ISRO, ESA and NASA Team Up to Study Asteroid Apophis During Its 2029 Flyby

An asteroid, named after Egyptian deity of destruction, — Apophis — will come remarkably close to Earth during its flyby in 2029. At its closest approach, it will be about 19,000 miles (30,500 kilometers) from our planet's surface. To put this in perspective, that's closer than some of our geostationary satellites.

This close encounter provides a unique and rare opportunity for detailed observations and scientific study. Space agencies of USA and Europe – NASA and ESA – are gearing up to learn more about this intriguing asteroid.

In a latest now Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), ESA and NASA have team up to Study Asteroid Apophis During Its 2029 Flyby. 

Asteroid 99942 Apophis is a near-Earth object (NEO) estimated to be about 1,100 feet (335 meters) across. Initially considered one of the most hazardous asteroids, its impact assessment changed after precise orbit analysis. Recent radar observations ruled out any impact risk for at least a century, including the close approaches in 2029 and 2036.

ESA's Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) mission aims to closely study Apophis during its safe but exceptionally close flyby of Earth in 2029. Ramses will provide valuable insights into this large asteroid, enhancing our preparedness for future asteroid threats.

NASA already has a probe to study Apophis after its 2029 flyby, complementing ESA's efforts.

While ISRO is not directly involved in the collaborative study of asteroid Apophis in 2029, their contributions to space exploration and scientific research are noteworthy. ISRO is India's national space agency, known for its successful satellite launches, lunar missions (such as Chandrayaan-2), and Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan). The Indian Space agency has expertise in remote sensing, communication
satellites, and interplanetary exploration.

However, according to reports ISRO may send its own spacecraft or collaborate with NASA and ESA to enhance the overall mission's scientific return. The Indian Space agency plans to observe Apophis during its 2029 flyby, though specific mission details are still under consideration.

ISRO has emphasized the real possibility of an asteroid impact on Earth, and the space agency is actively working on planetary defense efforts.

ISRO continues to expand its capabilities, and future collaborations may involve joint efforts in planetary defense and space science

Remember, space exploration is a collective endeavor, and each agency's contributions enhance our understanding of the cosmos. 

Asteroid Hit By NASA's Spacecraft Behaving Unexpectedly

NASA's spacecraft – Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), porposefully crashed into an Asteroid called 'Dimorphos', in September last year. Now after almost a year, the asteroid is behaving unexpectedly.

ASI/NASA

Now in a latest, a high school teacher and his students have discovered that an asteroid hit by a NASA spacecraft, in a test run for saving Earth from a collision, is behaving unexpectedly. The find could have implications for future planetary defence missions.

DART, which was the size of a golf CART and worth $300 million, collided with a Great Pyramid-sized asteroid 'Dimorphos'. The impact caused the asteroid's orbit around another space rock (Dydymos) to shrink — Dimorphos now completes an orbit 33 minutes faster than before the crash of DART.

The goal of DART was to slow the space rock's nearly 12-hour orbit around a parent asteroid, called Didymos, and see if the momentum of the spacecraft could alter the asteroid's trajectory. The mission was successful, with Dimorphos' orbit shortening by 33 minutes in the weeks after the collision.

The Asteroid passes by, and then continues to around 200 miles away. The video clearly shows the ejection of material streaming off of Dimorphos due to the impact. This movie uses images from the LUKE camera on ASI’s LICIACube. [Image Credits: ASI/NASA] 

However, according to a new research, Dimorphos' orbiting time has decreased by another full minute compared to NASA's numbers, New Scientist reported.

Jonathan Swift, a math and science teacher at the Thacher School, and his students conducted a research from September to November 2022. The research study said the asteroid's orbital period, initially 11 hours 55 minutes, has decreased by 34 minutes. His team presented their findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Mexico in June, receiving positive responses.

