Cool and mysterious

A potentially hazardous asteroid passed by Earth last week. The football field-sized asteroid, named 2008 OS7, flew past Earth on Feb. 2 at a distance of about 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles). The asteroid is categorized as potentially hazardous because of its size and the proximity of its orbit to Earth’s. NASA was tracking the asteroid and expected its flyby. Pictured: Asteroid 2008 OS7 appears as a white dot on a starry background in this image by Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project in Ceccano, Italy. Image credit: Gianluca Masi / The Virtual Telescope Project.

Rare, ancient meteorites have been found in Germany. Fragments of Asteroid 2024 BX1, which exploded over Germany on Jan. 21, have been collected and analyzed, showing that the rocks belong to a rare group called aubrites. Only 11 examples of this kind of meteorite have ever been found on Earth.

JPL has announced major layoffs. On Feb. 6, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Director Laurie Leshin announced layoffs of 530 people, roughly 8% of its full-time workforce, as well as 40 additional contract staff. The news comes on top of the 100 contractors let go last month. The Planetary Society’s chief of space policy explains why this has happened, and what it means for NASA space exploration.

A Moon mission is due to launch on Valentine's Day. The next mission in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program is set to launch on Feb. 14, carrying Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander to the Moon. The lander will aim to land in the south polar region on Feb. 22, equipped with 12 science payloads.

Uranus is full of mystery. The distant ice giant is one of the Solar System’s lesser-explored planets, having only been visited once — and briefly — by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. Learn about Uranus’ biggest unsolved mysteries and the mission that could help solve them. Pictured: Uranus and its rings, imaged by JWST. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Want to become an eclipse expert? We’ve got the course for you. Our newest online course introduces you to the different kinds of solar and lunar eclipses, how they work, why they're scientifically interesting, and how you can best enjoy and share them with others. It’s free for Planetary Society members in our online community, along with a webinar about the 2024 total solar eclipse, which takes place on Feb. 10. Not a member yet? Join today.

Many cultures have been eclipse experts for millennia. This week on Planetary Radio, we explore the archaeoastronomy of eclipses. Ed Krupp, the director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, joins the show to talk about how cultures throughout history have interpreted, understood, and studied solar eclipses.

Space may look black, but space policy is grey. Laura Delgado López joins the latest episode of Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition, to talk about “grey zones” in space governance — harmful or disruptive space activities that fall short of provoking a military response — why they exist, what their consequences might be, and what can be done to address them.