Tag Archives: Asteroid

If an asteroid is on a collision course with the moon, what should humanity do? Try to nudge the space rock out of the way before it strikes? Obliterate it with a nuclear explosion? Those are the questions explored in a recent paper from more than a dozen researchers, including several NASA scientists. And they’re not purely hypothetical: An asteroid …

The asteroid belt is found orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and is a vast collection of rocks that is thought to be a planet that never formed. When our Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago, the material in this region should have coalesced into a planet, however, Jupiter’s gravitational influence prevented this from happening, stirring up the region so …

The asteroid belt is found orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and is a vast collection of rocks that is thought to be a planet that never formed. When our Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago, the material in this region should have coalesced into a planet. However, Jupiter’s gravitational influence prevented this from happening, stirring up the region so …

Many celestial objects travel within our solar system, and sometimes they can pose a significant threat to Earth and the Moon. This is the case with asteroid 2024 YR4, which could impact our natural satellite. In response, NASA wants to destroy it with a nuclear charge before it hits its target. Although this scenario seems straight out of a science …

NASA studies plan to destroy asteroid with nuclear bombs before it can hit the Moon  TechSpot Astronomers weigh nuclear option to stop Moon-bound asteroid  Yahoo NASA: Nuclear Explosion Could Save Moon From Asteroid Strike in 2032  ScienceAlert Scientists eye nuclear options as asteroid barrels toward moon  NewsNation We could nuke ‘city killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 before it hits the moon — if we act …

QUICK FACTS Milestone: DART rocket crashes into asteroid moonlet Dimorphos Date: Sept. 26, 2022 at 7:14 p.m. EDT Where: 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth Who: NASA and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory scientists On Sept. 26, 2022, at 7:14 p.m. EDT, NASA smashed a pint-sized spacecraft into an asteroid — and changed the course of both …

The geological features of an oddly shaped asteroid visited by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft now have official names, and like the mission’s moniker, they reflect a focus on early human relatives. Lucy flew by the asteroid, dubbed 52246 Donaldjohanson, on April 20, and the names of the spacecraft and asteroid were far from coincidental. The asteroid is named after Donald Johanson, …

Asteroid 2024 YR4 caused quite a stir last year when it was discovered and originally calculated to have a 3 percent chance of hitting Earth. Since then, models have been refined, and while it no longer has a chance of hitting Earth, it does have a 4 percent chance of hitting the Moon in December 2032. As that time gets …

Researchers have a sci-fi movie plot point as a plan to deal with a “city killer” asteroid on a potential 2032 collision course with the moon. The team, which includes NASA scientists, published a Sept. 15 paper outlining their idea to use nuclear bombs to destroy the 300-foot asteroid named “2024 YR4.” Fans of the 1998 film Armageddon, starring Bruce …

In a plan ripped straight from the script of the 1998 movie “Armageddon,” scientists have suggested a simple, if violent, method of dealing with a troublesome asteroid. Just nuke it. But in this case, it’s not Earth that is the celestial body under threat. And the plan definitely would not require sending Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck on a harrowing …