Tag: NASA

News & Politics

The Largest Asteroid 2001 F032 Will Pass By Earth On March 21

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An asteroid roughly 3,000 feet in diameter will pass by earth at a distance of approximately 1.25 million miles (two million kilometers) on March 21, according to the US space agency, NASA.

Why this asteroid is important?

The asteroid, 2001 F032, was discovered 20 years ago and it is the largest asteroid to pass by earth this year. Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies said that they knew the orbital path of the asteroid around the Sun very accurately and that there was no chance of it getting closer to earth than 1.25 million miles.

1.25 million miles is roughly 5.25 times than the distance of the earth from moon but still it is close enough to be classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid”. Also, at 77,000 miles per hour, 2001 F032 is the fastest asteroid to approach earth.

What are the advantages of asteroid?

Lance Benner, principal scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the close encounter with the asteroid is an opportunity for astronomers to get a better understanding of the mineral composition of the asteroid. Sunlight reflecting from its surface will give a better idea of the metals the asteroid is made of.

Opportunity for amateur astronomers

NASA said that amateur astronomers can take advantage of the opportunity to continue their study of asteroids. The US space agency further said that it has catalogued more than 95% of the near earth asteroids and that none of them seem to be impacting the earth over the next century.

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International News & Politics Technology

See The Spectacular Image Of Perseverance’s Mars Landing

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Perseverance has started sending the initial pictures of Mars to NASA. The US space agency released those pictures for public. But it isn’t known whether the sound on Mars was recorded. But NASA is hopeful of getting sound clips from Mars for the first time.

See Perseverance landing down on Mars

One of the first images showing landing of Perseverance was extracted from the video recorded by the spacecraft that carried Perseverance to Mars. In the image, the robot is seen connected to three straight and a curly wire. The straight wires are cables holding the jetpack and the curly wire is data transmission cable. The image shows last leg of landing when the Perseverance was slowed down to the speed of 1.7 miles.

Honeycomb of rocks seen in the image

The honeycomb of rocks seen with the six-wheeled robot are believed to be about 3.6 billion years old. NASA deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan said that they were excited to know whether those rocks were volcanic or sedimentary. Volcanic rocks are easier to study.

Parachuting Perseverance

In another image, the jetpack is seen parachuting from the spacecraft. At this point, it was accelerating towards the surface of Mars at a speed of hundreds of miles an hour. But the most colorful and exciting image was of flat region of Jezero Crater that was a river and deep lake billions of years ago. Perseverance will send more detailed photograph of Mars in the coming days and bring some samples on the returning flight.

Source:- https://bit.ly/3k5UE4Y

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International News & Politics Technology

What Safe Landing Of Perseverance Means For NASA And The World?

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NASA successfully landed Perseverance on Mars on Thursday. Its safe landing on a vast crater on Mars’ surface is no less than a big feat for the pandemic stricken US that is also battling economic slowdown for the same reason.

What is Perseverance?

It is a self-guided science rover with the most advanced astrobiology laboratory on the mission Mars to collect signs of life on the Red Planet. It travelled for seven months to cover a distance of 293 million miles to reach its destination. It entered the Mars’ atmosphere at a speed of 12,000 miles per hour and landed safely on Jezero Crater that is a long-vanished Martian lake bed.

Was there life on Marsh?

Perseverance will collect possible fossilized signs of microbes that were believed to live on Mars some 3 billion years ago. Scientists are of the opinion that Mars had water that made it hospitable to life. This project cost the US $2.7 billion and two years. Perseverance will extract the samples embedded on Mars surface for future analysis by scientists on earth.

US Mars mission

The US started its Mars project on 1965 by sending the first fly-by spacecraft, Mariner but Perseverance is the most ambitious project of its Mars mission as it is equipped with much larger and advanced equipment than its predecessors.

The Perseverance payload includes the project to pay way for safe human exploration of Marsh. It carries a device that will convert the carbon dioxide gas on Mars in pure oxygen needed for human survival.

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