Get daily updates directly to your inbox SubscribeThank you for subscribing!Could not subscribe try again laterInvalid EmailNASA is fast-tracking a mission to explore a mysterious asteroid known as 16 Psyche which is thought to be made almost entirely of metal. The US space agency first announced its intention to send a robotic spacecraft to visit 16 Psyche in January. The original plan was to launch in October 2023 and arrive at the asteroid in 2030. However shortly after selection in January NASA gave the direction to the Psyche team to research earlier opportunities. We challenged the mission design team to explore if an earlier launch date could provide a more efficient trajectory to the asteroid Psyche and they came through in a big way said Jim Green director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA. (Photo: NASA / JPL http://www.dead.net/member/mehndidesignsin Caltech) This will enable us to fulfil our science objectives sooner and at a reduced cost. The mission will now launch in the summer of 2022 with a planned arrival at the asteroid in 2026 - four years earlier than the original timeline. The revised trajectory is more efficient as it eliminates the need for an Earth gravity assist which ultimately shortens the cruise time. It also stays farther from the sun reducing the amount of heat protection needed for the spacecraft. The biggest advantage is the excellent trajectory which gets us there about twice as fast and is more cost effective said Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. We are all extremely excited that NASA was able to accommodate this earlier launch date. The world will see this amazing metal world so much sooner. 16 Psyche is over 200 km in diameter and contains almost 1% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. It lies between Mars and Jupiter and takes almost five years to orbit the Sun. But what makes it almost unique is that it is among the densest bodies ever found in the solar system. If it could somehow be transported back to Earth the iron alone would be worth 10 000 quadrillion (about 8 000 quadrillion) according to Elkins-Tanton. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now The mission will attempt to determine whether the asteroid is the exposed core of a former planet the size of Mars something that could reveal how our planet was formed works now and may one day die. 16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core Elkins-Tanton said back in January. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space.
Washington: The camera system aboard NASA s Moon orbiting spacecraft survived a hit by a tiny meteoroid in 2014 which was travelling much faster than a speeding bullet the US space agency said today.On October 13 2014 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) which normally produces beautifully clear images of the lunar surface captured an image that was wild and jittery.From the sudden and jagged pattern of the image the LROC team determined that the camera must have been hit by a tiny meteoroid a small natural object in space.LROC is a system of three cameras mounted on the LRO spacecraft. Two Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) capture high resolution black and white images. The third Wide Angle Camera captures moderate resolution images using filters to provide information about the properties and colour of the lunar surface.According to Mark Robinson principal investigator of LROC at Arizona State University (ASU) in the US the jittery appearance of the image captured is the result of a sudden and extreme cross-track oscillation of the camera. The jittery image captured by the LROC caused scientists to believe it was hit by an object in spaceLROC researchers concluded that there must have been a brief violent movement of the left Narrow Angle Camera. There were no spacecraft events like solar panel movements or antenna tracking that might have caused spacecraft jitter during this period. Even if there had been the resulting jitter would have affected both cameras identically. The only logical explanation is that the NAC was hit by a meteoroid said Robinson.The LROC team ran simulations to see if they could reproduce the distortions seen on the October 13 image and determine the size of the meteoroid that hit the camera.They estimate the impacting meteoroid would have been about half the size of a pinhead (0.8 millimetre) assuming a velocity of about seven kilometres per second and a density of an ordinary chondrite meteorite (2.7 grammes per cubic centimetre). The meteoroid was travelling much faster than a speeding bullet. In this case LROC did not dodge a speeding bullet but rather survived a speeding bullet! said Robinson.Launched on June 18 2009 LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon.It is very rare that the effects of an event like this are captured on camera according to Robinson. LROC typically only captures images during daylight and then only about 10 per cent of the day so for the camera to be hit by a meteor during the time that it was also capturing images is statistically unlikely. LROC was struck and survived to keep exploring the Moon thanks to robust camera design said Robinson. Since the impact presented no technical problems for the health and safety of the instrument the team is only now announcing this event as a fascinating example of how engineering data can be used in ways not previously anticipated to understand what is happening to the spacecraft over 380 000 kilometres from the Earth said John Keller LRO project scientist from NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center.(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By: IANS | Washington | Updated: May 26 2017 3:18 pm The study by the JPL scientists was the first to precisely track a glacier s loss of mass from melting ice using the horizontal motion of a GPS sensor. (Source: NASA) A new NASA study has revealed a new mode of ice loss in Greenland that may increase the potential for sustained loss of mass as the climate continues to warm up with implications for the future rate of sea level rise. During Greenland s hottest summers on record 2010 and 2012 the ice in Rink Glacier on the island s west coast did not just melt faster than usual it slid through the glacier s interior in a gigantic wave like a warmed freezer pop sliding out of its plastic casing showed the findings published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Also Read: Northern India contributes to shrinking of glaciers in Third Pole claims study The wave persisted for four months with ice from upstream continuing to move down to replace the missing mass for at least four more months. This long pulse of mass loss is called a solitary wave. We know for sure that the triggering mechanism was the surface melting of snow and ice but we do not fully understand the complex array of processes that generate solitary waves said Surendra Adhikari from NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California. The study by the JPL scientists was the first to precisely track a glacier s loss of mass from melting ice using the horizontal motion of a GPS sensor.They used data from a single sensor in the Greenland GPS Network (GNET) sited on bedrock next to Rink Glacier.Rink is one of Greenland s major outlets to the ocean draining about 11 billion tonnes (gigatons) of ice per year in the early 2000s.In the intensely hot summer of 2012 however it lost an additional 6.7 gigatons of mass in the form of a solitary wave. Also Read: Antarctic glacier thinning more rapidly than thought: study Previously observed melting processes cannot explain that much mass loss. The wave moved through the flowing glacier during the months of June through September at a speed of about four kilometres a month for the first three months increasing to 12 kilometres during September. The amount of mass in motion was 1.7 gigatons plus or minus about half a gigaton per month. Rink Glacier typically flows at a speed of a few kilometres a year. The researchers saw the same wave pattern in the GPS data for 2010 the second hottest summer on record in Greenland. Although they did not quantify the exact size and speed of the 2010 wave the patterns of motion in the GPS data indicate that it must https://able2know.org/user/mehndidesignsin/ have been smaller than the 2012 wave but similar in speed. What makes our work exciting is that we are essentially identifying a new robust observational technique to monitor ice flow processes on seasonal or shorter time scales Adhikari who led the study said. For all the latest Tech News download Indian Express App now Tags: NASA Science No Comments.
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