Asteroids
Watch OSIRIS-REx's Complex Orbital Path Around Bennu in This Cool Animation
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft conducted a two-year reconnaissance and sample collection at the asteroid Bennu, providing crucial data about the 500-meter-wide…
OSIRIS-REx Would Have Sunk Deep into Asteroid Bennu if it Tried to Land
A pair of studies published in Science and Science Advances have helped identify that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource…
The Sun is Eroding Asteroids
Asteroids have been around since early solar system times. However, just because they are ancient bits of history doesn't mean…
Uh Oh, NASA is Reviewing Psyche and May Terminate the Mission
NASA is reviewing its mission to visit the asteroid 16 Psyche. The Administration has convened a 15-member review board to…
We’ll be Building Self-Replicating Probes to Explore the Milky Way Sooner Than you Think. Why Haven’t ETIs?
The future can arrive in sudden bursts. What seems a long way off can suddenly jump into view, especially when…
Two Spacecraft Could Work Together to Capture an Asteroid and Bring it Close to Earth for Mining
Humanity seems destined to expand into the Solar System. What exactly that looks like, and how difficult and tumultuous the…
JWST Also Looked Inside the Solar System, at Jupiter and its Moons
After the ‘big reveal’ earlier this week of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full color images and spectra of…
The Most Threatening Asteroid Just got Downgraded to “Harmless”. No Impact in 2052
It's comforting to know that there are people who are literally paid to watch the night sky to ensure that…
Could We Use Mars as a Base for Asteroid Mining?
The earliest mention of asteroid mining might be in a story from 1898 titled "Edison's Conquest of Mars," by Garrett…
Samples of Asteroid Ryugu Contain More Than 20 Amino Acids
The samples obtained by Hayabusa2 have revealed that the Near Earth Asteroid Ryugu contains 20 strains of amino acids -…