NASA releases photos of asteroid impact
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The world now has stunning new photos of this week's asteroid strike, the first planetary defense test of its kind.
NASA on Thursday released pictures of the dramatic event taken by the Hubble and Webb space telescopes.
Telescopes on all seven continents also watched as NASA's Dart spacecraft on Monday slammed into the harmless space rock, 7 million miles from Earth, in hopes of altering its orbit.
Scientists won't know the precise change until November; the demo results are expected to instill confidence in using the technique against a potential killer asteroid headed our way one day.
"This is an unprecedented view of an unprecedented event," Johns Hopkins University planetary astronomer and mission leader Andy Rivkin said.
The pictures will help scientists learn more about the little asteroid Dimorphos, which took the punch and ended up with a sizable crater. The impact sent streams of rock and dirt hurtling into space, appearing as bright emanating rays in the latest photos.
The brightness of this double asteroid system -- the 525-foot Dimorphos is actually the moonlet around a bigger asteroid -- tripled after the impact as seen in the Hubble images, according to NASA.
Hubble and Webb will keep observing Dimorphos and its large companion Didymos over the next several weeks.
Juno photographs Europa on close flyby
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter's tantalizing, icy moon Europa in more than 20 years.
Juno on Thursday zipped within approximately 219 miles of Europa, thought to have an ocean flowing beneath its thick frozen crust, raising the possibility of underwater life. Scientists hailed the flyby as a success, with four pictures beamed down and released within several hours.
Scientists had hoped to observe possible water plumes shooting from the surface of Europa, close in size to Earth's moon. But none was immediately visible in the initial look.
"We have to be at the right place at just the right time," said Juno's chief scientist, Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
John Bordi, deputy mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, expected the spacecraft to go "screaming by pretty fast," with a relative velocity of almost 15 miles per second.
The first photo from the flyby is a closeup of Europa's equatorial region, crisscrossed by ridges, troughs and possibly an impact crater.
The latest observations will help NASA plan for its Europa Clipper mission, due to launch in 2024 and arrive at the Jovian system in 2030.
NASA's former Galileo spacecraft still holds the Europa flyby record, passing within 218 miles in 2000.
Biden, Harris to see justice installed
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses will attend the investiture for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court's newest member and its first Black female justice, a White House official said.
The appearance of Biden and Harris at the ceremony today underscores the importance of Jackson's confirmation to the president's legacy. Biden had pledged during his presidential campaign that he would nominate a Black woman to the court.
Jackson was confirmed in April on a 53-47 Senate vote, with three Republicans joining all Democrats to support her.
The White House and the Democratic-led Senate have confirmed dozens of judges at the federal district and appellate levels, with candidates who have brought more racial and gender diversity to the courts.
Of the 143 judicial nominations made by Biden, 68% have been women and 66% are people of color, according to the White House.
Oakland gang shooting hurts 6 people
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Two adult students and four school workers were shot and wounded at an Oakland campus in a gang-related attack that officials said Thursday was perpetrated by at least two shooters who fired more than 30 rounds.
Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said a student counselor, a security guard, two students and two workers who were at Rudsdale High School were wounded after two people breached the school and immediately opened fire about 12:45 p.m. Wednesday. He said a third person drove a getaway car. No arrests have been made.
Surveillance video shows the shooters entered the school and "identified an individual or individuals that they were looking to target" and began to fire, Armstrong said.
Three of the victims remained hospitalized Thursday, two in serious condition and the other stable, he said.
Rudsdale has a continuation program for 16- to 18-year-old students who are at risk of not graduating from a regular high school. It also has a newcomer program that serves recent immigrants 16 to 21 who have fled violence and instability in their home countries.
Rudsdale is one of four adjacent schools on a block in east Oakland. Classes were suspended at all of them Thursday.
This image made available by NASA shows the complex, ice-covered surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during a flyby. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers). (AP/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS)