A 22-Million-Year Journey From the Asteroid Belt to Botswana - The New York Times
On the morning of June 2, 2018, an asteroid was seen careening toward us at 38,000 miles per hour. It was going to impact Earth, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Astronomers were beside themselves with excitement.
Five feet long and weighing about the same as an adult African elephant, this space rock posed no threat. But the early detection of this asteroid, only the second to be spotted in space before hitting land, was a good test of our ability to spot larger, more dangerous asteroids. Moreover, it afforded scientists the chance to study the asteroid before its obliteration, quickly narrow down the impact site and obtain some of the most pristine, least weathered meteorite samples around.
What Would We Do If an Asteroid Hit Earth? NASA Is Simulating It This Week
About a month ago, an asteroid that was estimated to be at least a quarter-mile wide zoomed past Earth at a speed of 77,000 miles per hour. Though it was 1.25 million miles away even at its closest, the asteroid (called, unimaginatively, Object 2001 FO32) was considered "close" to Earth; in the grand scheme of the entire galaxy and beyond, 1.25 million miles isn't much.
Though space is replete with asteroids of all sizes flying about, it seems the risk of one of them hitting Earth anytime in the near future is slim to nonexistent. NASA, however, isn't taking any chances. This week at the 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference , the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) is leading a simulated asteroid impact scenario—in other words, pretending an asteroid is on its way to hitting Earth.
Check out this week's asteroid impact exercise | Human World | EarthSky
Follow the action as asteroid scientists, space agencies and civil protection organizations participate in a drill – simulating an asteroid impact about to happen – during this week’s virtual Planetary Defense Conference.
Fictional “potential impact hemisphere” of make-believe asteroid, 2021 PDC, via ESA / CNEOS .
Here in the U.S., scientists at the Center for Near Earth Object Studies in Pasadena, California have compiled the exercise’s basic info – for each day of this week – which you can also follow here , beginning with these (fictional) statements:
OSIRIS-REx 'MOM' Says Goodbye to an Asteroid | NASA
An asteroid hit Earth in 2018, and now we know where it came from
According to the scientists, the asteroid likely originated from a massive asteroid that astronomers have been keeping their eyes on for some time. The space rock is known as Vesta, and it's the second-largest known asteroid in our solar system. Vesta's history is clouded in mystery, but it's believed that impacts on the asteroid's surface created many pieces of debris and it looks like one of those chunks found its way to Earth.
The pieces of the asteroid that landed in Botswana were relatively tiny. The asteroid that gave birth to them appeared as a flash of light in a sky survey conducted by the University of Arizona, and when it reached Earth it fragmented and the debris tumbled down in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Researchers canvased the area and found a total of 23 meteorites.
Like Boot Prints on the Moon, NASA's OSIRIS-REx Left Its Mark on Asteroid Bennu
This image sequence shows how the local surface of Bennu changed after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully performed its Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample acquisition maneuver on October 20, 2020. The earlier image (top) was taken on March 7, 2019, by the spacecraft’s PolyCam instrument, as part of the mission’s global mapping campaign. The bottom image was taken on April 7, 2021, as part of a final observation campaign to document the state of the surface after TAG.
The spacecraft flew within 2.3 miles (3.7 km) of the asteroid — the closest it has been since the Touch-and-Go, or TAG, sample collection event on October 20, 2020. During TAG, the spacecraft’s sampling head sunk 1.6 feet (48.8 centimeters) into the asteroid’s surface and simultaneously fired a pressurized charge of nitrogen gas, churning up surface material and driving some into the collection chamber.
Europe starts tests for automated asteroid spotters - ABC News
BERLIN -- Scientists said Tuesday they have switched on a new telescope at the European Southern Observatory as part of an effort to create an automated network for spotting asteroids that might pose a risk to Earth.
The tests are a precursor to a planned network of automated telescopes being developed by ESO and the European Space Agency. The project, called Flyeye, will survey the night sky for fast-moving objects and flag those that could become a threat to human researchers for further investigation.
Asteroid that hit Botswana in 2018 likely came from Vesta, scientists say -- ScienceDaily
An international team of researchers searched for pieces of a small asteroid tracked in space and then observed to impact Botswana on June 2, 2018. Guided by SETI Institute meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens, they found 23 meteorites deep inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and now have published their findings online in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science .
"Combining the observations of the small asteroid in space with information gleaned from the meteorites shows it likely came from Vesta, second largest asteroid in our Solar System and target of NASA's DAWN mission," said Jenniskens. "Billions of years ago, two giant impacts on Vesta created a family of larger, more dangerous asteroids. The newly recovered meteorites gave us a clue on when those impacts might have happened."
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