The Ramses mission, which could be officially confirmed at ESA's Ministerial Council meeting this November, is scheduled to launch in 2028. The main spacecraft will rendezvous with Apophis and deploy two CubeSats to perform detailed studies before, during, and after the asteroid's flyby. These observations will assess changes in Apophis' orbit, shape, surface cohesion, and rotational dynamics caused by Earth's tidal forces.

The first CubeSat, announced in March, is designed for radar analysis of the asteroid's internal structure and surrounding dust. The newly announced second CubeSat, led by Spanish firm Emxys, will focus on surface features and geological properties. It will execute an autonomous approach and attempt a landing just kilometers from the asteroid. If successful, it will measure seismic activity from Apophis' surface.

"Landing on an asteroid is very challenging," said Ramses Project Manager Paolo Martino. "The irregular shape and surface properties make it difficult to identify a stable landing site, while the very weak gravity makes it hard to stay on the surface without bouncing off and drifting away."

"But the opportunity to study Apophis from the surface during this rare natural phenomenon is very exciting and scientifically valuable. Ramses' CubeSats will attempt higher risk, high reward activities that the main spacecraft cannot, such as a landing. In doing so, they will help us maximise the mission's scientific return, which is crucial, as an asteroid this large is thought to pass so close to Earth only once every few thousand years."

"This project marks a milestone for our company," said Jose A. Carrasco, CEO of Emxys. "To contribute to a mission that will monitor one of Earth's closest encounters with a large asteroid represents the highest level of scientific and technological challenge. We are proud to bring our capabilities to Europe's planetary defence efforts."

The CubeSat project brings together several European partners including GomSpace (Denmark), GMV (Spain), ISAE-SUPAERO (France), and the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Emxys previously contributed to ESA's Hera mission with the GRASS gravimeter on the Juventas CubeSat, currently en route to the Didymos asteroid system following humanity's first asteroid deflection attempt.

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST Nottingham UK (SPX) May 20, 2025 - Scientists and engineers at the University of Nottingham have measured the stiffness of space rock for the first time.

Many meteorites are made of crystalline materials, formed under exotic conditions that cannot be replicated on earth. The stiffness of the crystals that make up these materials has historically been difficult to measure and normally this requires scientists to grow a special single crystal, which in this case is not possible.

Published in Scripta Materialia, using a new technique developed and patented at the University of Nottingham, experts have measured this important property for the first time.

Lead author of the study, Wenqi Li, from the university's Optics and Photonics research group, said: "These materials have evolved in unique conditions over millions of years to form these amazing structures and patterns.

These conditions cannot be reproduced on earth and meteorites have amazing large-scale microstructure and phase mixtures which gives mechanical and elastic properties that are quite different to the man-made iron-nickel alloys we can produce on earth," said Wenqi Li, Optics and Photonics Research Group.

Meteorites provide access to information on the formation and evolution of planetary bodies which is otherwise difficult to study. The unique nature of these samples and their relative scarcity means that non-destructive analysis techniques are needed to study their properties. Understanding their properties develops the understanding of the formation of the solar system and the planets.

Studying these samples can also help develop an understanding of alloys used for aerospace and industrial applications, suitable for constructing extraterrestrial structures, making meteors a suitable source of material for future manufacturing in space.

This study uses the laser ultrasound technique spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy (SRAS++), which was invented at the University of Nottingham, to measure the properties of the Gibeon meteorite.

Associate Professor Richard Smith explained: "The SRAS++ machine uses lasers to make and detect acoustic waves that travel on the surface of the material, this means that we do not need to touch the sample and do not damage the sample in anyway. This is really important for samples where there is limited supply.

"There are no published values to directly compare the results of this study, as non-destructive measurements of the single crystal elasticity on granular material has not previously been possible. So, we compared our results with theoretical values for man-made iron-nickel alloys. We also calculated the bulk properties from our single crystal elasticity measurements and compared them to published measurements on the Gibeon meteorite and they also agree well."

