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SASTIND via Weibo / UMSF
China's Chang'e-2 probe took multiple images of the asteroid Toutatis during its Dec. 13 flyby.
China's official news agency is reporting that the country's Chang'e 2 deep-space probe made an amazing flyby of the asteroid Toutatis this week, snapping a series of pictures as it passed by at a distance of just 2 miles. The achievement signals China's entry into yet another exclusive space club.
Only four of the world's space efforts have managed close encounters with asteroids: NASA (with NEAR Shoemaker and Dawn, for example), the European Space Agency (with Rosetta), Japan (with Hayabusa) — and now China with Toutatis.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted officials at the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, or SASTIND, as saying that Chang'e 2 buzzed past the 3-mile-long (5-kilometer-long) asteroid at a relative speed of 24,000 mph (10.73 kilometers per second).
Chang'e 2 was launched in 2010 primarily to serve as a lunar orbiter, but after a successful mission at the moon, the $132 million spacecraft was repurposed as a deep-space explorer. The encounter with Toutatis had been planned for months, but Chinese media kept mum about the results until Saturday.
Aficionados of planetary science hailed China's success.
"Oh my goodness, did they succeed. This is awesome," the Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla said in a blog post passing along the news. On the Unmanned Spaceflight discussion forum, Ted Stryk wrote, "Welcome to the interplanetary club, China."
Toutatis is a near-Earth object that's big enough to cause a mass extinction if it were to hit our planet — but fortunately, it isn't projected to come all that near in the foreseeable future. This week it passed by Earth at a minimum distance of 4.3 million miles (7 million kilometers). That provided scientists with an opportunity to study the peanut-shaped space mountain at a relatively close but totally safe distance.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory conducted a series of radar observations using the Goldstone radio antenna in California, and on Friday, JPL released a grainy time-lapse video showing Toutatis' rotation.
This video, generated from Goldstone's Solar System Radar, shows the rotation of the asteroid when it was 4.3 million miles from Earth.
The insights gleaned from such observations could conceivably help scientists figure out how asteroids came into existence early in the solar system's history, how to mine asteroids for valuable resources, or how to divert asteroids that have the potential to threaten Earth.
Lakdawalla noted that the radar readings, combined with China's up-close images, made Toutatis one of the "best-studied asteroids in the solar system." That sounds like a bold statement, considering that NASA studied the asteroid Eros with NEAR Shoemaker for more than a year, and had Dawn in orbit around the asteroid Vesta for a year as well. But the fact that Toutatis has gotten so much attention in the past week from multiple space efforts certainly suggests that scientists see "minor planets" as a major interest.
Still more asteroid encounters are on the agenda in coming years — including Dawn's arrival at the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015, a potential sequel to Japan's Hayabusa mission, and the crewed mission that NASA wants to send to a near-Earth asteroid in the mid-2020s.
And let's not forget China. Chang'e 2 isn't finished just yet. Xinhua quoted sources as saying that the probe "is continuing its deep space travel and will reach a distance of more than 10 million kilometers away from Earth in January next year."
More about asteroids:
- More study urged for asteroid heading near Earth
- Save the earth: Hit killer asteroids with spaceships
- Flash interactive: Close encounters of the asteroid kind
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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How very exciting. I'm glad to see another country foraging into the realm of deep space exploration, China is a welcome partner in contributing to such scientific knowledge. I hope they and other counties continue to focus their resources on other such discoveries in the near future.
Here's a nice close up of the image. :)
How very exciting. I'm glad to see another country foraging into the realm of deep space exploration, China is a welcome partner in contributing to such scientific knowledge. I hope they and other counties continue to focus their resources on other such discoveries in the near future.
Here's a nice close up of the image. :)
I can't even see the strings.
It was later reported that china laced the asteroid with unhealthy levels of lead to be sold in American markets.
Attach a remote controlled engine to the asteroid and turn it into a missle aiming at your enemy on earth. But first you need to calculate the force needed to control the flying potatoe.
Simple fact is..was at right place at right time.
The probe was going 24,000 mph??? That is amazing
Actually it is a head headed ahead of time for Easter Island, airmail, for the "holiday".
LOL Cheetah made me laugh. Amazing what technology can do today.
Then you are easily amused.
Wait until we get the picture of the satellite that North Korea put in orbit, it's going to look like a 55 gallon barrel.
I'm astonished to actually see China do something that isn't harming people,causing others to suffer, devious, sneaky, inhumane,wrecking the environment or trying to get ahead at the expense of everyone else paying.
Oh wait...they may actually be trying to figure out how to control space objects so they can use them to wipe out their enemies on earth. That would make much more sense then suddenly changing their character.
People did say they were surprised China was so interested in the moon, come to think of it. And China has hold held world records in playing ping pong.Of course, they might mess up and take themselves out and everyone else.
