Washington: A gigantic asteroid will fly by Earth at the end of this month, making its closest approach for at least the next two centuries. On May 31, asteroid 1998 QE2, believed to be about 2.7 kilometres or nine Queen Elizabeth 2 ship-lengths in size, will sail serenely past Earth, getting no closer than about 5.8 million kilometres, or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. "Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be an outstanding radar imaging target at Goldstone and Ario and we expect to obtain a series of high-resolution images that could reveal a wealth of surface features," said radar astronomer Lance Benner, the principal investigator for the Goldstone radar observations from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
"Whenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin. We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid's distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise," said Benner.
This is the closest approach the asteroid will make to Earth for at least the next two centuries. Asteroid 1998 QE2 was discovered on August 19, 1998 near Socorro, New Mexico. Radar images from the Goldstone antenna could resolve features on the asteroid as small as 3.75 meters across, even from 4 million miles away. "It is tremendously
05:28 PM, May 19, 2013
Cape Canaveral: An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion on March 17, 2013 was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash...
06:53 AM, May 19, 2013
Cape Canaveral: An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion on March 17 was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash nearly...
12:36 PM, May 18, 2013
United Nations: Congratulating the people of Pakistan on the successful elections, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday applauded the courage and determination of political parties to engage in the electoral process despite the challenging security situation ahead of the voting. "The Secretary-General congratulates the people and government of Pakistan on the successful conduct of national and provincial elections on 11 May 2013," said a UN statement. "This is the...
01:32 AM, May 13, 2013
Dhaka: At least 20 Bangladeshis were killed on Monday in clashes between police and hardline Islamists demanding religious reforms, as violence spread beyond the capital Dhaka to other parts of the country. The clashes began on Sunday after 200,000 Islamist supporters marched in Dhaka to press demands critics said would amount to the "Talibanisation" of a country that maintains secularism as state policy, but they were met by lines of...
06:53 AM, May 07, 2013
New Delhi: Sky gazers can look forward to a partial lunar eclipse that will take place Thursday and will be first of the three eclipses of 2013, officials said on Wednesday. Earth's shadow will cover one per cent of the moon and will just touch the moon's limb. The moon will not disappear and turn red but will get slightly darker than usual. "Only a tiny sliver of the Moon...
05:57 PM, Apr 24, 2013
Juba: The killers in the tragic ambush of UN peacekeepers in South Sudan, that claimed the lives of five Indian Army personnel on Tuesday, not only outnumbered their target six times over but were also armed with sophisticated weapons, eyewitnesses said. In comparison, the convoy of 35 UN peacekeepers from India was bogged down by some heavy boring equipment and unarmed technical personnel, numbering around a dozen, even as the...
03:43 PM, Apr 12, 2013
Washington: Emphasising that the humanitarian crisis in Syria is getting worse, US President Barack Obama has stressed on the urgency of a political transition in the country. "Obviously the humanitarian crisis (in Syria) has gotten worse," Obama said on Thursday following his meeting with the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, at the Oval Office of the White House. "Secretary General Ban and I shared the view that we are at...
07:42 AM, Apr 12, 2013
Washington: US President Barack Obama has said it is time for the North Korean leadership to end its "belligerent" approach and observe the basic rules and norms of the international community. Obama made this remarks on Thursday after his meeting with the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, at the Oval Office of the White House. "We both agree that now is the time for North Korea to end the kind...
04:47 AM, Apr 12, 2013
Bangalore: Many candidates in Karnataka put off their move to file nominations for the May 5 Assembly elections on Wednesday owing to "Amavasya", considered inauspicious, as the poll process was set in motion. Less than a handful of nominations were filed on the first day of the election process, in a lukewarm start to the exercise, largely blamed on "New Moon". But it appears that Karnataka Textiles Minister Varthur Prakash...
06:33 PM, Apr 10, 2013
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday strongly condemned the killing of five Indian Army personnel in an attack on a convoy of a UN mission in South Sudan, saying that such an act was a war crime and its perpetrators should be brought to justice. Five Indian Army personnel, including a Lt Colonel were killed on Tuesday and four injured during the UN peacekeeping mission when their 32-member convoy...
11:16 PM, Apr 09, 2013
United Nations: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condoled the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, saying the 'Iron Lady' will be remembered for her pioneering role as a committed global leader and for her contribution to peace and security. Thatcher suffered a stroke on Monday and died at the age of 87. Her funeral would be at St Paul's Cathedral in London, with full military honours,...
12:05 PM, Apr 09, 2013
Melbourne: US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, has laid out an ambitious plan of setting up a human colony on Mars within the next two decades. The 83-year-old astronaut, who joined the late Neil Armstrong for a globally watched and remembered leap on the Moon in 1969 has revealed his plans to have a human colony on the Red Planet by the mid 2030s...
03:30 PM, Apr 07, 2013
United Nations: Pakistani rights activist Malala Yousufzai has expressed hope to be a leader to serve the world during video conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who described the 14-year old as a "symbol of hope". "I can walk. I can talk. I can do anything," Yousufzai told the UN chief in an online video conversation on Friday according to his spokesperson. Ban said the young girl, who was...
11:12 AM, Apr 06, 2013
India has strongly criticised the final draft of a global Arms Trade Treaty as 'flawed' and tilted against weapons-importing countries even as Iran, North Korea and Syria have blocked adoption of the UN treaty aimed to regulate the $70 billion conventional arms trade around the world. ...
04:07 AM, Mar 30, 2013
Telugu director Vasanth is currently shooting 'Moondru Paer Moondru Kadhal', his son Ritwik will also feature in the film. ...
03:29 PM, Mar 19, 2013
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expects India and Italy to resolve their stand-off over the marine issues constructively and in compliance with their international obligations. ...
09:45 AM, Mar 19, 2013
For her special song in 'Himmatwala', Sonakshi Sinha learnt Michael Jackson's popular 'Moonwalk' step from filmmaker Sajid Khan. ...
10:35 AM, Mar 17, 2013
