Sentences with phrase «on the asteroid surface»

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland: «Planetary Object Geophysical Observer (POGO),» a secondary payload that is a hopper to be dropped on the asteroid surface by the Asteroid Retrieval Vehicle to measure elemental composition of asteroid regolith at multiple locations.

Not exact matches

Obviously you don't realize that an asteriod the size of just the Empire State Building that actually makes it to the surface of the earth at the average speed of most objects coming from the asteroid belt in our solar system would cause enough destruction and devastation on earth to wipe out most if not all of the planet.

Solar rays warm up an asteroid's surface, just as asphalt cooks on a hot summer day.

This concept images shows ARM robotic capture Option B, in which the robotic vehicle ascends from the surface of a large asteroid, on its way to a lunar distant retrograde orbit with a smaller asteroid mass in its clutches.

If scientists can get a good handle on exactly how the thermal effects play out, they could steer a threatening asteroid into a safe orbit just by painting parts of its surface black (to absorb heat) or white (to reflect).

But it is not clear how common ice might be in the main asteroid belt, because sunlight is expected to quickly vaporise ice on the surfaces of airless bodies that fly closer to the sun than Jupiter.

The density of the mammoth main - belt asteroid Ceres suggests it contains a large amount of water ice, but no clear - cut sign of ice has been found on its surface.

In 2008, however, Andrew Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland, and Joshua Emery of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, found hints (pdf) that the asteroid 24 Themis, which sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, could have water ice on its surface.

The new observations suggest water ice, mixed with organic molecules, is «widespread on the surface of the asteroid», Humberto Campins of the University of Central Florida in Orlando reported at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, last week.

In NASA's New Frontiers medium - class mission line, a mission to return asteroid samples prevailed over a proposed Venus lander that would have lasted a precious three hours on the surface.

He also adds: «The tidal effect on an asteroid, which rapidly rotates under the gravitational field of a planet, can fragment these objects or release large rocks from its surface, which could then become such dangerous projectiles at a local scale as the one fell in Cheliábinsk (Russia) on February 15th 2013.»

Dawn co-investigator Maria Cristina De Sanctis of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome, Italy and colleagues report their detection of abundant ammonia - rich minerals on Ceres's surface, suggesting that it was born closer to the vicinity of Pluto even though it now orbits in the Asteroid Belt.

Eventually two competing explanations emerged: Either some outside force helped stir the lunar interior and drove the dynamo, or the magnetized rocks were created by short - lived fields produced during violent asteroid impacts on the lunar surface (SN: 12/17/11, p. 17).

The real fun starts in January 1999, when near begins a year in orbit around 25 - mile - long Eros, culminating with a crash landing on that asteroid's surface.

While that water could initially come from Earth, it could later come from water ice frozen on asteroids, in shadowed regions of the moon's surface, from possible sources on Mars» two moons, or from Mars itself.

Based on the average surface brightness of these asteroids, DD45's size appears to be about 19 km across, on the lower end of its estimated size range.

[Photos: Asteroid Vesta and NASA's Dawn Spacecraft] Earlier photos of Vesta have zeroed in on intriguing features on the space rock's surface, including the boundary between the day and night sides.

«This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,» said Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain, lead author of a paper in the journal Nature.

Russell's team also noticed a variety of colors and minerals on the asteroid's surface, with bright spots — perhaps crystals or another reflective material — interspersed with black streaks on scarps and crater walls.

Space agencies might be able to place instruments on the asteroid's surface that could «tell us how potentially hazardous asteroids like Apophis are put together,» he says.

On average, material blasted across Mercury's surface by relatively recent impacts of comets, asteroids, and other small bodies reflects only two - thirds as much light as freshly excavated material on the moon, previous studies have showOn average, material blasted across Mercury's surface by relatively recent impacts of comets, asteroids, and other small bodies reflects only two - thirds as much light as freshly excavated material on the moon, previous studies have showon the moon, previous studies have shown.

But until now, whether the disparity was caused by an asteroid impact or volcanic action on the surface has been in dispute.

The rock sat on the surface for eons until an asteroid struck Mars and flung bits of its crust into space.

From there they could study a captured asteroid using telepresence technology, or even practise human landings on its surface.