Between the potato asteroid and now the peanut one, I imagine there is a smorgasbord of goodies to choose from. Maybe popcorn, coconut,bell pepper or sausage is coming up next.Just imagine, death by chocolate chip!
Final product is obviously valuable. Still, remember this project was likely built with forced labor, exploited citizens, nothing close to OSHA standards, etc. Regardless, the chinese are genuinely proud of their accomplishment (or else)...
They are doing what America should be doing, exploring, but we can't afford it anymore. Being Cops of the world for the Oil Barons and keeping the Oceans open with eleven aircraft carrier fleets around the world for them is more important......
While America crumbles, they get rich while paying no Taxes for America's military service.
CSNY were right about it in their song. Military Madness is killing my country....
Except we're doing vastly more exploration than is China, and planning still more. You'd know this if you'd bothered to read the article instead of being yet another moron blathering about the military and oil barons and carrier fleets, the last of which, by the way, are what keeps China at least partially diverted into "exploration" like this rather than simply building its military into something used to bring the rest of Asia under her subjugation.
By the way, military funding, direct and indirect, influences if not pays for significant components of this "exploration" around the globe, including in both the U.S. and China. Something else you might have noticed if you'd read the article is that SASTIND is, among other things, and largely, a military procurement entitiy.
But, hey, you're smarter than everyone else, probably because you're such a good reader, so, please, go on and tell us how it is. You can't comprehend the content in a simple article on a news site, but you've got the really vast and intricate stuff down pat, I'm sure.
Both of you stfu
the first thing i thought of too was look another sign of americas decline when our enemies the chinese surpass us in space.6 million manufacturing jobs lost in the last decade.a third of our countries production.no wonder we cant afford to pay for our military and elderly.but hey we get things cheaper because an american lost his job and the rich are loving it
Everett is right and Two Ashes is absolutely wrong. We spend more on military / lining the pockets of military contractors than the next 15 countries combined. Though it is true that our military funds 70% of the research in the US. But that's all for killing and spying. The general population of the US would be much better off if military spending was rolled back to pre-Regan levels. This would be a 75% cut. But if your name is Raytheon, or GE, and the congress they continually buy off, this would be devastating. But it could be great for health care, education, roads and bridges, waterways, we could even fatten up the social security fund rather than trying to protect it from the republicans that want to gouge it out for other purposes.
Last, hats off to the Chinese. This is an excellent achievement. Exploration and communications are the best uses for rocketry. They deserve congratulations.
Some folks need to look inside to see if there's some xenophobia going on.
Sorry guy (and everett, of course). But you're still wrong. US spends far more on civilian research than does China. Even if you just restrict it to space exploration. And we're doing far more with what we spend then they are as well. I'll agree we spend far too much on the military-industrial sector, but it does not take away the fact that we still have a very vigorous civilian research effort.
If you're going to whine about the military, do so on its own merits. Don't put down our civilian research as worthless, when in fact it is the best thing we have going for us now.
And johnQ - please explain to me how they have "surpassed" us. They may be catching up (very slowly in my opinion), but nonetheless, they are very far from having "surpassed" us.
David. You scared me with your dirty little command. I'm soooo frightened!!! Please don't say things that scare people anymore, you are so intimidating. You remind me of a Girl Scout I once knew.
Brisaber,
Are you really that naive to think that Communist China is just catching up with us when they make every Damn thing in America we buy??? They just don't make cheap toys and rubber dog$hit anymore? They pirate all of our technology.... We might do the research but then our Free Trade corporations in turn hand it our to them to make.. So what good are we accomplishing?
Are you aware that two years ago they blinded one of our military satellites just to show how vulnerable they are?
And Two A$$es,
Your the moron, if you don't believe that Communist China could time take all of Asia including Taiwan at any time they want and their is nothing we could do to stop them. Hell they even make some of our military equipment and if that doesn't scare the hell of of you then just go on believing they are our good friends??? And you really believe you think you know what China is up to???
Like I said, your the naive fool...
I'm not sure why Dave Shaffer invoked the name of Simon, the Flying Unicorn in post #5.2, but I do know that STFU's message is one of peace and understanding, so I assume he was trying to mediate a disagreement and once again bring balance and tranquility to Newsvine. Or does STFU mean something else?
Well, there actually is quite a bit of made-in-the USA stuff you can find. But you'll can't be looking for it in Walmart, lol. Since this is about space: our rockets, satellites, probes are all made in the USA. And let's see - if China is just now sending people to space and just now starting to send probes into deep space, then yeah, they are still catching up. Even if I grant what you say - that they are copying everything we do - the fact that they are copying what we have already done (in some cases many decades ago) means that they are still catching up. Last I heard, "surpassed" means to have exceeded. Please explain to me where China has passed us up on research, if they still are copying us.
