Elizabeth Howell, Author at Universe Today

July 4, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

A Brief History Of Gliese 581d and 581g, The Planets That May Not Be

Goldilocks Zone — Artists impression of Gliese 581g. Credit: Lynette Cook/NSF

Two potentially habitable planets in the Gliese 581 system are just false signals arising out of starstuff, a new study said. Gliese 581d and 581g are (study authors said) instead indications of the star’s activity and rotation. It’s the latest twist in a long tale about the system as astronomers struggle to understand how many planets could be orbiting the star.

“Our improved detection of the real planets in this system gives us confidence that we are now beginning to sufficiently eliminate Doppler signals from stellar activity to discover new, habitable exoplanets, even when they are hidden beneath stellar noise,” stated Paul Robertson, a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State University, in a press release.

“While it is unfortunate to find that two such promising planets do not exist, we feel that the results of this study will ultimately lead to more Earth-like planets.”

Planets were first announced around the system in 2007 (by a research team led by Geneva’s Stephane Udry) including Gliese 581d. The system has been under heavy scrutiny since a team led by Steven Vogt of the University of Santa Cruz announced Gliese 581g in September 2010. Both 581d and 581g were considered to be in the “habitable” region around the dwarf star they orbited, meaning the spot that’s not too far or close to the star for liquid water to exist.

Potentially habitable exoplanets and exoplanet candidates as of July 3, 2014. Gliese 581d and 581g are crossed off in the catalog. Click for larger version. Credit: PHL @ UPR Arecibo

About two weeks after the discovery, another team led by Geneva University’s Francesco Pepe said it could not find indications of Gliese 581g in data from HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher), a telescope instrument frequently used at the European Southern Observatory to confirm exoplanets. It also cast doubt on the existence of Gliese 581f, announced by a team led by Geneva’s Michel Mayor in 2009. Other researchers examined the system, too, with mixed results.

Two years later, Vogt led another research team saying that analysis of an “extended dataset” from HARPS did show Gliese 581g. But in a press release at the time from the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, its director (Abel Mendez) said the discovery would continue to be controversial. At the time he added the planet to the list of potentially habitable exoplanets the laboratory maintains. As of yesterday, both 581d and 581g are crossed off.

The uncertainty arises from the delicacy of looking for signals of small planets around much larger stars. Astronomers typically find planets through watching them pass across the face of a star, or measuring the tug that they exert on their parent star during their orbit. It is the nature of the tug on Gliese 581 that is so interesting astronomers.

Orbital Period — The orbits of planets in the Gliese 581 system are compared to those of our own solar system. The Gliese 581 star has about 30 percent the mass of our Sun, and the outermost planet is closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun. The 4th planet, G, is a planet that could sustain life. Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

“These ‘Doppler shifts’ can result from subtle changes in the star’s velocity caused by the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets,” wrote Penn State in the press release yesterday. “But Doppler shifts of a star’s ‘absorption lines’ also can result from magnetic events like sunspots originating within the star itself — giving false clues of a planet that does not actually exist.”

The researchers now say that only three planets exist around this star. It’s impossible to fully represent the debate in a single short news article, so we encourage you to look at some of the original literature. Here is a list of papers related to Gliese 581g and another for Gliese 581d. The new paper is available online in Science.

Also, here are some past Universe Today stories about the system:

More Evidence that Gliese 581 Has Planets in the Habitable Zone (Dec. 14, 2007)
Nearly Earth-sized Planet, Possible Watery World Spotted Near Another Star (April 21, 2009)
New Earth-sized Exoplanet is in Star’s Habitable Zone (Sept. 29, 2010)
Could Chance for Life on Gliese 581g Actually Be “100%”? (Sept. 30, 2010)
Buzz About Gliese 581g: Doubts of Its Existence; Aliens Signals Detected (Oct. 2, 2010)
The Habitability of Gliese 581d (Oct. 19, 2010)
Update on Gliese 581d’s Habitability (May 6, 2011)
First SETI Search of Gliese 581 Finds No Signs of ET (June 5, 2012)

July 2, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Ancient Asteroid Impacts Left Serpentine Traces On Vesta: Study

The asteroid Vesta as seen by the Dawn spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA

While “dark materials” may leave some of us thinking about a certain Philip Pullman book series, on the asteroid Vesta its presence belies something equally exotic: old smaller asteroid impacts on its surface.

