Items tagged with asteroid
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Victor Awogbemila - Wed, Jun 25, 2025
A few weeks ago, we reported that scientists had projected that the asteroid 2024 YR4 would have a 4.3% probability of impacting the moon in 2032. So, what would happen if this asteroid were to actually slam into our moon? A recent study...
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Aaron Leong - Wed, Jun 11, 2025
What was once dubbed a potential "city-killer" asteroid for Earth now has its sights redefined. New observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) increase the odds of a collision with the Moon instead in 2032. While the risk...
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Victor Awogbemila - Wed, Feb 19, 2025
The Gemini South telescope, commissioned over two decades ago, continues to contribute significant astronomical findings. On February 7th, it captured a new image of Asteroid 2024 YR4, which ultimately resulted in a revised projected...
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Aaron Leong - Thu, Feb 06, 2025
If you've seen photos of the far side of the moon, specifically of two long canyons within what is called the Schrödinger basin and wondered what created them, look no further—researches have determined that ejecta from an ancient asteroid...
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Aaron Leong - Thu, Jan 30, 2025
Yes, there's a chance that a recently spotted asteroid named 2024 YR4 could strike Earth in 2032, but experts are deeming the 196-foot wide small-body a low 1-in-83 strike risk, although others believe the closeness of the approach path to...
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Tim Sweezy - Sun, Oct 27, 2024
NASA says a bus-sized asteroid is about to make a close approach, coming within 148,000 miles of Earth. According to the space agency, the asteroid, named 2024 UQ1, measures approximately 32-feet across.
Astronomers and scientists are...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, Oct 08, 2024
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera spacecraft is headed toward the same asteroid NASA’s DART mission successfully impacted in 2022. The car-sized probe is part of a mission to better understand the ‘kinetic impact’ technique of...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, Sep 24, 2024
A group of physicists designed a first-of-its-kind experiment to simulate what might happen if a nuclear bomb was detonated near an asteroid approaching Earth. The experiment recorded in nanosecond detail how a very large pulse of...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, Sep 17, 2024
ATLAS, an asteroid impact early warning system in Hawaii, spotted a small asteroid that will temporarily orbit Earth for the next two months. Asteroid 2024 PT5 is a 10-meter (33-feet) wide space rock that is expected to come as close as 1...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, Sep 03, 2024
A Kobe University researcher has confirmed that an asteroid which struck Jupiter’s moon Ganymede was about 20 times larger than the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs on Earth. According to the new study, when the asteroid struck...
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Tim Sweezy - Thu, Aug 22, 2024
Space mining company AstroForge has raised $40 million toward the first-ever private asteroid mining mission in 2025. The $40 million Series A funding round brings the total raised to date to $55 million, with investors representing what...
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Tim Sweezy - Wed, Jul 31, 2024
NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, the first-ever planetary defense test, has provided information beyond whether redirecting the orbit of an asteroid with a spacecraft is possible or not. New research using data and...
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Tim Sweezy - Wed, Jul 17, 2024
The European Space Agency is preparing to rendezvous with an asteroid that is "about the size of a cruise liner" as it makes an exceptionally close flyby of Earth in 2029. Researchers will use the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety...
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Tim Sweezy - Fri, Jul 05, 2024
Scientists with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) tracked two near-Earth asteroids recently, one with a moon of its own, and the second having only been detected 13 days prior to its closest approach to Earth. The data collected...
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Tim Sweezy - Sat, Jun 29, 2024
An asteroid the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, discovered just two weeks ago, makes a close approach to Earth today. While the asteroid, named 2024 MK, poses no danger to Earth, it is a stark reminder of how large asteroids can escape...
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Tim Sweezy - Sat, Jun 22, 2024
NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), conducted the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise this week. The tabletop exercise gathering aimed...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, Jun 18, 2024
According to NASA, there are several airplane-sized asteroids hurtling toward Earth this week. The largest of the five is estimated to be 110 feet in size, while the closest will come within 447,000 miles of Earth.
It is not uncommon...
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Tim Sweezy - Mon, May 13, 2024
First discovered in 2004, Asteroid Apophis, also known as “God of Chaos,” has been watched closely by astronomers and scientists. The large space rock has become the center of focus because of its expected close flyby of Earth on what is...
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Tim Sweezy - Wed, Feb 28, 2024
A new study has found that NASA’s DART mission that slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid may not have had the impact once thought. The impact simulation study suggested that DART did not leave an impact crater; rather, it reshaped the...
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Tim Sweezy - Fri, Feb 02, 2024
Heads up! A potentially hazardous asteroid the size of a large skyscraper is about to have a close encounter with Earth, and everyone can watch live. No, asteroid 2008 OS7 does not pose a risk to anyone, but it will come within about 2.8...
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Tim Sweezy - Mon, Jan 22, 2024
A small asteroid impacted Earth’s atmosphere over Berlin, Germany, with videos of the fireball lighting up social media. The 3 foot (1 meter) asteroid was detected shortly ahead of it entering Earth’s atmosphere.
A couple of days ago...
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Tim Sweezy - Fri, Jan 12, 2024
A NASA curation team was finally able to remove two stubborn fasteners that have been keeping the space agency from being able to retrieve the remainder of a sample collected from asteroid Bennu. The curation team had to pause the...
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