'Honey I Shrunk the Planetary System'. This artist's conception compares the KOI-961 planetary system to Jupiter and the largest four of its many moons. The KOI-961 planetary system hosts the three smallest planets known to orbit a star beyond our sun (called KOI-961.01, KOI-961.02 and KOI-961.03). The smallest of these planets, KOI-961.03, is about the same size as Mars. All three planets take le
ss than two days to whip around their star.The planets were discovered using data from NASA's Kepler mission and ground-based telescopes. The KOI-961 star is a tiny "red dwarf," just one-sixth the size of our sun. This planetary system is the most compact detected to date, with a scale closer to Jupiter and its moons than another star system.
The planet and moon orbits are drawn to the same scale. The relative sizes of the stars, planets and moons have been increased for visibility.
The planet and moon orbits are drawn to the same scale. The relative sizes of the stars, planets and moons have been increased for visibility.
A Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 3:22 p.m. EDT Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico. The splashdown successfully ended the first contracted cargo delivery flight contracted by NASA to resupply the International Space Station.The Dragon capsule will betaken by boat t
o a port near Los Angeles, where it will be preparedfor a return journey to SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas, forprocessing. Returning with the Dragon capsule was 1,673 pounds of cargo, including 866 pounds of scientific research. Not since the space shuttle have NASA and its international partners been able to return considerable amounts of research and samples for analysis.
How Paintballs Could Save Earth from Giant Asteroid Impact. An epic battle between paintballs anda giant asteroid could one day save the Earth from an apocalypticspace rock impact.
The novel asteroid-deflec ting scheme proposes that a cloud of paintballs shot into space could knock a dangerous asteroid off a collision course with Earth.
Sung Wook Paek, an MIT graduatestudent, says a spacecraft cou
Sung Wook Paek, an MIT graduatestudent, says a spacecraft cou
ld fire two rounds of pellets full of white paint powder at an asteroidto cover as much of the rock's surface as possible. The strategy, unveiled Friday (Oct. 26), won the 2012 Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition, sponsored by the United Nations' Space Generation Advisory Council.The initial force from the paintballs would nudge the asteroid slightly off course, Paek says. And the palepaint job resulting from the splattered pellets would more than double the space rock's sunlight reflectivity. More photons bouncing off the asteroid's surface would enhance solar radiation pressure and bump it further off course.
The asteroid Apophis was used asa theoretical test case in Paek's proposal. The 900-foot-wide (270-meter) asteroid is perhaps the most often cited as a potentialcandidate for impacting Earth sometime in the next few decades. Observations suggest it may come close to Earth in 2029, and then again in 2036.
Five tons of paint would be required to cover Apophis, according to Paek's calculations. He also estimated that it would take up to 20 years for enough solar radiation pressure to successfully pull it off its Earth-bound trajectory.
An epic battle between paintballs and a giant asteroid could one day save the Earth from an apocalyptic space rock impact.
The novel asteroid-deflec ting scheme proposes that a cloud of paintballs shot into space could knock a dangerous asteroid off a collision course with Earth.
Sung Wook Paek, an MIT graduatestudent, says a spacecraft could fire two rounds of pellets full of white paint powder at an asteroidto cover as much of the rock's surface as possible. The strategy, unveiled Friday (Oct. 26), won the 2012 Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition, sponsored by the United Nations' Space Generation Advisory Council.
The initial force from the paintballs would nudge the asteroid slightly off course, Paek says. And the pale paint job resulting from the splattered pellets would more than double the space rock's sunlight reflectivity. More photons bouncing off the asteroid's surface would enhance solar radiation pressure and bump it further off course.
The asteroid Apophis was used asa theoretical test case in Paek's proposal. The 900-foot-wide (270-meter) asteroid is perhaps the most often cited as a potentialcandidate for impacting Earth sometime in the next few decades. Observations suggest it may come close to Earth in 2029, and then again in 2036.
Five tons of paint would be required to cover Apophis, according to Paek's calculations. He also estimated that it would take up to 20 years for enough solar radiation pressure to successfully pull it off its Earth-bound trajectory.
Paek, who is studying aeronauticsand astronautics, says his strategycould be used to shoot other substances besides paint at a space rock.