The dark stuff on the lighter surface has puzzled researchers since it was discovered in 2011 (and has been brought up in other studies), but a new team says it has found that serpentine is among the components. Because that mineral can’t survive temperatures that are more than 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit), this means that scenarios such as volcanic eruptions can’t have caused it. This leaves only smaller asteroids, the team says.

“These meteorites are regarded as fragments of carbon-rich asteroids. The impacts must have been comparatively slow, because an asteroid crashing at high speeds would have produced temperatures too high to sustain serpentine,” the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research stated.

Image of the crater Numisia on Vesta, where researchers found the spectral signature of serpentine. Picture taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA — Image of the crater Numisia on Vesta, where researchers found the spectral signature of serpentine. Picture taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

“In a previous study, scientists from the MPS had calculated how dark material would be distributed on Vesta as a result of a low-speed oblique impact. Their results are consistent with the distribution of dark material on the edge of one of the two large impact basins in the southern hemisphere.”

The results came from analyzing images the NASA Dawn spacecraft took of Vesta between July 2011 and September 2012. The researchers recalibrated the data and also backed up their results by examining serpentine in laboratory conditions.

The research was published in the journal Icarus and you can also read a summary of the research here, from a presentation at the 2014 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Source: Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

June 30, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Saturn’s Sailor: 20 Cassini Pictures Marking A Decade At The Ringed Planet

Saturn's northern storm marches through the planet's atmosphere in the top right of this false-color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

We’re spoiled, don’t you know? It was 10 years ago today that the Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn’s system, and it has been busily beaming back pictures of the ringed planet and its (many) moons ever since. We’ve learned more about seasons on Titan, investigated plumes on Enceladus, and examined phenomena such as auroras on Saturn.

Embedded in this story are 20 of our favourite pictures from Universe Today’s archive of Cassini discoveries, which you can check out below the jump.

It’s only a fraction of the more than 332,000 images received from the spacecraft, which is in excellent health and has seen its mission extended three times past its original 2008 expiry date. Additionally, more than 3,000 scientific papers have been generated. More cool stats in this NASA infographic.

And by the way, we’re not the only ones assembling memorable images to mark the anniversary. Check out NASA’s favourite Cassini pictures of the past decade, or our friend Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy list. Also, here is NASA’s opinion of the top 10 discoveries at the ringed planet.

While thinking about Cassini, also don’t forget Huygens, the lander that descended to the surface of Titan in 2005. More on that in this past Universe Today anniversary story.

The full mosaic from the Cassini imaging team of Saturn on July 19, 2013… the “Day the Earth Smiled”

In this unique mosaic image combining high-resolution data from the imaging science subsystem and composite infrared spectrometer aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft, pockets of heat appear along one of the mysterious fractures in the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Image credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/SWRI/SSI — In this unique mosaic image combining high-resolution data from the imaging science subsystem and composite infrared spectrometer aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, pockets of heat appear along one of the mysterious fractures in the south polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Image credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/SWRI/SSI

Saturn, imaged by Cassini on approach. Credit: CICLOPS

Titan and Dione as seen by Cassini. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Which Planets Have Rings? — This image taken by the Cassini orbiter on Oct. 15, 2007, shows Saturn’s A and F rings, the small moon Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, the planet’s largest moon. The image is colorized to approximate the scene as it might appear to human eyes. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Cassini imaging scientists used views like this one to help them identify the source locations for individual jets spurting ice particles, water vapor and trace organic compounds from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Credit: NASA — Cassini imaging scientists used views like this one to help them identify the source locations for individual jets spurting ice particles, water vapor and trace organic compounds from the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Credit: NASA

