Asteroid Mission

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  NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission Finds Stardust in Asteroid Bennu Older Than the Solar System

  NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has found presolar stardust grains inside Bennu’s samples. These tiny particles, older than the Sun, carry chemical fingerprints of ancient stars and interstellar space. Bennu thus serves as a pristine time capsule, preserving the earliest clues to the birth of our solar system.

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  Life In Asteroid Belt? New Research Suggests Ceres Was Once Habitable

  A new study based on data from NASA's Dawn mission suggests that Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, may have been capable of supporting single-celled life billions of years ago.

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  China’s Tianwen 2 Probe Snaps Striking Views of Earth and Moon While En Route to Asteroid

  China’s Tianwen 2 spacecraft, now millions of kilometers from Earth, captured distant images of Earth and the moon as it journeys to asteroid Kamo'oalewa. Set to collect samples by 2026 and return them in 2027, the mission could reveal insights into the solar system’s formation—before continuing on to a second deep-space target, comet 311P/PA...

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  Massive Boulders Ejected by DART Mission Could Complicate Future Asteroid Deflection

  NASA’s DART mission successfully deflected an asteroid but also unleashed high-velocity boulders with unexpected momentum. These chaotic ejecta may alter asteroid spin and orbit, complicating future deflection strategies. A new study highlights the importance of accounting for such forces in planetary defence. ESA’s Hera mission will further in...

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  Watch: NASA Mission Captures First Close Look At Peanut-Shaped Asteroid

  NASA has released the first-ever high-resolution image of the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, highlighting its unique peanut shape.

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  China's Tianwen 2 Sends Stunning Images Of Earth And Moon From Deep Space: See Pics

  The mission aims to collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 and explore the main-belt comet 311P.

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  China Launches First Mission To Retrieve Asteroid Samples For Research

  China launches Tianwen-2 on Thursday from the Xichang launch site, on the country's first mission to retrieve samples from an asteroid.

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  Asteroid Vesta May Be a Fragment of a Lost Planet, Say Scientists

  Vesta, once believed to be a stalled protoplanet, may be a fragment of a long-lost differentiated planet. Using refined gravity data from NASA’s Dawn mission, scientists found it lacks a dense core, suggesting it was ejected during a primordial impact. This revised view may apply to other asteroids and reshape planetary formation theories.

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  NASA’s Psyche Mission Encounters Pressure Drop, Backup Systems on Standby

  NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, en route to a metal-rich asteroid, paused its thrusters after detecting a drop in xenon gas pressure. Engineers are investigating the issue while keeping the mission on track. Psyche will fly by Mars in 2026 before entering asteroid orbit in 2029.

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  NASA Shares Planetary Defense Strategy to Protect Earth From Potential Asteroid Strikes

  NASA and international scientists closely tracked asteroid 2024 YR4, which initially showed a rare 3 percent collision probability with Earth. Although the threat has now diminished, the incident highlights the importance of asteroid surveillance, open data, and upcoming space missions like NEO Surveyor.

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  NASA Partners With SpaceX To Launch NEO Surveyor, a Mission To Detect Asteroid Threats

  NASA has selected SpaceX for the launch of its NEO Surveyor spacecraft in 2027. The mission, valued at $100 million, will use a Falcon 9 rocket to deploy the spacecraft to the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1. The infrared telescope will help detect and track hazardous near-Earth objects, including difficult-to-spot dark asteroids. This mission builds on...

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  UCLA Unveils SPLITTER, a Tethered Jumping Robot for Space Exploration

  Researchers at UCLA’s RoMeLa lab have developed SPLITTER, a robotic system designed for planetary exploration through tethered jumping. The system consists of two quadrupedal robots connected by a tether, allowing efficient movement in low-gravity environments like the Moon and asteroids. Unlike traditional rovers, SPLITTER’s design enables sta...

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  Tesla Roadster Mistakenly Classified as Near-Earth Asteroid

  A recent error by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) mistakenly classified Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster as a near-Earth asteroid. The object, launched into space aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy in 2018, was briefly listed in the MPC’s database before the error was identified and corrected within hours. This incident highlights growing concerns about the ...

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  Bennu Asteroid Sample Reveals Organic Compounds That May Hint at Life Beyond Earth

  NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has delivered a sample from asteroid Bennu, revealing amino acids, nucleobases, ammonia, and minerals formed in saltwater. These organic compounds, vital to life, suggest that the building blocks for life might have existed in other regions of the early solar system. The discovery of evaporite minerals, including halite ...

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  Seismic Data from NASA’s InSight Might Solve the Mystery of Mars’ Dichotomy

  NASA’s InSight mission has provided seismic data shedding light on the Martian dichotomy, the split between Mars’ northern lowlands and southern highlands. Findings from the mantle’s seismic wave analysis suggest the split stems from ancient tectonic activity and magma dynamics, rather than asteroid impacts. Variations in crust thickness and ...