Watch Live as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Returns Asteroid Samples to Earth
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on its way to Earth to drop off rocky samples from asteroid Bennu on Sunday, marking NASA’s first attempt to retrieve a piece of a pure…
Telescope Spots a Sample-Laden OSIRIS-REx Returning From Asteroid Bennu
NASA’s $800 million OSIRIS-REx mission launched to space in September 2016 with a simple, albeit ambitious, objective: travel to a distant asteroid and bring back a sample of it. The…
Space-Scanning Algorithm Spots ‘Potentially Hazardous’ 600-Foot Asteroid
An asteroid-hunting algorithm set to be implemented in the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s 10-year survey spotted its first potentially hazardous asteroid, proving the algorithm’s capabilities in advance of the observatory’s…
Astrophysicist (and Queen Guitarist) Brian May to Co-Author Asteroid Atlas
The prominent astrophysicist and musician Brian May is co-authoring a three-dimensional atlas of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, an 85-million-ton hunk of rock orbiting the Sun. Buy Now or Wait? How…
NASA Transports Mock Asteroid Sample as It Prepares for OSIRIS-REx Return
After landing on an asteroid nearly three years ago to scoop up a sample from its rocky surface, the OSIRIS-REx mission is finally in the homestretch. NASA is preparing for…
This Nonprofit Wants to Catapult Material From Incoming Asteroids to Protect Earth
In February 2013, an asteroid about the size of a house punched its way through Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. The blast was so…
Asteroid the size of Statue of Liberty about to zip by Earth
An asteroid the size of the Statue of Liberty will zip by Earth in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Labeled 2013 WV44, the 300-foot-long (91-meter-long) asteroid is traveling at…
Huge, speedy asteroid to pass close to Earth next week
As asteroid will be whipping past Earth on March 21, coming within just five times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
Strange object orbiting Earth confirmed to be 1960’s rocket booster
A strange near-Earth object recently spotted turns out to be a visitor from the past: It’s a rocket booster from the 1966 Surveyor 2 mission to the moon.