Raw image from Cassini on May 18. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

Hemispheric color differences on Saturn's moon Rhea are apparent in this false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This image shows the side of the moon that always faces the planet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI — Hemispheric color differences on Saturn’s moon Rhea are apparent in this false-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This image shows the side of the moon that always faces the planet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

Three of Saturn's moons bunch together in this image by Cassini. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Click for larger image. — Three of Saturn’s moons bunch together in this image by Cassini. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Click for larger image.

This mosaic of Titan was created from the first flyby of the moon by Cassini in 2004. Credit: NASA/JPL/SS

Phoebe imaged by the Cassini spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA

Cassini VIMS image of specular reflections in one of Titan's lakes from a flyby on July 24, 2012 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Jason W. Barnes et al.) — Cassini VIMS image of specular reflections in one of Titan’s lakes from a flyby on July 24, 2012 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Jason W. Barnes et al.)

A crescent Dione was seen by Cassini on January 29, 2011 from approximately 767,922 kilometers away. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

Cassini captured this startling image of Saturn's moon Hyperion. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL — Cassini captured this startling image of Saturn’s moon Hyperion. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL

ets of water ice particles spew from Saturn's moon Enceladus in this image obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 13, 2010. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI — ets of water ice particles spew from Saturn’s moon Enceladus in this image obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 13, 2010. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

This false-color composite image shows Saturn’s rings and southern hemisphere. The composite image was made from 65 individual observations by Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer in the near-infrared portion of the light spectrum on Nov. 1, 2008. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

This mosaic of images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows three fan-like structures in Saturn's tenuous F ring. Such "fans" suggest the existence of additional objects in the F ring. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI — This mosaic of images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows three fan-like structures in Saturn’s tenuous F ring. Such “fans” suggest the existence of additional objects in the F ring. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

Cassini came within 25 kilometers (15.6 miles) of the surface of Enceladus on Oct. 5, 2008. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

June 30, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Astronauts Shave Their Heads Bald After U.S. Loses FIFA Match To Germany

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman reacts mid-shave as fellow Expediton 40 crew member Alexander Gerst looks on. Wiseman and fellow NASA astronaut Steve Swanson both were shaved bald after the U.S. lost 1-0 to Germany in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Credit: NASA / YouTube (screenshot)

Lose a soccer game and lose your hair. That’s apparently the deal that American astronauts made on the International Space Station last week, as commander Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman both were shaved bald after the U.S. lost to Germany 1-0 June 26 in the FIFA World Cup. Gleefully wielding the shaver was Alexander Gerst, who happens to be from Germany.

Despite their busy science schedule, the astronauts have been enthusiastically following (and tweeting about!) the games. Not to mention they did a couple of improvised soccer matches in zero gravity, complete with awesome celebratory dances. You can check out all the video action below.

June 30, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Rosetta’s Comet Already Sweating The Small Stuff, Far From The Sun

Artist's conception of Rosetta's target, 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which is losing two 5-ounce (150 millileter cups) of water every second while still 362 million miles (583 million kilometers) from the sun. The water vapor output will increase as the comet gets closer; these measurements were made on June 6, 2014. Credit: ESA

Feeling thirsty? If you could somehow capture the water vapor from Rosetta’s comet, you would have the equivalent of two water glasses every second. That’s more than scientists expected given that Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is still screaming into the inner solar system at more than double the distance from Mars to the Sun.

“We always knew we would see water vapor outgassing from the comet, but we were surprised at how early we detected it,” stated Sam Gulkis, the instrument’s principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

“At this rate, the comet would fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in about 100 days. But, as it gets closer to the Sun, the gas production rate will increase significantly. With Rosetta, we have an amazing vantage point to observe these changes up close and learn more about exactly why they happen.”

