Long-time Slashdot reader reminds us that in 1999 scientists discovered the asteroid Ryugu flying 300 million kilometres (or 186,411,357 miles) from earth. In 2014, Japan launched a probe to collect samples from it. Today those samples returned to earth. The International Business Times shares pictures and report:
In a streak of light across the night sky, samples collected from a distant asteroid…
Tag: asteroid
Japan awaits capsule’s return with asteroid soil samples
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully released a small capsule on Saturday and sent it toward Earth to deliver samples from a distant asteroid that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on our planet, the country’s space agency said. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-japan-awaits-capsule-asteroid-soil.html…
Hayabusa 2: Returning asteroid sample could help uncover the origins of life and the solar system
What is your idea of an asteroid? Many people think of them as potato-shaped, inert and perhaps rather dull, pock-marked objects—far away in deep space. But over the last ten years, two Japanese space missions – Hayabusa and now Hayabusa 2 – have dispatched that view to the history books. Asteroids are interesting bodies that may be able to explain how…
The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is about to deliver asteroid rocks to Earth
The Japanese Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will drop off samples of dust and rocks from the asteroid Ryugu on 6 December before heading off to visit another asteroid Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262019-the-hayabusa-2-spacecraft-is-about-to-deliver-asteroid-rocks-to-earth/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
NASA: Mystery object is 54-year-old rocket, not asteroid
A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-nasa-mystery-year-old-rocket-asteroid.html…
Moon lights up Gemini December 2 and 3
These next few nights – December 2 and 3 – the bright waning gibbous moon shines in front of the constellation Gemini the Twins. Find this constellation, and you’ve found the radiant point for the Geminid meteor shower, due to peak on December 13-14. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-lights-up-gemini-december-2-and-3…
Duck! Meteor! Oh, Maybe Don’t Bother – This Time…
RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) is a professional geologist, and asks: Did anyone feel a sudden wind through their hair at about 17:19+00:00 on Monday, particularly in the mid Pacific? No? Good. Nobody else did. Nobody noticed the asteroid whizzing past just above the Earth’s atmosphere (for certain values of “above” including “not very far” and “373km above ground”). That’s the closest…
China’s Chang’e 5 mission is orbiting the moon!
China’s robotic Chang’e 5 will be the 1st sample-return from the moon since the 1970s. It launched successfully last week atop a Chinese Long March 5 rocket. Now it’s reported to have entered orbit around the moon. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-moon-mission-change-5-sample-return…
Japan spacecraft carrying asteroid soil samples nears home
A Japanese spacecraft is nearing Earth after a yearlong journey home from a distant asteroid with soil samples and data that could provide clues to the origins of the solar system, a space agency official said Friday. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-japan-spacecraft-asteroid-soil-samples.html…
Graduate student first to spot asteroid speeding past Earth
For as long as he can remember, Cole Gregg has been interested in space. Last week, the Western University graduate astronomy student had a night he’ll never forget as he spotted a previously undiscovered asteroid flashing through the night sky. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-student-asteroid-earth.html…