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Planetary Defense

All articles tagged with #planetary defense

The Tunguska Mystery: The 1908 Airburst That Flattened a Forest Without a Crater
science2 days ago

The Tunguska Mystery: The 1908 Airburst That Flattened a Forest Without a Crater

In 1908 a space object exploded over Siberia in an airburst, releasing roughly 10–15 megatons of energy and flattening about 80 million trees across 830 square miles, with no crater and a ring of standing trees at the center. Scientists still debate whether it was a stony asteroid or a comet; the asteroid answer fits the ground damage while the comet explanation could account for the eerie skyglow seen across Europe. No fragment has ever been found, and the event helped spur modern planetary defense efforts, including NASA’s DART mission.

via Space Daily|
#airburst#asteroid#comet
Hawking's Multi-Planet Survival Plan Gains Urgency as Risks Accelerate
science8 days ago

Hawking's Multi-Planet Survival Plan Gains Urgency as Risks Accelerate

Eight years after Stephen Hawking's death, the threats he warned about—climate change, AI, pandemics, nuclear threats, and asteroid impacts—have accelerated, validating his argument that humanity should spread beyond Earth as a form of insurance; while planetary defense has modestly improved, the overall trajectory is toward greater vulnerability, making the call to become a multi-planet species more urgent than ever.

via Space Daily|
#ai-safety#climate-change#hawking
ESA and JAXA Unite on Ramses: A Historic Mission to Study Apophis and Boost Planetary Defense
space17 days ago

ESA and JAXA Unite on Ramses: A Historic Mission to Study Apophis and Boost Planetary Defense

ESA and JAXA signed an agreement to launch the Ramses mission to the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, with a planned 2028 launch and a 2029 rendezvous during its close Earth flyby at about 32,000 km. The mission aims to study how Apophis behaves under Earth's gravity and to collect data that could improve asteroid deflection and monitoring strategies, informing future planetary-defense efforts. ESA will lead spacecraft design and operations, JAXA will contribute lightweight solar arrays and an infrared imager, and ESA’s NEO Coordination Centre will refine orbital predictions ahead of the flyby. This collaboration showcases international partnership as a cornerstone of global space safety.”,

via The Daily Galaxy|
#apophis#esa#international-cooperation
Apophis 2029 Flyby: Naked-Eye Close Encounter Near Earth
science1 month ago

Apophis 2029 Flyby: Naked-Eye Close Encounter Near Earth

NASA says the 1,230-foot asteroid Apophis, nicknamed the God of Chaos, will skim within about 20,000 miles of Earth in 2029—closer than many satellites and bright enough to be seen with the naked eye—providing a historic opportunity for observation and planetary-defense research; there is no threat to Earth, and the asteroid will return in 2036 much farther away.

via geekspin|
#apophis#asteroid#nasa
science1 month ago

Apophis to skim past Earth in 2029, NASA confirms

The near‑Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis, about 375 meters across, will pass roughly 20,000 miles (about 32,000 km) above Earth on April 13, 2029—close enough to be seen with the naked eye from the Eastern Hemisphere—with radar data eliminating any collision risk for at least a century. NASA’s OSIRIS‑APEX mission will study the gravitational and surface effects during the encounter, while ESA’s Ramses will observe the flyby to improve our understanding of asteroid composition and internal structure, a rare event that helps refine planetary defense models.

via Ground News|
#apophis#asteroid#nasa
Tiny Space Rocks, Big Risks: The Decameter Asteroid Threat
science1 month ago

Tiny Space Rocks, Big Risks: The Decameter Asteroid Threat

MIT researchers warn that decameter-scale asteroids (tens of meters across) strike Earth every few decades, potentially causing 8–10 megaton airbursts, disrupting satellites and possibly triggering the Kessler debris cascade; detection is hard due to low reflectivity, but JWST has aided tracking and Vera Rubin will find more, while MIT is building a follow-up telescope network—though there is currently no global framework to defend against such threats.

via Universe Today|
#decameter-scale-asteroids#jwst#kessler-syndrome
Car-Sized Asteroid Flies By Earth, No Risk Detected
science2 months ago

Car-Sized Asteroid Flies By Earth, No Risk Detected

A car-sized asteroid, roughly 4–8 meters wide and known as 2026FM3, passed about 147,000 miles from Earth (closer than the Moon) on March 24–25. NASA tracked the object after its discovery just days earlier and confirmed it posed no threat. Such small near-Earth objects frequently fly by, and studying these close approaches helps scientists refine detection and planetary defense for larger objects in the future.

