http___metro-portal.hr_sonda-dawn-usla-u-orbitu-veste_61389_1.xml
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Seriously? The only thing that could prevent man from stopping a “Global Killer” asteroid from making impact with Earth… Is our inability to get along? [via Space] PASADENA, Calif. — The biggest obstacle in deflecting a killer asteroid away from Earth may be humanity’s inability to get along. We already have the technological know-how to prevent dangerous space rocks from barreling into our planet, provided we detect them in time. But this vital job would require a great deal of international cooperation, experts say, and history has shown that working together is not our species’ strong suit. “Somebody’s got to make the decision to actually mount the deflection, and do it,” said former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, chairman of the B612 Foundation, a group dedicated to predicting and preventing catastrophic asteroid impacts on Earth. Not if, but when Our planet has always been pummeled by space rocks. A 6-mile (10-kilometer) asteroid slammed into Earth 65 million years ago, for example, wiping out the dinosaurs. A potentially civilization-ending asteroid will bear down on Earth at some point, panelists stressed. It’s a question of when, not if — and it could happen uncomfortably soon, they said. Over the eons, asteroids big enough to cause serious damage today (not necessarily the extinction of our species, but disruptions to the global economy and civilizations around the world) have struck Earth every 200 to 300 years, Schweickart said. While the dinosaurs were helpless victims of this death from the sky, 21st-century humans don’t have to be. “What’s cool is, we can do something about it,” said panelist Bill Nye, executive director of the Planetary Society and former host of the science-themed TV show “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” [Read More] Huh. How about an asteroid the size of asteroid Vesta, which has on it a mountain bigger than ANY mountain on plant Earth? Yep. This asteroid is THAT big. [via Space] A NASA spacecraft orbiting the asteroid Vesta is revealing new details about the huge space rock’s surface, including a massive mountain that rises taller than Mt. Everest on Earth. NASA’s Dawn probe has been circling Vesta since mid-July, when it arrived in the asteroid belt that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. So far, Dawn has beamed back surprising views of Vesta that revealed an enormous mountain in the asteroid’s southern hemisphere and show that its crater surface is incredibly diverse place. “We are learning many amazing things about Vesta, which we call the smallest terrestrial planet,” Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission, said in a statement. “Like Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury, Vesta has ancient basaltic lava flows on the surface and a large iron core … The south polar mountain is larger than the big island of Hawaii, the largest mountain on Earth, as measured from the ocean floor. It is almost as high as the highest mountain in the solar system, the shield volcano Olympus Mons on Mars.” Vesta’s giant southern mountain is nearly as tall as Olympus Mons, the largest mountain (and volcano) in the solar system, which soars about 15 miles (24 kilometers) above the surface. On Earth, the largest terrestrial volcano is Mauna Loa in Hawaii, which rises up 6 miles (9 km) high, including the portion of the volcano that extends underwater to the sea floor. Mount Everest, the tallest mountain above sea level on Earth, is a paltry 5.5 miles (8.85 km) tall. [Latest Photos of Asteroid Vesta] Dawn also revealed that Vesta’s surface appears to be much rougher than most asteroids in the main asteroid belt, which is a vast region full of space rocks between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Additionally, preliminary estimates of crater age dates on Vesta suggest that regions in the southern hemisphere are far younger than in the north — with some areas in the southern hemisphere only about 1 to 2 billion years old. The findings were presented today at the 2011 European Planetary Science Congress and the Division for Planetary Sciences Joint Meeting in Nantes, France. Dawn at Vesta The $466 million Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around Vesta on July 15, beginning a yearlong mission to orbit and study the asteroid. After a year of studying Vesta, the Dawn probe is expected to head off to explore Ceres, the largest asteroid in the solar system. Vesta, which measures about 330 miles (530 kilometers) across, is the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt and is the brightest asteroid in our solar system. The surface of Vesta provides scientists with clues into the space rock’s past. Since July, Dawn has been moving steadily closer to Vesta, transitioning into a polar orbit as it scans the asteroid’s surface. In mid-August, the probe mapped the entire sunlit surface of Vesta in visible and infrared wavelengths. The spacecraft has since moved into a lower orbit and will spend the coming month mapping the asteroid’s sunlit surface at a different resolution, said Carol Raymond, Dawn’s deputy principal investigator. Scientists are now closely studying Vesta’s craters, ridges and hills, and hope to have the sunlit surface of the asteroid completely mapped by the end of the year, Russell added. [Read More] So tell me… The Earth’s ability to unite its humanity, through a uniting song of the likes of Kumbaya, will stop such an a large asteroid in time how, exactly? Oh, dammit – Helz yeah… Forgot about him. Quick, someone get Bruce on stand-by! We have need of him and “uncomfortably soon” too… Jeepers! Heck, why do I blog this stuff. No, strike that… Why do I READ this stuff? It freaks me out! Jeez. I swear, ‘freaked- out’… My perpetual state. Awkward.
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Sonda Dawn ušla u orbitu Veste Dawn je prva letjelica koja kruži u orbiti jednog objekta u glavnom asteroidnom pojasu između Marsa i Jupitera Robotska sonda NASA-e nakon četiri godine putovanja ušla je u orbitu asteroida Veste kako bi počela proučavanje drugog najvećeg objekta u asteroidnom pojasu između Marsa i Jupitera, priopćila je u nedjelju NASA, a prenosi Hina. Sonda "Dawn" poslala je signal kontroli misije u Pasedeni kako bi potvrdila ulazak u orbitu Veste, udaljene 188 miliona kilometara od Zemlje. Dawn je prva letjelica koja kruži u orbiti jednog objekta u glavnom asteroidnom pojasu između Marsa i Jupitera i također će biti prvi svemirski brod koji će obići dvije lokacije u Sunčevom sustavu ne računajući Zemlju, navodi NASA. "Proučavanje asteroida Veste predstavlja veliko znanstveno dostignuće i također ukazuje na buduća odredišta na koja će ljudi putovati idućih godina", izjavio je administrator NASA-e Charles Bolden u priopćenju. Sonda je lansirana prema Vesti 2007. godine u misiju ispitivanja nastanka Sunčevog sustava prije 4,5 milijardi godina. Cijena misije je 466 milijuna dolara. Dawn će proučavati asteroid punih godinu dana, a zatim će u srpnju 2012. godine krenuti prema drugom odredištu - patuljastom planetu Cereri. Vesta i Cerera dva su najveća protoplaneta Sunčeva sustava. To su stjenovita tijela koja koja nemaju dovoljnu masu da bi bila proglašena planetima. Oba se nalaze u pojasu između Marsa i Jupitera. "Radi se o dva posljednja neistražena svijeta u našem sustavu", rekao je voditelj projekta Robert Mase. Znanstvenici vjeruju da je Vesta sa svojom željeznom jezgrom i mogućim tokovima lave sličnija Zemlji ili Mjesecu od bilo kojeg drugog asteroida iz ovog pojasa. Cerera, iako blizu Veste, mnogo više nalikuje na Jupiter ili Saturn.