One of the theories to prove the Asteroid's unexpected behavior suggests that Dimorphos was once tidally locked to its parent rock 'Didymos' , meaning, like Earth's moon, the same side of the satellite always faced its host. However, the DART mission might have changed its alignment, causing Dimorphos to tumble around as the system's tidal forces changed its orbit. If this theory is true, Dimorphos will likely settle back into a tidally locked state over time, a DART team member said.

NASA will also be releasing a report soon on the DART mission's latest update, a spokesperson told New Scientist. The United States space agency will however needs to compete with the school teacher and his students, whose findings were shared with the American Astronomical Society, which is publishing their paper soon.

NASA Invites Digital Content Creators Across the World

Digital content creators, across the world are invited to register to attend the launch of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft and create content based on the experience.

The Psyche mission is a NASA space mission to visit a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Psyche is scheduled to lift off at 10:38 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 5, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Launch Services Program is managing the launch.

The invite is open for all to apply. However, selected content creators are responsible for their own expenses for travel, accommodations, food, and other amenities. Some events and participants scheduled to appear at the event are subject to change without notice.

Moving forward with the Psyche mission, Scientists hypothesize that the Psyche asteroid could be part of the metal-rich interior of a planetesimal, a building block of a rocky planet. It could be that Psyche collided with other large bodies during its early formation and lost its outer shell. Since humans can’t bore a path to Earth’s metal core – or the cores of other rocky planets – visiting Psyche could provide a one-of-a-kind window into the origins of our solar system.

If your passion is to communicate and engage people online, then Seize the opportunity to see and share the #MissionToPsyche launch.

A maximum of 35 social media users will be selected to attend this two-day event (Oct. 4-5, 2023) and will be given access similar to news media.

NASA Social participants will have the opportunity to:

• View a launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
• Tour NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center
• Meet and interact with Psyche science and engineering experts.
• Meet fellow space enthusiasts who are active on social media

NASA Social registration for the Psyche launch opens on Tuesday, Aug. 22, and the deadline to apply is 12 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 28. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Fastest Orbiting Asteroid in The Solar System Discovered

Image - CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva (Spaceengine)

Scientists have found a fastest circling asteroid near the sun in our solar system. This asteroid is very close to our Sun, closer that our Earth. The name of this asteroid is 2021 PH27 and it orbits the Sun in just 113 days of Earth. In such a short time, only the planet Mercury is able to orbit the Sun. Mercury takes just 88 days to loop around the sun.

However, the newly discovered Asteroid, 2021 PH27, follows an orbital path in which it passes much closer to the Sun than the planet Mercury. This asteroid is about 1 kilometer in size. Scientists say that there are very few asteroids of such a large size in the inner solar system that exist and there is no information about them.

Image - CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva (Spaceengine)

According to scientists, when this asteroid reaches close to the sun, its surface temperature reaches 500 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, even the glass melts. He said that this asteroid passing through such a temperature would probably be made of metals like iron. Not only this, its orbital path is also unstable and it crosses the planets Mercury and Venus. He said that in future this asteroid may collide with the planet Mercury or Venus or even the Sun.

Orbit diagram of near-Earth asteroid 2021 PH27 compared to the inner planets. Positions as of 2021-08-21 00:00 UT
[NASA/JPL-SSD, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

2021 PH27 was first spotted on Aug. 13 by astronomers using the Dark Energy Camera (DEC), a powerful multipurpose instrument mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.

The asteroid was discovered by Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution of Science in data collected by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. 

The discovery images of the asteroid were taken by Ian Dell’antonio and Shenming Fu of Brown University in the twilight skies on the evening of 13 August 2021.

Students Detected 8 Asteroids, International Astronomical Search Collaboration Grants Provisional Status

Representational Image

Eight asteroids detected by sixteen students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, under the Khagolshala Asteroid Search Campaign 2021 were conferred the “Provisional Status” by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration. Khagolshala Asteroid Search Campaign or KASC trains students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas to detect asteroids. The campaign is an initiative of the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India,and SPACE Foundation.

