ASTEROID MISSIONS UPDATE

Hey Space Placers!

Be sure to check out my pics of the Equinox Full Supermoon from last night  https://twitter.com/SkyGuyinVA/status/1108518231130734593

Here's the latest on two active missions that exploring up close and personal different asteroids. It is pretty amazing what they are finding out and how they are doing so.

I am in awe of the pics from Bennu showing ROCKS being ejected from the surface of the asteroid

This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on January 19 was created by combining two images taken on board NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Other image processing techniques were also applied, such as cropping and adjusting the brightness and contrast of each image.

Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

This is absolutely incredible! And no one knows WHY this is happening, either. Maybe some of these  will eventually make their way to Earth as meteorites. Meteorites (Space Rocks) come from the asteroid belt, the Moon and Mars. Oh, and there are 60,000+ classified meteorites!

Chances are this magnificent bolide produced meteorites that fell into the Bering Sea.

In this animated sequence of photos taken by Japan's Himawari 8 weather satellite on Dec. 18, 2018, you can follow the progress of the dark dust cloud and glowing trail left by the meteoroid as it came crashing down into Earth's atmosphere at an estimated 32 km/s (72,000 mph). 
Japan Meteorological Agency

Humanity is at risk due to the impact threat. We need a space based asset like NEOCam that can look for threats approaching Earth that we cannot see due to the Sun.

Sky Guy at Sea