Items tagged with asteroid
A new study indicates that a giant tsunami caused by an asteroid impact played a large role in the extinction of many of the dinosaurs. The miles-wide asteroid that impacted Earth an estimated 66 million years ago took out nearly all the dinosaurs and about three-quarters of the planet's plant and animal species...
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For the first time ever, NASA's Webb and Hubble space telescopes captured the same celestial target at the same time. The two observatories had front row seats as the space agency's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) slammed into asteroid Dimorphos earlier this week.
Webb and Hubble images have been used in...
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NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully met its fate, as it crashed into asteroid Dimorphos. The spacecraft was also able to capture some amazing images just before impact as well.
In the closing hours of September 26, 2022, the world's first planetary defense technology demonstration met its...
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NASA's DART mission is nearing its final destination later today, as the spacecraft will slam into asteroid Dimorphos in hopes of changing its speed and path. You will be able to follow along tonight as the space agency will be sharing a live feed from the spacecraft, as well as a post-impact press briefing.
DART...
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NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has captured its first images of its deep space target. The journeyed spacecraft is on a mission to crash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos, in order to collect data on a spacecraft being used to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense.
While...
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This weekend will provide avid astronomers with a parade of asteroids zipping past Earth. In fact, there will be a total of five airplane-sized asteroids joining the procession between Saturday and Monday.
Just last month, a bus-sized asteroid made its way past Earth on Asteroid Day, the anniversary of the 1908...
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NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft came upon an unsettling circumstance when it attempted to retrieve a sample from asteroid Bennu back in 2020. After analyzing data gathered by its instruments, the team was astonished to ascertain that the spacecraft would have sunk into Bennu had it not fired its thrusters to back away...
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An asteroid the size of a bus made a nearby pass of Earth yesterday. Asteroid 2022 NF's flyby was broadcast live by The Virtual Telescope Project, and you can watch the replay below.
Asteroid Day is in remembrance of the anniversary of the June 30, 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia, which resulted in seismic...
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NASA partook in an international exercise to test the operational readiness of limiting, or preventing, global destruction from an incoming asteroid. The exercise included 100 participants from 18 countries, including NASA scientists and the space agency's NEOWISE mission.
While there are not any known asteroid...
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A scene from the 90’s classics Armageddon or Deep Impact is unlikely to happen in real life any time soon (thankfully since we don't have the tech to save Earth from a doomsday event). Nevertheless, a handful of rather big asteroids have zipped by the Earth this past week. One of these large asteroids will be...
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An Earth Trojan asteroid has been confirmed by scientists, and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. The asteroid is more than a kilometer wide and is only the second known of its kind orbiting along with Earth around the Sun, and is the bigger of the two.
Scientists in Chile using the SOAR...
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As NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) marches on toward a collision with asteroid Dimorphos, researchers are not waiting for its results to save Earth from a potential doomsday event. Some even suggest that new research indicates that we already have the technology to prevent a "Don't Look Up" type...
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On January 18th, a 1km-wide (.62mi) asteroid will zip by Earth. Although it will be a relatively close encounter, there is nothing to fear as the giant hunk of rock will pass 1.9 million miles from our pale blue planet, which is roughly seven times the distance to the moon. However, what is interesting about this...
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A gigantic space rock with a diameter exceeding 1 kilometer will zoom past Earth next week at a breakneck speed of 70,415 kilometers per hour (43,754 miles per hour). It will be its closest to our home planet on January 18 at precisely 4:41pm ET, though don't worry, 'close' by NASA and astronomy standards is very...
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NASA is 'Psyched' as preparations to explore a wild metallic asteroid nears launch in the Summer of 2022. It will be the first time NASA has explored a world not made primarily of rock or ice, but of metal.
NASA's Christmas day launch of the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captivated those who...
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Samples that were collected from the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission were received just over one year ago back here on Earth. Scientists have been busy trying to unlock some mysteries to the origin of our Solar System ever since.
Space agencies and scientists have been searching for clues to unlock the origin story of...
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NASA recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection using a kinetic impactor. Teams at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are keeping a constant eye on DART, and NASA has even provided "Eyes on Asteroids" that gives everyone the ability to do the...
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An asteroid that is roughly the size of the Eiffel Tower is nearing Earth's orbit this month. The giant space rock is also estimated to be comprised of precious metals worth nearly $5 billion dollars.
It has been less than a month since NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which is sending a...
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NASA's DART mission launched early this morning as it travels through space in order to slam into an asteroid. The hope is that the data collected will provide scientists with an answer on how to avert an Armageddon type event in the future.
Humankind has pondered the thoughts of what a large asteroid slamming into...
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The thought of an asteroid hurtling through space, slamming into Earth and annihilating humankind has enamored the imagination of more than a few filmmakers and astronomers through the years. Well, NASA has been thinking about the possibility too, and may have a plan to try and avert any such disaster.
When someone...
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Figuring out how the planets formed in our solar system billions of years ago is one of many questions that still perplexes modern science. To try and answer this question, NASA has now launched a nearly $1 billion, 12-year-long mission deep in our solar system near Jupiter to look at the the Trojan asteroids. These...
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Global warming, nuclear warfare, and a new plague are potential ways that the human race can come to an end, to name just a few. Or an asteroid could barrel into our home planet and leave in its wake mass destruction, causing an extinction event. It's the thing of science fiction, but also real-life. In fact, a rock...
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