Category: Asteroids

Astronomers have theorized that light from the Sun influences the speed at which asteroids spin, and now they’ve gathered the evidence to back it up.
Continue reading “Sunlight Puts the Spin on Asteroids”

The Earth has been bombarded by asteroids in the past, and it’s going to happen again in the future. It’s not a question of “if”, it’s a question of “when”. Keenly aware of the problem, scientists are working on strategies that could prevent an asteroid with Earth in its cross hairs from impacting us.
Continue reading “Lasers Could Deflect Future Asteroids From Impacting Earth”

I don’t want to get you worried, or even mildly concerned. No need to panic. In fact, just read this little piece, and remark with interest that an asteroid is going to get really really close to the Earth on October 31, 2041. It might – I repeat might – have a small, insignificant chance of hitting the Earth and causing regional devastation. Like a 1 in 40,000 chance. Those are pretty good odds when you think of it.
Continue reading “Close Call with Asteroid 2006 XG1 in 2041”

The Planetary Society is offering a $50,000 prize for the best plan to reach out an put a tracking beacon on near-Earth asteroid Apophis (AKA 2004 MN4). Apophis is approximately 400 metres across, and it’s expected to pass very close to the Earth in 2029. And on that pass, it could receive a gravitational bump to its orbit that could make it even more dangerous in 2036. With better tracking, scientists will have a much better idea if Apophis really is a risk to Earth. The competition ends August 31, 2007.
Continue reading “Tag an Asteroid, Win a Prize”

Most scientists agree that a large asteroid strike 65 million years ago ended the dinosaurs’ reign on Earth. Some think that a single strike did the trick, while others think it was multiple strikes and additional stresses that pushed the dinosaurs into extinction. New evidence from researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia supports the single impact hypothesis. They found a single layer of impact-related material in the geologic record that exactly matched marine creatures known to be contemporaries of the dinosaurs. They didn’t find any other impact evidence above or below this layer, reducing the possibility of additional impacts.
Continue reading “Just a Single Asteroid Strike Wiped out the Dinosaurs”

Asteroid 1999 KW4 was first discovered by astronomers in 1999. When it got closer, in 2001, astronomers realized it wasn’t a single asteroid, but two clusters of rubble orbiting each other. It’s been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, but astronomers have calculated a safe trajectory out for at least 1,000 years. Since it’s a binary object, astronomers are able to calculate the mass and density of the two asteroids. New observations from the Arecibo Observatory have mapped the twin objects in tremendous detail.
Continue reading “Detailed Look at Twin Asteroid 1999 KW4”

How did the dinosaurs die? It’s a question scientists have been trying to figure out since their fossils were first discovered. Most believe that it was a giant asteroid that stuck the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago, and ended the dinosaurs’ reign on Earth. But evidence is mounting that the asteroid strike might have just been the final killing blow. The previous 500,000 years were unpleasant too, with multiple meteor strikes, severe volcanism, and rapid climate change.
Continue reading “It Took More than an Asteroid to Kill the Dinosaurs”