Tag Archive for 'Asteroid'

This artist’s impression shows 2004 EW95, the first carbon-rich asteroid confirmed to exist in the Kuiper Belt and a relic of the primordial Solar System. 2004 EW95 likely formed in the main asteroid belt and has been flung billions of miles from its origin to its current home in the Kuiper Belt. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Find First Carbon-Rich Asteroid in Kuiper Belt: 2004 EW95

May 9, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that a small Kuiper Belt object called 2004 EW95 is a carbonaceous (carbon-rich) asteroid — the first...

Gaia’s all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighboring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars. Brighter regions indicate denser concentrations of especially bright stars, while darker regions correspond to patches of the sky where fewer bright stars are observed. The color representation is obtained by combining the total amount of light with the amount of blue and red light recorded by Gaia in each patch of the sky. The bright horizontal structure that dominates the image is the Galactic plane, the flattened disc that hosts most of the stars in our home Galaxy. In the middle of the image, the Galactic center appears vivid and teeming with stars. Darker regions across the Galactic plane correspond to foreground clouds of interstellar gas and dust, which absorb the light of stars located further away, behind the clouds. Many of these conceal stellar nurseries where new generations of stars are being born. Sprinkled across the image are also many globular and open clusters -- groupings of stars held together by their mutual gravity, as well as entire galaxies beyond our own. The two bright objects in the lower right of the image are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. In small areas of the image where no color information was available -- to the lower left of the Galactic center, to the upper left of the Small Magellanic Cloud, and in the top portion of the map -- an equivalent grayscale value was assigned. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC.

ESA’s Gaia Mission Releases Catalog of Nearly 1.7 Billion Stars

Apr 26, 2018 by News Staff

ESA’s Gaia mission has released the largest catalogue ever of Milky Way stars. It includes the positions on the sky for approximately 1.7 billion stars,...

The Almahata Sitta meteorite. Image credit: Peter Jenniskens.

Diamond-Bearing ‘Almahata Sitta’ Meteorites Came from Long-Lost Protoplanet

Apr 19, 2018 by News Staff

The Almahata Sitta meteorites — diamond-bearing space rock fragments that rained down on the Nubian Desert in Sudan in 2008 — are remnants...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Radio Astronomers Check Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua for FM Band Signals

Apr 10, 2018 by News Staff

A highly-elongated metallic or rocky object — known as 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua — came from another star system, prompting speculation it could...

Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Scholz’s Star Disturbed Oort Cloud Objects 70,000 Years Ago

Mar 21, 2018 by Natali Anderson

About 70,000 years ago, a binary stellar system called ‘Scholz’s star’ passed within only 52,000 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun, i.e., within...

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Had Violent Past, Say Researchers

Feb 12, 2018 by News Staff

1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, the first asteroid of extrasolar origin identified in our Solar System, has had a violent past which is causing it to tumble around...

(3122) Florence will pass safely by Earth on September 1, at a distance of about 4.4 million miles. Image credit: University of Colorado.

Two Asteroids Flew Safely Past Earth This Week

Feb 9, 2018 by News Staff

2018 CC and 2018 CB — two small asteroids recently discovered by NASA-funded astronomers — safely flew past our planet this week. This is an...

Asteroid 2016 HO3 has an orbit around the Sun that keeps it as a constant companion of our planet. This is an artist’s impression of an asteroid. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

Intermediate-Sized Asteroid to Safely Pass Earth Next Month

Jan 22, 2018 by News Staff

An intermediate-sized asteroid discovered sixteen years ago will fly safely past Earth on February 4, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. EST (1:30 p.m. PST, 21:30 UTC). This...

A salt crystal recovered from the Zag meteorite. Image credit: Queenie Chan, Open University.

Scientists Find Primordial Organic Matter in Two Meteorites

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, UK and Japan has found liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds in 4.5-billion-year-old salt crystals...

Main-belt asteroids 29 Amphitrite, 324 Bamberga, 2 Pallas, and 89 Julia. Image credit: Vernazza et al / ESO.

