It's almost time to catch summer's double meteor showers. The Southern Delta Aquariid and Alpha Capricornid meteor showers peak in the early morning of July 30. With minimal interference from moonlight, the meteors should appear bright and clear if viewed away from city lights. Each shower is expected to produce up to a dozen visible meteors per hour. The Alpha Capricornids may have tails that linger longer in the night sky. Viewing of each shower lasts through August 12. The next major meteor shower, the Perseids, will peak in mid-August.
NASA's Lucy spacecraft will soon swoop past a small asteroid. It will be the second asteroid encounter for Lucy, launched in 2021 on a quest that will take it to 11 space rocks. Its ultimate destination is the unexplored swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter. NASA considers Sunday's flyby a dress rehearsal for 2027 when Lucy reaches its first so-called Trojan asteroid near Jupiter. Looking on from Mission Control in Colorado will be paleontologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the Lucy fossil 50 years ago. The asteroid is named for him.
A NASA spacecraft will make its second close brush with the sun. The Parker Solar Probe made its record-breaking first pass within 3.8 million miles of the scorching sun in December, flying closer than any object sent before. Parker will attempt the journey again on Saturday. Scientists hope the data from Parker will help them better understand the sun's outer atmosphere and what drives the solar wind. Parker was launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun and is the fastest spacecraft built by humans.
A spacecraft has blasted off to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash. The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft rocketed away from Florida on Monday on a two-year journey to the small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA in 2022. It's the second part of a planetary defense test that could one day help save Earth. Launched by SpaceX, Hera will attempt to go into orbit around the asteroid and its larger companion in 2026. Scientists are eager to examine the impact's aftermath up close. They want to know exactly how effective NASA's impact was and what changes might be needed to safeguard Earth in the future.
Scientists have confirmed a cave on the moon, not far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago. Researchers suspect there could be hundreds more caves and tunnels that could house future astronauts. An Italian-led team reported Monday that there's evidence for a sizable cave accessible from the deepest known pit on the moon. Located at the Sea of Tranquility, it was created by the collapse of a lava tube. The scientists analyzed radar measurements by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and compared the results with lava tubes on Earth.
