Wow! But also, yikes!

A Japanese spacecraft is advancing orbital debris cleanup. The main objective of the Japanese company Astroscale’s ADRAS-J (short for "Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan") mission is to rendezvous with and study a large piece of orbital debris — the upper stage of the Japanese H-2A rocket. It captured this image of the rocket stage while just a few hundred meters away. This mission is an important step forward in the effort to reduce orbital debris that could damage other satellites. Image credit: Astroscale.

Earth’s quasi-moon likely came from the Moon. The asteroid Kamo‘oalewa is called a quasi-moon because it appears to go around Earth as it traces its path around the Sun. An international team of researchers compared the reflectance of Kamo‘oalewa’s surface with that of samples from other near-Earth asteroids and the Moon, determining that Kamo‘oalewa is likely a chunk of the Moon that was ejected by an impact.

Asteroid hunters announced 27,500 newly spotted asteroids. Asteroid Institute, a program of B612 Foundation, and Google Cloud worked together to use sophisticated algorithms to detect asteroids in old datasets. Most of the 27,500 asteroids they have found orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, but more than 100 are near-Earth asteroids.

China’s Chang’e-6 mission is due to launch today. The spacecraft will embark on a 53-day journey to the far side of the Moon and back, returning lunar soil and rocks to Earth that will help us understand the Moon’s history. Here’s what to expect from the launch and the mission as a whole.

The 2024 Day of Action was a great success. On Monday, April 29, nearly 100 Planetary Society members gathered in Washington, D.C., as part of our annual Day of Action. These advocates (pictured) traveled from across the United States to push for more funding and better support for the nation’s pioneering space science program. In addition to the in-person meetings, nearly 100 advocates from 19 states and the District of Columbia sent letters and made calls to their legislators in support of the Day of Action’s key advocacy messages. Image credit: The Planetary Society.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission is almost ready for launch. This week’s Planetary Radio is all about the mission. Follow along on a visit to the clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to see the spacecraft, and hear a chat with Bob Pappalardo, project scientist for Europa Clipper, about the mission's collection of messages to another world.

You know that astronomy and astrology are two completely different things. But in case you ever encounter someone who doesn’t, here’s our explainer on the difference between astronomy and astrology, why their names are so similar, and their diverging paths throughout history. Plus, a good example of why one is a science and the other is not.

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