Boulders

A private lander touched down on the moon Thursday but managed just a weak signal back, as flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact with the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than 50 years.Tension mounted in the company's command centre in Houston, as controllers awaited a signal from the spacecraft some 400,000 kilometres away, which arrived about 10 minutes later.Despite the spotty communication, Intuitive Machines, the company that built and managed the craft, which is called Odysseus,…

Many community members who turned out to a Boulder Planning Board hearing last week voiced strong opposition to a developer’s concept plan that would tear down the historic Dark Horse Tavern and build a mixed-use commercial and residential development on the property. The Dark Horse has been a Boulder landmark since 1975, known for its selection of bar food and drinks as well as its assortment of Colorado Buffaloes memorabilia, unique décor and fun atmosphere, according to its website. Not to mention the bar’s infamous…

Scientists scrutinizing the fine dust covering the Moon have identified a handful of boulders on the lunar surface that they believe may be covered with uniquely magnetized dust.Moon Knight Gives Us HopeThe team used artificial intelligence to review around a million images of the lunar surface, all taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The AI turned up 130,000 images of rocks with compelling features, half of which the researchers reviewed. Their research is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research:…

A new observation reveals the ongoing effect humanity had after intercepting a chunk of rock drifting around the Sun last year.In September 2022, NASA slammed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos. Hubble's latest observations show a giant swarm of boulders shaken loose by the impact, scattered like stars in the asteroid's wake.The new images will help an upcoming mission to the asteroid study the results of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), to help refine and better plan for such impacts in the…

After focussing on an asteroid that was struck in 2022 by a half-tonne NASA robotic probe traveling over seven times faster than a bullet, the Hubble Space Telescope has detected a swarm of 37 boulders that were dislodged by the impact.On September 26, 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) deep space probe deliberately collided with the asteroid Dimorphos at about 22,500 km/h (14,000 mph) as part of a demonstration test to examine whether it is possible to alter the trajectory of dangerous asteroids so that…

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos was taken on December 19, 2022, nearly four months after the asteroid was impacted by NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). Hubble’s sensitivity reveals a few dozen boulders knocked off the asteroid by the force of the collision. These are among the faintest objects Hubble has ever photographed inside the solar system. The free-flung boulders range in size from three feet to 22 feet across, based on Hubble photometry. They are drifting away from…

When a NASA spacecraft successfully knocked an asteroid off course last year it sent dozens of boulders skittering into space, images from the Hubble telescope showed on Thursday.NASA's fridge-sized DART probe smashed into the pyramid-sized, rugby ball-shaped asteroid Dimorphos roughly 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) from Earth in September last year. The spacecraft knocked the asteroid significantly off course in the first-ever such test of Earth's planetary defences. New images taken by the Hubble Space…

“Everyone has a story to tell about The Sink,” said Boulder filmmaker Bruce Borowsky in an interview with the Daily Camera. If only those graffiti-tagged walls could talk. The front of the house at the iconic corner spot on University Hill is adorned with big-name autographs, vibrantly loud cartoon art and low ceilings that make for a unique experience. There’s no place quite like Boulder’s oldest restaurant that opened up shop on University Hill in 1923. This year it’s celebrating 100 years of service in Boulder. The…

The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, a very important road for the people in the Kashmir Valley, was closed on Monday. The reason for the closure was mudslides and falling rocks at Ramban and Panthyal. This highway is the main way to connect Kashmir with the rest of India. Sources say that the landslide and falling stones and boulders were triggered by non-stop rain in the area. On April 2, landslides, falling rocks, and big boulders fell on the highway in Ramban district, which stopped traffic for a few hours. An Army…

Scientists have concluded that the boulder-covered surface of the Asteroid Bennu gives it protection against small meteoroid impacts, through observations using NASA's spacecraft. The Bennu asteroid is a rubber-pile asteroid, which means that it was formed from the remnants of a much larger asteroid. When the asteroid got destroyed by an ancient impact, the collision caused the fragments to combine leading to the formation of Bennu. Scientists have used high-resolution data sets to examine craters on the planet to…