Asteroids

Near-Earth asteroid. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Asteroid 2024 YR4: Chances of collision with Earth in 2032 increased to 2.3%

NASA and international scientists are monitoring new data to determine the risk of a collision and potential impacts. Since it is a short-range event, actions to deal with it have already begun. Among other things, China has launched a campaign to recruit experts for the "protection" team.
An asteroid is about to hit Earth. Illustration: depositphotos.com

NASA is tracking a skyscraper-sized asteroid with a 1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032

Asteroid 2024 YR4 has been identified by NASA with a low chance – just over 1% – of colliding with Earth in December 2032. Scientists continue to collect data and refine calculations to assess the true risk.
This artist's impression shows NEO Surveyor in deep space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NEO Surveyor Mission: NASA's Pioneering Planetary Defense Effort

Large asteroids collide with Earth. The illustration was prepared using DALEE and is not a scientific image

Two huge asteroids hit the Earth 35 million years ago - and did not change anything

New research reveals that massive asteroid impacts, which created two of the largest craters on Earth, did not cause long-term climate changes
The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft will perform an acceleration maneuver near Mars and also explore it. Figure: European Space Agency.

The engines of the spacecraft Hera were ignited on its journey towards the asteroid Didymus

Hera - the European Space Agency's asteroid exploration mission will once again reach the asteroid it visited and which was diverted by the DART spacecraft
This image taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope shows Comet Anka moving through its debris orbit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Minnesota

What is the level of risk from the "doomsday" asteroid swarm?

A new study shows that the Taurid swarm contains fewer large asteroids than predicted, so the risk level from it is lower.
El Médano 128 meteorite, a regular chondrite (L group), was found in the Atacama Desert in 2011 by a team of researchers from the Research and Teaching Center for Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE - University of Aix-Marseille/CNRS/INRAE/IRD). Credit: © Jérôme Gatakzka, CNRS, CEREGE

70% of the meteorites that landed on Earth came from a small number of collisions in the asteroid belt

A new study reveals that most of the meteorites on Earth were formed as a result of collisions that occurred in the asteroid belt in the last tens of millions of years. The discovery provides new insights into the origins of meteorites and the possible threat to Earth
An artist's illustration depicts a primordial black hole (left) speeding across the surface of Mars and causing a slight "tremor" in Mars' orbit (right), with the sun in the background. Scientists from MIT claim that such a tremor may be detectable with the instruments available today. Credit: Illustration by Benjamin Lehmann, used with SpaceEngine @ Cosmographic Software LLC.

Dark matter: primordial black holes and the mysterious wobble of Mars' orbit

These holes, which are theoretical remnants of the early universe, may be detectable every decade as they pass through the solar system, offering a new way to study the elusive dark matter
Comet attack on young earth. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mysterious Travelers: Are We Drinking Water Brought by Dark Comets?

Could asteroids, which are remnants of comets, be one of the main sources of water on Earth?
The preplanetary disk around the young star HL Tauri. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NSF

Target board or donut? Iron meteorites reveal the early form of our solar system

The formation of our solar system involved the accretion of gas and dust into a preplanetary disk, with meteorites providing important insights into its early composition.
Spacecraft satellites and space debris in orbit around the Earth. Illustration: depositphotos.com

New algorithms will make it possible to increase the warning before a dangerous collision in space and at sea

The space between the Earth and the Moon is going to become extremely crowded during the next 10 years. With NASA's planned missions in the Artemis program and other countries participating in the space race in this region, there is a lot of interest
Hubble Space Telescope image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158. The majestic galaxy has a pinwheel shape consisting of bright blue stars surrounding a yellow-white concentration of central stars. This concentration has a diagonal line of stars across it, called a bar. The galaxy is tilted inward to our view from Earth. A white S-shaped line slightly across the top is the Hubble image of an asteroid hovering across the field of view.. It looks dashed because the image is a composite of several exposures of the asteroid flying like a race car. Credit: NASA, ESA, PG Martín (Autonomous University of Madrid), J. DePasquale (STScI). Credits: A. Filippenko (University of California, Berkeley)

