if so, it would suggest that a spacecraft can one day be sent to an actually threatening asteroid to knock it off a potential collision course with Earth. DART worked beautifully, but it could use a little help. NEO Surveyor is more of a prophylactic measure for planetary defense. It'll be the thing that spots the asteroid we may want to smash a future DART craft into. "We do not know of any sizable object that has a significant risk of impacting Earth in the next 100 years — however, there are a lot more to be found," Nicola Fox, the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said during the hearing. "The mission will improve NASA's ability to discover and then define the sizes and the orbits of the NEOs to understand the hazard they actually pose to us," she added. "Finding those potentially hazardous asteroids remains a top priority for NASA's planetary defense program." One of the most promising aspects of NEO Surveyor is the fact that it'll be able to pinpoint NEOs by way of infrared detection. Infrared wavelengths aren't visible to human eyes and most human technology; they're usually thought of as heat signatures. Firefighters, for instance, can use infrared wavelengths to understand fire distribution in a burning building. This detection strategy should yield a higher target hit rate when compared to traditional methods, which are usually based on whether sunlight reflects off an NEO. In fact, an issue with relying purely on sunlight for NEO hunting was illustrated with the Chelyabinsk asteroid that exploded over Russia in 2013, which damaged many buildings and injured over 1,000 people. "The blast released energy equivalent to about 440 kilotons of TNT, more than 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, shattering windows, injuring thousands and causing millions of dollars in property damage in Russia. Because the asteroid approached from the direction of the sun, it was undetectable by ground-based telescopes and went untracked," Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), who currently serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology, said during the hearing. Though NEO Surveyor still won't be able to detect a possibly hazardous asteroid coming straight from the direction of the sun, it'll enable observations of NEOs super-close to our star, Fox said. "It'll help us find the objects, including the dark fraction of the population, which we think is sort of roughly 35 to 40% or so of the population," Amy Mainzer, principal investigator for the NEO Surveyor mission and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said during the hearing. "It will also help us measure the sizes, because we can quickly convert the infrared fluxes into a diameter as soon as we get an orbit from the Minor Planet Center … That's such an important component to the impact energy." "We track the orbits of all 38,000 currently known NEOs, including the more than two and a half thousand potentially hazardous ones, and an impact by any one of those would be devastating," Matthew Payne, director of the Minor Planet Center, said during the hearing. Fox said that NEO Surveyor should be ready to launch by 2028, perhaps sooner, but that is of course assuming the mission gets the funding it needs. "Passback documents" — a sort of preview of the White House's 2026 budget request— suggested that the proposed cuts could lead to the closure of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The prospect of shutting down such a key agency research facility worries scientists, and it came up during the hearing. Fox was asked, theoretically, what would happen if NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, which plays a vital role in planetary defense, were to be shut down. "If [NASA Ames] were no longer able to do the the the assessment, what we would lose is really the ability to give our sort of early expert advice to [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], which is then responsible for deciding where the perimeter is and what the response is to protect as much human life as possible," Fox said. Payne said that, at present, the Minor Planet Center hasn't been affected by the proposed cuts; Mainzer said she's uncertain how the cuts might affect NEO Surveyor's operations. She also emphasized how expensive it can be to train scientists like herself to lead such an important mission. "We really do have to have the investment and the time that it takes to learn the science, to be able to do it well," Mainzer said. Fox echoed the uncertainty, responding to nearly all questions concerning Trump's skinny budget with the answer that she needs to see the finalized budget before coming to conclusions. "We await the full president's budget so we can see the priorities in the direction on which missions may be supported or not supported," she said. "It's clear that planetary defense leverages many of our federal [science and technology] agencies. Now, whether that federal agency continues — whether that expertise continues — I think, is now in question," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) said during the hearing. Other Trump-instigated orders, like widespread layoffs of probationary employees and deferred resignation programs, are creating a "brain drain," she added. Recent executive orders, for instance, have seen the rapid federal layoffs of over 800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who monitor natural disasters such as hurricanes and forecast daily weather patterns. The deferred resignation program is a sort of roundabout way of laying off employees, offering them payment through a certain month if they leave of their own accord. "A very reasonable question is whether NASA should, in fact, be spending more money on asteroid monitoring and defense given the catastrophic risk to our country and civilization," Rep. George Whitesides (D-California), who used to work at NASA in a leadership position, said during the hearing. "As several members have mentioned already, our leadership in this area, like so many areas of space and Earth science, are under threat now from the proposed cuts to NASA's budget, as well as the budgets of other science agencies." "We're talking about impacts that can actually wipe out an entire region, lay waste to a country or devastate the planet. And, you know, this is something that we can do something about. Actually, this is a natural disaster that is 100% preventable if we do our homework," Payne said. Related Stories: — Reshaping our return to the moon: Trump's 2026 budget gives Artemis a major facelift — Trump's 2026 budget plan would cancel NASA's Mars Sample Return mission. Experts say that's a 'major step back' — Trump administration cancels lease for NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies lab in New York City Of note, Rep. Foushee asked both Payne and Mainzer how much NEO tracking could improve if artificial intelligence could be implemented in the workflow. Both agreed that training systems with AI would lead to more accurate and more rapid results, but when Foushee inquired how much funding would be necessary to realistically perform such AI implementation, the question was deferred to Fox. "Adequate funding is certainly a major thing," Fox said. Exactly how our planetary defense strategies may be affected hinges on the details of Trump's budget, which have not yet been released. (And Congress still has to enact a budget, which remains a proposal until that happens.) If the White House indeed cuts back on funding for these efforts, Fox said NASA may be able to rely on global partners for hazardous NEO tracking. "If we can't all unite on a large chunk hurtling towards the planet, what are we going to unite on?" Fox said.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Tiniest Mars moon Deimos spotted by Europe's asteroid-chasing spacecraft
Europe's Hera spacecraft flew by Mars this week on its way to catch up with an asteroid and tested out its cameras on the Red Planet's tiniest moon. The European Space Agency's Hera mission was launched in October 2024 to check the homework of Nasa's DART mission. In 2022, DART intentionally smashed into an asteroid named Dimorphos during a planetary defense test. According to NASA, DART's impact changed Dimorphos' orbit around its parent asteroid, Didymos, by 32 minutes. On Wednesday, during a Mars gravity assist, Hera used its trio of instruments to hone in on Mars and one of its small moons – the first object photographed by its cameras beyond Earth. The ESA said Hera took the photographs of Deimos from just 620 miles away, capturing the less-visible side of the tidally-locked moon. Deimos measures just over 7 miles across. Scientists believe Deimos could be a leftover chunk from Mars or a gravitationally captured asteroid, according to the ESA. 'Loss Of Signal:' Nasa Successfully Crashes Dart Spacecraft Into Asteroid For Planetary Defense Test "These instruments have been tried out before, during Hera's departure from Earth, but this is the first time that we have employed them on a small distant moon for which we still lack knowledge – demonstrating their excellent performance in the process," ESA's Hera mission scientist Michael Kueppers said in an ESA blog. However, Hera's target of study is much smaller than the little 7-mile moon of Mars. The binary asteroid pair is measured in feet instead of miles. The spacecraft will visit the asteroid Didymos, which is about 2,500 feet across, and its moonlit Dimorphos, which is about 500 feet across. The Mars flyby set up Hera for a follow-up maneuver in February 2026 and then a December 2026 arrival at article source: Tiniest Mars moon Deimos spotted by Europe's asteroid-chasing spacecraft