We're incredibly excited to gain access to larger pieces of these precious samples in the future so we can use the SRAS++ method to image the changes in the local elastic properties from the centre to the periphery of the meteorites to understand the formation of these complicated materials," said Professor Matt Clark, Faculty of Engineering.

Research Report:Measuring the elastic properties of the Gibeon meteorite using laser ultrasound

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 19, 2025 - China is set to launch its first asteroid sample-return mission, Tianwen 2, within the next two weeks from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, as confirmed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The Tianwen 2 probe, which reached the launch preparation area on Sunday, is now undergoing prelaunch checks at the center. It arrived at the spaceport in late February for fueling and comprehensive tests, while its carrier rocket, a Long March 3B, was moved to the launch pad last Wednesday, the CNSA reported.

Mission planners outlined that Tianwen 2 will target the near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3, also known as 469219 Kamo'oalewa. This small, quasi-moon, discovered in 2016 by the Haleakala High Altitude Observatory in Hawaii, orbits the Sun in a stable path close to Earth, making it an ideal candidate for sample collection.

The mission's design features a dual-component probe with an orbiter and a reentry module. Once Tianwen 2 reaches the asteroid, it will orbit the celestial body for several months, using a mechanical arm to collect surface dust before heading back toward Earth. The reentry module will then separate and return the samples to Earth, while the orbiter continues on to study 311P, a main-belt comet between Mars and Jupiter.

Tianwen missions are part of China's broader interplanetary exploration efforts, named after an ancient Chinese poem. The first in the series, Tianwen 1, successfully landed a rover on Mars in 2021, marking China's initial foray into deep space exploration.

Asteroid 2016 HO3, while not a true moon, remains Earth's closest and most stable quasi-moon, offering insights into the early solar system's formation and evolution. Meanwhile, 311P exhibits characteristics of both comets and asteroids, presenting scientists with a unique opportunity to study a hybrid celestial body.

Tianwen 1 was launched in July 2020, and its rover, Zhurong, became the sixth rover to explore Mars after those deployed by the United States.

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST Rolla MO (SPX) May 21, 2025 - If you are sneezing this spring, you are not alone. Every year, plants release billions of pollen grains into the air, specks of male reproductive material that many of us notice only when we get watery eyes and runny noses.

However, pollen grains are far more than allergens - they are nature's time capsules, preserving clues about Earth's past environments for millions of years.

Pollen's tough outer shell enables it to survive long after its parent plants have disappeared. When pollen grains become trapped in sediments at the bottom of lakes, oceans and riverbeds, fossil pollen can provide scientists with a unique history of the environments those pollen-producing plants were born into. They can tell us about the vegetation, climate and even human activity through time.

The types of pollen and the quantities of pollen grains found at a site help researchers reconstruct ancient forests, track sea-level changes and identify the fingerprints of significant events, such as asteroid impacts or civilizations collapsing.

As palynologists, we study these ancient pollen fossils around the world. Here are a few examples of what we can learn from these microscopic pollen grains.

Missouri: Pollen and the asteroid

Marine fossils and rock fragments found in southeastern Missouri appear to have been deposited there by a massive wave generated by the asteroid hitting what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Among the rocks and marine fossils, scientists have found fossilized pollen from the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene periods that reflects changes in the surrounding ecosystems. The pollen reveals how ecosystems were instantly disrupted at the time of the asteroid, before gradually rebounding over hundreds to thousands of years.

Pollen from gymnosperms, such as pines, as well as ferns and flowering plants, such as grasses, herbs and palm trees, all record a clear pattern: Some forest pollen disappeared after the impact, suggesting that the regions' vegetation changed. Then the pollen slowly began to reemerge as the environment stabilized.