Comets are sometimes called “dirty snowballs” because they are collection of debris and ices. From their origin points in the outer solar system, occasionally one will be pushed towards the Sun.

Artist's impression (not to scale) of the Rosetta orbiter deploying the Philae lander to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab. — Artist’s impression (not to scale) of the Rosetta orbiter deploying the Philae lander to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab.

As it gets closer, the ices bleed off and the comet develops an envelope of gases that eventually, with the Sun’s help, will turn into a tail. Some of the major “volatiles” include water, carbon monoxide, methanol and ammonia.

The observations were made on June 6 by an instrument called the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), taken when the spacecraft was about 218,000 miles (350,000 km) away from its target. MIRO is trying to figure out the relative ratios of the ingredients of the coma, and will keep following along with the comet as it makes its closest approach to the sun in August 2015.

Rosetta, meanwhile, will get up close to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko by August and if all goes well, subsequently deploy a lander called Philae to check out the surface of the comet.

Source: European Space Agency

June 30, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

NASA Deems Flying Saucer Test A Success Despite Failed Parachute

A recovery vessel lifts the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator aboard after its June 28, 2014 test over the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Although the parachute didn’t pop out during a flight test this weekend of NASA’s flying-saucer shaped prototype spacecraft for future Mars exploration, the agency says the so-called Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator performed to expectations.

In an update released yesterday (June 30), one day after the craft made a hard landing in the Pacific, the agency noted that every goal on the flight had been met. The nature of the parachute failure is being investigated; the parachute was a year ahead of schedule in its development, according to NASA.

“The test vehicle worked beautifully, and we met all of our flight objectives,” stated Mark Adler, project manager for LDSD at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “We have recovered all the vehicle hardware and data recorders and will be able to apply all of the lessons learned from this information to our future flights.”

The flight test (which had been delayed for some time due to weather) saw LDSD soar into the sky on a high-altitude balloon launch that took it up to 120,000 feet (36,576 meters). As planned, the test vehicle was severed from the balloon to see how well it would perform during a simulated descent to the Martian surface.

The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) soars into the sky during a test flight June 28, 2014 (invisible at top of contrail) while its carrier balloon floats in the frame. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

With Martian spacecraft getting heavier, NASA is testing out new technologies to control spacecraft during the landing that would safely be able to navigate the Red Planet’s thin atmosphere. This test was supposed to see the LDSD leave the balloon while spinning sideways (somewhat like a football) and zoom to four times the speed of sound.

Next, it was supposed to deploy a Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator to slow down to 2.5 Mach (speed of sound) and then pop the parachute. The SIAD did inflate as planned, but not the parachute.

“All indications are that the SIAD deployed flawlessly, and because of that, we got the opportunity to test the second technology, the enormous supersonic parachute, which is almost a year ahead of schedule,” stated Ian Clark, principal investigator for LDSD at JPL.

This was the first of three planned test flights for LDSD, and the next one is expected to go up in 2015. In an unrelated test, NASA successfully deployed parachutes for its Orion spacecraft prototype for humans in a complex manuever last week.

Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

June 23, 2014April 26, 2016 by Elizabeth Howell

‘Time Capsule On Mars’ Team Hopes To Send a Spacecraft There With Your Messages

Mars, as photographed with the Mars Global Surveyor, is identified with the Roman god of war. Credit: NASA

It’s an ambitious goal: land three Cubesats on Mars sometime in the next few years for $25 million. And all this from a student-led team.

But the group, led by Duke University, is dutifully assembling sponsors and potential in-kind contributions from universities and companies to try to reach that goal. So far they have raised more than half a million dollars.

“We were thinking that something was missing,” said Emily Briere, the student team project lead who attends Duke University, explaining how it seemed few Mars missions were being done for the benefit of humanity in general.

“We want to get the whole world excited about space exploration, and why we go to space in the first place, which was to push forward mankind and to build new habitats,” she added. Prime among their objectives is to drive engagement in the kindergarten to Grade 12 audience by encouraging them to submit photos and videos to send to Mars.

