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asteroids

WHAT IF: An Asteroid Threatened the Earth?

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Asteroid - pixabay

Every Wednesday, we’re asking a what-if question – how would our world be different if something were changed? Today’s question is from QSFer Julie Garrett: What if an asteroid was about to strike the earth? What could we do about it? How might it change our culture, before and after (if we stopped it)? Live Science tackles this here. Share your serious scientific analyses, your off-color jokes, and random thoughts on the topic on our FB and MeWe Groups: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABV MeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf

SPACE: Harvesting the Asteroids

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asteroid - pixabay

There’s gold in them thar asteroids! Literally — asteroids have more than enough gold, plus other metals, to provide a few lifetimes’ worth of fortunes. But there are plenty of other reasons asteroids are valuable. So how do we get these metals from these faraway asteroids? Perhaps the best way is to bring the space rocks to Earth. Most of the metals we use in our everyday lives are buried deep within Earth. And I mean deep: When our planet was still molten, almost all of the heavy metals sank to the core, which is pretty hard to get to. … Read more

SPACE: Asteroid Bennu Totally Won’t Hit Earth in 2035. Probably.

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Asteroid Bennu

An asteroid known as Bennu will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact with our planet in the coming centuries is very slight, scientists said Wednesday. OSIRIS-REx, a NASA spacecraft, spent two years near Bennu, an asteroid that is about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide, observing its size, shape, mass and composition and monitoring its orbital trajectory around the sun. Using its robotic arm, the spacecraft also collected a sample from the surface of the asteroid that will help researchers determine the future trajectory of Bennu. … Read more

SPACE: The Planet That Wasn’t

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NASA Fomalhaut-b

In 2014, a planet disappeared from the night sky. The distant world — known as Fomalhaut b and located a neighborly 25 light-years from Earth — was infamous for being one of the first exoplanets ever discovered in visible light by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope; when astronomers first caught sight of it in 2004 and 2006, the planet appeared as a bright, cool dot moving briskly across the sky. Ten years later, that dot had vanished. What happened to Fomalhaut b? Did the world have a falling out with its guardian sun (named simply Fomalhaut) and drift away? Did the … Read more

SPACE: Russian Robots on the Moon to Track Asteroids

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robot - pixabay

The Russian space agency Roscosmos is planning to install a nuclear-powered observatory on its future moon base to held spot deadly Earth-threatening asteroids. Establishing a permanent presence near the lunar south pole has been a priority for Roscosmos ever since NASA announced plans to return to the moon earlier this year. The base’s telescopes will work in tandem with spacecraft placed in orbit around the Earth to help provide humanity with a space-rock early warning system. Full Story From Joe.My.God

Did Life Begin Before the Earth Was Formed?

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young solar system - NASA

Life may have arisen in our solar system before Earth even finished forming. Planetesimals, the rocky building blocks of planets, likely had all the ingredients necessary for life as we know it way back at the dawn of the solar system, said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University (ASU). And clement conditions may have persisted inside some planetesimals for tens of millions of years — perhaps long enough for life to emerge, said Elkins-Tanton, the director of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and the principal investigator of NASA’s upcoming mission to the odd metallic asteroid … Read more

SPACE: NASA’s New Plan to Destroy Deadly Asteroids – Live Science

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asteroid strike - pixabay

NASA has updated its plans to deflect potentially hazardous Earth-bound asteroids — and none of them involve Bruce Willis. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a new report today (June 20) titled the “National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan.” The 18-page document outlines the steps that NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will take over the next 10 years to both prevent dangerous asteroids from striking Earth and prepare the country for the potential consequences of such an event. Officials with NASA, FEMA and the White House discussed the new asteroid-mitigation strategies … Read more