Tag Archives: Asteroid

The IAU (International Astronomical Union), an international non-governmental research organization and global naming authority for celestial objects, has approved official names for features on Donaldjohanson, an asteroid NASA’s Lucy spacecraft visited on April 20. In a nod to the fossilized inspiration for the names of the asteroid and spacecraft, the IAU’s selections recognize significant sites and discoveries on Earth that …

An asteroid once thought to pose a threat to Earth may be visible to the naked eye for up to two billion people when it safely whizzes past our planet in 2029. “Apophis is a large, 340-meter asteroid that will pass safely past the Earth closer than geosynchronous satellites on April 13, 2029, which happens to be a Friday, because …

A skyscraper-size, “potentially hazardous” asteroid is set to make a close approach to Earth this week — and you can see it zoom past for yourself, either by using a backyard telescope or via a free online livestream. The asteroid, which was discovered earlier this year, was initially predicted to have a slim chance of hitting our planet in 2089 …

Scientists in Japan now believe that liquid water once flowed through the heart of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, after researchers detected something unusual in the samples of the space rock that were returned to our planet five years ago. The surprising findings also have potential implications for how Earth acquired its own water, the researchers say. 162173 Ryugu is a …

A spectacular cosmic encounter is on the horizon as asteroid 2025 FA22 prepares to make a close pass by Earth on September 18, 2025. The asteroid, which is being carefully tracked by NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has already stirred global attention because of its sheer size, potential impact significance, and …

The parent world of asteroid Ryugu, the space rock visited by the Japanese mission Hayabusa2, had flowing water for over a billion years. This was not at all expected when the spacecraft collected and brought back the sample, and it adds to the record of evidence that suggests a much more peculiar early Solar System. The rest of this article …

Today, the near-Earth asteroid known as Ryugu is bone dry. But new research suggests that the half-mile space rock may have once been flowing with liquid water — and crucially, at a period in the solar system’s history far later than when that would have been thought possible.  The findings, published in a new study in the journal Nature, could …

Today, the near-Earth asteroid known as Ryugu is bone dry. But new research suggests that the half-mile space rock may have once been flowing with liquid water — and crucially, at a period in the solar system’s history far later than when that would have been thought possible.  The findings, published in a new study in the journal Nature, could …

The world is set for a once-in-a-decade event as the large and potentially hazardous asteroid 2025 FA22 makes a close approach to Earth. As it does so, the object should be visible to amateur astronomers equipped with small telescopes. 2025 FA22 was discovered on March 29 this year by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS 2) observatory …

Smacking a planet-threatening asteroid comes with big responsibility. If we slam an impactor into an asteroid in exactly the wrong spot, the space rock may pass through a “gravitational keyhole” that actually brings it to Earth — which is exactly what planetary defense scientists and mission planners don’t want to happen. The keyhole is an area in space where the …