People like you cry out doom and gloom about the advances China has made. I don't worry about them much. They are still far behind us in most everything, and they will soon be faced with societal challenges that will put our fiscal cliff to shame. Their economic and political model is nost sustainable. Very soon they will not have enough young people to support the hundreds of millions aged and infirm people. Their environment will collapse unless they start spending serious money addressing pollution in the near future. Yes, they are catching up, but I think not for long. Pretty soon, their politicians, like those everywhere, will have to start spending lots of cash to address these issues, and it won't be pretty.
You are the naive one if you think that the current conditions will continue unabated in the future. They have a very tough road ahead of them.
If that picture isn't pShopped I will eat that asteroid
...well,....it DOES look very much like a potato.
Looks more like a mis-shapen penis complete with balls.
You're going to need a very large fork, and a lot of time. Better get started immediately.
I don't really see a penis there, I have to go with potato. But it brings up an interesting question: If you were starving and had only a raw potato and some loose genitals available, which would you eat?
Actually it is a head headed ahead of time for Easter Island according to the Mayan collander.
On the penis "
Good for China!
I was under the impression that when we humans send craft to certain destinations that the fuel is almost 100% consumed. What is left is usually for orbital adjustments. Therefore, I find it odd that there was enough fuel to generate the propulsion to put a moon orbiting satellite almost back to Earth . Also, the data needed for a flyby is immense and takes weeks to process and program. With this criteria, would it not be wise to presume that the mission, as it stands, was thought out prior to launch and the Chinese scientists were just mum about it?
I concur, good for China.
Maybe they will get the spark for exploration and we can work together. Well, maybe they can work with Europe. We seem to pull funding from joint ventures with little warning.
Except that "pulled funding from joint ventures" hurt us more than it hurt the Europeans. But why quibble over context.
Every government should be be focus on saving our tiny planet; the best way we can. Dangerous rocks are heading our way. China now realizes that there are bigger threats out there. Great pictures, and nice job done by those that engineered the space probe. Too bad that in the far future, some rock or the sun will demolish this tiny planet. We need to be a space civilization, better get hot in developing ways to survive in deep space.
The Chinese have accomplished a scientific success. This has nothing to do with lead poisoning etc. Why can't the mindless be-littlers and laughing jackasses (from R.A.H) grant kudos where due? Tony In Dallas, right on!
i'm pretty sure that's a picture of ginger or possibly a potato.
Man, wouldn't it be nice if all these countries fooling around with rocketry (including ours) just decided to say, "Hey, let's not figure out how to shoot them at each other on Earth...instead, let's have a race to see who can learn the most and send em all far out into space. "
That way the competative among us will still have something to do that's at least productive.
Attach a remote controlled engine to the asteroid and turn it into a missle aiming at your enemy on earth. But first you need to calculate the force needed to control the flying potatoe.
You said that.
Oh, and if you have the technology to do that, you can job a few nukes suborbitally instead, to get the same results with much less trouble...
US government had that idea already in the 1980's. It was a project named "Ivan's Hammer" (excusing the study by a claim that finding out how to use an asteroid as a doomsday weapon would lead to ways of countering such action on the part of the Soviets) and evolved into the Clementine probe that studied the moon and was then intended to study asteroid Geographos, but a computer problem stopped the latter part of the mission from happening. A follow-up mission Clementine II which was intended to include the changing the orbit of an asteroid was cancelled by Clinton.
Am I assuming that the Chinese probe was only 2 miles from the asteroid...not that the asteroid was 2 miles from earth? Later in the article it says the asteroid is 4.3 million miles from earth, which I believe to be correct. Gave me a little scare at the beginning of the article there...
Yes, you're right. Sorry to scare you there. I've revised that sentence slightly so that I don't scare anyone else.
Finally, some Chang'e we can believe in!
Congratulations China on an impressive feat. It's refreshing to see countries of the world to be putting resources towards discovery instead of destruction. While the resources and efforts for discovery are far less than those put towards weapons, it is a step in the right direction and China should be lauded for this fine accomplishment.
I'll second that. It's easy to make cheap jokes, or post paranoid speculations about what China is really up to, but this looks like exactly what Lupuskanar says it is - an impressive achievement in the quest for knowledge.
Technology to operate in and explore space is developed by a nation like China for prestige and further development of military-use technologies and platforms, just as other countries do, albeit with less of a mixed emphasis on military development.
And for those of you who think this is some sort of signal of China's emphasis on civilian space exploration, look again at China's space exploration budget, look who runs the budget, and look who gets most of that budget. Then look at Chinese military spending. Then look at the weaponry China is developing (planning two new indigenously-built aircraft carriers to accompany the training carrier it has launched). Then listen to the rhetoric the Chinese increasingly use which links a powerful military prepared to battle "anyone" with the "restoration" of a mighty China.
