Fearsome

Article contentScientists studying newly discovered species of fungus in Hungary have named one of their finds after the giant sandworms featured in the novel Dune.The fungus, Tulostoma shaihuludii, takes its name from the Shai-Hulud or sandworm, a fictional creature native to the planet Arrakis. In Frank Herbert’s novel Dune and its sequels, the Shai-Hulud are described as growing up to 400 metres in length and 40 metres in diameter. They can ingest people and even machinery as they churn their way through the desert,…

Solar flares have been frequent in these past few months and as we move towards the solar maximum, the chances of solar storms striking Earth increase. Solar flares, CMEs, and geomagnetic storms can disrupt the power grid, shut down radio communications and even destroy satellites! A solar storm that is strong enough can even destroy the Internet. According to NASA, solar flares impact Earth only when they occur on the side of the sun facing Earth. Because flares are made of photons, they travel out directly from the…

Asteroids have the potential to cause armageddon on Earth, especially if they crash in a densely populated area. To counter this very threat to life, space agencies keep developing technology for asteroid prevention and countermeasures. While NASA's DART Test successfully deflected an asteroid off its course, other organizations are mounting up planetary defense efforts. The latest planetary protection effort comes from a California-based nonprofit organization that is looking to meet this threat by designing a new…

Located at JPL, the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) works alongside the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington to characterize the orbits of near-Earth asteroids. The organization further studies the data, predicts the close approaches with Earth, and even carries out impact hazard assessments in order to minimize the uncertainty around the trajectory of these space objects.The increasing number of asteroids that pass Earth closely has made it imperative for space agencies…

NASA uses telescopes, such as Pans-STARRS1 in Maui, Hawaii, and Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, to detect near-Earth objects like asteroids and comets. To collect accurate information about an asteroid's trajectory and attributes, it employs its ground-based radar. While these space rocks are far-off in space, NASA tech helps to observe and track them for any potential danger. NASA's space-based observatory, NEOWISE, has also identified hundreds of asteroids by scanning the skies with near-infrared wavelengths…

Some airlines have stopped offering customer service through Twitter because of the changes. Transit authorities and public health agencies paused auto-posting safety alerts until Twitter backed down on plans to make them pay the higher API fees. More confusion could be coming. Musk has said he will purge inactive accounts, potentially allowing the takeover of user names of dead celebrities.Working with celebrities or other high-profile users isn’t exactly outside Yaccarino’s expertise. She has appeared on stage alongside…

When the dinosaur-killing asteroid crashed on Earth on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico nearly 65 million years ago, it killed nearly half the plant species as well as any mammal bigger than a rat. Some asteroids, known as near-Earth asteroids, can come close enough to our planet, raising concerns about the potential for collision. However, NASA and other space agencies actively track these asteroids and have systems in place to detect and deflect any potential threats.Although an asteroid would have to be at least 96…

NASA and other space agencies have kept a watchful eye on a particular asteroid which was previously expected to impact Earth. Although it has now been determined it will not crash to the planet's surface, it will make an extremely close approach this decade, giving scientists a chance to study it. Although asteroids often make close approaches with Earth, this happens at relatively safe distances of thousands of kilometers at a minimum. But this does not guarantee that no asteroid is ever going to strike Earth.NASA has…

Space is home to numerous gigantic celestial objects, many of which are yet to be identified. Among these objects are asteroids, which are remnants of the early stages of our solar system's formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago, according to NASA. These rocky, airless bodies can be found mostly in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but their orbits can also bring them closer to Earth on occasions. They travel across the solar system and sometimes come close to or crash into other planets, including…

Most asteroids are in the asteroid belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter in the solar system. However, some asteroids have trajectories that cause them to come closer to Earth. Space agencies such as NASA monitor these asteroids that pass close to Earth to reduce any uncertainty as they can prove to be hazardous. Over the last few years, there have been a number of instances where asteroids have come very close to our planet, posing a potential threat. Small ones crash on Earth on a regular basis. As per ESA,…