Thanks, for the update, ZP.

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Inter Martem et Jovem planetam interposui (Kepler?)

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There are some who still think the Asteroid belt and asteroids are the remains of an early planet that blew up.

Not at all likely. What force is there that could cause a planet to explode and scatter the remnants so widely? The Moon is thought to have been created by the Earth's collision with another planet-sized body. Even this didn't produce a lasting debris belt around our planet. The fragments were quickly consolidated into the Moon, and Earth.
The asteroid belt has different sorts of of objects with different mineral compositions, each concentrated in a different concentric zone around the Sun. What sort of explosion could have sorted them out in such an orderly manner?
Ceres, though small, is a spherical planet in its own rite, apparently with a differentiated internal structure. It does not appear at all to be a fragment left over from a planet-destroying explosion.

Fingers crossed or orbit@home's resurrection.

Indeed, could be anytime now :)

That's some good news, thanx Zappy:)

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rOZZ
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I read somewhere that all of the material in the asteroid belt together wouldn't amount to enough to make even a small planet.

And I still think that the asteroid mission concept was a red herring thrown out by the current President to divert attention from the cancellation of all projects that were under way to something he knew couldn't be built during his tenure in office and effectively killing the USA's manned space program.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Ceres is a small planet and Vesta was mapped by the Dawn spacecraft now heading to Ceres with its ion propulsion system. It should arrive in 2015.
Tullio

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... And I still think that the asteroid mission concept was a red herring thrown out by the current President to divert attention from the cancellation of all projects that were under way to something he knew couldn't be built during his tenure in office and effectively killing the USA's manned space program.

And I really can't understand how a large swathe of the USA and politicians are so very anti-technology and anti-science as to deliberately sabotage and undermine scientific progress.

Is there really such a strong pre-biblical death-wish for some earlier 'utopia' and the reality of today be damned?!


Sadly, the ISS is more a triumph of politics rather than science and engineering!! Meanwhile, we still have a very long wait before there are any new explorations beyond Mars...

Keep searchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Space cannon ready: Japan to shoot asteroid for samples in 2014 mission

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rOZZ
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... And I still think that the asteroid mission concept was a red herring thrown out by the current President to divert attention from the cancellation of all projects that were under way to something he knew couldn't be built during his tenure in office and effectively killing the USA's manned space program.

And I really can't understand how a large swathe of the USA and politicians are so very anti-technology and anti-science as to deliberately sabotage and undermine scientific progress.

Is there really such a strong pre-biblical death-wish for some earlier 'utopia' and the reality of today be damned?!


Sadly, the ISS is more a triumph of politics rather than science and engineering!! Meanwhile, we still have a very long wait before there are any new explorations beyond Mars...

Keep searchin',
Martin

It is a sad situation, but I take it you don't disagree with my analysis.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

NASA is preparing to launch the James Webb Telescope, successor of the Hubble telescope, and has many scientific missions in preparation, such as Maven to be launched soon. I don't believe that the renounce to human missions to the Moon is the result of an anti science movement. Apollo was more a political enterprise than a scientific enterprise and Neil Armstrong said it ended the cold war. Now we must turn our attention to planet Earth, to avoid disaster such as Katrina, Sandys and Haiyan/Yolanda. The Filipino delegate at the Varsaw UN Conference on climate changes, just started, said "Stop this folly". He was referring to the consequences of global warming.
Tullio

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Hubble astronomers observe bizarre six-tailed asteroid