But I'm sure this whole fly-by thing is really the kind of stuff it's all about.
"...discovery instead of destruction..."
You write as if the two are mutually exclusive. Indeed, they use some of the same technology.
What if this fly by has caused a butterfly effect meaning the gravitational influence this artificial satellite has had on the asteroid causes its future orbit to shift so that it hits the earth rather than misses it in a later pass...?
The probe probably has had a very minor effect on the asteroid as it came so close to it; but it should be very, very minor. Same goes for Hayabusa and asteroid Itokawa. Theoretically Hayabusa acted in the manner of the proposed "asteroid tractor" meant to change the orbit of an asteroid, but even the long orbital mission had apparently a very negligible effect at best - or worst - on Itokawa.
It looks like a piece of sausage that fell off of a massive Alien sausage and pepperoni pizza!
Call out the M.I.B.!
like like a giant turd !
I for one am happy that China has figured out one more puzzle.
As for the others on here down playing and name calling. Were you at your local rep or senators office supporting money for NASA? I'm sure you were not. NASA is what it is today because not enough Americans supported it with a majority saying it was not even needed.
So there you go, we can marvel at China while NASA sits on the sideline.
We can't afford it. China can.
Hey, guys, a US spacecraft, DAWN, just left orbit from asteroid Vesta and is heading for Ceres right now. Do you only read about space exploration when China does it? NASA is doing a great deal in space right now. Check it out.
Also, why so down on the US? We've got major issues, but so does everyone else. Regards....
Where are you morons getting that we're sitting on the sidelines? IT SAYS OTHERWISE IN THE DAMNED ARTICLE! Good FREAKING GOD, what is WRONG with you imbeciles?
And in case you didn't notice, while China was cruising by the asteroid taking snapshots, we were making VIDEOS of it from 4+ million miles away. Ohhhhhh but we're sitting on the sidelines. Ohhhhh but we don't have any money. Ohhhhhh but we're falling behind. Ohhhhhhh but people saying these things don't have a clue about American scientific research, space exploration, economic or fiscal issues.
well, if americans don't have any clues about our discoveries then you should be complaining and whining to the scientific community for keeping their secrets.
The clues are SPELLED OUT IN THE GODD*MNED ARTICLE RIGHT UP THERE, and STILL these illiterates can't see it.
Oh STFU and go back to bed.
You're right, Rex, I always forget that it's a complete waste of time to try to combat the intellectual laziness and idiocy of the typical American internet user.
Oh, the irony.
wow !!!
kudos for china scientists !!
Yes, kudos to China scientists, peaceful exploration and funding for glorious rise of China, not militaristic like declining America too broke to wipe its own butt, much less be in space, develop new technologies, or do anything that doesn't stink of rot and debt and decline! China number 1! Glorious days ahead for earth under China! We love China! You people criticizing China are just stupid. America is the only country that deserves criticism, and everything it does deserves criticism!
Signed,
Typical edgy interweb commenter
"Yes, kudos to China scientists, peaceful exploration and funding for glorious rise of China, not militaristic..."
For a moment, you are correct.
Chunk of cheese. Scotty, beam me up. There is no intelligent life here on this planet.
I was going to comment but,the jokes are good!LOL Lets all hope none of these are heading towards home.
Paid for and technology provided by the U.S. Congress, White House, Corporate America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce via Permanent Normal Trade Relation (PNTR) nation status bestowed to China in 2000. PNTR allowed Corporate America and the Chamber to relocate U.S. consumer goods and high tech/high value for export manufacturing and supply chain operation to China. Technology, manufacturing know-how and the training of Chinese engineers and technicians were also provided by Americans who were later laid-off.
Yes and you can thank Clinton for getting China the permanent trade status of the PNTR! So when all you liberals start crying about outsourcing jobs to China thank the Fricken CLINTONS for allowing it!
Thank the thug unions and myriads of government regulations for driving business to China in the first place.
Since when was Clinton president in 2000? Moron.
@DM: Bill Clinton was president until Jan 20, 2001.
Waaaaaaait a minute. I've been repeatedly assured that we're not doing anything in space and have no money, yet a simple internet search reveals that NASA's budget for FY2013 is nearly $18 billion, which over three times the size of the next-largest budget, that of the European Space Agency, and depending on whose estimates for the Chinese space program's budgets you listen to is anywhere from 13 to 35 times that of China's.
In fact, NASA's budget is more than that of the entire rest of the planet's space agencies combined, comprising roughly 54% of all space agency budgeting.
But, hey, if people can't understand and comment relevantly on the article itself, they won't understand this, either.
But you have to understand that a US dollarette doesn't buy as much here as it does in China. This is the land of the $200 hammer and $10,000 toilet seat. China can fund an entire research department for a year on the salary of one NASA bureaucrat.