The emergency preparedness activities now underway to combat the coronavirus pandemic offer insight about our readiness to deal with a dangerous incoming asteroid, experts say.
Humanity can learn some valuable lessons about planetary defense from the things that have gone right and wrong in the coronavirus fight, according to asteroid scientists and an authority on emergency preparedness.
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"Speaking for myself, the novel coronavirus is a good case study of mistakes to avoid when planning to prevent an asteroid impact," said Thomas Jones, a scientist, author and retired NASA astronaut who flew on four space shuttle missions to Earth orbit. He chairs the Association of Space Explorers' Near Earth Objects Committee.
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Ancient micrometeoroids carried stardust, water to asteroid 4 Vesta; could have done same for
A new study says that much like 'stardust' grains that arrived on Earth inside primitive meteorites, such grains were also delivered to another planet-like body, asteroid 4 Vesta, by micrometeoroids that also carried water.
The results of the study, conducted by researchers from New Washington in St Louis was published in the journal Geochima et Cosmochimica Acta .
Lead author of the study Nan Lio, who is an assistant research professor in physics and the Laboratory for Space Sciences in Arts & Sciences elaborated that much like Earth, Vesta too has a core, mantle and crust. These are features that formed as materials melted, broke apart and coalesced into a single planet-like object. According to Liu, much like Earth, Vesta, which orbits the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was pummeled by micrometeoroids .
NASA Asteroid Tracker: 2 NEOs To Zip Past Earth On Wednesday
NASA's automated asteroid tracking system has spotted two near-Earth objects that are expected to fly past the planet on Wednesday (June 17). According to the data collected by the agency, one of the approaching asteroids is almost as big as the Statue of Liberty.
The incoming asteroids are currently being monitored by NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). As noted by the agency, the first asteroid that will enter Earth's vicinity tomorrow is called 2020 JU3 .
What a Buried Crater in Mexico Says About the Asteroid That Doomed the Dinosaurs - Atlas Obscura
Scientists and explorers have faced such puzzling moments in our history. They may have had inklings that giant collisions happened in the universe, but where and how and whether they still happened are things that modern scientists are only now able to answer with some degree of certainty. Until they started to, around the mid-20th century, craters like Arizona’s Meteor Crater and those on the moon were largely thought to be volcanic in origin.
Like detectives piecing together clues across time and space, scientists who study impact craters are revealing the stories of these fascinating planetary and lunar scars. Most recently, a new study on the Chicxulub crater in Mexico concludes that the asteroid that led to the dinosaur-ending mass extinction 66 million years ago likely struck at a steep angle and high speed that maximized the lethal effects that followed.
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Astronomers recategorize asteroid-like comet
Comet P/2019 LD2 regularly comes close enough to Jupiter every few decades so the pushes and pulls from close gravitational interactions with Jupiter can change the comet's orbit dramatically. In the case of P/2019 LD2, its location and orbit currently approximates the position and near-circular orbit of Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
Giant 'potentially hazardous' asteroid will fly safely by Earth in April | Space
A large and "potentially hazardous" asteroid is poised to fly by Earth next month, but don't worry — it poses no threat to Earth.
Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 will make a close approach to Earth on April 29. The hefty space rock has an estimated diameter of 1.1 to 2.5 miles (1.8 to 4.1 kilometers), or about the width of the isle of Manhattan.
Video: Big asteroid 1998 OR2 will safely fly by (imagery + orbit animation)
Related: Potentially dangerous asteroids (images)
Asteroid news: Preacher's bizarre prophecy of Apophis 'explosions' revealed |
Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "The excitement is that an object this large comes this close about once per thousand years, so it's all about, 'What's the opportunity?'"
But there are some who are using the asteroid's flyby as an opportunity to peddle doomsday prophecies and biblical warnings of the end times.
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"There will be explosions, much like the February 2013 asteroid that exploded over the Earth over Siberia in Russia, which damaged over 1,500 buildings and injured over 1,000 people."
Sunburned Surface Reveals Asteroid Formation and Orbital Secrets - Eos
Newly analyzed high-resolution images from the Hayabusa2 landing on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu revealed a reddish hue to surface materials. Scientists interpret that coloration to be a result of a brief orbital excursion close to the Sun. When combining this information with previously collected data from Ryugu, scientists can now paint a clearer picture of how and when the asteroid formed, how its orbit has changed over time, and what its surface looks like.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) spacecraft Hayabusa2 took off for Ryugu in 2014. It arrived in orbit in 2018 and touched down on the asteroid in February 2019 to collect samples for a return to Earth, which will occur later this year. Data from Hayabusa2 have been steadily painting a clearer picture of the asteroid while also revealing surprises at every turn.
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Greg Abbott never took coronavirus seriously enough and rushed reopening Texas. Now he wants to scold young people… https://t.co/doaweRjOR4 adamcbest (from Austin, TX) Tue Jun 16 16:56:15 +0000 2020
La dexametasona, un fármaco barato y de fácil acceso en todo el mundo, puede ayudar a salvar vidas de pacientes gra… https://t.co/oTEK9PKbHX NiusDiario Tue Jun 16 16:47:11 +0000 2020
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