Planetary Defense
There are Plenty of Uses for Powerful Lasers in Space. But Where Should We Put Them?
Is it time for space lasers yet? Almost. As time passes, ideas that were once confined to the realm of…
DART Did More Than Deter Dimorphos; It Sent It Into a Chaotic Tumble
In 2022, NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft collided with an object named Dimorphos. The objective was to test…
A New Space Telescope will Map the Universe and Help Protect the Earth from Asteroids
Can we secure our place in the Solar System? Not in any absolute sense because nature can be very unpredictable.…
DART Had a Surprising Impact on its Target
After NASA's DART mission slammed into asteroid Dimorphous in September 2022, scientists determined the impact caused tons of rock to…
Here's How NASA is Planning to Protect Earth From Asteroids and Comets
The large impact craters dotting our planet are powerful reminders that asteroids and comets strike the Earth from time to…
Success! DART Impact Shortened Asteroid’s Orbit Time by 32 Minutes
NASA says its DART spacecraft caused a larger-than-expected change in the path of its target asteroid when they collided two…
LICIACube Sends Home Images of the DART Impact and the Damage to Dimorphos
The Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) has returned a series of close-up images of the asteroid Dimorphos,…
China is Building an Asteroid Deflection Mission of its own, due for Launch in 2025
There's an old joke that the dinosaurs are only extinct because they didn't develop a space agency. The implication, of…
Space Force is Releasing Decades of Tracking Data on a Thousand Bright Meteor Fireballs
When a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere at a very high speed it heats up. This heating up produces a…
Last-Minute Defense Against an Asteroid That Could Obliterate it Before Impact
Gazing at the night sky can evoke a sense of wonder regarding humanity's place in the Universe. But that's not…