NASA spaceship fast approaching target in key test to redirect asteroids

NASA will attempt on Sept. 26 a feat humanity has never before accomplished: deliberately smacking a spacecraft into an asteroid to slightly deflect its orbit. (AFP)
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Updated 24 September 2022
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NASA spaceship fast approaching target in key test to redirect asteroids

  • Spaceship programmed to strike asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Sept. 26 at roughly 23,000 kph
  • Dimorphos not a threat to Earth but the experiment is in preparation for an actual need 

WASHINGTON: Bet the dinosaurs wish they’d thought of this.
NASA on Monday will attempt a feat humanity has never before accomplished: deliberately smacking a spacecraft into an asteroid to slightly deflect its orbit, in a key test of our ability to stop cosmic objects from devastating life on Earth.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship launched from California last November and is fast approaching its target, which it will strike at roughly 14,000 miles per hour (23,000 kph).
To be sure, neither the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, nor the big brother it orbits, called Didymos, pose any threat as the pair loop the Sun, passing some seven million miles from Earth at nearest approach.
But the experiment is one NASA has deemed important to carry out before an actual need is discovered.
“This is an exciting time, not only for the agency, but in space history and in the history of humankind quite frankly,” Lindley Johnson, a planetary defense officer for NASA told reporters in a briefing Thursday.
If all goes to plan, impact between the car-sized spacecraft, and the 530-foot (160 meters, or two Statues of Liberty) asteroid should take place at 7:14pm Eastern Time (2314 GMT), and can be followed on a NASA livestream.
By striking Dimorphos head on, NASA hopes to push it into a smaller orbit, shaving ten minutes off the time it takes to encircle Didymos, which is currently 11 hours and 55 minutes — a change that will be detected by ground telescopes in the days that follow.
The proof-of-concept experiment will make a reality what has before only been attempted in science fiction — notably films such as “Armageddon” and “Don’t Look Up.”

As the craft propels itself through space, flying autonomously for the mission’s final phase like a self-guided missile, its main camera system, called DRACO, will start to beam down the very first pictures of Dimorphos.
“It’s going to start off as a little point of light and then eventually it’s going to zoom and fill the whole entire field of view,” said Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which hosts mission control in a recent briefing.
“These images will continue until they don’t,” added the planetary scientist.
Minutes later, a toaster-sized satellite called LICIACube, which separated from DART a couple of weeks earlier, will make a close pass of the site to capture images of the collision and the ejecta — the pulverized rock thrown off by impact.
LICIACube’s picture will be sent back in the weeks and months that follow.
Also watching the event: an array of telescopes, both on Earth and in space — including the recently operational James Webb — which might be able to see a brightening cloud of dust.
Finally, a full picture of what the system looks like will be revealed when a European Space Agency mission four years down the line called Hera arrives to survey Dimorphos’s surface and measure its mass, which scientists can only guess at currently.

Very few of the billions of asteroids and comets in our solar system are considered potentially hazardous to our planet, and none in the next hundred or so years.
But “I guarantee to you that if you wait long enough, there will be an object,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s chief scientist.
We know that from the geological record — for example, the six-mile wide Chicxulub asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, plunging the world into a long winter that led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs along with 75 percent of species.
An asteroid the size of Dimorphos, by contrast, would only cause a regional impact, such as devastating a city, albeit with a greater force than any nuclear bomb in history.
Scientists are also hoping to glean valuable new information that can inform them about the nature of asteroids more generally.
How much momentum DART imparts on Dimorphos will depend on whether the asteroid is solid rock, or more like a “rubbish pile” of boulders bound by mutual gravity, a property that’s not yet known.
We also don’t know its actual shape: whether it’s more like a dog bone or a donut, but NASA engineers are confident DART’s SmartNav guidance system will hit its target.
If it misses, NASA will have another shot in two years’ time, with the spaceship containing just enough fuel for another pass.
But if it succeeds, then it’s a first step toward a world capable of defending itself from a future existential threat, said Chabot.
 


UN adopts resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw troops from Ukraine

Updated 56 min 4 sec ago
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UN adopts resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw troops from Ukraine

  • European-backed resolution was approved ahead of vote on dueling US proposal

NEW YORK: The UN General Assembly approved a Ukrainian resolution Monday demanding an immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine on the third anniversary of the invasion.

