Earlier this month, NASA revealed the final four would-be landing spots for its OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe. The locations, known as Nightingale, Kingfisher, Osprey, and Sandpiper, represented the areas of the asteroid where the probe would have the best chance at touching down, snagging a sample, and then returning to orbit around the speeding space rock. …
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe has been hanging around the space rock named Bennu for roughly a year now, and it’s observed some interesting things over the past 12 months. The primary goal of the mission is to retrieve a sample of asteroid material and then return to Earth where scientists can study it up close. …
NASA started off the year strong with big news from its OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe. In early January, NASA celebrated the successful insertion of the probe in an orbit around the space rock known as Bennu. The year since that milestone has been filled with interesting observations and a whole lot of lovely photos, but one …
Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid probe has already accomplished a lot. The spacecraft successfully traveled to its target, a space rock known as Ryugu, where it entered orbit and completed some daring sample-gathering maneuvers. Earlier this month, the probe departed from the asteroid and today it begins its journey back to Earth. As Space.com reports, Hayabusa2 recently …
The Japanese space program JAXA has accomplished a lot in 2019. After successfully guiding its asteroid probe Hayabusa2 to the space rock known as Ryugu in late 2018, the team of scientists working on the mission pulled off a number of potentially dangerous stunts, including firing projectiles at the asteroid in order to collect samples. …
Earlier this year, NASA’s New Horizons probe visited a very special space rock. It was a momentous occasion, especially since the rock turned out to be two distinct objects that drifted together over time, making it look like a sort of space snowman. At the time, the object was known as Ultima Thule, but it’s …
A large space rock known to scientists as 481394 (2006 SF6) will make its closest approach to Earth in just a couple of weeks. NASA scientists believe it will pass our lively little sphere on November 20th, coming within 0.029 astronomical units of Earth. That’s close enough that NASA considers the rock to be a …
The Hayabusa2 probe arrived at the space rock known as Ryugu in June of last year. It was launched by Japan’s space agency JAXA, and during its many months in orbit around the asteroid it’s accomplished a lot. It’s taken photos, fired projectiles into the rock, and snatched samples that will eventually be studied back …
When a colossal space rock came crashing down 66 million years ago onto what is now the Yucatan Penninsula in Mexico, it triggered widespread changes on Earth and abruptly ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Now, researchers are focusing on learning the extent of the asteroid’s destructive might and the immediate aftermath at ground zero, …
One of the great things about having powerful observational tools to scan the heavens is that we have a good chance of spotting potential planet-killing asteroids before they actually get here. The other side of that coin is that scientists keeping an eye on possible threats have to sift through lots and lots of space …
