China Launches Tianwen-2 Asteroid-Sample Return & Comet Flyby Mission

China Launches Tianwen-2 Asteroid-Sample Return & Comet Flyby Mission

China launched its first asteroid sample-return mission, Tianwen-2, in the early hours of Thursday, May 29, 2025 Beijing Time—an endeavour to shed light on the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system. This will be the country's first asteroid flyby and sample-return mission.

The Tianwen-2 robotic probe will first collect samples from a small near Earth asteroid called 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, also known as 2016HO3, and return them to Earth in 2027. The asteroid is roughly 40 to 100-meters in diameter. Then, Tianwen-2 will visit a main belt comet, named comet 311P/PANSTARRS. China's Tianwen-2 Mission follows similar missions by the United States, Russia, and Japan, except China will explore an asteroid and a comet in a single mission for the first time in history.

The next Tianwen mission after this one is a Mars sample return mission in 2028. Of course, Tianwen-2 is the second in the Tianwen (meaning “Heavenly Questions” or “Questions to Heaven”) exploration series. The first, Tianwen-1, included a Mars orbiter and surface rover, named Zhurong. Tianwen-4 will launch around 2030. It will include a solar-powered Jupiter orbiter which will observe the system and then enter orbit around the moon Callisto—potentially including a lander—and a smaller, radioisotope-powered spacecraft to make a flyby of Uranus. These missions are also part of a wider, planetary exploration roadmap focused on astrobiology and habitability, and a long-term plan for space science.

China’s first asteroid flyby of 4179 Toutatis was in 2012, when the Chang’e-2 lunar orbiter made this an extended mission objective. Tianwen-2 aims to provide vital data to help us understand the nature of asteroids and comets. The Kamoʻoalewa asteroid travels in a similar orbit to Earth. A Tianwen-2 reentry module containing the samples will be released for atmospheric entry, descent and landing, but the main Tianwen-2 spacecraft will use the Earth’s gravity for a swingby, setting it on course for a six-year-voyage to comet 311P/PANSTARRS that orbits between 1.94 and 2.44 astronomical units from the Sun. Tianwen-2 carries multispectral and infrared spectrometers to study surface composition, while high-resolution cameras will map geological features. A radar sounder will probe subsurface structures, and a magnetometer will search for residual magnetic fields. Dust and gas analyzers will examine comet activity, and charged particle detectors will investigate solar wind interactions. The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is understood to have contributed to the particle detectors.

Tianwen-2 Mission Timeline (Tentative):

Arrival at asteroid Kamoʻoalewa: July 4, 2026

👋 Departure: April 24, 2027

🌏 Reentry capsule landing: Nov. 29, 2027

☄️Arrival at comet 311P: Jan. 24, 2035

The CNSA has described 311P/PanSTARRS as a “living fossil”, making it useful for studying the early material composition, formation process and evolutionary history of the solar system. Comet 311P orbits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids reside, containing over 90 percent of the asteroids in the solar system. It displays features of both comets and asteroids. It has become the seventh main-belt comet confirmed by human beings, and it is also the most peculiar one so far. According to the conventional theory, comets typically originate from the outer edges of the solar system and are rich in ice. As they approach the sun, the heat causes the ice to vaporize, forming their characteristic tails. However, Comet 311P, located in the asteroid belt—far closer to the sun than typical comets—faces intense solar radiation, making it unlikely to retain volatile substances like water ice. This comet challenges astronomers' traditional understanding.

Tianwen-2 will conduct remote sensing of the comet to characterize its orbit, shape, and rotation, examine its surface composition and volatile elements, and investigate dust emissions and activity mechanisms to understand cometary behavior in the main belt. 

Comet 311P/PanSTARRS also known as P/2013 P5 (PanSTARRS) was discovered by Bryce T. Bolin using the Pan-STARRS telescope on August 27, 2013. Observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that it had six comet-like tails. The tails are suspected to be streams of material ejected by the asteroid as a result of a rubble pile asteroid spinning fast enough to remove material from it. This is similar to 331P/Gibbs that was found to be a quickly-spinning rubble pile as well.+

The Tianwen-2 Mission aims to advance China’s planetary exploration capabilities, provide new insights into the understanding of small planetary bodies and their evolutions, and potentially for planetary defense and the origins of life.

Asteroid 2016 HO3 was first spotted on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii, operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy and funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The size of this object has not yet been firmly established, but it is likely larger than 120 feet (40 meters) and smaller than 300 feet (100 meters).

While China has conducted two successful lunar sample return missions, the velocity of the reentry module will be greater for Tianwen-2, marking China’s first second-cosmic-velocity atmospheric reentry, at 12 kilometers per second, adding new challenges. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) conducted high-altitude parachute deployment tests for the mission in 2023. In contrast to the lunar sampling missions, Kamoʻoalewa will have negligible gravity, requiring specialized approaches for orbiting, approaching and sampling.

The spacecraft will attempt up to three methods of sampling: hover sampling, collecting samples with a robotic arm while matching the asteroid’s rotation; touch-and-go (TAG), using a rotating brush head; and anchored sampling. Its landing legs will use drills to press into the asteroid, if the surface composition and terrain allow. The TAG approach was used by both NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and JAXA’s Hayabusa2. 

