Tagged: asteroid

How the bluest asteroid in the solar system got its color

The blue color of asteroid Phaethon has puzzled scientists since the space rock’s discovery in the early 1980s. An unusual blue-tinged asteroid likely got its trademark color from intense sunlight, new research finds, solving a decades-old mystery. The blue color of asteroid Phaethon has puzzled...

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 years, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) will continue its hunt for asteroids and comets—including objects that could...

Image: This camera will be the eye of the ESA’s asteroid mission

This is the main camera that ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defense will be relying on to explore and maneuver around the Didymos asteroid system. Hera—named after the Greek goddess of marriage—will be, along with NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) spacecraft, humankind’s first probe...

Earth Is Safe From Asteroid Apophis For The Next 100 Years

During the asteroid Apophis’ most recent flyby in early March, astronomers were busy taking observations of this infamous space rock. Later calculations let NASA scientists announce on March 26, 2021, that Earth is safe from an impact with the relatively large asteroid for at least...

Check Out This Week’s Asteroid Impact Exercise

ESA said today (April 26, 2021) that it’ll be live-tweeting the asteroid impact exercise unfolding now at this week’s Planetary Defense Conference, which is held virtually April 26 through 30. ESA social media, particularly @esaoperations on Twitter, will be following the action, and you can...

Image: OSIRIS-REx bids farewell to Asteroid Bennu

On April 9, 2021, NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft took one last look at Bennu, the asteroid from which it scooped up a sample last October. Slated for return to Earth in 2023, the mission is on track to...