After months grappling with the rugged reality of asteroid Bennu’s surface, the team leading NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission has selected four potential sites for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to “tag” its cosmic dance partner. Since its arrival in December 2018, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has mapped the entire asteroid […]
FLASH: A huge asteroid just missed Earth and was not noticed by astronomers until the very last minute. The asteroid seemingly appeared from “out of nowhere,” said Michael Brown, a Melbourne, Australia observational astronomer. NASA estimated the object was 187-427 feet wide and missed Earth by 45,0000 miles this week, less than 1/5 of the […]
The Earth will experience a number of (relatively) close calls in one day, as NASA reports that an alarming total of five asteroids will hurtle towards – but happily not quite at – our planet. READ MORE: Cosmic fender-bender: NASA’s asteroid-hunting probe develops mysterious dent . The Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s […]
An asteroid bigger than the world’s tallest building is set to whizz past the Earth at a speed of 76,000 miles per hour (122,000kph) Sunday night. The space rock, known by the catchy name of ‘2002 AJ129,’ measures up to 0.75 miles (1.2kms) wide. That’s a sight bigger than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the […]
A “potentially hazardous” asteroid, larger than the world’s tallest building, is heading towards Earth at a speed of 76,000 miles per hour. Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will fly past Earth on February 4, coming within 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers) of our planet, according to NASA. Although this is the equivalent of ten times the […]
A 2.7-Mile-Wide Asteroid to Pass by Earth on 1 September This coming Labor Day weekend is set to get off to a stellar start when a 2.7-mile-wide asteroid has a “relatively close encounter” with Earth Friday, 1 September, according to NASA officials. The asteroid, named Florence, will be the largest to pass this close to […]
NASA’s Pictures of Huge Asteroid Passing Earth NASA has released the following images of a large asteroid as it readies to pass by alarmingly close to Earth on 19 April. The administration has been monitoring the space rock, known as 2014 JO25, since it was discovered in May 2014 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky […]
