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    Asteroid Apophis will skim past Earth in 2029, and a new joint mission plans to watch every change

    May 11, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ESA and JAXA team up on planetary defense, Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis
    Credit: European Space Agency

    The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to deepen collaboration in planetary defense, alongside a dedicated agreement for collaboration on the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) to the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.

    The agreements were signed on 7 May by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa at the Embassy of Italy in Berlin, Germany, in the presence of European and Japanese institutional and industrial leadership. The event was hosted in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), in light of ESA’s selection of OHB Italia as prime contractor for the Ramses mission.

    The move builds on a joint statement from November ...

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    XRISM catches a pulsar’s cosmic wind—and sees a surprising result

    October 28, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    XRISM catches a pulsar's cosmic wind—and sees a surprising result
    An artist’s conception of a pulsar/main sequence star pair, similar to the one featured in the study. Credit: ESA

    The universe is a strange place. The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) orbiting observatory recently highlighted this fact, when it was turned on a pulsar to document its powerful cosmic winds.

    The XRISM observatory is a joint mission for NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission was also a replacement for the ill-fated Hitomi X-ray observatory, which failed shortly after launch in 2016.

    The discovery comes courtesy of ESA’s Resolve instrument, a soft X-ray spectrometer aboard XRISM. The study looked at neutron star GX 13+1...

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    Iron Fingerprints in Nearby Active Galaxy

    May 9, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A XRISM spectrum of NGC 4151 with a multiwavelength snapshot of the galaxy in the background.
    The Resolve instrument aboard XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) captured data from the center of galaxy NGC 4151, where a supermassive black hole is slowly consuming material from the surrounding accretion disk. The resulting spectrum reveals the presence of iron in the peak around 6.5 keV and the dips around 7 keV, light thousands of times more energetic that what our eyes can see. Background: An image of NGC 4151 constructed from a combination of X-ray, optical, and radio light.
    Spectrum: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Resolve. Background: X-rays, NASA/CXC/CfA/J.Wang et al.; optical, Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma/Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope; radio, NSF/NRAO/VLA

    After starting science operations in February, Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) studied the ...

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    Ryugu Samples illuminate Terrestrial Weathering Effects on Primitive Meteorites

    December 13, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Ryugu Samples Illuminate Terrestrial Weathering Effects on Primitive Meteorites

    A groundbreaking study conducted by a team of international scientists has unveiled unprecedented insights into the nature of the asteroid Ryugu and shed light on the composition of water- and carbon-rich small bodies in the solar system.

    Asteroids like Ryugu are remnants of planetary embryos that never reached larger sizes, making them invaluable windows into materials that formed in the early solar system.

    The study centered on laboratory measurements of the samples brought back to the Earth by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft in 2020.

    Led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Hayabusa2 aimed to uncover the true nature of Ryugu and explore how astrologists can use knowledge from meteorites to...

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