Artist's conception of Mars, with asteroids nearby. Credit: NASA — Artist’s conception of Mars, with asteroids nearby. Credit: NASA

But that said, everyone can participate! The official launch of the project is today, and you can read more details about the crowdfunding campaign and how to get involved on the Time Capsule to Mars website. Contributions start at only a dollar, where you can send your picture to Mars. The spacecraft will be loaded with audio, video and text messages from Earth.

“Each satellite will contain a terabyte of data that will act as a digital ‘time capsule’ carrying messages, photos, audio clips and video contributed by tens of millions of people from all over the globe,” says the Time Capsule to Mars team. “The capsule will remain a vessel of captured moments of today’s human race on Earth in 2014, to be rediscovered by future colonists of the Red Planet.”

The team hopes to use ion electric propulsion to get their small spacecraft to the Red Planet. It would head to space itself on a secondary payload on a rocket. (Briere couldn’t disclose who they are talking to, but said ideally it would happen within the next two years.)

Some of the corporate sponsors including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Aerojet while students come from universities such as Stanford, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

June 20, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Supermassive Black Hole Shows Strange Gas Movements

A Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 5548. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA. Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin

Sometimes it takes a second look — or even more — at an astronomical object to understand what’s going on. This is what happened after astronomers obtained this image of NGC 5548 using the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013. While crunching the data, they saw some gas moving around the galaxy in a way that they did not understand.

From the supermassive black hole embedded in the galaxy’s heart, the researchers detected gas moving outward quite quickly — blocking about 90% of the X-rays being emitted from the black hole, a common feature of objects of this type. So, astronomers marshalled a bunch of telescopes to figure out the answer.

Here’s what they knew before: black holes force matter into a spiral that surround the object, creating a flat plane of material known as an accretion disc. Heating in this disc sends out the aforementioned X-rays as well as some ultraviolet radiation. But NGC 5548 is doing something different.

The gas stream, researchers stated, “absorbs most of the X-ray radiation before it reaches the original cloud, shielding it from X-rays and leaving only the ultraviolet radiation. The same stream shields gas closer to the accretion disc. This makes the strong winds possible, and it appears that the shielding has been going on for at least three years.”

Artist's conception of the environment around NGC 5548. This shows a dark swarm of material above the supermassive black hole, as well as the view that the Hubble Space Telescope had of the scene. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI) — Artist’s conception of the environment around NGC 5548. This shows a dark swarm of material above the supermassive black hole, as well as the view that the Hubble Space Telescope had of the scene. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

Quite the suite of telescopes did follow-up observations: NASA’s Swift spacecraft, Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Chandra X-ray Observatory, and ESA’s X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) and Integral gamma-ray observatory (INTEGRAL).

“This is a milestone in understanding how supermassive black holes interact with their host galaxies,” stated lead researcher Jelle Kaastra of the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research.

“We were very lucky. You don’t normally see this kind of event with objects like this. It tells us more about the powerful ionised winds that allow supermassive black holes in the nuclei of active galaxies to expel large amounts of matter. In larger quasars than NGC 5548, these winds can regulate the growth of both the black hole and its host galaxy.”

The research is available in Science Express and also in preprint version on Arxiv.

Sources: NASA and Spacetelescope.org

June 20, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Boom! Get Up Close To Yesterday’s Mountaintop Explosion For Astronomy

About 5,000 cubic meters of rock blasts into the air in this photo taken from a few hundred meters away. Credit: ESO

Talk about starting your astronomy work with a bang! Yesterday’s controlled explosion on the top of Cerro Armazones marked the start of construction preparation for the European Extremely Large Telescope, a 39-meter (128-foot) device intended to teach us more about exoplanets and the universe’s history.

Luckily for those of us who couldn’t make it to Chile, the European Southern Observatory gave us some pictures and video of the explosion in action. These in fact are taken from just a few hundred meters away, much closer than delegates got yesterday during the groundbreaking ceremonies. Watch the videos below.

