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Space

Asteroid With It’s Own Moon

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Radar images of 1998 QE2 (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR)

What’s cooler than an asteroid? How about an astroid with it’s own moon!

The asteroid is 1998 QE2 and NASA scientists have used radar technology to take images of it, as seen at the top of this article. This type of asteroid is known as a binary asteroid and some even have two orbiting moons, those are referred to as triple systems. This asteroid is in the Near-Earth population of asteroids and is about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) in diameter.

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70 Meter Deep Space Network Antenna in Goldstone, Calif. ( Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR)

The image was taken May 29th, 2013 using the Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone California which is very large.

The antenna itself is 70 meters or 230 feet in diameter and that makes it the largest and most sensitive Deep Space Network antenna on Earth. The DSN antenna is capable of  tracking a spacecraft travelling more than 16 billion kilometers (10 billion miles) from Earth.

You can read the full article on this asteroid from NASA/JPL.

Two Galaxies Colliding

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Image credit: (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Irvine/STScI/Keck/NRAO/SAO)

When it comes to massive events, Galaxies colliding is pretty high up on the list. Imagine billions of stars from two galaxies intermingling as two systems merge.

This is exactly what the Herschel space observatory has taken images of in this relatively rare event. The two galaxies together are called HXMM01 and are located about 11 billion light-years away from Earth. The merging galaxies are creating some 2,000 stars per year which is a lot when compared to our Milky Way galaxy which only creates about two to three stars per year.

This discovery is important as it gives us a rare glimpse into the early years of the universe and actually helps give us a clearer picture of how the largest galaxies in the universe are created. The most popular theory is that these massive systems are created by a larger galaxy picking up smaller ones, but this discovery shows us that they may actually be created by two massive galaxies colliding instead.

You can read the full article in detail on this subject from JPL/NASA.

 

A Big Explosion On the Moon

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Traveling at 56,000 miles per hour a 40 kilogram rock slammed into the moon creating an explosion equivalent to 5 tons of TNT. The event happened on March 17th and was so bright it was actually visible from Earth with the naked eye. This is by far the largest explosion that NASA has detected since they started monitoring impacts on the moon in 2005.

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Earth’s Moon (Credit: NASA)

The moon is no stranger to impacts as you can clearly tell just by looking at the image above. What makes this recent impact so cool is the fact that it was relatively large. Most of the impacts on the moon’s surface are tiny by comparison, many of them merely a few centimeters wide. Anything is possible and someday we may even see a larger rock smash into our moon.

Thanks to Wired for the update.

Chris Hadfield Leaves the ISS With A Cover Song

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Commander Chris Hadfield has made an awesome video, actually he’s made quite a few awesome videos, but in this last one he says goodbye to the International Space Station as he gets ready to land back on Earth by creating an performing an amazing cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. The video offers something to this song that no other video can and it fits his situation perfectly, it simply captures the moment and the view of Earth is stunning.

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The International Space Station (Credit: NASA)

 

Ammonia Leak On Space Station Appears to Be Fixed

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An ammonia leak on the International Space Station was hopefully fixed today as astronauts went on a spacewalk for five hours and thirty minutes to repair it. The leak seemed to be coming from a cooling system that cools down vital systems onboard the ISS.

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Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn working on the space station (credit: NASA TV)

The ammonia leak created what looked a lot like snow flakes flying off into space. You can see this “snow’ in the video above. NASA has not yet called the mission a complete success as they are waiting to see if the repairs hold up over time. So far everything seems to be looking good.

You can check out NASA.gov for more information on how the mission was performed along with further updates on the status of the leak itself..