«From what we know of the asteroids we've been to, they have boulders on the surface,» he said, which means mission controllers would have many choices for which one to grab.

Our evidence shows that the opal formed before the meteorite was blasted off from the surface of the parent asteroid and sent into space, eventually to land on Earth in Antarctica.»

Opal, familiar on Earth as a precious stone used in jewellery, is made up of silica (the major component of sand) with up to 30 % water in its structure, and has not yet been identified on the surface of any asteroid.

EET 83309 has fragments of many other kinds of meteorite embedded in it, showing that there were many impacts on the surface of the parent asteroid, bringing pieces of rock from elsewhere in the solar system.

Because asteroid and comet impacts facilitate the transfer of rocks between Mars and Earth, the discovery of microfossils on the Martian surface would not in itself prove that life arose independently on Mars.

Because asteroids» gravity is so weak, landing on one takes less energy than reaching the surface of the moon or Mars.

At one point, instead of flying extremely close to the asteroid as planned, Hayabusa actually settled on its surface for about half an hour.

And the problem gets worse every year as more objects are discovered, and space probes find ever more details on the surfaces of planets, moons and asteroids.

Dr. Chapman was also a member of the MSI / NIS (imaging / spectrometer) Team of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR Shoemaker) mission to Eros, which was launched in February 1996, went into orbit around Eros on Valentine's Day, 2000, and successfully landed on the surface of Eros on Feb. 12, 2001.

It will also employ a hopping robot, which can move around on the asteroid's surface.

The closest images ever of Ceres, the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, have revealed the best view yet of the mystery lights on its cratered surface that have puzzled astronomers for some time.

The asteroid rotates around every 2.1 hours, meaning that the rocks on its surface should be flung into space.

After that, it remained on the martian surface until about 16 million years ago, when a massive impactor — a comet or asteroid — slammed into Mars, spewing material into space at such tremendous velocity that some of it, including ALH84001, was able to escape Mars's gravity.

Analyses of the sunlight reflected off the asteroid also show that organic compounds are widespread on the surface, he added, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, CH2 and CH3.

Using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, the spectra revealed the consistent presence of frozen water as different parts of the asteroid's surface came into view.

The orbital distance from Zavijava where a planet currently would be «comfortable» for Earth - type carbon - based lifeforms with liquid water on the planetary surface in the so - called habitable zone is centered near 1.87 AU — between the orbital distances of Mars and the Main Asteroid Belt in the Solar System.

«If the asteroid had hit a low - medium hydrocarbon area on Earth (occupying approximately 87 percent of the Earth's surface), mass extinction could not have occurred,» Kaiho said.

So all the gold we have today on or near the surface is from asteroid impacts!

u Humberto Campins et al., «Water Ice and Organics on the Surface of the Asteroid 24 Themis,» Nature, Vol.

In contrast, the smaller dark spots (which can appear as gray, brown, or red) may be the remains of low - speed, carbon - rich asteroids that splattered such» deposits» onto Vesta's surface, or they may be the result of higher - speed asteroid that melted and darkened volcanic basaltic crust on crater walls and floors, or on surrounding hills and ridges (NASA DAWN news release).

On September 16, 2011, NASA's Dawn Mission, released a video of the surface of giant asteroid or protoplanet Vesta.

This soot included extra-terrestrial materials from the asteroid, but also 75,000 million tons of soot and charcoal, which could only come from burning everything on the surface of the planet.

While exposed water ice would not be stable at the surface of Ceres at its relatively close distance to the Sun, water and ammonia do appear to be bound up in crustal minerals on the asteroid's surface.

Only 250 million years after life reached the earth's surface emerged, the first warm - blooded animals appeared, as for example the dinosaurs of the Jurassic period, that disappeared 66 million years ago due to a supposed asteroid impact on Earth.

According to a very apt reviewer on Doodling's Kindle store page, at first glance the book seems like a pleasantly silly story about a man flinging off the Earth's surface quite by mistake as the planet's rotation begins to spin out of control, forcing him to set up hearth on an asteroid.

The real standout feature that sets this game apart is how players must manage their forces not only on the planet's surface, but also in the asteroid orbit above, and in the deep tunnels and caverns below.