First light on E-ELT isn’t expected for another decade, but there will be lots more work to look forward to in the coming weeks, months and years. More explosions will continue to remove the top of the mountain and make it level for the telescope, and the design of the large telescope will be finalized.

Also, here’s some weekend reading for you, too: ESO’s 264-page construction proposal document for E-ELT. Also check out our previous stories on the explosion here and here.

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Aftermath of a planned explosion June 19, 2014 on the top of Cerro Aramzones to clear the way for the European Extremely Large Telescope. Credit: ESO

June 19, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

See This Orange Smudge? This Could Be NASA’s Target For The Asteroid Mission

An image of asteroid 2011 MD -- a candidate for a potential future mission to an asteroid -- taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in February 2014. The exposure took 20 hours to accomplish and was done in infrared light. Credit: NASA

In the center of the image above is an orange smudge. It may not look like much to the untrained eye, but to NASA it represents potential. It’s a candidate asteroid target for a mission the agency badly wants to happen, even though nobody knows for sure yet if things will line up for humans to visit there one day.

This is a picture of asteroid 2011 MD taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. It’s about 6 meters (20 feet) across and appears to have a low density, the agency said in a statement. While NASA is still looking for other candidates for its asteroid initiative, the agency added this would be the sort of asteroid it’s looking to visit.

“The asteroid appears to have a structure perhaps resembling a pile of rocks, or a ‘rubble pile.’Since solid rock is about three times as dense as water, this suggests about two-thirds of the asteroid must be empty space,” NASA stated in this press release.

“The research team behind the observation says the asteroid could be a collection of small rocks, held loosely together by gravity, or it may be one solid rock with a surrounding halo of small particles.”

Artist's conception of the structure around 2011 MD, a candidate asteroid for NASA's proposed asteroid redirect mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech — Artist’s conception of the structure around 2011 MD, a candidate asteroid for NASA’s proposed asteroid redirect mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

You can read more about this asteroid in Astrophysical Journal Letters. There was another study done on 2011 MD earlier this year that was also in ApJL, or in preprint version in Arxiv.

Announcing this asteroid candidate was just one of several things NASA made public today. It added that it plans to send off an ARM (Asteroid Redirect Mission) robotic spacecraft in 2019, and about one year before that it will decide which asteroid to send this spacecraft to.

NASA has two concept ideas for ARM, and it’s planning to award $4.9 million (it had initially planned for up to $6 million) for others to make more detailed investigations into which is the more feasible. Read the full list of recipients at this NASA website.

One idea is to pick up a small asteroid, and the other is to carve off a small portion of a bigger asteroid. Whatever the choice, it would involve coming up with an object that is less than 32 feet (10 meters) across to move to the moon’s orbit. NASA will decide what to do later this year.

“The studies will be completed over a six-month period beginning in July, during which time system concepts and key technologies needed for ARM will be refined and matured. The studies also will include an assessment of the feasibility of potential commercial partners to support the robotic mission,” NASA stated.

An astronaut retrieves a sample from an asteroid in this artist's conception. Credit: NASA — An astronaut retrieves a sample from an asteroid in this artist’s conception. Credit: NASA

Also, some more details about other candidates: NASA has found nine so far that it deems suitable, and size estimates have been made on three of those nine candidates. A fourth, 2008 HU4, will be close to Earth in 2016 and allow for “interplanetary radar” to learn more about its size and rotation, NASA said. The other ones will not get close enough to Earth for a better look before the mission selection is done.

NASA added that it expects to add more through its Near-Earth Object program, as one to two asteroids get close enough to our planet every year for analysis. Further, the agency hopes to learn more about asteroid makeup through its planned Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission, which is on its way to asteroid Bennu in 2018 after a launch in 2016.

All of this, of course, is dependent on NASA’s budgetary situation for the years to come, which in turn depends on support in Congress.