Volcanic Venus, myriad moons, and space sonification

A newly discovered asteroid has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2046, but don’t panic. The asteroid, named 2023 DW and discovered on Feb. 2, is the only asteroid that currently ranks higher than zero on NASA’s Torino Impact Hazard Scale, which categorizes the projected risk of an object colliding with Earth. Still, 2023 DW’s ranking of one on the scale means that “the chance of collision is extremely unlikely with no cause for public attention or public concern.” As more observations better define the asteroid’s orbit, the probability of impact will drop and likely go to zero. Pictured: An illustration of the asteroid. Note that its physical characteristics have not actually been established yet. Image credit: NASA.

The Biden Administration’s proposed NASA budget is out. The $27.2 billion budget proposed for NASA's 2024 fiscal year, if approved by Congress, would represent a 7% increase over 2023 levels. The Planetary Society is supportive of this budget request, but also calls on Congress to prevent delays to the VERITAS Venus mission and the Mars Sample Return program.

NASA is making plans for how it will deorbit the International Space Station. The agency’s latest budget request includes funding to develop a module that would tug the station to a lower orbit to ensure it reenters Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific, where large spacecraft can most safely crash. The station, which has been continuously occupied since 2000, is scheduled to come down in 2031.

Get ready to find out which astronauts will get to fly around the Moon. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are due to announce the crew of the Artemis II mission on April 3. This crew, which will include three NASA astronauts and one CSA astronaut, will conduct a 10-day mission beyond the Moon, testing the Orion spacecraft’s systems before it takes another crew to the lunar surface.

Space images sound as beautiful and intriguing as they look. This image taken by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory shows about 5,000 black holes over the area of the sky covered by the full Moon, the highest concentration of black holes ever seen. This is a stunning sight, but how might it sound? Kim Arcand, Chandra visualization scientist, joins this week’s Planetary Radio to share her team’s new album “Universal Harmonies,” a collection of sonified observations taken by the space telescope that aims to make space images more accessible to people with low or no vision. Pictured: The colors in this image represent different levels of X-ray energy detected by Chandra. Here the lowest-energy X-rays are red, the medium band is green, and the highest-energy X-rays are blue. Image credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/B.Luo et al.

Meet Jupiter’s tiny new moons. With 12 moons added to its official count, Jupiter now has the largest number of natural satellites in the Solar System. This may well change, as new Saturnian candidate moons await confirmation. Read more about how we find these tiny moons, and what they can teach us about our corner of the Cosmos.

Bill Nye is excited about the year in space, and you should be too. The Planetary Society’s CEO joined the latest This Week in Space podcast to talk about exploration milestones to look forward to, achievements he’s proud of, and what it takes to engage the public in the adventure of science.