2016 WF9 An unidentified object with a width of one kilometer will pass by Earth next month. NASA scientists are confused

2016 WF9 (artist rendition) photo: wikipedia An artist’s rendition of 2016 WF9 as it passes Jupiter’s orbit inbound toward the sun. JPL manages NEOWISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

A mysterious object will fly above the earth in the next month (February 2017). His features are so unusual that researchers at NASA failed to find out what it is, according IFL Science.

The object was named WF9 2016 was observed in NEOWISE project of NASA, on November 27, 2016. Researchers say it may have at least one kilometers wide. Most will approach Earth on February 25, reaching a distance of 51 million kilometers.

Orbit of 2016 WF9 on 25 February 2017, closest approach to Earth photo: wikipedia

The object caused confusion among researchers at NASA, because they do not know whether it is an asteroid or a comet. In general, asteroids are more rocky and metallic, while comets have ice in their composition, their notes IFL Science.


,, 2016 WF9 could be a comet. This article illustrates that the boundary between asteroid and comet is very small, '' James Bauer supports NASA.

Other articles on the same theme:

• Chaotic Orbit Of Halley's Comet Explained

• Cloudy days on exoplanets may hide atmospheric water

• 10 fascinating planets outside the Solar System

• Meteor Shower 2017: When, Where & How to See It

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by IFL Science . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Rosetta spacecraft will complete its mission. What will happen with the vehicle at the end of its work

Artistic representation of the probe Rosetta comet 67P moving over / Churyumov Gerasimenko (Photo: pbs.org)

The probe was launched on 2 March 2004 and entered orbit around comet 67P on 6 August 2014.

Rosetta spacecraft will crash on comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, thus ending his mission held for more than two years. The vehicle launched by the European Space Agency will have the same fate as Philae, the robot recently discovered by the team coordinated by Laurcence O'Rourke.

Along the comet 67P moves away from the Sun, Rosetta probe's solar panels can not be used to capture energy. For this reason, experts initially thought to pull the vehicle out of activity until the comet will approach again in 4 or 5 years. Later, they decided that the risk of re-running vehicle is too high, which is why the mission will be terminated.

Comets and 67P are studied composition especially for materials in their nuclei. They were formed in the first acts of the Solar System, but were protected from solar radiation as the cosmic object orbiting at a distance from the solar orb. Scientists hope that studying these materials can unlock the secrets of which the training system and our planet.

When comets near the sun is, their temperature increases and begin to emit gas. ,, Solar radiation penetrate into the lower layers of the comet, increasing the temperature in deposits of carbon dioxide ice and carbon. These deposits evaporated, leaving behind cavities whose ceilings are crumbling. Inside them, you could see objects that we call dragon egg. They might be objects of primordial comet formed. Therefore, we will send Rosetta probe to study, "said researcher Mark McCaughrean The Guardian.

Once you will complete its last mission conducted on September 24, Rosetta will head to Deir el-Medina cavity. The speed that a probe will not be very high, but it is expected that the impact will be strong enough to trigger the interruption of communications systems on Earth.

,, That will be the end of Rosetta. It will be an exciting time. It was a great mission and a remarkable joint effort, "added Mark McCaughrean.

Rosetta mission carried out using the probe was full of successes. The researchers used information obtained from this device to dismantle the theory that water was transported from Earth to other planets comets. However, on the surface of 67P discovery of molecules that trigger the emergence of life suggests that cosmic object was, at one time, a common history with our planet.

Even if the probe Rosetta mission ended date was set, the vehicle will be used until the last moment to carry out. ,, Although I used Rosetta probe for more than two years, using it to ulimele weeks of the mission in the unpredictability of this comet and so far from the Sun and the Earth will be the biggest challenge so far, "he said Sylvain Lodiot, researcher at the European Space Agency


Source: washingtonpost.com

Chaotic Orbit Of Halley's Comet Explained

In the wonderful world of astronomy, you can have perfectly regular events that happen in quite a chaotic way. And Halley’s Comet is one these happenings.

The most famous comet of all returns to our skies every 75 years, but its orbit is so strongly influenced by other bodies in the Solar System that, until now, astronomers couldn't predict its trajectory.

A team of Dutch and Scottish researchers has shown that the comet keeps the same orbit for about 300 years before slowly shifting, which contrasts with the traditional view that the comet has perturbations every 70 years.

"We did the most accurate calculations of Halley and the planets ever," said researcher Tjarda Boekholt from Leiden University in a statement. "To our surprise, Halley's orbit was most strongly influenced by the planet Venus and not by Jupiter, the planet that was always pointed to as the biggest spoiler."

According to the study, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Venus won’t always be the major player. In about 3,000 years, Halley’s comet will have a close encounter with Jupiter, which will give it a jolt and take back the role of the main perturber of the comet.




"After that, predictions of the orbit become less accurate, because the precise effect of Jupiter's gravity introduces a relatively large error in our calculations," added fellow researcher Inti Pelupessy.

Halley’s comet has been known of for thousands of years, named after Edmond Halley who first worked out that this comet regularly returned. The oldest surviving record of the comet is a Babylonian tablet from 164 BCE.

The comet was last in our neighborhood in 1986, when it was intercepted by the ESA spacecraft Giotto. This took the first close-up pictures of a comet, reaching 596 kilometers (370 miles) from Halley’s nucleus. No matter its shaky orbit, Halley’s Comet will grace us with its presence again in 2061.