The prominent astrophysicist and musician Brian May is co-authoring a three-dimensional atlas of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, an 85-million-ton hunk of rock orbiting the Sun.
After landing on an asteroid nearly three years ago to scoop up a sample from its rocky surface, the OSIRIS-REx mission is finally in the homestretch. NASA is preparing for the special delivery of the rocky sample next month and the agency just pulled off the most realistic rehearsal for the big day.
A group of radio telescopes in the Chilean desert was aimed at a young star system 400 light years away when it detected something unusual: a cloud of debris chasing a planet along the same orbit. The debris could be a planet in the midst of being born or the remains of one that already exists, making this the first…
In September 2022, NASA deliberately crashed its DART spacecraft into a small asteroid some 6.8 million miles from Earth, in an attempt to redirect its trajectory as a test-run for any future rock that might threaten Earth.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a winner of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid and altering its orbit, in a pioneering test of planetary defense.
Scientists have confirmed that organic molecules exist in samples taken from the asteroid Ryugu, adding credence to the idea that the ingredients for life came to Earth via meteorite and asteroid impacts.
Six radar observations made of an asteroid swinging by our planet have revealed an unusually oblong space rock. The object is three times as long as it is wide—an irregular shape, as far as asteroids are concerned.
One of the solar system’s 1.1-million-plus asteroids was recently spotted by the Webb Space Telescope, from a distance of about 62 million miles. The asteroid is relatively small, making it a showcase of the new space observatory’s sharp vision.