Asteroid

Scientists are hopeful that fragments from a 4.5-billion-year-old space rock will reveal the origins of our existence.

About 5 and a 1/2 years from now, astronomers predict, an asteroid about as wide as the Empire State Building is tall will streak through space within 20,000 miles (32,200 kms) of Earth, the closest any celestial object of that size will have come to our planet in modern history.

With its first flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh, Lucy discovered it is not one single asteroid, but a system of two, with a small 220m-wide satellite spinning around it.

The fine dust that was flung high into atmosphere eclipsed the sun's rays, preventing plants from carrying out photosynthesis.

The asteroid was first discovered in 2016, and research began on it in 2021. The results were published this month.

There are more samples to collect, however, the teams at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) are now struggling to open the canister.

Brad Tucker, an astronomer from the Australian National University, said that the sound was likely due to the breaking apart of a basketball-size asteroid.

The image shows a canister, which is a gray metal cylinder. Inside, dark, powdery asteroid sample material can be seen.

NASA on Friday launched a spacecraft from Florida on its way to Psyche, the largest of the several metal-rich asteroids known in our solar system and a body thought to be the remnant core of an ancient protoplanet.

NASA on Wednesday gave the public a first glimpse of what scientists found inside a sealed capsule that was returned to Earth last month carrying a carbon-rich soil sample scooped from an asteroid's surface, including water-bearing clay minerals. A small quantity of the material collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft three years ago from the near-E...

A sample of rock and dust retrieved from the asteroid Bennu contains water and carbon molecules, both building blocks for life as we know it, NASA chief Bill Nelson said Wednesday.

NASA is set to reveal on Wednesday the first images of the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, something scientists hope will yield clues about the earliest days of our solar system and perhaps the origins of life itself.

The Psyche spacecraft is targeted to travel to the asteroid using solar-electric (low-thrust) propulsion, following a Mars flyby and gravity assist.

The goal of the mission is to study this space rock in great detail as it can tell us more about planetary cores and Earth's own formation.

NASA scientists are keeping a close eye on asteroid Bennu, a 1,610-foot-wide cosmic object that could smash into our planet 159 years from now.

Scientists are hopeful that fragments from a 4.5-billion-year-old space rock will reveal the origins of our existence.

About 5 and a 1/2 years from now, astronomers predict, an asteroid about as wide as the Empire State Building is tall will streak through space within 20,000 miles (32,200 kms) of Earth, the closest any celestial object of that size will have come to our planet in modern history.

With its first flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh, Lucy discovered it is not one single asteroid, but a system of two, with a small 220m-wide satellite spinning around it.

The fine dust that was flung high into atmosphere eclipsed the sun's rays, preventing plants from carrying out photosynthesis.

The asteroid was first discovered in 2016, and research began on it in 2021. The results were published this month.

There are more samples to collect, however, the teams at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) are now struggling to open the canister.

Brad Tucker, an astronomer from the Australian National University, said that the sound was likely due to the breaking apart of a basketball-size asteroid.

The image shows a canister, which is a gray metal cylinder. Inside, dark, powdery asteroid sample material can be seen.

NASA on Friday launched a spacecraft from Florida on its way to Psyche, the largest of the several metal-rich asteroids known in our solar system and a body thought to be the remnant core of an ancient protoplanet.

NASA on Wednesday gave the public a first glimpse of what scientists found inside a sealed capsule that was returned to Earth last month carrying a carbon-rich soil sample scooped from an asteroid's surface, including water-bearing clay minerals. A small quantity of the material collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft three years ago from the near-E...

A sample of rock and dust retrieved from the asteroid Bennu contains water and carbon molecules, both building blocks for life as we know it, NASA chief Bill Nelson said Wednesday.

NASA is set to reveal on Wednesday the first images of the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, something scientists hope will yield clues about the earliest days of our solar system and perhaps the origins of life itself.

The Psyche spacecraft is targeted to travel to the asteroid using solar-electric (low-thrust) propulsion, following a Mars flyby and gravity assist.

The goal of the mission is to study this space rock in great detail as it can tell us more about planetary cores and Earth's own formation.

NASA scientists are keeping a close eye on asteroid Bennu, a 1,610-foot-wide cosmic object that could smash into our planet 159 years from now.