US Gulf Coast: Sequoia pollen and sea-level rise

During the Early Oligocene, around 33.9 to 28 million years ago, sea levels rose and flooded low-lying conifer forests in the region. Researchers identified a distinct change in pollen released by Sequoia-type trees, giant conifers that once dominated the coastal plains.

Scientists have been able to use those pollen records to reconstruct how far the shoreline moved inland by tracking the proportion of pollen grains in the geologic record to the rise of marine microfossils.

The evidence shows how the sea flooded land ecosystems hundreds of miles from today's coast. Pollen is a biological marker and geographic tracer of this ancient change.

Western Australia: From swamp to salinity

During the Eocene, a period from about 55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago, lush swamp forests surrounded freshwater lakes there. That's reflected by abundant pollen from tropical trees and moisture-loving shrubs and fern spores at that time. However, vegetation changed dramatically as the Australian tectonic plate drifted northward and the climate became more arid.

The upper layers of the sediment cores, which capture more recent times, contain pollen mostly from wind-pollinated, salt- and drought-tolerant plants - evidence of shifting vegetation under growing environmental stress.

Three magnified pollen fossils in different shapes - triangle, oblong with large cells and oblong with smaller cells

The presence of Dunaliella, a green alga that thrives in very salty water, alongside sparse pollen from plants that could survive dry environments, confirms that lakes that once supported forests became highly saline.

Guatemala: Maya history and forest recovery

Around 1,125 to 1,200 years ago, pollen from crops such as maize and opportunistic herbs surged, at the same time tree pollen dropped, reflecting widespread deforestation. Historical records show political centers in the region collapsed not long afterward.

Only after population pressure eased did the forest begin to recover. Pollen from hardwood tropical trees increased, indicating vegetation rebounded even as rainfall declined during the Little Ice Age between the 14th and mid-19th centuries.

The fossil pollen shows how ancient societies transformed their landscapes, and how ecosystems responded, providing more evidence and explanations for other historical accounts.

Modern pollen tells a story, too

This is why modern pollen also tells a story. As today's climate warms, the behavior of pollen-producing plants is changing. In temperate regions such as the U.S., pollen seasons start earlier and last longer due to warming temperatures and rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from vehicles, factories and other human activities.

All of that is being recorded in the fossil pollen record in the sediment layers at the bottoms of lakes around the world.

So, the next time you suffer from allergies, remember that the tiny grains floating in the air are biological time capsules that may one day tell future inhabitants about Earth's environmental changes.

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 13, 2025 - China's Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission is set to launch this month, May 2025, en route to the asteroid Kamo?oalewa (2016 HO3). The country could join the United States and Japan, whose space agencies have both successfully retrieved a sample from an asteroid to study back on Earth.

Several space missions have flown by asteroids before and gotten a peek at their compositions, but bringing a sample back to Earth is even more helpful for scientists. The most informative analyses require having physical samples to poke and prod, shine light at, run through CT scanners and examine under electron microscopes.

These missions require detailed planning and specialized spacecraft, so to shed light on why agencies go through the trouble, we compiled four stories from The Conversation U.S.'s archive. These articles describe the ways asteroid sample return missions generate new scientific insights at every stage - from the collection process, to the container's return to Earth, to laboratory analyses.

1. Ryugu's colorful history The asteroid Ryugu is made of carbon-rich rock. Japan targeted Ryugu for its sample return mission Hayabusa2 in 2020.

As planetary scientist Paul K. Byrne from Washington University in St. Louis described in his article, the Hayabusa2 team shot the asteroid with a metal projectile and collected the dusty debris that floated into space. This process allowed the Hayabusa2 craft to gather a sample to bring home and also get a close-up look at the asteroid's surface.

One thing the collection team noticed: The material that flew off the asteroid was redder than the surface they shot at, which had a bluer tinge.

Some parts of Ryugu appear almost striped - the middle latitudes are redder, while the poles look more blue. The sample collection process gave researchers some hints about why that is.