The asteroid is considered a quasi-satellite of Earth due to its co-orbital dynamics. Kamoʻoalewa is possibly a piece of the moon blasted into space following an impact event, according to researchers, based on spectral analyses. Analysis of the samples aims to reveal the nature and origin of the asteroid, analyze its mineral content and provide comparisons with other asteroids. Leah-Nani Alconcel at the University of Birmingham, UKShe says that the mission is daring, as Kamoʻoalewa is spinning. This will make landing harder. Navigation algorithms are likely to demand such powerful computers that images and sensor readings will be sent back to Earth for computation. “If we were to always pick lovely, cooperative objects, we wouldn’t learn a lot,” she says. “There’s a lot that could potentially go wrong.”

Video Credit: New China TV
Duration: 38 seconds
Release Date: May 28, 2025

#NASA #CNSA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Asteroids #AsteroidKamooalewa #Asteroid2016HO3 #AsteroidSampleReturn #Comets #Comet311P #Comet311PPANSTARRS #CometFlyby #China #中国 #Tianwen2 #天问二号 #Tianwen2Spacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #Russia #Россия #InternationalCooperation #XSLC #SichuanProvince #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Eccentric 'Star' Defies Easy Explanation | NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory

Eccentric 'Star' Defies Easy Explanation | NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory

Scientists have discovered a star behaving like no other seen before, giving new clues about the origin of a class of mysterious objects. A team of astronomers combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Pathfinder radio telescope in Australia to study the antics of the discovered object, known as ASKAP J1832 for short.

ASKAP J1832 belongs to a class of objects so-called “long period radio transients”, discovered in 2022. These vary in radio wave intensity in a regular way over tens of minutes. This is thousands of times longer than pulsars, which are rapidly spinning neutron stars that have repeated variations multiple times a second. ASKAP J1832 cycles in radio wave intensity every 44 minutes, placing it into this category of long period radio transients.

Using Chandra, the team discovered that ASKAP J1832 is also regularly varying in X-rays every 44 minutes. This is the first time that such an X-ray signal has been found in a long period radio transient.

However, that is not all ASKAP J1832 does. Using Chandra and the SKA Pathfinder, the team found that ASKAP J1832 also dropped off in X-rays and radio waves dramatically over the course of six months. This combination of the 44-minute cycle in X-rays and radio waves in addition to the months-long changes is unlike anything astronomers have seen in the Milky Way galaxy.

Scientists are now racing to figure out if ASKAP J1832 is representative of long period radio transients and whether its bizarre behavior helps unravel the origin of these objects. They have looked at several possibilities involving neutron stars and white dwarfs, either in isolation or with companion stars. So far nothing exactly matches up, but certain ideas work better than others, and the search for the facts behind this mysterious object will continue.

Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/ICRAR, Curtin Univ./Z. Wang et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL/CalTech/IPAC Radio: SARAO/MeerKAT

Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

Release Date: May 28, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #ASKAP J1832 #Scutum #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Universe #Astrophysics #NASAChandra #ChandraObservatory #XrayAstronomy #SKA #RadioAstronomy #Australia #CXC #SAO #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

SpaceX Starship Ninth Flight Test Launch | Starbase Texas

SpaceX Starship Ninth Flight Test Launch | Starbase Texas

Starship’s ninth flight test lifted off at 6:36 p.m. CT on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, from Starbase, Texas. This test marked a major milestone for reuse with the first flight-proven Super Heavy booster launching from Starbase, and once more returned Starship to space. Data review is underway, and new improvements will be implemented as work begins to prepare the next Starship and Super Heavy vehicles for flight. Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable, but every lesson learned marks progress toward Starship’s goal of enabling life to become multiplanetary. 

The Super Heavy booster supporting the mission made the first ever reflight in the Starship program, having previously launched on Starship’s seventh flight test in January 2025. The booster performed a full-duration ascent burn with all 33 of its Raptor engines and separated from Starship’s upper stage in a hot-staging maneuver. During separation, Super Heavy performed the first deterministic flip followed by its boostback burn.

Super Heavy demonstrated its ability to fly at a higher angle of attack during its descent back to Earth. By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack results in a slower descent speed. This in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn. Getting real-world data on how the booster controlled its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy.

As it approached its designated splashdown area in the Gulf of America, Super Heavy relit its 13 center and middle ring Raptor engines. Contact with the booster was lost shortly after the start of landing burn when it experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly approximately 6 minutes after launch, bringing an end to the first reflight of a Super Heavy booster.

Following a successful stage separation, the Starship upper stage lit all six of its Raptor engines and performed a full-duration ascent burn. The engines on Starship flew with mitigations in place following learnings from the eighth flight test, including additional preload on key joints, a new nitrogen purge system, and improvements to the propellant drain system.

During Starship’s orbital coast, several in-space objectives were planned, including the first payload deployment from Starship and a relight of a single Raptor engine.

Starship’s payload bay door was unable to open which prevented the deployment of the eight Starlink simulator satellites. A subsequent attitude control error resulted in bypassing the Raptor relight and prevented Starship from getting into the intended position for reentry. Starship then went through an automated safing process to vent the remaining pressure to place the vehicle in the safest condition for reentry. Contact with Starship was lost approximately 46 minutes into the flight, with all debris expected to fall within the planned hazard area in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket—collectively referred to as Starship—represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable.

