planetary science
-
NASA’s Asteroid Detector Was Upgraded to Scan the Entire Sky Every Day
NASA’s ATLAS, a planetary defence system that scans the sky for near-Earth objects, has been upgraded to search the entire night sky — half of it in either hemisphere — once every 24 hours. The surveillance system is vital for tracking objects like asteroids and debris that are on a collision course with Earth.
-
The Spacecraft That’s Going to Smash Into an Asteroid Just Sent Back Its First Pictures
It’s been a month since the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission launched on its way to the binary asteroid system of Didymos and Dimorphos. DART captured its first images three weeks ago, an important operational milestone as the spacecraft hurtles toward a collision with Dimorphos.
-
9 Things to Know About NASA’s Armageddon Mission to Deflect an Asteroid
NASA’s DART mission to redirect a non-threatening asteroid is set to launch later this week. Here’s what you need to know about this historic deep-space test and how “kinetic impactors” could eventually protect our civilisation from an asteroid apocalypse.
-
How Do We Know When the Sun Will Die?
Consider the Sun: hot, massive, and the reason all of this (gestures wildly) is possible. Our local star fuels all life as we know it, providing the energy that sustains everything from the smallest photosynthesizing microorganisms to the largest animals on land and in the seas.