The pellets could be packed with aerosols that would "impart air drag on the incoming asteroid to slow it down," he said in a statement. "Or you could just paint the asteroid so you can track it more easily with telescopes on Earth. So there are other uses for this method."
Researchers have been dreaming up ways to drag asteroids off their orbits in case we're ever facing an "Armageddon"-li ke situation. Other plans that have been proposed involve gravity tractors, laser beams, impactors and even nuclear bombs.
Paek's work builds on last year's winning proposal, which involved deflecting an asteroid with a cloud of solid pellets.
Lindley Johnson, program manager for NASA’s Near Earth Objects Observation Program, described Paek's proposal as "an innovative variation" on techniques used to take advantage of solar radiation pressure. NASA's Messenger spacecraft, for example, uses solarsails to control its trajectory around Mercury.
"It is very important that we develop and test a few deflection techniques sufficiently so that we know we have a viable 'toolbox' of deflection capabilities to implement when we inevitably discover an asteroid on an impacttrajectory," Johnson said in a statement.An artist's rendering of the asteroid Apophis.
CREDIT: European Space Agency .
The asteroid Apophis was used asa theoretical test case in Paek's proposal. The 900-foot-wide (270-meter) asteroid is perhaps the most often cited as a potentialcandidate for impacting Earth sometime in the next few decades. Observations suggest it may come close to Earth in 2029, and then again in 2036.
Five tons of paint would be required to cover Apophis, according to Paek's calculations. He also estimated that it would take up to 20 years for enough solar radiation pressure to successfully pull it off its Earth-bound trajectory.
An epic battle between paintballs and a giant asteroid could one day save the Earth from an apocalyptic space rock impact.
The novel asteroid-deflec ting scheme proposes that a cloud of paintballs shot into space could knock a dangerous asteroid off a collision course with Earth.
Sung Wook Paek, an MIT graduatestudent, says a spacecraft could fire two rounds of pellets full of white paint powder at an asteroidto cover as much of the rock's surface as possible. The strategy, unveiled Friday (Oct. 26), won the 2012 Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition, sponsored by the United Nations' Space Generation Advisory Council.
The initial force from the paintballs would nudge the asteroid slightly off course, Paek says. And the pale paint job resulting from the splattered pellets would more than double the space rock's sunlight reflectivity. More photons bouncing off the asteroid's surface would enhance solar radiation pressure and bump it further off course.
The asteroid Apophis was used asa theoretical test case in Paek's proposal. The 900-foot-wide (270-meter) asteroid is perhaps the most often cited as a potentialcandidate for impacting Earth sometime in the next few decades. Observations suggest it may come close to Earth in 2029, and then again in 2036.
Five tons of paint would be required to cover Apophis, according to Paek's calculations. He also estimated that it would take up to 20 years for enough solar radiation pressure to successfully pull it off its Earth-bound trajectory.
Paek, who is studying aeronauticsand astronautics, says his strategycould be used to shoot other substances besides paint at a space rock.
The pellets could be packed with aerosols that would "impart air drag on the incoming asteroid to slow it down," he said in a statement. "Or you could just paint the asteroid so you can track it more easily with telescopes on Earth. So there are other uses for this method."
Researchers have been dreaming up ways to drag asteroids off their orbits in case we're ever facing an "Armageddon"-li ke situation. Other plans that have been proposed involve gravity tractors, laser beams, impactors and even nuclear bombs.
Paek's work builds on last year's winning proposal, which involved deflecting an asteroid with a cloud of solid pellets.
Lindley Johnson, program manager for NASA’s Near Earth Objects Observation Program, described Paek's proposal as "an innovative variation" on techniques used to take advantage of solar radiation pressure. NASA's Messenger spacecraft, for example, uses solarsails to control its trajectory around Mercury.
"It is very important that we develop and test a few deflection techniques sufficiently so that we know we have a viable 'toolbox' of deflection capabilities to implement when we inevitably discover an asteroid on an impacttrajectory," Johnson said in a statement.An artist's rendering of the asteroid Apophis.
CREDIT: European Space Agency .
0 comments:
Post a Comment