Key Starship Parameters:

Height: 123m/403ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100–150t (fully reusable)

"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."

Learn more about Starship:

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/

Download the Free Starship User Guide (PDF):

https://www.spacex.com/media/starship_users_guide_v1.pdf

Image Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #Starship #Spacecraft #Starship9 #StarshipTestFlight9 #SuperHeavyBooster #SuperHeavyRocket #ElonMusk #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #StarbaseTexas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

How Do We Do Research in Zero Gravity? We Asked a NASA Expert

How Do We Do Research in Zero Gravity? We Asked a NASA Expert

When it comes to experiments in space, astronauts on the International Space Station face challenges you will not find on Earth: bubbles do not rise, things float away and many Earth-based lab tools do not always work the same way. So science in space needs to be reimagined from the ground up.

A NASA scientist explains how we study life, chemistry and physics in orbit.

Learn more about science on the ISS: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/station-science-101-research-in-microgravity-higher-faster-longer/

Follow Expedition 73:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritskiy

NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Credit: NASA
Producers: Scott Bednar, Pedro Cota, Jessie Wilde
Editor: James Lucas
Duration: 2 minutes
Release Date: May 28, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #MicrogravityResearch #Astronauts #UnitedStates #Japan #JAXA #Cosmonauts #Russia #Roscosmos #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #JSC #Expedition73 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Coronal 'Rain' on The Sun: Clearest View Yet | Big Bear Solar Observatory

Coronal 'Rain' on The Sun: Clearest View Yet | Big Bear Solar Observatory

Coronal rain forms when hotter plasma in the Sun’s corona cools down and becomes denser. Like raindrops on Earth, coronal rain is pulled down to the surface by gravity. Because the plasma is electrically charged, it follows the magnetic field lines that make huge arches and loops, instead of falling in a straight line.

This imagery provides views from a 23-minute time-lapse video comprised of the highest resolution images ever made of coronal rain. Scientists indicate that the strands can be narrower than 20 kilometers.

This imagery was taken by the Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. It shows the hydrogen-alpha light emitted by the solar plasma. The imagery is artificially colorized, yet based on the color of hydrogen-alpha light, and darker color is brighter light. 

The Sun’s corona—the outermost layer of its atmosphere, visible only during a total solar eclipse—has long intrigued scientists due to its extreme temperatures, violent eruptions, and large prominences. However, turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere has caused image blur and hindered observations of the corona. A ground-breaking recent development by scientists from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Solar Observatory (NSO), and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), is changing that by using adaptive optics to remove the blur.

As published in the journal Nature Astronomy, this pioneering ‘coronal adaptive optics’ technology has produced the most astonishing, clearest images and videos of fine-structure in the corona to date. This development will open the door for deeper insights into the corona’s enigmatic behavior and the processes driving space weather.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and installed at the 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), operated by NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California, “Cona”—the adaptive optics system responsible for these new images—compensates for the blur caused by air turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere—similar to the bumpy air passengers feel during a flight.

“The turbulence in the air severely degrades images of objects in space, like our Sun, seen through our telescopes. But we can correct for that,” says Dirk Schmidt, NSO Adaptive Optics Scientist who led the development.

The 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), is located in Big Bear Lake, California. The steady temperature of the water surface around it helps keep the air around the telescope calm, reducing the optical effects of turbulent air that degrades the telescope’s images of the Sun and that the adaptive optics further removes to achieve the maximum image detail. The GST is the second-largest solar telescope in the world and is home to several instruments that scientists use to analyze physical processes of the Sun.

Credit: Schmidt et al./NJIT/NSO/AURA/NSF

Duration: 18 seconds
Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #SolarProminences #SolarPlasma #SolarMagneticField #Heliophysics #SolarSystem #NationalSolarObservatory #GoodeSolarTelescope #GST #NSF #NJIT #BigBearLake #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

SpaceX Starship Ninth Flight Test Liftoff | Starbase Texas

SpaceX Starship Ninth Flight Test Liftoff | Starbase Texas

This was the ninth flight test of Starship. Liftoff occurred at 6:36 p.m. Central Time (CT), Tuesday, May 27, 2025.

After completing the investigation into the loss of Starship on its eighth flight test, several hardware changes were made to increase reliability. You can read the full technical summary of the mishap investigation here: 
https://www.spacex.com/updates/#flight-8-report

This flight test marks the first launch of a flight-proven Super Heavy booster that previously launched and returned on Starship’s seventh flight test. In addition to the reuse milestone, Super Heavy flew a variety of experiments aimed at generating data to improve performance and reliability on future boosters. The Starship upper stage seeks to repeat its suborbital trajectory and to achieve target objectives not reached on the previous two flight tests, including the first payload deployment from Starship and multiple reentry experiments geared towards returning the vehicle to the launch site for catch.

Super Heavy is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, with future generations capable of multiple launches per day. To achieve this first ever reflight, extensive inspections took place following the booster’s first launch to assess hardware health and identify where maintenance or replacement hardware was needed. Known single-use components like ablative heat-shielding were replaced, but a large majority of the booster’s hardware was flight-proven, including 29 of its 33 Raptor engines. Lessons learned from the first booster refurbishment and subsequent performance in flight will enable faster turnarounds of future reflights as progress is made towards vehicles requiring no hands-on maintenance between launches.

