Asteroids
A Combination Drill and Gas Conveyor Could Simplify Asteroid Extraction
Collecting material from an asteroid seems like a simple task. In reality, it isn't. Low gravity, high rotational speeds, lack…
A Mission To Find 10 Million Near Earth Asteroids Every Year
So far, scientists have found around 34,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) that could serve as humanity's stepping stone to the stars.…
A Weather Satellite Watched a Space Rock Burn Up Above Spain and Portugal
It's been a momentous May for skywatchers around the world. First the big auroral event of May 10-11, next a…
Finding The Age Of A Contact Binary “Moon”
There are millions of asteroids floating around the solar system. With so many of them, it should be no surprise…
The Giant Planets Migrated Between 60-100 Million Years After the Solar System Formed
Untangling what happened in our Solar System tens or hundreds of millions of years ago is challenging. Millions of objects…
If We Want to Visit More Asteroids, We Need to Let the Spacecraft Think for Themselves
Missions to asteroids have been on a tear recently. Visits by Rosetta, Osirix-REX, and Hayabusa2 have all visited small bodies…
DART Changed the Shape of Asteroid Dimorphos, not Just its Orbit
On September 26th, 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collided with the asteroid Dimorphos, a moonlet that orbits the…
An Asteroid Found Sharing the Orbit of Mars
Astronomers discovered another asteroid sharing Mars' orbit. These types of asteroids are called trojans, and they orbit in two clumps,…
Citizen Scientists Find Fifteen “Active Asteroids”
Nature often defies our simple explanations. Take comets and asteroids, for example. Comets are icy and have tails; asteroids are…
DART Made a Surprisingly Big Impact on Dimorphos
NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission was hailed a success when it collided with its target asteroid Dimorphos last…