Tag: Asteroids
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Hayabusa 2 team sets dates for asteroid landings
Hayabusa 2’s optical navigation camera captured this view of asteroid Ryugu from a distance of 6 kilometers (4 miles) on July 20. Credit: JAXA Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is preparing to release three hopping robots to land on asteroid Ryugu in the coming month, with tiny instruments scientists hope will explore the airless world’s boulder-strewn…
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Two NASA probes catch first glimpses of primordial targets
On Aug. 17, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained the first images of its target asteroid Bennu from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km), or almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon. This cropped set of five images was obtained by the PolyCam camera over the course of an hour for…
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NASA’s New Horizons and OSIRIS-REx spacecraft spot their deep-space targets
The picture on the left was created by adding 48 different exposures from the LORRI camera on NASA’s New Horizons probe. The picture on the right has been processed to subtract the light from background stars, leaving an icy object known as Ultima Thule shining dimly in the crosshairs. (NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI Photo)…
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Planetary Resources auction put on hold
News Brief: This month’s scheduled sale of hundreds of items from Planetary Resources’ headquarters in Redmond, Wash., has been postponed, according to a website notice by the auctioneer, James G. Murphy & Co. The financially strapped asteroid mining company had planned to sell off laptops, machine tools and other pieces of equipment that were deemed…
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Hayabusa 2 probe gets a closer look at asteroid amid landing preps
A wide-angle optical navigation camera on the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft captured this view of asteroid Ryugu on Aug. 6 as the spacecraft approached to a distance of less than 2,800 feet (851 meters) from the object. Credit: JAXA, University Tokyo, Koichi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu,…
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Financially strapped Planetary Resources gets set to auction off equipment at HQ
Planetary Resources is selling off equipment from its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) In a fresh sign of the financial straits facing Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company will be auctioning off hundreds of items from its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., ranging from industrial-strength CNC machine tools and 3-D printers to…
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Japanese spacecraft reaches asteroid after three-and-a-half-year journey
Asteroid Ryugu imaged by the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft June 26 at a range of 13 miles (22 kilometers) Wednesday. Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST Japan’s robotic Hayabusa 2 spacecraft arrived Wednesday at asteroid Ryugu, a diamond-shaped object more than a half-mile…
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That’s no starship … or asteroid: Hubble hints that interstellar object is a comet
News brief: Observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories indicate that the cigar-shaped interstellar object known as ‘Oumuamua got an unexpected boost in speed and a shift in its trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year. Scientists surmise that the source of the boost was an outflow of…
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Amid departures, Planetary Resources is holding out hope for an asteroid mining comeback
An artist’s conception shows the Arkyd-301 spacecraft, which was destined to start blazing a trail for asteroid prospecting in 2020. (Planetary Resources Illustration) It’s been months since Planetary Resources had to scale back its asteroid aspirations because a fundraising campaign came up short — and the quest for cash is continuing as space industry leaders converge…
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White House lays out updated plan for detecting (and deflecting) killer asteroids
NASA is planning missions to study how to divert a threatening asteroid, including an experiment known as DART, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (NASA Illustration) The White House has issued an updated plan that lays out the roles played by NASA and other federal agencies in anticipating threats from near-Earth objects — and makes clear…