The vote in the 193-member world body, whose resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion, was 93-18 with 65 abstentions. That's lower than previous resolutions, which saw over 140 nations condemn Russia's aggression and demand a reversal of its annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

The European-backed Ukrainian resolution was approved ahead of a vote on a dueling US proposal that calls for a swift end to the war but never mentions Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

 


Daughter calls for UK to help British couple in their 70s detained by Taliban

Barbie and Peter Reynolds, 75 and 79, were detained by the Taliban’s interior ministry on February 1.
Updated 57 min 24 sec ago
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Daughter calls for UK to help British couple in their 70s detained by Taliban

  • Britain’s Foreign Office said on Monday it was “supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan,” without providing further detail

LONDON: A British couple in their 70s who ran education programs in Afghanistan have been detained by the Taliban administration, their daughter said, urging the British government to do everything possible to secure their release.
Barbie and Peter Reynolds, 75 and 79, were detained by the Taliban’s interior ministry on February 1, their daughter Sarah Entwistle, who lives in central England, said.
Speaking to Times Radio on Monday, Entwistle said her parents had initially kept in touch via text messages following their detention — assuring their four children that they were fine — before losing all contact three days later.
“Our parents have always sought to honor the Taliban, so we wanted to give them the opportunity to explain their reasons for this detention. However, after more than three weeks of silence, we can no longer wait,” she said.
“We’re now urgently calling on the British consulate to do everything in their power to get us answers and to put as much pressure as they can on the Taliban for their release,” Entwistle added.
Britain’s Foreign Office said on Monday it was “supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan,” without providing further detail.
The BBC, citing official Taliban sources, reported on Sunday that two British nationals believed to be working for a non-governmental organization in the central Afghan province of Bamiyan had been arrested. It cited one official as saying they had been arrested about 20 days ago after using a plane without informing local authorities.
Afghan authorities arrested four individuals — two British nationals, one Chinese-American and their interpreter, Abdul Mateen, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told Reuters.
The couple were arrested alongside a Chinese-American friend, Faye Hall, and a translator from their training business, Britain’s PA news agency reported.
Western countries including Britain and the United States shut their embassies and withdrew their diplomats as the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021.
Britain advises its nationals against any travel to Afghanistan, warning of the risks of being detained there.
The British couple had been running projects in schools in Afghanistan for 18 years, deciding to stay even after the Taliban seized power, the Sunday Times said.


Putin thanks Russia’s grand mufti for role in promoting interfaith unity

Updated 24 February 2025
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Putin thanks Russia’s grand mufti for role in promoting interfaith unity

  • Talgat Tadzhuddin, other leaders acknowledged for strengthening religious accord
  • Although secular, Russia recognizes role of religious institutions in society

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday thanked Grand Mufti of Russia Talgat Tadzhuddin for his efforts in fostering interfaith unity and harmony among the country’s diverse religious communities.

During a meeting at the Kremlin, Putin acknowledged the contributions of Tadzhuddin and other Muslim leaders in strengthening religious accord across the country, state news agency TASS reported.

“I would like to personally thank you and all Muslim leaders for the contribution you and other spiritual leaders are making to interreligious unity and accord between the peoples of Russia,” the president said.

Although a secular state under its constitution, Russia recognizes the role of religious institutions in society. The law guarantees freedom of religion, with all religious associations operating separately from the state while enjoying equal status.

Christianity remains the dominant faith in Russia, with Orthodox Christianity as the largest denomination. Islam is the second-largest religion, with most Russian Muslims adhering to Sunni Islam.

The Russian government continues to support traditional religions by restoring historic religious sites damaged during the Soviet era and facilitating the establishment of spiritual education institutions, TASS said.


Philippines, Japan agree to boost military ties in ‘increasingly severe’ security environment 

Philippines’ Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro, right, shakes hands with Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani.
Updated 24 February 2025
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Philippines, Japan agree to boost military ties in ‘increasingly severe’ security environment 

  • Manila, Tokyo signed landmark defense pact last July, allowing troop deployment on each other’s soil
  • Both countries to increase operational cooperation, promoting collaboration in defense equipment, tech

MANILA: The Philippines and Japan have agreed to deepen defense cooperation in an “increasingly severe” security environment in the Indo-Pacific region, their defense chiefs said on Monday. 

