Asteroids
Another Meteoroid Discovered Right Before it Hits the Atmosphere
A meteoroid lit up the sky above the English Channel early Monday morning February as it streaked through the atmosphere,…
JWST Unexpectedly Finds a Small Asteroid During ‘Failed’ Observations
While astronomers and engineers were trying to calibrate one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s instruments last summer, they serendipitously…
Don’t Bother Trying to Destroy Rubble Pile Asteroids
The asteroids in our Solar System are survivors. They've withstood billions of years of collisions. The surviving asteroids are divided…
Truck-Sized Asteroid Flew Past Earth Yesterday, Coming Within 3,600 km
On January 26, a truck-sized asteroid flew past Earth, coming extremely close – within 3,600 km (2,200 miles) above the…
Lucy Adds Another Asteroid to its Flyby List
In October 2021, NASA launched its ambitious Lucy mission. Its targets are asteroids, two in the main belt and eight…
How did Dimorphos Form?
The otherwise unremarkable double asteroid of Didymos and Dimorphos made headlines as the target of NASA's successful Double Asteroid Redirect…
Are Chemical Rockets or Solar Sails Better to Return Resources from Asteroids?
If and when we ever get an asteroid mining industry off the ground, one of the most important decisions to…
Arecibo Studied 191 Asteroids That Flew Past the Earth. All the Data are Available in a new Paper
Even from beyond the grave, Arecibo is still contributing to new discoveries. Back in October, researchers released a "treasure trove…
Should Planetary Defence Take Center Stage?
Throughout the Solar System, planets and moons bear the scars of a past fraught with collisions. The Moon, Mercury, and…
Is Mining in Space Socially Acceptable?
Traditional mining has been subject to a negative stigma for some time. People, especially in developed countries, have a relatively…