ESO’s Planet Hunter Spots Four Massive Main-Belt Asteroids

Dec 28, 2017 by News Staff

ESO’s Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument, installed on the Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in...

These colorized radar images show the near-Earth asteroid Phaethon. At time of closest approach on December 16, 2017, Phaethon was about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km) away. The encounter is the closest the asteroid will come to Earth until 2093. Image credit: Arecibo Observatory / NASA / NSF.

Astronomers Obtain Images of Near-Earth Asteroid Phaethon

Dec 26, 2017 by News Staff

A sequence of radar images of the near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon was obtained in December 2017 by astronomers using the NASA-funded planetary radar...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Breakthrough Listen: No Artificial Signals Found Emanating from Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen initiative are reporting preliminary results and making initial data available from its observations of 1I/2017...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: Joy Pollard / Gemini Observatory / AURA / NSF.

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Has Grayish-Red Organic-Rich Surface Layer, Astronomers Say

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

In October 2017, astronomers made a surprising discovery with the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawai’i — 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, the first asteroid...

Breakthrough Listen Initiative to Observe First Interstellar Asteroid

Dec 12, 2017 by News Staff

The Breakthrough Listen initiative — the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of alien civilizations — announced...

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua is Dark Red, Highly-Elongated Rocky or Metallic Object, Astronomers Say

Nov 21, 2017 by News Staff

In October 2017, astronomers were surprised by an asteroid that came racing into our Solar System from interstellar space. Now, they have determined that...

A/2017 U1 (center). Image credit: Paulo Holvorcem & Michael Schwartz, Tenagra Observatories.

Astronomers Spot Interstellar Object in Our Solar System: A/2017 U1

Oct 29, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers think they’ve spotted an asteroid (or perhaps a comet) in the Solar System that came from interstellar space. A/2017...

Itokawa’s curious, varied terrain and lack of impact craters indicate it is a rubble pile asteroid. Image credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Asteroid Itokawa Had Violent Past, Planetary Researchers Say

Oct 26, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

New research has shed light on the collisional history of one of the most famous asteroids. Itokawa’s curious, varied terrain and lack of impact craters...

IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 drilled into the subsurface Chicxulub peak ring at borehole M0077A (red dot), which was about 30 km northwest of Progreso and the north shore of the Yucatán Peninsula. The blue circle represents the approximate diameter of the 180-200-km subsurface impact structure. The gravity signature of the structure and locations of other drilling sites are shown in the inset. The only two sites with continuous core are the ICDP Yaxcopoil-1 (Yax-1) and IODP-ICDP M0077A boreholes. Other boreholes are Yucatán-1 (Y1), Yucatán-2 (Y2), Yucatán-6 (Y6), Chicxulub-1 (C1), Sacapuc-1 (S1), and Ticul-1 (T1). Image credit: Kring et al, doi: 10.1130/GSATG352A.1.

Geologists Return from Expedition to Chicxulub Impact Crater

Oct 25, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Chicxulub crater is the only well-preserved peak-ring crater on Earth and linked to the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, an event 65 million years...

2012 TC4 appears as a dot at the center of this composite image of 37 individual 50-second exposures obtained with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2012. The asteroid is marked with a circle for a better identification. Image credit: ESO / ESA NEOCC / Olivier Hainaut, ESO / Marco Micheli, ESA / Detlef Koschny, ESA.

Small Asteroid 2012 TC4 to Whiz Safely by Earth This Week

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

Back in October 2012, a small (45-100 feet, or 15-30 m) asteroid known as 2012 TC4 had a close encounter with Earth. It passed our planet at a distance...

Large, smooth areas on Vesta correlated with higher concentrations of hydrogen. Image credit: Elizabeth Palmer / Essam Heggy.

Dawn Data Provide New Evidence for Ground Ice on Asteroid Vesta

Sep 22, 2017 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, researchers have found new evidence for the occurrence of ground ice on Vesta, the second largest asteroid of...

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