NASA’s Lucy shares striking close-up of Donaldjohanson asteroid
NASA has shared the first closeup images of the Donaldjohanson asteroid, captured by its Lucy spacecraft on a recent flyby around 139 million miles (223 million km) from Earth. Our…
Planetary defense research mission readies for asteroid visit
Solving asteroid mysteries | Hera planetary defence mission If a large asteroid is ever found to be on a direct collision course with Earth, we currently have one tried-and-tested technology…
What happened when NASA simulated an asteroid hitting Earth
An artist’s impression of an asteroid approaching Earth NASA What would happen if a huge asteroid were headed toward Earth? Though this might be the topic of innumerable Hollywood movies,…
Astronomers Spot Cataclysmic Collision of Giant Asteroids in Nearby Star System
Nearly 20 years ago, astronomers observed a massive cloud of fine dust particles around a young star located just 63 light-years away from Earth. In recent observations from the Webb…
New Research Points to Violent Origin of Enigmatic Earth ‘Quasi-Moon’
For nearly a decade, a near-Earth asteroid named Kamo’oalewa has invoked speculation over how it came to orbit the Sun in total synchrony with Earth as though it shares some…
NASA’s Asteroid Samples May Be Crumbs From an Ancient Ocean World
After months of frustration, NASA finally got the Bennu asteroid sample container open in January, revealing the large amounts of asteroid scooped up by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Now, a top…
NASA Needs Ideas to Study Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Apophis
Asteroid 99942 Apophis is fast approaching our home planet for an uncomfortably close encounter in 2029. In order to prepare for the rare event, NASA is calling for ideas for…
NASA Finally Opened the Asteroid Container and Holy Crap That’s a Lot of Asteroid
The aluminum canister containing bits of an ancient space rock has finally been opened, revealing the bulk of the asteroid Bennu sample in all its glory. Alex Winter on His…
NASA Finally Cracks Open the Asteroid Sample Container
After months of fidgeting with a canister that contained rocky samples from an ancient asteroid, NASA engineers have finally removed two stubborn fasteners that appeared to be preventing the space…
NASA Finally Cracks Open Asteroid Sample Container
After months of fidgeting with a canister that contained rocky samples from an ancient asteroid, NASA engineers have finally removed two stubborn fasteners that appeared to be preventing the space…