Compared to other bodies in our Solar System, Earth’s moon isn’t particularly huge. However, its relatively small size belies one of its most interesting features, which is a colossal crater measuring over 1,500 miles across. Now, researchers believe the crater, which forms a huge basin on the far side of the Moon near its south …
Astronomers eager to observe bizarre visitors to our neck of the Solar System were in for a real treat late last month as the rare double asteroid 1999 KW4 made a “close” pass of Earth at a distance of some 3.2 million miles. It was far enough away that the space rock didn’t have a …
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has already accomplished a lot since arriving at the space rock known as Bennu late last year. The spacecraft successfully entered orbit around the asteroid, scanned its surface with a laser, and learned a lot about its surface. But its mission is far from over, and eventually, the probe will need to …
Most space rocks that pass nearby Earth are solo travelers making their way around the Sun and slipping past our planet as they do so. Asteroid 1999 KW4, which will make a distant pass of Earth on May 25th, is quite a bit different. The large primary body of the object is thought to be …
If Earth were ever to be threatened by a large space rock — and it definitely will at some point in the future — humanity is going to need to have a plan. Astronomers know this, which is why simulated exercises like the one that took place last week are so important, but actually testing …
Some of the world’s top scientists and disaster response teams spent a big chunk of last week simulating what might happen if a large asteroid were headed straight for Earth. The idea was to see if mankind could find a way to prevent a deadly impact if we had something like eight years to prepare …
Roughly a decade from now, a rather sizable space rock is going to have a very close encounter with Earth — on Friday the 13th, no less. On April 13th, 2029, the asteroid known as Apophis will pass by Earth at a distance of just 19,000 miles. For a bit of context, the Moon is …
Nothing would excite astronomers more than to discover a planet somewhere out there with obvious signs of life, but it just hasn’t happened yet. Earth, we think, is pretty special in its ability to foster life, and as far as we know there’s a few things that are vital for life to exist, one of …
For years, big budget science fiction flicks have shown us highly stylized end-of-the-world scenarios involving asteroids. Sometimes the heroes have a plan to avert disaster, and sometimes they don’t, but you can bet that if (more like when) a rogue space rock eventually threatens humans lives, NASA will be on top of it. This week, …
Earlier this month, Japan’s space agency JAXA launched an explosive projectile at the space rock known as Ryugu from its Hayabusa2 asteroid probe. Japan wanted to blow a crater into the surface of the rock in order to collect some samples of the material lying underneath, and early observations suggested it nailed its mark as …