via Yahoo|
#2026fm3#asteroids#nasa
Blue Origin Unveils NEO Hunter Plan to Deflect Asteroids
space-and-spaceflight2 months ago

Blue Origin Unveils NEO Hunter Plan to Deflect Asteroids

Blue Origin, in collaboration with NASA's JPL and Caltech, introduced the NEO Hunter mission concept to defend Earth from hazardous near-Earth objects, leveraging the Blue Ring platform. The plan envisions a two-phase approach: first deploying cubesats to study and characterize the target asteroid to guide deflection, including an ion-beam method; if needed, a second phase would perform a robust direct kinetic disruption (inspired by NASA’s DART) with a Slamcam to document the impact. The mission is planned to launch its first phase in spring 2026.

via Gizmodo|
#asteroids#blue-origin#blue-ring
science2 months ago

Bus-Size Asteroid Flies By Earth, No Threat Confirmed by NASA

NASA tracked a roughly 140-foot asteroid, 2007 EG, as it passed about 1.06 million miles (roughly 1.7 million kilometers) from Earth on March 15, 2026. There was no threat detected, and it was part of routine planetary-defense monitoring of thousands of near-Earth objects. The asteroid’s Aten-class orbit crosses Earth’s path, and future close approaches are predicted, including in 2028 and 2043, with ongoing observations to refine its trajectory. ISRO plans to participate more in international asteroid missions.

via Ground News|
#2007-eg#aten-class#nasa
NASA's DART Nudge Shifts Dimorphos' Orbit, Demonstrating Planetary Defense Feasibility
science2 months ago

NASA's DART Nudge Shifts Dimorphos' Orbit, Demonstrating Planetary Defense Feasibility

NASA's DART spacecraft slammed into the Didymos system’s moon Dimorphos in 2022, creating ejecta that boosted momentum and slowed the system’s orbit by about two inches per hour, shortening its solar orbit by roughly 0.15 seconds over 770 days. The result shows we can alter an asteroid’s path, but a much larger or multiple impacts would likely be needed to deflect a real threat; the event provides essential data for improving planetary defense as near-Earth objects remain a vulnerability.

via Jalopnik|
#asteroids#dart#nasa
MIT’s JWST-Powered Detect-and-Track System Aims to Shield Space Infrastructure
space2 months ago

MIT’s JWST-Powered Detect-and-Track System Aims to Shield Space Infrastructure

MIT researchers unveil a JWST-based method to detect and track decameter-scale asteroids that are too faint for ground-based telescopes, enabling earlier threat assessment to protect satellites and space infrastructure; the approach, demonstrated with asteroid 2024 YR4, is part of a broader planetary-defense effort that leverages collaborations with observatories like Vera Rubin and MIT facilities to accelerate detection-to-mitigation.

via The Daily Galaxy|
#asteroids#jwst#mit
DART finds binary asteroids exchange debris via slow 'cosmic snowballs'
space-exploration2 months ago

DART finds binary asteroids exchange debris via slow 'cosmic snowballs'

NASA's DART mission captured the first direct evidence that debris can move between the binary asteroid pair Dimorphos and Didymos, with 2022-era imagery showing fan-shaped streaks likely produced by material shed from Didymos and landing on Dimorphos. The ejecta traveled about 30.7 centimeters per second (12.1 inches per second), slow enough to deposit material rather than creating craters, indicating active surface evolution in a binary asteroid system. The findings, published in The Planetary Science Journal, complement other results showing DART altered Dimorphos’ orbit and slightly shifted the binary system’s orbit around the sun; the ESA Hera mission is set to survey the system later this year to further study the aftermath and improve planetary-defense models.

via Space|
#binary-asteroids#dart#didymos
Europe Fireball Breaks into Meteorites; ESA Probes Koblenz Roof Impact
space2 months ago

Europe Fireball Breaks into Meteorites; ESA Probes Koblenz Roof Impact

The European Space Agency is investigating a weekend fireball that lit up skies across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, which broke apart into meteorites and punched a football-sized hole in a Koblenz, Germany home; no injuries were reported. ESA's planetary defence team is analyzing data on the object, thought to be a few metres wide, noting that such objects strike Earth periodically and are often not seen by telescopic surveys.

via ScienceAlert|
#esa#fireball#koblenz