Items tagged with asteroid
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Tim Sweezy - Sat, Sep 23, 2023
NASA is making slight adjustments to the flight path of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which is scheduled to deliver a sample capsule from Bennu, an asteroid the size of the Empire State Building, back to Earth. The final correction maneuvers...
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Tim Sweezy - Thu, Sep 07, 2023
NASA is currently tracking five bus and airplane-sized asteroids that are expected to make close approaches to Earth this week. The near-Earth events come just ahead of the space agency's Psyche mission, which will launch next month and...
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Tim Sweezy - Wed, Aug 09, 2023
A retired technical fellow has devised a method for restructuring an asteroid into a large rotating space station. David Jensen says the project could be completed in as little as 12 years with a single rocket launch containing a base...
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Tim Sweezy - Wed, Aug 02, 2023
A relatively new algorithm designed to discover asteroids has spotted its first space rock—a 600-foot-long asteroid classified as potentially hazardous (don't worry, it's not going to smash into Earth). The algorithm was designed to be...
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Tim Sweezy - Sat, Jul 22, 2023
NASA has reported that the DART spacecraft left a swarm of boulders in its wake after slamming into asteroid Dimorphos back in September of last year. The space agency describes what the asteroid is currently up to with the song "Shake...
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Tim Sweezy - Fri, Jul 21, 2023
NASA engineers and technicians are performing some of the final preparations for the Psyche spacecraft before its liftoff which is scheduled for October 5, 2023. Teams are working around the clock at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to make sure...
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Tim Sweezy - Wed, Jul 19, 2023
Scientists propose that antiglitch/glitch and fast radio bursts (FRBs) might be tied to a tidally captured asteroid by a magnetar. The model the scientists have created indicates an asteroid being tidally captured and disrupted by Galactic...
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Tim Sweezy - Sat, Jul 15, 2023
A lady from a village in Alsace in east France shared her story about being rudely interrupted as she sipped on her coffee when something hit her on the chest, what she believes was a small meteorite fragment.. The lady says the small...
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Tim Sweezy - Sun, Jun 25, 2023
An asteroid roughly the size of a house will be making a nearby flyby of Earth tonight. Asteroid 2023 MU2 will be able to be viewed zipping by our home planet via a live feed later today.
2023 MU2 was actually only discovered on June...
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Tim Sweezy - Sun, Jun 18, 2023
NASA has reported that two asteroids 100-feet (30-meters) or larger are making their closest approach to Earth today, June 18, 2023. The larger of the two asteroids is estimated to be 110-feet (34-meters), or roughly around the size of...
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Tim Sweezy - Thu, Jun 08, 2023
After deciding to delay a mission to send a spacecraft to asteroid Psyche last summer, an independently appointed review board has given NASA and the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) the green light to carry on. NASA and JPL...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, Jun 06, 2023
A potentially hazardous asteroid the size of the Empire State Building is hurtling toward Earth and you can watch its near approach live. Asteroid 1994 XD is expected to pass by at a distance of just eight times the distance of Earth from...
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Tim Sweezy - Thu, Jun 01, 2023
A newly discovered asteroid has been detected and is said to be a quasi-moon, or fake moon, of Earth. The fake moon is actually asteroid 2023 FW13 and orbits the Sun in sync with Earth. Its orbit extends so far that "it sweeps out halfway...
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Tim Sweezy - Fri, May 26, 2023
The bright light from a meteor streaking across the night sky caught the attention of onlookers across north Queensland, before crashing into the ground creating a thundering boom. The spectacle was caught by various cameras throughout the...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, May 16, 2023
Scientists took NASA's Webb telescope on a treasure hunt in the asteroid belt, and ended up finding as many questions as answers. Solar system scientists identified water vapor on Comet Read, an important clue in solving how water came...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, May 09, 2023
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) snapped an image of a nearby young star, Formalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt seen in infrared outside our own solar system. Astronomers were stunned when they found the dusty...
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Tim Sweezy - Mon, May 08, 2023
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shared details about five asteroids that will make close approaches to Earth during the month of May. Asteroid 2023 JD will make the closest approach to Earth, at a distance of 821,000 miles (1,320,000...
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Tim Sweezy - Fri, Apr 21, 2023
NASA's Lucy mission captured its first images of Trojan asteroids in late March. The four Jupiter Trojan asteroids the spacecraft viewed were Eurybates, Polymele, Leucus, and Orus.
Most of Lucy's target asteroids, called "Trojans" after...
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Tim Sweezy - Fri, Mar 24, 2023
Researchers have found RNA nucleobases in samples retrieved from asteroid Ryugu. The samples were collected by the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which harvested the samples in 2019 before returning to Earth in 2020.
An...
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Tim Sweezy - Thu, Mar 23, 2023
A 200-foot asteroid is on course to pass Earth at a distance closer than the moon. Asteroid 2023 DZ2 will make its near-Earth flyby just before 4pm EST on March 25, 2023.
2023 DZ2 is currently estimated to have a diameter of 210 feet...
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Tim Sweezy - Tue, Mar 21, 2023
Satellite data suggests that Earth could be at a higher risk of a giant asteroid impact than previously thought. The data may indicate that scientists have been misreading traces of past asteroid strikes that have occurred in the past...
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Tim Sweezy - Thu, Mar 09, 2023
NASA is tracking a new asteroid the size of a swimming pool that has a 1 in 600 chance of impacting Earth. It is estimated to make its closest approach to Earth on Valentine's Day in the year 2046.
NASA Asteroid Watch's Twitter account...
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