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani was on an official visit to Manila, where he held a meeting with his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, to discuss regional security issues, including the maritime situation in the East and South China Seas. 

“We are not only to enhance existing alliances in terms of the scale of mutually cooperative activities, but also to the scope of these arrangements by also inviting like-minded partners potentially to join these alliances,” Teodoro said at a joint press conference. 

“We share also the common cause of resisting any unilateral attempt to reshape the global order without the consent of the participants of this global order and the attempt to reshape international law by force. And this endeavor we will resist.”

The Philippines, China and several other countries have overlapping claims in the disputed South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which billions of dollars of goods pass each year.

Beijing has maintained its expansive claims of the area, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that China’s historical assertion to it had no basis.

Security ties between Manila and Tokyo — both US allies — have strengthened in the past two years over shared concerns in the region, with the two countries signing a landmark military pact in 2024, allowing the deployment of their forces on each other's soil for joint military drills. It was Japan’s first such pact in Asia. 

Japan has a long-standing territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea, while Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships have been involved in a series of tense incidents in the South China Sea. 

During their talks on Monday, Nakatani and Teodoro agreed to strengthen operational cooperation by establishing a strategic dialogue mechanism, enhanced people-to-people exchange and by promoting collaboration in defense equipment and technology. 

“In today's Japan-Philippines defense meeting, first of all, Secretary Teodoro and I firmly concurred that the security environment surrounding us is becoming increasingly severe,” Nakatani said through a translator. 

“It is necessary for the two countries as strategic partners to further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration in order to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific amid such a situation.”

Prof. Renato De Castro, an international studies expert and professor at De La Salle University in Manila, said defense cooperation with Japan is closely linked with the Philippines-US security ties. 

“Now Japan is a very vibrant and reliable security partner … You cannot actually separate it from the security relationship with the United States. It’s also the enhancement of what I call the base of the US-Japan-Philippines security partnership that was formed last year,” De Castro told Arab News, referring to a summit of the three countries’ leaders last April. 

“It’s really very important in terms of enhancing the capabilities of the three parties to conduct maritime cooperative activities primarily in the South China Sea, and also as preparation for possible contingency in Taiwan.”


Saudi, Indonesian officials agree on closer cooperation to improve health workforce

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Saudi Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel are seen after a meeting.
Updated 24 February 2025
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Saudi, Indonesian officials agree on closer cooperation to improve health workforce

  • Kingdom’s Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel is on 2-day visit to Indonesia 
  • Saudi doctors been training Indonesian colleagues in child heart surgery since last year

JAKARTA: Saudi Arabia and Indonesia signed on Monday a new agreement on the training and exchange of medical workers, as the Southeast Asian nation seeks closer partnership with the Kingdom to improve its healthcare system.

The Kingdom’s Health Minister Fahad Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel is on a two-day visit to Indonesia, leading a high-level delegation of officials.

As a part of the visit, Al-Jalajel and his Indonesian counterpart, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, held talks in Jakarta and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on health workforce cooperation between their countries.

“The MoU covered various areas of cooperation, including collaboration for Saudi doctors to practice in Indonesia, and for Indonesian doctors to study in Saudi Arabia,” the Indonesian Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The deal also covers nursing scholarships, a fellowship program and exchange of health workers, it added.

“Through the exchange of health workforce, we hope to increase the standard of education and health services, while also strengthening the capacity of our human resources here in Indonesia,” Sadikin said after the bilateral meeting.

Saudi Arabia-Indonesia ties in the healthcare sector have been growing over the years. 

Last year, Saudi doctors trained their Indonesian health colleagues in child heart surgery and helped expand access to pediatric cardiac care in the country, through programs sponsored by KSrelief, the Kingdom’s aid agency. 

Sadikin hopes more Saudi doctors will come to Indonesia for child heart surgeries, as only half of an estimated 12,000 Indonesian children who are born with cardiac disease get treatment. 

“Around 6,000 among them are uncared for and die as a result. I hope more doctors from KSrelief will come and help increase the number of cardiac surgeries in Indonesia,” he said. 

The Saudi Arabia delegation also signed several agreements with Indonesia universities to train medical workers from the two countries. 

“This cooperation will cover training in both countries, with the hopes that it will create a better and improved health workforce,” Al-Jalajel said.