Discovering new asteroids in old Hubble images

Astronomers re-examined 37,000 images taken by Hubble over 19 years of objects in deep space. The reward was finding 1701 asteroid orbits in the asteroid belt, of which 1031 are uncatalogued asteroids. About 400 of the asteroids are not
Illustration of the crater created during the collision between the DART spacecraft and the Dimorphos asteroid. In the background: the European HERA spacecraft and its nanosatellites (CubeSats) in follow-up research. Credit: ESA Science Office

repel the asteroid

Technion researchers are partners in the HERA space mission: first attempt in history to divert an asteroid from its orbit
The sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after it landed in the desert, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense Test and Training Range in Utah. (Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber)

NASA's OSIRIS-REx capsule containing asteroid soil samples has landed safely in Utah and been moved to a clean room

The Osiris-Rex probe returns to Earth small samples of the asteroid Beno, a "real small world" for analysis
This figure illustrates how an interstellar object is rapidly approaching our solar system. Ejected from its home planet system long ago, the object traveled through interstellar space for billions of years before passing briefly in our cosmic neighborhood. The Robin Observatory will reveal many of these unknown interstellar visitors.

Visitors from distant stars: The Rubin Observatory will detect a multitude of interstellar objects moving through our solar system

The Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will revolutionize solar system science by discovering a population of previously undiscovered interstellar comets and asteroids passing through the neighborhood
Artist illustration of asteroid 16 Psyche Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

The precious metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche may not be a solid lump of metal after all but a pile of rocks

The researchers based their work on previous observational data that showed the asteroid is primarily a mixture of three components: metal, low-iron pyroxene and carbonaceous chondrite. A laboratory experiment led the researchers to the conclusion that density
A photograph of the Beno asteroid from the cameras of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, from an altitude of about 80 km. Photo: NASA

NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft arrives at asteroid 'Beno'

The asteroid Florence and its two small moons, in a different and detailed photo taken by the radar of the Arecibo Observatory. Source: NAICObservatory/NASA.

Greetings from Florence

Israeli researchers propose a hypothesis that the Trojan asteroids of Mars were formed as a result of a giant collision. Image: pixabay.

What is the origin of the Martian Trojan asteroids?

A visualization showing Nas' two new missions - Lucy and Seiki.

Meet Lucy and Seiki: NASA's New Space Missions

Imaging of the Osiris-Rex probe collecting a sample from the Bennu asteroid. Source: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

A seven-year journey to retrieve sixty grams of an asteroid

Jupiter - shutterstock rendering of an original NASA image

A small blow to a large planet

The dwarf planet's surface has collapsed as photographed by the orbiting DAWN spacecraft. The white substance inside the crater is a type of salt. Photo: NASA

The mystery of Cress is solved

Illustration of the meteorite impact that caused the unique double crater in Sweden. Credit: Don Dixon/Erik Sturkell/University of Gothenburg

For the first time, a double impact crater was found on Earth

The asteroid Chariklo. ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)

Rings were discovered around an asteroid for the first time

An asteroid that looks like a sprinkler with six comet tails. Photo. NASA

Asteroid - sprinkler with six tails

Another angle of view of the meteor that hit Russia on Friday, 15/2/2013, from a YouTube video

Prevent the next Chelyabinsk / John Mattson

Astronomer David Levy. From Wikipedia

Asteroid by the Hebrew University

The asteroid belt - from Wikipedia

Asteroids with unusual properties

Asteroid Ida and its moon Dactyl, as photographed by the Galileo spacecraft

Asteroids with moons

Asteroid Lutetia as imaged by the Rosetta spacecraft on July 10, 2010

The asteroid Lutetia - summary of findings

Asteroid Vesta as imaged by the DAWN spacecraft on July 18, 2011

Today and night in asteroid Vesta

Asteroid Lutetia as imaged by the Rosetta spacecraft on July 10, 2010

Rosetta made a flyby of the asteroid Lutetia

Imaging of the Rosetta spacecraft near asteroid Steins, 2008. Image: European Space Agency

Survey of minerals in asteroids