Tagged: asteroids

There’s no doubt that asteroids pose a potential threat to life on Earth. Just ask the dinosaurs: When a mile-wide rock slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years ago, they had a pretty rough time of it. While it’s been quite a while since...

Asteroids and comets can usually be distinguished by what they’re made of, and by where they’re found in space. While both are small objects orbiting the sun – both created early in the history of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago – there are...

Flush from the successful launch of its first prototype spacecraft, a startup space mining company says it’s on track to send robotic prospectors to near-Earth asteroids in as soon as three years. “This is something that’s unfolding quickly, and it’s happening faster than people realize,”...

There is a new evidence of the Passage of Scholz’s Star that disturbed the comets of the solar system 70,000 years ago. A small reddish star (with about 9% of the mass of the Sun) approached our solar system and its passage disturbed comets and...

– The Planet V hypothesis is based on the assumption that there was once a 5th planet in our Solar System. The planet has been named Planet V and some astronomers think it may have once existed between Mars and the asteroid belt. If there...

Just like planets and moons, asteroids orbit the Sun and they have days and nights. During its orbit around the Sun, every part of the asteroid’s surface sees sunlight, but that is not always a good thing. Earth’s rotation period is about 24 hours, but...

Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System, is moving away from the Sun faster than expected. This anomalous behaviour was detected by a worldwide astronomical collaboration including ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. The new results suggest that `Oumuamua is most likely...

Surface of near-Earth asteroid Phaethon may reflect less light than previously thought, according to a new study. This is an exciting mystery for the recently approved DESTINY+ mission to investigate when it flies past Phaethon. Artist’s conception of polarized light reflected by near-Earth asteroid Phaethon....

Most asteroids and meteorites originate from the splintering of a handful of minor planets formed during the infancy of our solar system, a new study shows. The study appearing online today in Nature Astronomy found at least 85 percent of 200,000 asteroids in the inner...

After an almost two-year journey, NASA’s asteroid sampling spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, took the first photo of asteroid Bennu last week and began the final approach toward its target. The image was obtained the image from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km). OSIRIS-REx (launched...