The booster on this flight test also attempted several flight experiments to gather real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios. To maximize the safety of launch infrastructure at Starbase, the Super Heavy booster attempted these experiments while on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. It did not return to the launch site for catch.

Following stage separation, the booster flipped into a controlled direction before initiating its boostback burn. This was  achieved by blocking several of the vents on the vehicle’s hotstage adapter, causing the thrust from Starship’s engines to push the booster in a known direction. Previous booster flips went in a randomized direction based on a directional push from small differences in thrust from Starship’s upper stage engines at ignition. Flipping in a known direction requires less propellant to be held in reserve, enabling the use of more propellant during ascent to enable additional payload mass to orbit.

After the conclusion of the boostback burn, the booster attempted to fly at a higher angle of attack during its descent. By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack can result in a lower descent speed. This in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn. Getting real-world data on how the booster is able to control its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy.

The Starship upper stage planned to target multiple in-space objectives, including the deployment of eight Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites. The Starlink simulators were to be placed on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and were expected to demise upon entry. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.

The flight test included several experiments focused on enabling Starship’s upper stage to return to the launch site. A significant number of tiles have been removed from Starship to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle during reentry. Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry. On the sides of the vehicle, functional catch fittings are installed and will test the fittings’ thermal and structural performance. The entire ship's tile line also received a smoothed and tapered edge to address hot spots observed during reentry on Starship’s sixth flight test. Starship’s reentry profile is designed to intentionally stress the structural limits of the upper stage’s rear flaps while at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure.

Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable. But by putting hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we’re able to quickly learn and execute design changes as we seek to bring Starship online as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle.

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket—collectively referred to as Starship—represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable.

Key Starship Parameters:

Height: 123m/403ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100–150t (fully reusable)

"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."

Learn more about Starship:

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/

Download the Free Starship User Guide (PDF):

https://www.spacex.com/media/starship_users_guide_v1.pdf

Video Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Duration: 51 seconds

Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #Starship #Spacecraft #Starship9 #StarshipTestFlight9 #SuperHeavyBooster #SuperHeavyRocket #ElonMusk #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #StarbaseTexas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Solar Prominence 2: Adaptive Optics = Clearest View Yet | Big Bear Solar Observatory

Solar Prominence 2: Adaptive Optics = Clearest View Yet | Big Bear Solar Observatory

This view of a solar prominence is a snapshot of a 19-minute time-lapse video showing how plasma “dances” and twists with the Sun’s magnetic field.

This imagery was taken by the Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. It shows the hydrogen-alpha light emitted by the solar plasma. The imagery is artificially colorized, yet based on the color of hydrogen-alpha light, and darker color is brighter light. 

The Sun’s corona—the outermost layer of its atmosphere, visible only during a total solar eclipse—has long intrigued scientists due to its extreme temperatures, violent eruptions, and large prominences. However, turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere has caused image blur and hindered observations of the corona. A ground-breaking recent development by scientists from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Solar Observatory (NSO), and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), is changing that by using adaptive optics to remove the blur.

As published in Nature Astronomy, this pioneering ‘coronal adaptive optics’ technology has produced the most astonishing, clearest images and videos of fine-structure in the corona to date. This development will open the door for deeper insights into the corona’s enigmatic behavior and the processes driving space weather.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and installed at the 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), operated by NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California, “Cona”—the adaptive optics system responsible for these new images—compensates for the blur caused by air turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere—similar to the bumpy air passengers feel during a flight.

“The turbulence in the air severely degrades images of objects in space, like our Sun, seen through our telescopes. But we can correct for that,” says Dirk Schmidt, NSO Adaptive Optics Scientist who led the development.

Among the team’s remarkable observations is a video of a quickly restructuring solar prominence unveiling fine, turbulent internal flows. Solar prominences are large, bright features, often appearing as arches or loops, extending outward from the Sun’s surface.

The 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), is located in Big Bear Lake, California. The steady temperature of the water surface around it helps keep the air around the telescope calm, reducing the optical effects of turbulent air that degrades the telescope’s images of the Sun and that the adaptive optics further removes to achieve the maximum image detail. The GST is the second-largest solar telescope in the world and is home to several instruments that scientists use to analyze physical processes of the Sun.

Credit: Schmidt et al./NJIT/NSO/AURA/NSF

Duration: 24 seconds
Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #SolarProminences #SolarPlasma #SolarMagneticField #Heliophysics #SolarSystem #NationalSolarObservatory #GoodeSolarTelescope #GST #NSF #NJIT #BigBearLake #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Solar Prominence 1: Adaptive Optics = Clearest View Yet | Big Bear Solar Observatory

Solar Prominence 1: Adaptive Optics = Clearest View Yet | Big Bear Solar Observatory

The Sun’s corona—the outermost layer of its atmosphere, visible only during a total solar eclipse—has long intrigued scientists due to its extreme temperatures, violent eruptions, and large prominences. However, turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere has caused image blur and hindered observations of the corona. A ground-breaking recent development by scientists from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Solar Observatory (NSO), and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), is changing that by using adaptive optics to remove the blur.

