NASA is set to launch a sensitive new infrared telescope to seek out sneaky things in the night sky — among them, dark asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

September 15, 2009: Ninjas knew how to be stealthy: Be dark. Emit very little light. Move in the shadows between bright places.

In modern warfare, though, ninjas would be sitting ducks. Their black clothes may be hard to see at night with the naked eye, but their warm bodies would be clearly visible to a soldier wearing infrared goggles.

To hunt for the “ninjas” of the cosmos — dim objects that lurk in the vast dark spaces between planets and stars — scientists are building by far the most sensitive set of wide-angle infrared goggles ever, a space telescope called the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

Source: Nasa Science – click here for full article

 

 

Missing asteroids may be the handiwork of rampaging giant planets.

Missing asteroids in our solar system may be the handiwork of rampaging giant planets as they migrated to their current positions, according to a new computer simulation.

Scientists have known that planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune migrated during the first several million years of early existence. The new simulation showed that the giant planets would have disturbed many asteroids as they fled the scene, leaving behind “footprints” that match the real-life patterns in the main asteroid belt. [...]

Source: Space.com – click here for full article