"At some point the asteroid must have been closer to the Sun that it is now," Byrne wrote. "That would explain the amount of reddening of the surface."

2. Return capsules make shock waves Similar to how researchers gained valuable data just from the Hayabusa2 collection process, atmospheric scientists didn't even need to open the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule to learn something new.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission traveled to the carbon-rich asteroid Bennu and sent home a small capsule containing a sample in September 2023.

Released from the OSIRIS-REx craft, the sample return capsule hurtled down to Earth in a heavy box about the size of a microwave. Aside from the fact that it had been released from a spacecraft about 63,000 miles (102,000 kilometers) away, the return looked strikingly similar to that of a meteorite hitting Earth.

Scientists don't often have the advance notice needed to study how real meteoroids - the term given to meteorites before they hit the ground - behave when they enter the atmosphere, so they jumped on the opportunity to study the capsule as it returned to Earth.

As physicists Brian Elbing from Oklahoma State University and Elizabeth A. Silber from Sandia National Laboratories discussed in their article, OSIRIS-REx's reentry was the perfect opportunity to study what happens in the atmosphere when meteoroid-size objects fly through.

The teams set up networks of sensitive microphones and other instruments - both on the ground and attached to balloons - to log the sound wave frequencies that the capsule generated in the atmosphere. Understanding how waves travel through the atmosphere can help scientists figure out how to detect hazards such as natural disasters. 3. Building blocks of life on Bennu Once the OSIRIS-REx return capsule was safely back on Earth, researchers across the world - including geologist Timothy J. McCoy from the Smithsonian Institution and planetary scientist Sara Russell from the Natural History Museum in the U.K. - got to work running tests on its contents, while handling the sample carefully to avoid contaminating it.

As they described in their article, McCoy and Russell found the sample was mostly water-rich clay, which they expected from a carbon-rich asteroid. But they also found a surprising amount of salty and brine-related minerals. These minerals form when water evaporates off a rock's surface.

Because these minerals - aptly called evaporites - dissolve when they come into contact with moisture, scientists had never seen them in the meteorites that fly through Earth's atmosphere, even ones with similar compositions to Bennu. The spacecraft's sample container kept the Bennu sample airtight, so these evaporites stayed intact.

These results suggest that the asteroid used to be wet and muddy. And a salty, water-rich environment like Bennu may have once been a great place for organic molecules to form. Some scientists predict that Earth got its ingredients for life from a collision with an asteroid like Bennu.

4. Looking ahead: Asteroid mining Asteroid sample return missions generate lots of scientific insights. They can also help space agencies and companies understand what exactly is out there, available to bring home from asteroids. While carbon-rich asteroids like Bennu and Ryugu aren't flush with precious metals, other asteroids have more valuable contents.

Launched in 2023 and currently traveling through space, NASA's Psyche mission will explore a metallic asteroid. The Psyche asteroid likely contains platinum, nickel, iron and possibly gold - all materials of commercial interest.

Scientists can learn about the formation and composition of Earth's core from metallic asteroids like Psyche, which is the mission's main goal. But as planetary scientist Valerie Payre from the University of Iowa wrote in her article, "The Psyche mission is a huge step in figuring out what sort of metals are out there."

For now, commercial asteroid mining operations are science fiction - not to mention legally fraught. But some companies have started considering early-stage plans for how they one day might do it. Asteroid sample missions can lay some early groundwork. This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation's archives.

Interviewed for this story Brian Elbing Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Oklahoma State University; Elizabeth A. Silber Senior R and D Scientist, Physics, Sandia National Laboratories; Paul K. Byrne Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Science, Washington University in St. Louis; Sara Russell Professor of Planetary Sciences, Natural History Museum; Timothy J McCoy Supervisory Research Geologist, Smithsonian Institution; Valerie Payre Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Iowa.