As published in Nature Astronomy, this pioneering ‘coronal adaptive optics’ technology has produced the most astonishing, clearest images and videos of fine-structure in the corona to date. This development will open the door for deeper insights into the corona’s enigmatic behavior and the processes driving space weather.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and installed at the 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), operated by NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California, “Cona”—the adaptive optics system responsible for these new images—compensates for the blur caused by air turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere—similar to the bumpy air passengers feel during a flight.

“The turbulence in the air severely degrades images of objects in space, like our Sun, seen through our telescopes. But we can correct for that,” says Dirk Schmidt, NSO Adaptive Optics Scientist who led the development.

Among the team’s remarkable observations is a video of a quickly restructuring solar prominence unveiling fine, turbulent internal flows. Solar prominences are large, bright features, often appearing as arches or loops, extending outward from the Sun’s surface.

This view of a prominence above the solar surface is a snapshot of a 4-minute time-lapse video that reveals its rapid, fine, and turbulent restructuring with unprecedented detail. The Sun’s fluffy-looking surface is covered by “spicules”, short-lived plasma jets, whose creation is still the subject of scientific debate. The streaks on the right of this image are coronal rain falling down onto the Sun’s surface. 

This imagery was taken by the Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. It shows the hydrogen-alpha light emitted by the solar plasma. The imagery is artificially colorized, yet based on the color of hydrogen-alpha light, and darker color is brighter light. 

The 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), is located in Big Bear Lake, California. The steady temperature of the water surface around it helps keep the air around the telescope calm, reducing the optical effects of turbulent air that degrades the telescope’s images of the Sun and that the adaptive optics further removes to achieve the maximum image detail. The GST is the second-largest solar telescope in the world and is home to several instruments that scientists use to analyze physical processes of the Sun.

Credit: Schmidt et al./NJIT/NSO/AURA/NSF

Duration: 47 seconds
Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #SolarProminences #SolarPlasma #SolarMagneticField #Heliophysics #SolarSystem #NationalSolarObservatory #GoodeSolarTelescope #GST #NSF #NJIT #BigBearLake #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy NGC 3596 in Leo | Hubble

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy NGC 3596 in Leo | Hubble

The spiral galaxy NGC 3596 is on display in this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture that incorporates six different wavelengths of light. NGC 3596 is situated 90 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The galaxy was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, the namesake of the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory. 

NGC 3596 appears almost perfectly face-on when viewed from Earth, showcasing the galaxy’s neatly wound spiral arms. The bright arms mark where the galaxy’s stars, gas and dust are concentrated. Star formation is also most active in a galaxy’s spiral arms, as shown by the brilliant pink star-forming regions and young blue stars tracing NGC 3596’s arms in this image.

What causes these spiral arms to form? It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, partly because of the remarkable diversity of spiral galaxies. Many have clear spiral arms, while others have patchy, feathery arms. Many have prominent bars across their centers, while others have compact, circular nuclei. Many have close neighbors, while others are isolated.

Early ideas of how spiral arms formed were stumped by what is called the ‘winding problem’. If a galaxy’s spiral arms are coherent structures, the arms would be wound tighter and tighter as the galaxy spins, until the arms are no longer visible. Now, researchers believe that spiral arms represent a pattern of high-density and low-density areas rather than a physical structure. As stars, gas and dust orbit within a galaxy’s disc, they pass in and out of the spiral arms. Much like cars moving through a traffic jam, these materials slow down and bunch up as they enter a spiral arm, before emerging and continuing their journey through the galaxy.

Image Description: A spiral galaxy viewed face-on, with a slightly oval-shaped disc. The center is a bright white spot surrounded by a golden glow. Two spiral arms extend out from the center, wrapping around the galaxy and broadening out to form the thick outer edge of the disc. Thin reddish strands of dust and bright pink spots follow the arms through the disc. Faint strands of stars extend from the arms’ tips, out beyond the disc.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: May 5, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Hubble35 #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC3596 #Leo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063 in Grus | Webb Telescope

Close-up: Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063 in Grus | Webb Telescope

The eye is first drawn, in this new NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope picture, to the central mega-monster that is galaxy cluster Abell S1063. This behemoth collection of galaxies, lying 4.5 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Grus (the Crane), dominates the scene. Looking more closely, this dense collection of heavy galaxies is surrounded by glowing streaks of light, and these warped arcs are the true object of scientists’ interest: faint galaxies from the Universe’s distant past.

Abell S1063 was previously observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields program. It features a strong gravitational lens: the galaxy cluster is so massive that the light of distant galaxies aligned behind it is bent around it, creating the warped arcs that we see here. Like a glass lens, it focuses the light from these faraway galaxies. The resulting images, albeit distorted, are both bright and magnified—enough to be observed and studied. This was the aim of Hubble’s observations, using the galaxy cluster as a magnifying glass to investigate the early Universe.

The new imagery from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) takes this quest even further back in time. This image showcases an incredible forest of lensing arcs around Abell S1063 that reveal distorted background galaxies at a range of cosmic distances, along with a multitude of faint galaxies and previously unseen features.

This image is what is known as a deep field—a long exposure of a single area of the sky, collecting as much light as possible to draw out the most faint and distant galaxies that do not appear in ordinary images. With 9 separate snapshots of different near-infrared wavelengths of light, totalling around 120 hours of observing time and aided by the magnifying effect of gravitational lensing, this is Webb’s deepest gaze on a single target to date. Focusing such observing power on a massive gravitational lens, like Abell S1063, therefore has the potential to reveal some of the very first galaxies formed in the early Universe.

