Asteroids
New Scans Give us a Better View of the Metal Asteroid Psyche
In 2022, NASA will launch a spacecraft to asteroid Psyche (16 Psyche), one of the largest in the asteroid belt,…
OSIRIS-REx Collected So Much Material, the Sample Capsule Overflowed. Time to Bring it All Home.
Is there such as thing as too much asteroid? Scientists and engineers for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx decided to perform an “early…
Success! OSIRIS-REx Touches Asteroid Bennu to Collect Samples
Out in the asteroid belt, 207 million miles (334 million km) from Earth, a little spacecraft briefly touched down on…
Watch “Live” as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Nabs an Asteroid Sample
Today’s the day! The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is going to reach out and boop asteroid Bennu! You can watch the broadcast…
Just A Couple Of Weeks From Now, OSIRIS-REx Will Grab A Sample From Bennu
NASA is about to achieve another first for their organization. In about three weeks time, on October 20th, the OSIRIS-REx…
We Might Have a New Mini-Moon Soon
Is it a new asteroid mini--moon or a human-made mini-moon? That’s the question about a small object approaching Earth, called…
Hayabusa2’s Mission isn’t Over. It has a New Asteroid Target to Visit: 1998 KY26
In an expected move, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced a mission extension for their Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Hayabusa2…
Chinese Asteroid Mining Robot Due to Launch in November
Does it seem like science is catching up with science fiction? Sometimes it does. Especially when there's an announcement like…
Astronomers Have Discovered a 2-km Asteroid Orbiting Closer to the Sun than Venus
Astronomers have painstakingly built models of the asteroid population, and those models predict that there will be ~1 km sized…
Bennu is Constantly Getting Sandblasted by Tiny Meteoroids
As soon as the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu in December 2018, there was a big surprise. Scientists expected…