The International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) housed at the Hardin-Simmons University sent their wishes confirming the provisional discoveries. While it will be years before the asteroids are documented and the discoverer can name them, the successful detection and a grant of the provisional status to eight asteroids is a huge feat for the young students. The entire process also brings multiple opportunities for students to interact with space scientists, astronomers, and astronauts.

Here’s a list of the steps of the preliminary detection to the naming of an asteroid.

1. Preliminary detection: The first, original observation of a new asteroid.
2. Provisional status: The asteroid must be observed a second time within the next 7-10 days. If it is, then the detection is changed to provisional status by the Minor Planet Center (MPC).
3. Cataloguing an asteroid: Asteroid detections with provisional status are maintained in the MPC database for many years until there have been a sufficient number of observations to fully determine the orbit. That process typically takes 6-10 years, at which point the asteroid is numbered and catalogued by the International Astronomical Union.
4. Naming an asteroid: Numbered asteroids can be named by their citizen scientist discoverers.

Students get access to the real-time data from the ‘PANSTARRS’ (The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System Telescope), located in Hawaii. They access these images and are trainedin advanced data analytics to detect asteroids.This accounts for an invaluable real-time research experience.The campaign contributes to theNASA Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA).

A Khagolshala. Image courtesy: SPACE Foundation

List of the provisional discoverers in KASC 2021:

• 2021 BA11 P11cbE7 B. Dash, S. Singh JNV Anuppur -1 India Provisional 01/16/21 NEH5432
• 2021 AW20 P11bLbH A. Tripathi, B. Dutta JNV Anuppur -2 India Provisional 01/09/21 SBR0052
• 2021 6 P11dgIS I. Shukla JNV Sonebhadra India Provisional 02/12/21 SSI1234
• CA25 P11cCXf S. Singh, A. Sharda Team JNV Una - 1 India Provisional 02/07/21 CVR2802
• 2021 CF30 P11cCXs P. Nandan, H. Sameer Team L. Brothers India Provisional 02/07/21 PRY2021
• 2021 CB18 P11cJ2z A. Kumar, S. Kumar Team Curious Mind India Provisional 02/08/21 AKS9878
• 2021 CY25 P11dhTD S. Kurre, A. Sahu Team Shubhash India Provisional 02/12/21 OOM0000
• 2021 CS23 P11dgJ4 L. Gowda Team Aryabhatta - 7 India Provisional 02/12/21 JNV0010

About SPACE Foundation:

SPACE Foundationwas established in 2001, to popularize science and inculcate scientific temperament among the masses especially students in India. SPACE is working to create citizen scientists through various programs on science and astronomy education, and innovation in India. These programs have the larger goal of fostering scientific temperament in society, especially among the youth.

About the Khagolshala Asteroids Search Campaign (KASC):

Khagolshala Asteroids Search Campaign (KASC)isthe India chapter of an international student research program that has got students involved in the search for asteroids. High-quality astronomical data sets are distributed to students for analysis and identification of asteroids. Students analyze the data using software which then leads to potential discoveries. These observations feed into the Near-Earth Object (NEO) data being compiled by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL).

Space India has established Khagolshala Astronomy and Space Education Labs (ASELs) across 20 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas to date. Space India is working with a vision to get the younger generation in the country engrossed in astronomy and space sciences; application, exploration, innovation, and research in these areas. The team at Space India works by engaging students through experimentation, observation, and analysis of the universe.

An Asteroid "Coming Near Earth" Looks Like It's Wearing A Face Mask

Anne Virkki, head of planetary radar at Arecibo Observatory, poses with a face mask and a radar image of asteroid 1998 OR2.

The Arecibo Observatory, a radio telescope in Puerto Rico, is tracking an asteroid which is approaching Earth this week and while it poses no threat, the asteroid somehow appears to know this planet of humans is facing a pandemic.