The observing program that produced this data, GLIMPSE (#3293, PIs: H. Atek & J. Chisholm), aims to probe the period known as Cosmic Dawn, when the Universe was only a few million years old.

Image Description: A field of galaxies in space, dominated by an enormous, bright-white elliptical galaxy that is the core of a massive galaxy cluster. Many other elliptical galaxies can be seen around it. Also around it are short, curved, glowing red lines that are images of distant background galaxies magnified and warped by gravitational lensing. A couple of foreground stars appear large and bright with long spikes around them.

Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Atek, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb); CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: R. Endsley

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #NASAWebb #Stars #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #AbellS1063 #Grus #Constellation #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063: Glimpses of the Distant Past | Webb Telescope

Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063: Glimpses of the Distant Past | Webb Telescope

The eye is first drawn, in this new NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope picture, to the central mega-monster that is galaxy cluster Abell S1063. This behemoth collection of galaxies, lying 4.5 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Grus (the Crane), dominates the scene. Looking more closely, this dense collection of heavy galaxies is surrounded by glowing streaks of light, and these warped arcs are the true object of scientists’ interest: faint galaxies from the Universe’s distant past.

Abell S1063 was previously observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields program. It features a strong gravitational lens: the galaxy cluster is so massive that the light of distant galaxies aligned behind it is bent around it, creating the warped arcs that we see here. Like a glass lens, it focuses the light from these faraway galaxies. The resulting images, albeit distorted, are both bright and magnified—enough to be observed and studied. This was the aim of Hubble’s observations, using the galaxy cluster as a magnifying glass to investigate the early Universe.

The new imagery from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) takes this quest even further back in time. This image showcases an incredible forest of lensing arcs around Abell S1063 that reveal distorted background galaxies at a range of cosmic distances, along with a multitude of faint galaxies and previously unseen features.

This image is what is known as a deep field—a long exposure of a single area of the sky, collecting as much light as possible to draw out the most faint and distant galaxies that do not appear in ordinary images. With 9 separate snapshots of different near-infrared wavelengths of light, totalling around 120 hours of observing time and aided by the magnifying effect of gravitational lensing, this is Webb’s deepest gaze on a single target to date. Focusing such observing power on a massive gravitational lens, like Abell S1063, therefore has the potential to reveal some of the very first galaxies formed in the early Universe.

The observing program that produced this data, GLIMPSE (#3293, PIs: H. Atek & J. Chisholm), aims to probe the period known as Cosmic Dawn, when the Universe was only a few million years old.

Image Description: A field of galaxies in space, dominated by an enormous, bright-white elliptical galaxy that is the core of a massive galaxy cluster. Many other elliptical galaxies can be seen around it. Also around it are short, curved, glowing red lines that are images of distant background galaxies magnified and warped by gravitational lensing. A couple of foreground stars appear large and bright with long spikes around them.

Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Atek, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: R. Endsley
Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #NASAWebb #Stars #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #AbellS1063 #Grus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Boot Camp for The Moon | NASA's Johnson Space Center

Boot Camp for The Moon | NASA's Johnson Space Center

The Joint Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Test Team (JETT), led out of Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, is a specialized group that develops, integrates, and executes tests and analog missions that enable evaluations of lunar surface systems and operations for Artemis missions.

This field test is the fifth in the series and is the highest fidelity Artemis moonwalk mission simulation to date. The test consists of two integrated teams working together as they practice end-to-end lunar operations with a team of astronauts, NASA engineers, and field experts in the Arizona desert conducting the simulated moonwalks, and a team of flight controllers and scientists at NASA Johnson monitoring and guiding their activities. The test evaluates gaps and challenges associated with lunar South Pole operations, including data collection and communications between the flight control team and science team in Houston for rapid decision-making protocols. The week-long test was conducted in the San Francisco Volcanic Field near Flagstaff, Arizona in May 2024.

Learn more about NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program:
https://www.nasa.gov/extravehicular-activity-and-human-surface-mobility/

Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center 
Duration: 11 minutes
Release Date: May 27, 2025

#NASA #Space #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #Astronauts #HumanSpaceflight #JETT #JETT5 #Moonwalks #MoonwalkSimulation #Training #MoonToMars #Science #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #GSFC #JSC #Arizona #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Spiral Galaxy NGC 2566 in Puppis | James Webb Space Telescope

Spiral Galaxy NGC 2566 in Puppis | James Webb Space Telescope

What’s happening in the center of spiral galaxy NGC 2566? First, the eight rays that appear to be coming out of the center in the featured infrared image are not real—they are diffraction spikes caused by the mechanical structure of the Webb space telescope itself. The center of NGC 2566 is bright but not considered unusual. This means that it likely contains a supermassive black hole, although currently not very active. At only 76 million light years away, the light we see from NGC 2566 today left when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

This picturesque galaxy is close enough so that Earthly telescopes, including Webb and Hubble, can resolve the turbulent clouds of gas and dust where stars can form and so allows study of stellar evolution. NGC 2566, similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy, is notable for its bright central bar and its prominent outer spiral arms.

Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy

Release Date: May 26, 2025 

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #NASAWebb #Stars #Galaxies #NGC2566 #SpiralGalaxy #Puppis #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #JWST #MIRI #NIRCam #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD

'Prehistoric' Mars? New NASA Perseverance Rover Image | JPL

'Prehistoric' Mars? New NASA Perseverance Rover Image | JPL

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Right Mastcam-Z camera on May 25, 2025 (sol 1515), at the local mean solar time of 10:35:28. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast.

Pareidolia: Dictionaries describe this term as a human tendency to see recognizable shapes in objects or data that are otherwise not familiar to us.

Learn more about pareidolia and Martian "space oddities:"
https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/space-oddities/

Celebrating 4+ Years on Mars
Mission Name: Mars 2020
Rover Name: Perseverance
Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for return to Earth.
Launch: July 30, 2020    
Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover: 

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Capture Date: May 25, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Mars #Geology #Astrobiology #PerseveranceRover #Selfie #Mars2020 #JezeroCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #MSSS #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Planet Mars: 'Strange' Surface Streaks | Europe's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

Planet Mars: 'Strange' Surface Streaks | Europe's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

Image Description: Bright and dark streaks covering the slopes of the Olympus Mons aureole, as seen by the Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. An aureole describes an area of metamorphosed rock surrounding an igneous intrusion.

As if someone has been sweeping the surface of Mars with a broom, the origin of odd, streaked slopes has intrigued scientists for decades.

These enigmatic features come and go spontaneously, a portion last for years while others quickly fade. They change color and brightness and show up during certain seasons on opposite hemispheres of the Red Planet.

Scientists first saw these enigmatic streaks extending for hundreds of meters down sloped terrain in images from the Viking orbiters in the 1970s. How they form, where and when has fueled scientific debate ever since.

Researchers have interpreted these streaks as flows of salty water, or brine, that could remain liquid long enough to form them. This hypothesis suggests rare habitable zones might exist on this otherwise desert world where temperatures rarely rise above freezing.

However, a new study led by planetary scientists at the University of Bern and Brown University challenges the water-based explanation. Their paper in Nature Communications argues that these slope streaks result from dry processes involving wind and dust activity.

Researchers turned to a machine learning algorithm to scan and catalog slope streaks in over 86,000 satellite images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

Scientists combined several decades’ worth of orbital data and the neural power of deep learning to produce a global map with almost 500,000 streak features across Mars. The new study created the largest database yet of these features on Mars.

The team also turned to other cameras orbiting Mars, such as the CaSSIS imager on ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter and MRO’s HiRISE, to collect more color information in high resolution, as well as to monitor how the streaks evolved over time.

The correlations over hundreds of thousands of cases helped the team shed new light on a decades-old debate. With no evidence of water, scientists concluded that dry processes—rather than liquid flow—drive the appearance of streaked slopes on Mars.

The study found that these winding features most likely form when layers of fine dust suddenly slide off steep terrain. Multiple triggers could unleash this process, such as rocks falling, small meteoroid impacts or wind gusts causing shockwaves and shaking loose dust.

To bring out these features, the contrast in these CaSSIS images is stretched—the image is re-scaled between the minimum and maximum brightness within each color before combining them to produce the published image.

ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter continues to image Mars from orbit to understand its ancient past and potential habitability. The spacecraft returns spectacular images and provides the best inventory of atmospheric gases and mapping the planet’s surface for water-rich locations.

Understanding the history of water on Mars and whether it once allowed life to flourish is at the heart of ESA’s ExoMars missions.

“Streaks on Martian Slopes are Dry,” by Valentin Bickel and Adomas Valantinas, was published in Nature Communications on May 19, 2025.

The image covers an area of approximately 50 square kms and was captured on October 3, 2024. Mars location: 26.5°N, 223.8°E. CaSSIS image MY37_030618_155_3.

Credits: ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Release Date: May 26, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Roscosmos #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Mars #Geology #Atmosphere #Methane #Astrobiology #Life #RedPlanet #ExoMars #CaSSIS #Orbiter #Spacecraft #Europe #Russia #Россия #Роскосмос #STEM #Education

China Tianwen-2 Asteroid & Comet Mission Launch Set for May 29, 2025

China Tianwen-2 Asteroid & Comet Mission Launch Set for May 29, 2025

The launch date for China's Tianwen-2 deep space mission to an asteroid and a comet has been confirmed for Thursday, May 29, 2025, by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). This will be the country's first asteroid flyby and sample-return mission. The Tianwen-2 spacecraft was transported to the launch site at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China on May 18 and is now atop a Long March 3B rocket.

The Tianwen-2 robotic probe will first collect samples from a small near Earth asteroid called 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, also known as 2016HO3, and return them to Earth in 2027. The asteroid is roughly 40 to 100-meters in diameter. Then, Tianwen-2 will visit a main belt comet, named comet 311P/PANSTARRS. China's Tianwen-2 Mission follows similar missions by the United States, Russia, and Japan, except China will explore an asteroid and a comet in a single mission for the first time in history.