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST East Lansing MI (SPX) Apr 30, 2025 - For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system's asteroid belt, wasn't just an asteroid. They concluded that Vesta has a crust, mantle and core - fundamental properties of a planet.

Astronomers studied it for clues to how early planets grew, and what Earth might have looked like in its infancy.

Now, Michigan State University has contributed to research that flips this notion on its head.

A team led by the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab or JPL published a paper in Nature Astronomy revealing Vesta's interior structure is more uniform than previously thought. These findings startled researchers who, until then, assumed Vesta was a protoplanet that never grew to a full planet.

"The lack of a core was very surprising," said MSU Earth and Environmental Sciences Assistant Professor Seth Jacobson, a co-author on the paper. "It's a really different way of thinking about Vesta."

What is Vesta's true identity? The research team has two hypotheses that need further exploration.

The first possibility is Vesta went through incomplete differentiation, meaning it started the melting process needed to give the asteroid distinct layers, like a core, mantle and crust, but never finished. The second is a theory Jacobson floated at an astronomy conference years ago -- Vesta is a broken chunk off a growing planet in our solar system.

At the conference, Jacobson wanted other researchers to consider the possibility that some meteorites could be debris from collisions that took place during the planet formation era. He included Vesta in his suggestion but hadn't considered it a real possibility.

"This idea went from a somewhat silly suggestion to a hypothesis that we're now taking seriously due to this re-analysis of NASA Dawn mission data," Jacobson said.

More than an asteroid

NASA launched the Dawn spacecraft in 2007 to study Vesta and Ceres, the two largest objects in the asteroid belt. The goal was to better understand how planets were formed.

Dawn spent months from 2011 to 2012 orbiting Vesta, measuring its gravity field and taking high-resolution images to create a very detailed map of its surface. After performing similar tasks at Ceres, the mission finished in 2018, and scientists published findings from the data.

Jacobson said the more that researchers used the data, the better they got at processing it. They found ways to more accurately calibrate measurements that yield an improved picture of Vesta's makeup. That's why Ryan Park, a JPL senior research scientist and principal engineer, and his team decided to reprocess Vesta's measurements.

"For years, conflicting gravity data from Dawn's observations of Vesta created puzzles," Park said. "After nearly a decade of refining our calibration and processing techniques, we achieved remarkable alignment between Dawn's Deep Space Network radiometric data and onboard imaging data. We were thrilled to confirm the data's strength in revealing Vesta's deep interior. Our findings show Vesta's history is far more complex than previously believed, shaped by unique processes like interrupted planetary differentation and late-stage collisions."

Planetary scientists can estimate the size of a celestial body's core by measuring what's called the moment of inertia. It's a concept from physics that describes how difficult it is to change the rotation of an object around an axis. Jacobson compared this concept to a figure skater spinning on ice. They change their speed by pulling their arms in to speed up and moving them outward to slow down. Their moment of inertia is changed by the changing position of their arms.

Similarly, an object in space with a larger core is like a ballerina with their arms pulled in. Celestial bodies with a dense core move differently than one with no core at all. Armed with this knowledge, the research team measured the rotation and gravity field of Vesta. The results showed Vesta didn't behave like an object with a core, challenging prior ideas about how it formed.

Two hypotheses

"We're really confident these meteorites came from Vesta," Jacobson said. "And these don't show obvious evidence of incomplete differentiation."

The alternative explanation is based on the idea that as the terrestrial planets formed, large collisions occurred, mostly growing the planets but also generating impact debris. The ejected materials from those collisions would include rocks resulting from melting, and, like Vesta, they wouldn't have a core.

Jacobson's lab was already exploring the consequences of giant impacts during the planet formation era. He's working with one of his graduate students, Emily Elizondo, on the idea that some asteroids in the asteroid belt are pieces ejected from the growing planets.

This idea is still far from proven. More models need to be created and fine-tuned to prove that Vesta is an ancient chunk of a forming planet. Scientists can adjust how they study Vesta meteorites to dive deeper into either hypothesis, Jacobson said. They could also do further studies with the new approaches to the Dawn mission data.

