Solar System’s Fastest-Orbiting Asteroid Discovered – Orbits the Sun in Just 113 Days
The Sun has a new neighbor that was hiding in plain twilight. An asteroid that orbits the Sun in just 113 days—the shortest known orbital…
Asteroid
NASA’s Psyche Asteroid Mission Moves Closer To Launch – “It’s Incredible To Be at This Point”
As part of NASA’s Discovery Program, the mission to explore a metal-rich asteroid is well on its way to an August 2022 launch. With NASA’s…
Highest-Resolution Measurements of Asteroid Surface Temperatures Ever Obtained From Earth
The study’s target, Psyche, is the destination of an upcoming NASA mission. A close examination of the millimeter-wavelength emissions from the asteroid Psyche, which NASA…
Traces of Dwarf Planet Ceres’ Icy Crust Found at Occator Crater
Anomalies in the distribution of hydrogen at Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres reveal an icy crust, says a new paper led by Tom…
Fizzing Sodium May Explain Asteroid Phaethon’s Majestic Cometlike Activity
Models and lab tests suggest the asteroid could be venting sodium vapor as it orbits close to the Sun, explaining its increase in brightness. As…
Watch NASA’s “Tour of Asteroid Bennu” – Selected for Prestigious Computer Graphics Film Festival
It’s hard to imagine what the surface of asteroid Bennu might look like – it’s shortest distance from Earth still 250,000 miles away – but…
NASA Calculations Show Asteroid Bennu Has a Chance of Slamming Into Earth
Along with collecting a sample from the Bennu’s surface, the spacecraft provided precision data to better predict the near-Earth object’s orbit around the Sun. In…
Launch Preparations Underway for NASA’s First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids
NASA’s first spacecraft to explore the Trojan asteroids arrived Friday, July 30, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. It is now in…
Optical Observations of BepiColombo Spacecraft as a Proxy for a Potential Threatening Asteroid
BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to study the planet Mercury. Launched…
Dark Primitive Asteroids: Zeroing In on Source of the Impactor That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs
The impactor believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and other life forms on Earth some 66 million years ago likely came from the outer…
Sailing on Sunlight, NASA’s NEA Scout Will Capture Images of an Asteroid for Scientific Study
NASA Solar Sail Asteroid Mission Readies for Launch on Artemis I NASA’s Near-Earth Asteroid Scout is tucked away safely inside the agency’s powerful Space Launch…
Asteroids In Depth: Our Solar System’s Asteroid Belt
Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. The current…
Researchers Discover Orbital Patterns of Trans-Neptunian Objects Vary Based on Their Color
Data collected can be used to provide new insights into the evolution of the Kuiper Belt, and the larger solar system. Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), small…
Early Earth Was Bombarded by Barrage of City-Sized Asteroids – Perhaps 10x More Huge Impactors Than Thought
Scientists know that the Earth was bombarded by huge impactors in distant time, but a new analysis suggests that the number of these impacts may…
CO2-Rich Liquid Water Discovered in Ancient Meteorite – From an Asteroid That Formed 4.6 Billion Years Ago
Scientists detect small pockets of carbon dioxide-rich liquid water in a meteorite dating from the early solar system. By studying ancient meteorite fragments, scientists can…
First Sample of Asteroid Ryugu Arrives at NASA’s Johnson Space Center
NASA recently received its first sample of asteroid Ryugu, which was returned to Earth last December by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft….
NASA’s NEOWISE Asteroid-Hunting Space Telescope Gets Two-Year Mission Extension
NEOWISE has provided an estimate of the size of over 1,850 near-Earth objects, helping us better understand our nearest solar system neighbors. For two more…
Earth’s Meteorite Impacts Tracked Over Past 500 Million Years
For the first time, a unique study conducted at Lund University in Sweden has tracked the meteorite flux to Earth over the past 500 million…