MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: NASA refines asteroid 2024 YR4 orbit, rules out collision with Moo

📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: NASA refines asteroid 2024 YR4 orbit, rules out collisio

Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have ruled out the possibility that asteroid 2024 YR4 could collide with the Moon in 2032.

New observations have helped researchers refine the space rock’s trajectory and confirm that it will safely pass the lunar surface.

The updated calculations come from experts at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

By analyzing Webb observations taken on Feb. 18 and Feb. 26, the team significantly narrowed the range of possible future positions of the asteroid.

With the improved data, asteroid 2024 YR4 is now expected to pass the Moon at a distance of about 13,200 miles (21,200 kilometers) on Dec. 22, 2032. Earlier models had suggested a small chance that the object could strike the lunar surface.

Before incorporating the new observations, scientists had estimated the asteroid carried a 4.3 percent chance of hitting the Moon. The refined orbit now rules out that scenario entirely.

Webb sharpens asteroid orbit

The improved prediction does not mean the asteroid’s path has changed. Instead, the additional observations have helped scientists determine its position in space more precisely.

NASA explained that the update reflects better measurements rather than a shift in the asteroid’s actual trajectory. As more data is collected, scientists typically refine orbital models and reduce uncertainty about where an object will be in the future.

To gather the critical data, researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope’s unique ability to detect extremely faint objects.

The observation team, led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, captured two additional measurements that proved key to improving the orbit estimate.

Since the spring of 2025, asteroid 2024 YR4 has been largely unobservable from Earth-based and most space-based telescopes.

Webb’s sensitivity allowed researchers to track the object even when it became too faint for other instruments to detect.

The telescope managed to record what scientists describe as among the faintest observations ever made of an asteroid.

From risk to reassurance

Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered in late 2024 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), a NASA-funded survey station located in Chile.

Initial measurements suggested the object had a small but notable chance of striking Earth in the future. As additional observations from telescopes around the world were gathered throughout 2025, scientists were able to refine its orbit.

Those updated analyses eventually ruled out any significant risk to Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. Current models also show no threat from the asteroid over the next century.

The process highlights how planetary defense monitoring works. Newly discovered asteroids often carry temporary impact probabilities when their orbits are still uncertain.

As more observations are collected, those uncertainties shrink, allowing scientists to better understand the object’s true path through space.

With the latest Webb data, researchers now have far greater confidence in where asteroid 2024 YR4 will be in 2032 and have eliminated the possibility of a lunar impact.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: US scientists simulate elusive ideal glass that behaves m

Scientists have created the first computer model of an “ideal glass,” a theoretical material physicists have been searching for since the mid-20th century.

The breakthrough could help researchers better understand how disordered materials behave and potentially guide the design of stronger and more versatile industrial materials.

The work was led by physicist Eric Corwin at the University of Oregon. Using advanced computational modeling, his team built a structure in which molecules are packed as tightly and stably as possible while still remaining amorphous, meaning they lack the ordered pattern typical of crystals.

Glass is unusual because it behaves like a solid even though its molecules are arranged randomly.

This puzzling behavior has long raised questions about how materials without a regular molecular structure can still remain mechanically stable.

Corwin said that at the molecular level, glass looks disordered compared to crystals.

“If you look at glass at a molecular level, you would see that the molecules are arranged amorphously,” Corwin said. “They’re kind of random. They’re all pushed up against one another, but there’s no structure.”

Chasing the ideal glass

Physicists have long suspected that an “ideal glass” state could exist. The idea was proposed in 1948 by Princeton chemist Walter Kauzmann, who theorized that cooling glass far enough could eventually produce a perfectly stable amorphous structure where molecules are packed as tightly as possible.

Such a state has never been observed in nature, leaving scientists without a real example to study. Corwin’s team decided to tackle the problem using mathematical modeling instead of waiting for nature to produce one.

“We thought maybe we can just jump to it,” Corwin said. “We can construct the best possible structure.”

To do that, the researchers began with a simplified system in which molecules were represented as round disks.

They drew inspiration from the structure of two-dimensional crystals, where each disk is surrounded by six neighbors arranged in a repeating honeycomb-like pattern.

However, instead of keeping the crystalline order, the team developed a method to maintain the tight packing of the disks while removing the repeating structure that defines crystals.

Amorphous yet crystal strong

The result was a configuration that remained completely disordered but behaved mechanically like a crystal. According to the researchers, the structure represents the densest possible arrangement for that type of system.

The team confirmed the behavior by testing how the simulated material responded to pressure, bending, and melting. These tests showed that the model exhibited mechanical stability comparable to crystalline materials despite lacking their ordered structure.

“The conclusion is that our structure mechanically behaves identically to a crystal, even though it is completely amorphous,” Corwin said.

Understanding this state could help researchers better understand the glass transition, the process by which liquids become rigid glasses without forming crystals.

The work may also have implications for advanced materials such as metallic glasses, which combine the strength of metals with the flexibility of glass-like structures.

Metallic glasses are known for their strength and resistance to deformation, but they are difficult to manufacture because they must be cooled extremely quickly from liquid to solid.

“If we could develop a much better understanding of the glass transition and understand what makes an alloy better or worse at forming a metallic glass, we could design alloys that you could cool much more slowly,” Corwin said.

He added that improved materials could transform manufacturing. “You could mold a car engine, you could mold a jet fighter. It would be revolutionary.”

The researchers plan to expand their work beyond two-dimensional simulations to explore ideal glass structures in three-dimensional systems.

The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com