This paper is only the beginning of a new direction of study, Jacobson said. It could forever change how scientists look at differentiated worlds.

"No longer is the Vesta meteorite collection a sample of a body in space that failed to make it as a planet," Jacobson said. "These could be pieces of an ancient planet before it grew to full completion. We just don't know which planet that is yet."

Research Report:A small core in Vesta inferred from Dawn's observations

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 30, 2025 - New research from Curtin University has dated a massive meteorite strike in northwestern Scotland to 990 million years ago, 200 million years later than previously thought. This discovery reshapes the region's geological timeline and offers new insights into the influence of such impacts on Earth's early terrestrial ecosystems.

The impact, responsible for creating the Stac Fada Member rock formation, was long believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago. Using zircon crystals as geological timekeepers, Curtin scientists pinpointed the event's actual age with greater precision.

"These microscopic crystals recorded the exact moment of impact, with some even transforming into an incredibly rare mineral called reidite, which only forms under extreme pressures," said Professor Chris Kirkland from Curtin's Frontier Institute for Geoscience Solutions.

The presence of reidite provided clear confirmation that a meteorite impact had formed the Stac Fada deposit. The team developed a model to interpret how the impact disrupted zircon crystal structures, determining that the collision occurred 990 million years ago.

Kirkland noted the event aligns chronologically with the emergence of early freshwater eukaryotes-organisms considered precursors to plants, animals, and fungi. "The revised dating suggests these life forms in Scotland appeared at a similar time to a meteorite impact," he said.

This synchronicity raises compelling questions about the potential environmental effects of large meteorite strikes on early life. "Understanding when meteorite impacts occurred helps us explore their potential influence on Earth's environment and the expansion of life beyond the oceans," Kirkland added.

Although the impact crater has yet to be located, researchers believe the new evidence will aid in identifying its position.

Research Report:A one-billion-year-old Scottish meteorite impact

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 28, 2025 - A mystery that has puzzled planetary scientists for three decades-why carbon-bearing meteorites appear less damaged by impacts than their carbon-poor counterparts-has been solved by researchers at Kobe University. Their work shows that high-speed impacts generate gases that blast away the shock evidence, offering crucial insights for future missions to celestial bodies like Ceres.

Meteorite collisions serve as time capsules, preserving clues about the early solar system. However, meteorites rich in carbon have long appeared to bear fewer signs of violent impacts, an anomaly that suggested lower collision speeds without a clear explanation. "I specialize in impact physics and am interested in how the meteorite material changes in response to impacts, something called 'shock metamorphism.' And so I was very interested in this question," explained Kobe University astrophysicist KUROSAWA Kosuke.

Years ago, another Kobe University researcher hypothesized that vapor released during impacts could drive away shocked material. Inspired by this idea, Kurosawa sought to explore it more rigorously. He pointed out that prior models lacked calculations of vapor production volumes and could not explain the behavior of carbon-rich meteorites that lacked water-bearing minerals.

To address this, Kurosawa used a custom-built experimental system: a two-stage light gas gun linked to a vacuum sample chamber. This setup enabled his team to study the chemical reactions triggered by impacts on meteorite analogs containing or lacking carbon, without interference from extraneous gases.

Published recently in Nature Communications, the Kobe University team's findings demonstrate that impacts on carbon-containing meteorites trigger chemical reactions that generate extremely hot carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases. "We found that the momentum of the ensuing explosion is enough to eject the surrounding highly-shocked rock material into space. Such explosions occur on carbon-rich meteorites, but not on carbon-poor ones," Kurosawa noted.

Thus, carbon-rich meteorites are not less shocked-they simply lose the evidence as it is violently expelled into space during impact events.

