Pentagon Releases New Batch of UFO Files, China’s Tianwen-2 Hits Its Asteroid Target, and More Science News
A lot has happened in the past week, so here’s a quick catch-up. First, legendary pilot Wally Funk — who was one of the aspiring astronauts on Mercury 13, the first female FAA inspector and briefly held the record for oldest person in space, among other accomplishments — has died at age 87. You can read more about his amazing life here. This week also brought a new batch of forgotten UFO files, and China’s Tianwen-2 sent back its first image of the asteroid it will try to collect a sample from.
The latest UFO files are here
Since the beginning of May, the US Department of Defense has been uploading files related to unidentified (or aerial) phenomena (UAPs) – UFOs – on a public website that you can freely access. The fourth set of unclassified documents dropped on Friday and includes reports from NASA, the Department of Energy, the CIA, the Department of Defense (or the Department of War, as it is sometimes called now) and the FBI going back decades. Whatever your views on the origin of these events, they are very interesting things.
There are scans of paper documents containing first-hand accounts, in some cases with illustrations and photographs, and a number of videos in the latest batch. The administration has said it is committed to bringing transparency to the government’s information on UAPs and will continue to release unclassified documents on a regular basis. Just this month, it was announced that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is establishing a panel dedicated to studying UAPs and their national security risks. The panel will be chaired by Avi Loeb, a physicist who has for years led efforts to search for signs of extraterrestrial life (and has made controversial claims about possible evidence of its existence).
Tianwen-2 captures a close-up of one of Earth’s moons
Last spring, China launched a space probe with a mission to a near-Earth asteroid and beyond, and this week, the country announced that the Tianwen-2 spacecraft had reached its goal. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) shared an image on Monday of asteroid 2016HO3 taken from just 12.4 kilometers (20 miles) away. Tianwen-2 is expected to stay in the asteroid’s orbit for several months and stay aloft to collect a sample to be returned to Earth in late 2027.
China’s upcoming attempt to capture objects in space follows a successful sample return mission by the US and Japan in recent years, which has provided insight into the conditions that existed in the early solar system. Asteroid 2016HO3, also known as Kamo’oalewa, is a so-called quasi-satellite. That’s because “it orbits our planet, but it never goes as far as we both orbit the sun,” explained Paul Chodas, longtime director of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Lab, when the object was announced back in 2016.
Asteroid 2016HO3 is much smaller, with a diameter roughly in the ballpark of 100 feet, though observations by Tianwen-2 should allow for more precise measurements soon. After leaving the asteroid next year, the spacecraft will move on to the main-belt comet 311P.