The next Tianwen mission after this one is a Mars sample return mission in 2028. Of course, Tianwen-2 is the second in the Tianwen (meaning “Heavenly Questions” or “Questions to Heaven”) exploration series. The first, Tianwen-1, included a Mars orbiter and surface rover, named Zhurong. Tianwen-4 will launch around 2030. It will include a solar-powered Jupiter orbiter which will observe the system and then enter orbit around the moon Callisto—potentially including a lander—and a smaller, radioisotope-powered spacecraft to make a flyby of Uranus. These missions are also part of a wider, planetary exploration roadmap focused on astrobiology and habitability, and a long-term plan for space science.

China’s first asteroid flyby of 4179 Toutatis was in 2012, when the Chang’e-2 lunar orbiter made this an extended mission objective. Tianwen-2 aims to provide vital data to help us understand the nature of asteroids and comets. The Kamoʻoalewa asteroid travels in a similar orbit to Earth. A Tianwen-2 reentry module containing the samples will be released for atmospheric entry, descent and landing, but the main Tianwen-2 spacecraft will use the Earth’s gravity for a swingby, setting it on course for a six-year-voyage to comet 311P/PANSTARRS that orbits between 1.94 and 2.44 astronomical units from the Sun. Tianwen-2 carries multispectral and infrared spectrometers to study surface composition, while high-resolution cameras will map geological features. A radar sounder will probe subsurface structures, and a magnetometer will search for residual magnetic fields. Dust and gas analyzers will examine comet activity, and charged particle detectors will investigate solar wind interactions. The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is understood to have contributed to the particle detectors.

Tianwen-2 Mission Timeline (Tentative):

Arrival at asteroid Kamoʻoalewa: July 4, 2026

👋 Departure: April 24, 2027

🌏 Reentry capsule landing: Nov. 29, 2027

☄️Arrival at comet 311P: Jan. 24, 2035

The CNSA has described 311P/PanSTARRS as a “living fossil”, making it useful for studying the early material composition, formation process and evolutionary history of the solar system. Comet 311P orbits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids reside, containing over 90 percent of the asteroids in the solar system. It displays features of both comets and asteroids. It has become the seventh main-belt comet confirmed by human beings, and it is also the most peculiar one so far. According to the conventional theory, comets typically originate from the outer edges of the solar system and are rich in ice. As they approach the sun, the heat causes the ice to vaporize, forming their characteristic tails. However, Comet 311P, located in the asteroid belt—far closer to the sun than typical comets—faces intense solar radiation, making it unlikely to retain volatile substances like water ice. This comet challenges astronomers' traditional understanding.

Tianwen-2 will conduct remote sensing of the comet to characterize its orbit, shape, and rotation, examine its surface composition and volatile elements, and investigate dust emissions and activity mechanisms to understand cometary behavior in the main belt. 

Comet 311P/PanSTARRS also known as P/2013 P5 (PanSTARRS) was discovered by Bryce T. Bolin using the Pan-STARRS telescope on August 27, 2013. Observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that it had six comet-like tails. The tails are suspected to be streams of material ejected by the asteroid as a result of a rubble pile asteroid spinning fast enough to remove material from it. This is similar to 331P/Gibbs that was found to be a quickly-spinning rubble pile as well.+

The Tianwen-2 Mission aims to advance China’s planetary exploration capabilities, provide new insights into the understanding of small planetary bodies and their evolutions, and potentially for planetary defense and the origins of life.

Asteroid 2016 HO3 was first spotted on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii, operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy and funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The size of this object has not yet been firmly established, but it is likely larger than 120 feet (40 meters) and smaller than 300 feet (100 meters).

While China has conducted two successful lunar sample return missions, the velocity of the reentry module will be greater for Tianwen-2, marking China’s first second-cosmic-velocity atmospheric reentry, at 12 kilometers per second, adding new challenges. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) conducted high-altitude parachute deployment tests for the mission in 2023. In contrast to the lunar sampling missions, Kamoʻoalewa will have negligible gravity, requiring specialized approaches for orbiting, approaching and sampling.

The spacecraft will attempt up to three methods of sampling: hover sampling, collecting samples with a robotic arm while matching the asteroid’s rotation; touch-and-go (TAG), using a rotating brush head; and anchored sampling. Its landing legs will use drills to press into the asteroid, if the surface composition and terrain allow. The TAG approach was used by both NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and JAXA’s Hayabusa2. 

The asteroid is considered a quasi-satellite of Earth due to its co-orbital dynamics. Kamoʻoalewa is possibly a piece of the moon blasted into space following an impact event, according to researchers, based on spectral analyses. Analysis of the samples aims to reveal the nature and origin of the asteroid, analyze its mineral content and provide comparisons with other asteroids. Leah-Nani Alconcel at the University of Birmingham, UKShe says that the mission is daring, as Kamoʻoalewa is spinning. This will make landing harder. Navigation algorithms are likely to demand such powerful computers that images and sensor readings will be sent back to Earth for computation. “If we were to always pick lovely, cooperative objects, we wouldn’t learn a lot,” she says. “There’s a lot that could potentially go wrong.”

Video Credit: CGTN
Duration: 20 seconds
Release Date: May 26, 2025

#NASA #CNSA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Asteroids #AsteroidKamooalewa #Asteroid2016HO3 #AsteroidSampleReturn #Comets #Comet311P #Comet311PPANSTARRS #CometFlyby #China #中国 #Tianwen2 #天问二号 #Tianwen2Spacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #Russia #Россия #InternationalCooperation #XSLC #SichuanProvince #STEM #Education #HD #Video