Amazing things are always found in space, not that asteroids are just amazing; but finding one in the same orbit as Earth in 2011, thats amazing.
With all the technology floating out in space, 2010 TK7 (the new Asteroids official name) is only just discovered.
AFP
PARIS — Earth is not alone in its orbit around the Sun - a small 'Trojan' asteroid sits in front of our planet and leads it, according to British science revue Nature, which published the discovery Thursday.
This diminutive asteroid has a diameter of just 300 metres but is called a Trojan because of its particular position in a stable spot either in front of a planet or behind it. Because the asteroid and planet are constantly on the same orbit, they can never collide.
Jupiter, Mars and Neptune also have Trojan asteroids accompanying them, as do two of Saturn's moons.
NASA scientists discovered the asteroid, which lies 80 million kilometres (50 million miles) from Earth, using its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope.
Astronomers have long thought that Earth did have some Trojans but their discovery has proved elusive because of the difficulty of seeing them in daylight.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
'Trojan' asteroid shares Earth's orbit
Thursday, May 26, 2011
NASA Announces Pioneering Mission To Asteroid
Sounds exciting, and it could be if furtherr funding does not get cut from the NASA budget.
Osiris-Rex will not reach the near Earth asteroid designated 1999 RQ36 until 2020 (launch date 2016) it will be awhile.
Irish weather online
NASA will launch a spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016 and use a robotic arm to pluck samples that could better explain our solar system’s formation and how life began. The mission, called Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth.
“This is a critical step in meeting the objectives outlined by President Obama to extend our reach beyond low-Earth orbit and explore into deep space,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. “It’s robotic missions like these that will pave the way for future human space missions to an asteroid and other deep space destinations.”
NASA selected OSIRIS-REx after reviewing three concept study reports for new scientific missions, which also included a sample return mission from the far side of the moon and a mission to the surface of Venus.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Japanese Hayabusa asteroid mission comes home
landing on an Asteroid then returning back to Earth !
Even if they don't retrieve any Asteroid dust from this capsule the mission was still amazing .
BBC
A capsule thought to contain the first samples grabbed from the surface of an asteroid has returned to Earth.
The Japanese Hayabusa container hit the top of the atmosphere just after 1350 GMT, producing a bright fireball over southern Australia.
It had a shield to cope with the heat of re-entry and a parachute for the final drop to the ground.
A recovery team later reported they had identified the landing zone in the Woomera Prohibited Range...
The main spacecraft, along with the sample-storage capsule, should have come back to Earth in 2007, but a succession of technical problems delayed their return by three years.
Even now, there is still some uncertainty as to whether the capsule really does contain pieces of Itokawa...
However, Japanese space agency (Jaxa) officials remain confident of success.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Building blocks of life are found on asteroid
A two for one special ,
First there is a good possibility of life on Mars,
And We also have very good evidence to the possibility of life on an asteroid
We are all Descendants Of Space Pond Scum !
The Los Angeles Times
For the first time, scientists have discovered evidence of water ice, as well as organic compounds, on an asteroid -- findings that bolster a leading theory for the origins of life on Earth.
"Up until now there was no sign that asteroids had any abundant organics or ice on them," said Joshua P. Emery, a planetary astronomer at the University of Tennessee and an author of one of two studies on the discoveries. The new evidence supports the possibility that the essential building blocks of life came from asteroids.
The research, reported by two teams of scientists working independently, appeared online Wednesday in the journal Nature. Both teams' conclusions are based on analyses of infrared light reflected by 24 Themis, one of the largest asteroids in the solar system.
Because different materials absorb light at different wavelengths, scientists were able to establish the content of the asteroid by analyzing the light reflected by it. The asteroid contains water and organic compounds, or molecules containing carbon, the teams concluded. With water, such molecules are the building blocks for producing and sustaining living things.