The University of Central Florida shared a radar image of the "masked" asteroid (in left), the blurry textured image gives plenty of room for active imaginations to play.

"The small-scale topographic features such as hills and ridges on one end of asteroid 1998 OR2 are fascinating scientifically," says Anne Virkki, head of Planetary Radar at the observatory. "But since we are all thinking about COVID-19 these features make it look like 1998 OR2 remembered to wear a mask."

The asteroid 1998 OR2 is about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in length and will make its closest approach to the Earth on April 29.

Asteroid 1998 OR2 was at about 7.5 million miles from the Earth (about 12 million km) when astronomers acquired the images to make the below animation.

"Masked" asteroid 1998 OR2, seen in this Arecibo Observatory radar image, will pass by Earth at a safe social distance. Arecibo Observatory

In year 2079, asteroid 1998 OR2 will pass Earth about 3.5 times closer than it will this year.

Although this asteroid is not projected to impact Earth, it is important to understand the characteristics of these types of objects to improve impact-risk mitigation technologies, says Virkki, head of Planetary Radar at the observatory.

The Arecibo data confirmed that 1998 OR2 is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across in size and rotates once every 4.1 hours, as was suggested by observations made with optical telescopes. Should an asteroid be discovered that posed an impact threat to Earth, knowing such characteristics would be important for planning a response.

Via ~ CNET | Source - UCF.EDU

NASA names An Asteroid after Indian Legendary Singer Pandit Jasraj

An Asteroid aka minor planet bearing the alphanumeric name 2006VP32 (number 300128), discovered in November in 2006, has been christened 'Panditjasraj' after Indian legendary classical singer Pandit Jasraj. The number assigned to the asteroid, 300128, is Pandit Jasraj's birth date in reverse.

The announcement was made by the US space agency NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on September 23. "Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj is an exponent of Indian classical vocal music... His distinctive voice traverses a remarkable four-and-a-half octaves," NASA mentioned.

The naming of the asteroid has been approved by International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The asteroid, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in a region called the asteroid main belt, was discovered in 2006 by the Mount Lemmom Observatory in Arizona. It is estimated that millions of irregular and spherical objects of varying sizes, called either asteroids or minor planets, can be found in this region.

Panditjasraj - a Minor #PLANET

Pandit Jasraj has been bestowed with a surreal, rare & a Universal honour from International Astronomical Union @IAU_org
Minor Planet 2006 VP32 (No. 300128) discovered on 11th November 2006 has been named as ‘Panditjasraj’ pic.twitter.com/HcqbnRXFZs

— Pandit Jasraj Fans (@ptjasrajfans) September 29, 2019

Notably, as of September'19, there are 5,41,131 numbered asteroids of a total of 7,97,078 observed bodies, with the rest being unnumbered minor planets.

Pandit Jasraj is the first Indian classical musician to be bestowed with such honour. Other classical musicians to have /asteroids/minor planets named after them include Mozart, Beethoven and Luciano Pavarotti.

Born in 1930 in British Punjab, Pandit Jasraj is associated with the Mewati gharana of Hindustani classical music. He has received honours like the Padma Vibhushan and Sangeet Natak Academi Award, and is known for being a mentor to many well-known musicians.

Meanwhile, Scientists of India's Public Outreach and Education Committee of Astronomical Society of India (ASI-POEC) were unaware of the development, and said neither did IAU officially approach Indian Astronomical community to seek any inputs nor this process bestows any unique honour, reported Hindustan Times.

“IUA gives away the rights to name non-interesting minor planets to a clutch of private companies, largely 10 years after they are discovered, where individuals can name these astronomical bodies at a cost. In this case, there’s 90% chance that a fan named the minor planet after Pandit Jasraj for a price," said Aniket Sule, Chair, ASI-POEC to Hindustan Times.

Via ~ The Hindu