This discovery carries implications for planetary science missions. The team's calculations suggest that on larger bodies like Ceres, gravity could retain the ejected shocked material on the surface. "Our results predict that Ceres should have accumulated highly-shocked material produced by these impacts, and so we believe that this provides a guideline for planning the next generation of planetary exploration missions," Kurosawa added.

Research Report:Impact-driven oxidation of organics explains chondrite shock metamorphism dichotomy

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST San Antonio TX (SPX) Apr 23, 2025 - In its second asteroid encounter, NASA's Lucy spacecraft obtained a close look at a uniquely shaped fragment of an asteroid that formed about 150 million years ago. The spacecraft has begun returning images that were collected as it flew approximately 600 miles (960 km) from the asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025.

The asteroid was previously observed to have large brightness variations over a 10-day period, so some of Lucy team members' expectations were confirmed when the first images showed what appeared to be an elongated contact binary (an object formed when two smaller bodies collide). However, the team was surprised by the odd shape of the narrow neck connecting the two lobes, which looks like two nested ice cream cones.

"Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology," says Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy at Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. "As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our Solar System."

From a preliminary analysis of the first available images collected by the spacecraft's L'LORRI imager, the asteroid appears to be larger than originally estimated, about 5 miles (8 km) long and 2 miles (3.5 km) wide at the widest point. In this first set of high-resolution images returned from the spacecraft, the full asteroid is not visible as the asteroid is larger than the imager's field of view. It will take up to a week for the team to downlink the remainder of the encounter data from the spacecraft; this dataset will give a more complete picture of the asteroid's overall shape.

Like Lucy's first asteroid flyby target, Dinkinesh, Donaldjohanson is not a primary science target of the Lucy mission. As planned, the Dinkinesh flyby was a system's test for the mission, while this encounter was a full dress rehearsal, in which the team conducted a series of dense observations to maximize data collection. Data collected by Lucy's other scientific instruments, the L'Ralph color imager and infrared spectrometer and the L'TES thermal infrared spectrometer, will be retrieved and analyzed over the next few weeks.

The Lucy spacecraft will spend most of the remainder of 2025 travelling through the main asteroid belt. Lucy will encounter the mission's first main target, the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Eurybates, in August 2027.

"These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery," said Tom Statler, program scientist for the Lucy mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense."

]]> Fri, 23 MAY 2025 02:09:05 AEST Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 22, 2025 - There is a large diversity in the chemical composition of astronomical objects such as planets, comets, circumstellar envelopes, or galactic gas clouds. One great challenge in astrochemistry is to understand in detail how this diversity arises from the cosmic backdrop of the cycling of matter between star birth and destruction, with molecules forming, reacting and coalescing in cold clouds of dust and ice in between these events.

Trivalent phosphorus, linked to anaerobic conditions on Earth, has also been found in the atmospheres of giant planets and in the distant interstellar medium. Phosphates are present in certain meteorites and on Saturn's moon Enceladus. How did phosphorus make its way between these environments and ultimately became central to life on Earth? Studying here, in terrestrial laboratories, various properties of unfamiliar molecules that may wander interstellar space is an intriguing path. ...a path being followed by scientists from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences.

Humans have always been fascinated by the night sky, looking into the vast expanse of space where stars glitter like distant diamonds, finding inspiration and wondering about their own existence. This fascination has only grown as our ability to look and even travel into space has advanced. Telescopes, not only ground-based, have been built to peer into the Universe at many different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.

Satellites and other spacecraft have been sent short distances to explore Solar System bodies or even launched with trajectories bound to explore beyond the influence of our own star. The molecules astronomers observe are those that can survive the harsh conditions of the rarefied interstellar medium (ISM) or those that find protection in environments such as dense planetary atmospheres.

