Inverse - ☄️ Six thousand miles of debris

Thursday

Oct 06 2022

At the end of September, NASA crashed a brand new rocket into an asteroid 6.8 million miles away. The head on collision was no accident, in case you were wondering. The crash, called DART which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, was NASA's first flight mission test for its planetary defense. The goal was to send the rocket head first into the asteroid in an attempt to shift the asteroid's course. Knowing how to successfully redirect an asteroid would be crucial if one were headed straight to Earth (rare, but plausible).

It will still be a while — at least two years — before we know for sure if the redirect was successful, but for now the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope, or SOAR, at Lowell Observatory caught the aftermath of the blast: A debris tail six thousand miles long. The image is quite a sight.

What's New

Woah

Space

DART's asteroid target has a debris tail six thousand miles long

The debris trail from asteroid moonlet Dimorphos is now 10,000 kilometers (about 6,000 miles) long, according to images from a telescope in Chile.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) smashed into Dimorphos on September 26 in the agency’s first planetary defense test. DART’s goal was to help researchers figure out whether we might knock dangerous incoming asteroids off-course to keep them from colliding with Earth — and, crucially, how big an impact would be necessary to pull it off.

It will likely take at least two years before scientists can say whether DART’s “hit the giant space rock before it hits you” gambit actually altered Dimorphos’s orbit around the larger asteroid Didymos.

Collecting that data will be up to a European Space Agency CubeSat mission called HERA, which launches in late 2024. But just a week after the crash, it’s already safe to say that DART definitely made an impact.

Take a closer look

Amazon

Entertainment

An update on Rings of Power Season 2

Grab some Lembas bread and a flagon of ale, it’s going to be a long wait for The Rings of Power Season 2.

The Lord of the Rings prequel series still has two episodes left in its inaugural season, but in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne reveal when you can expect the Rings of Power Season 2 to debut.

Here’s what you need to know, along with a few other wild details from the article.

Cars

Gear

Citroën's new concept EV uses cardboard for parts — and it's brilliant

Forget metal, recycled cardboard is where it’s at. Citroën showed off its Oli EV concept that will be built with a hood, roof, and bed panels made from cardboard. These recycled honeycomb cardboard parts can support your weight and are even stronger than metal, according to Citroën.

Citroën is going full minimalist with this conceptual EV, only including the essentials of what you need in a car. The Oli is expected to weigh around 1,000 kilograms with lightweight seats made from recyclable materials.

Citroën’s Oli will have a pretty ho-hum range of 248 miles and a top speed of around 68 mph, but that should be enough to serve you as a daily driver. You can get the Oli charged from 20 to 80 percent in around 23 minutes.

Learn more

Preview

Gaming

Gotham Knights is better than expected

Harley Quinn is wreaking havoc inside Blackgate Prison in Gotham Knights. Yet I feel compelled to respond to a distress call to help out Gotham civilians and police officers, taking out a few deadly criminals in the process. Random crime events aren’t anything new in superhero games, but the way Gotham City in Gotham Knights raises the personal stakes in its massive open world encourages players to explore even when the core narrative is pulling you in a very specific direction.

Ahead of the game’s full launch later this October, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment invited Inverse to play a sizable preview build of Gotham Knights, sending us on a mission to stop the insane Harley Quinn.

While the combat and progression systems were engaging, it was Gotham City itself that really wows as the game’s most important character. It’s a lively place that feels more immersive and realistic than ever before.

Enzymes

Innovation

Worm spit could be a secret cure to the world's plastic problem

You may know the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a chunky insect that devours everything in its sight, including five whole oranges and even a slice of chocolate cake. In reality, many creepy crawlers have more of a hankering for meals like grass, leaves, and wood (or, for some species, our garbage).

Unlike our rotting leftovers, they don’t necessarily crave the plastic sitting in our recycling bins, sadly. But it turns out that one tiny creature’s mouth could still help tackle our massive plastic waste problem.

The saliva from the beeswax-eating wax worm, or Galleria mellonella, could be harnessed to break down the world's most widely used plastic, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications.

Inverse - ☄️ Six thousand miles of debris

Older messages

🍿 Reviewing 'Hellraiser'

🧬 Growing life in a lab

⚔️ 'Rings of Power' levels up

🧠 Let’s talk about treating trauma

💫 The oldest stars ever?

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