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rOZZ
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This mysterious object with 6 comet-like tails has several improbable features, it seems. Out of thousands of known asteroids, only about 10 are 'active asteroids', as this one has been labeled. All the others either contain traces of ice that occasionally sublime to form hazy surrounds (comas) or tails, or both, or are the result of collisions with other space objects, which have thrown out dust and/or vapor. Both of these scenarios have been ruled out in the present case of P/2013 P5.
The scientists theorize that this object has had its rotation spun up by the pressure of the Solar wind, and the re-radiation of solar heat. It has supposedly gotten to the point that it is just beginning to fling off its surface by centrifugal force. That would require a rotation period of about 2.3 to 2.2 hours, or less. They tried, with the Hubble Space Telescope, to measure periodic brightness variations in the object, which should give an indication of its rotation rate. No such variations were found.
The scientists suggest that the object may have just happened to have its axis of rotation pointed directly at Earth, eliminating any change in its aspect, from our point of view. Alternately, they suggest that the rotation period may be substantially longer than the length of the observation sessions (about 40 minutes at most). This would reduce any variation in brightness, but possibly not to the extent that they couldn't be observed.
Besides the Sept. 10th and 23rd observations mentioned, there was another on Oct. 18th, and yet another during the current week, Nov. 11th - 15th. Future observations with the HST are planned for sometime between Dec. 7th and 13, Dec. 31 - Jan 1, and Feb. 10th through the 14th.

Suppose that P/2013 P5 just happened to be pointing its axis of rotation directly at us in September, obscuring its period of rotation. This should no longer be the case with the newer observations, especially the latter one.
We should soon, one hopes, be hearing at least tentative figures for the object's spin rate. This will be crucial to the leading hypothesis for P/ 2013 P5's behavior, centrifugal disruption. A rapid spin rate will strongly support this hypothesis. A relatively slow rate of rotation will as thoroughly refute it.
Failure to find a basis for centrifugal disruption will make it very difficult, if not impossible to explain tis object's behavior in accord with our astrophysical knowledge.

We're told that it would take the pressure of the Solar wind, and the re-radiation of Solar heat from the object roughly one million years to spin P/2013 P5 up from some reasonable slower rate of rotation to the point of centrifugal disruption. We are also told that this object is likely a 200 million year old fragment of a asteroidal collision that created the Flora family of asteroids.
My question is this: Why did P/2013 P5 wait around for 199 million of those years, and only then begin to spin up in response to the Sun's influence? Or put another way: Why hadn't it spun itself up to the point of disruption 199 million years ago, and long, long ago destroyed itself?

The activity of P/2013 P5, whatever is actually happening to it, seems to be increasing over time. Dr. Jessica Agarwal, working on the idea that it is releasing bursts of dust from time to time, did some computer simulations. She found that modeling how dusts of various fineness would disperse in space eventually gave a good match to the appearance of P/2013 P5.
She projects that tails were emitted by the object on April 15th, July 18th and 24th, August 8th and 26th, and September 4th. These dates are not evenly spaced. The second is 94 days after the first. Thereafter, the bursts of activity are separated by 6, 15,16, and 11 days, in chronological order. A change seems to have occurred between April and July. The tails were being created much more frequently from then on.
It will be interesting to see if this level of activity continues, or even increases in later observations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P/2013_P5
P/2013 P5

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Smaller asteroids can be far more dangerous than previously believed:


http://zeenews.india.com/news/space/smaller-asteroids-can-be-far-more-dangerous-than-previously-believed_891557.html

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rOZZ
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NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), a spacecraft that made the most comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets, has returned its first set of test images in preparation for a renewed mission.


NASA’s NEOWISE spacecraft opened its "eyes" after more than two years of slumber to see the starry sky. This image of a patch of sky in the constellation Pisces is among the first taken by the spacecraft’s infrared cameras.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/neowise/asteroid-20131219/index.html#.UrODfPuIp6o

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Several sources confirm that the first discovered asteroid in 2014, designated 2014 AA, entered Earth’s atmosphere late Jan. 1 (Jan. 2 Universal time) over the mid-Atlantic Ocean. The Catalina Sky Survey operating near Tucson, Ariz. discovered this very small asteroid -- 6 to 9 feet (2 to 3 meters) in size -- early on the morning of Jan. 1, and immediately followed up on it. (An animation of the discovery images is shown in Figure 1). The asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere about 21 hours later, and probably broke up.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/asteroid/first-2014-asteroid-20140102/index.html

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they better keep an eye on this one.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft has spotted a never-before-seen asteroid -- its first such discovery since coming out of hibernation last year.

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/january/recently-reactivated-nasa-spacecraft-spots-its-first-new-asteroid-0/index.html#.Usyc3_uIp6q

Recently Reactivated NASA Spacecraft Spots Its First New Asteroid

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