Unsaturated organic nitriles (molecules terminated with the group -CN) play an important role in the chemistry of ISM. HCN (hydrogen cyanide), HCCN (cyanomethylene), and HCCCN (cyanoacetylene) or vinyl cyanide (CH2CHCN) are the examples of chemical compounds observed in numerous locations, mainly using radio telescopes. These nitrogen-containing species are thought to play a role in the eventual production of amino acids and proteins. In our region of the Galaxy, the abundance of phosphorus (which sits directly below nitrogen in the periodic table) is approximately two hundred times smaller than that of nitrogen.

This difference is reflected in the fact that only seven P-bearing compounds (CP, NCCP, CCP, HCP, PN, PO, and PH3) have been identified in the ISM to date, while more than one hundred N-bearing species are already known to be there. Nevertheless, phosphorus is more abundant on Earth than in the Universe as a whole and can be found in nucleotides, phospholipids, and nucleic acids which are critical to life as we know it. What phosphorus carriers have yet to be identified in the interstellar medium? How are these molecules transformed into the substances we eventually observe on Earth? What signatures can we use to identify them in different remote environments? How do they end up concentrated on planets like Earth?

The questions to be answered remain formidable and endless. The challenge of adding to our understanding how certain unusual, highly reactive molecules containing a phosphorus atom can be identified in space has been taken up in Warsaw by the team from the Institute of Physical Chemistry: Dr. Arun-Libertsen Lawzer, Dr. Thomas Custer, doctoral student Elavenil Ganesan, led by Prof. Robert Kolos. They work in collaboration with Prof. Jean-Claude Guillemin of the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Rennes (France).

Their recent paper explores the photochemistry of phosphabutyne (CH3CH2CP). Embedded in inert ice and exposed to ultraviolet light, the molecule was shown to undergo both isomerization (rearrangement of atoms) and loss of hydrogen. Two important products observed were phosphabutadiyne (HC3P) and vinylphosphaethyne (H2CCHCP). Their nitrogen-bearing analogues cyanoacetylene (HC3N) and vinyl cyanide (H2CCHCN) are already recognized as important and abundant interstellar molecules.

Both HC3P and H2CCHCP are very reactive and therefore unstable in typical laboratory conditions. Their formation was now made possible through the use of a cryogenic technique, where a small amount of phosphabutyne was frozen at around 10 Kelvin into an ice made of argon. Phosphabutyne molecules were effectively trapped between argon atoms, just as were the reactive species formed from them, like HC3P.

This isolation, i.e. separation with Ar atoms, made the photoproduced molecules stable and ready for spectroscopic characterization. Probing with infrared light revealed the frequencies of molecular vibrations, unique to each of the products. Quantum chemical computations helped in matching these frequencies with specific chemical compounds. In addition to HC3P and H2CHCP, several exotic isomers of the initial molecule could be seen, as well as the smaller products: ethynylphosphinidene (HCCP) and phoshaethyne (HCP).

"We were after the completely unexplored infrared spectroscopy of HC3P and CH2CHCP. Thus far, only the microwave, i.e. purely rotational spectra of these two have been reported. Characterising the molecular vibrations of such exotic, phosphorus-bearing molecules is important to the burgeoning field of infrared astrospectroscopy." - says prof. Kolos, while Dr. Lawzer specifies: "In the case of HC3P, we measured as many as five vibrational frequencies, which should be beneficial for future remote detections".

The study uncovers vibrational signatures of thus far poorly characterised or unknown molecules and indicates how ultraviolet light can degrade certain phosphorous derivatives in a chemically inert icy environment, a first step to understanding the reactions occurring in the ISM. "Advances in instrumentation allow us to identify molecules at ever lower abundances. HC3P, the phosphorus analogue of the famous astromolecule HC3N, looks like a candidate for detection with the James Webb Space Telescope" - remarks Dr. Custer. With time we should learn whether such phosphorus carriers are out there and whether they are important for the origin of life.

Research Report:Isomerisation of phosphabutyne and a photochemical route to phosphabutadiyne (HC3P), a phosphorus analogue of cyanoacetylene

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