Tag Archive for 'Asteroid'

This image of 2015 TB145 was generated using radar data collected by the Arecibo Observatory. Image credit: NAIC-Arecibo / NSF.

2015 TB145: Astronomers Capture Radar Images of ‘Halloween Asteroid’

Nov 1, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s 1,000-foot (305-m) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have captured images of a massive asteroid – designated 2015 TB145...

This image shows the asteroid 2015 TB145 (small dot at center) as seen by a telescope at ESA’s Teide Observatory, Tenerife, Canary Islands. Image credit: ESA.

Asteroid 2015 TB145 Will Miss Earth, ESA Scientists Confirm

Oct 28, 2015 by News Staff

The asteroid 2015 TB145 – also known as the Great Pumpkin or the Halloween asteroid – will miss Earth on October 31, a team of scientists at...

This is an artist's impression of a rocky and water-rich asteroid being torn apart by the strong gravity of the white dwarf star GD 61. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

NASA Astronomers Spot ‘Great Pumpkin’ Asteroid: 2015 TB145

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

An asteroid, designated 2015 TB145, will safely pass Earth on October 31 at 1:05 p.m. EDT (10:05 a.m. PDT, 17:05 UTC) by about 300,000 miles (482,800 km...

An artist’s illustration of a comet impact on Earth. Image credit: Don Davis / NASA.

New Study Reveals Link between Mass Extinction Events and Comet/Asteroid Showers

Oct 20, 2015 by News Staff

According to a study that will be published today in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, mass extinctions occurring over the...

ESA’s AIM spacecraft watches DART impact Didymoon. Image credit: ESA / Science Office.

AIDA: NASA and ESA Announce Double Mission to Asteroid Didymos

Oct 5, 2015 by News Staff

The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission, a joint ESA-NASA cooperative project, will be the first space experiment to investigate...

Artist’s concept of NASA’s VERITAS spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA Scientists Propose Missions to Venus, Asteroid Psyche, Near-Earth Objects

Oct 2, 2015 by News Staff

NASA scientists want to send small, low-cost space probes to study Venus, near-Earth objects, 16 Psyche and other asteroids. Artist’s concept of NASA’s...

Double Catastrophe Wiped Out Dinosaurs: Deccan Traps Volcanism and Chicxulub Impact

Oct 2, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from India and the United States has uncovered evidence that a massive comet or asteroid impact on Earth 66 million...

Artist’s conception of two meteorites striking Earth. Image credit: Don Dixon / Erik Sturkell / University of Gothenburg.

458-Million-Year-Old Twin Impact Craters Found in Sweden

Sep 11, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has found traces of two meteorite impacts in the Swedish county of Jämtland, a twin strike...

Comet Hitchhiker is a concept for orbiting and landing on comets and asteroids. The idea involves using a carbon nanotube tether to hitchhike on to a comet as it flies by. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornelius Dammrich.

Comet Hitchhiker: New Concept for Orbiting, Landing on Comets and Asteroids

Sep 3, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have devised a new way to get into orbit and land on Solar System’s small bodies. Comet Hitchhiker...

The asteroid 31 Euphrosyne glides across a field of background stars in this time-lapse view from NASA’s WISE spacecraft. WISE obtained the images used to create this view over a period of about a day around May 17, 2010, during which it observed the asteroid four times. The moving asteroid appears as a string of orange dots because it is much cooler than the distant background stars. Stars have temperatures in the thousands of degrees, but the asteroid is cooler than room temperature. Thus the stars are represented by shorter wavelength blue colors in this view, while the asteroid is shown in longer wavelength reddish colors. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Researchers Track Down Origins of Some Near-Earth Objects

Aug 6, 2015 by News Staff

A new study using data from NASA’s NEOWISE space telescope has traced some dark Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) back to their likely source – a family...

This collage of radar images of 1999 JD6 was collected by NASA scientists on July 25, 2015. The asteroid appears to be a contact binary. These views, which are radar echoes, were obtained by pairing NASA's 230-foot-wide Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, with the 330-foot Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Using this approach, the Goldstone antenna beams a radar signal at an asteroid and Green Bank receives the reflections. The technique, referred to as a bistatic observation, dramatically improves the amount of detail that can be seen in radar images. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSSR.

Astronomers Capture Radar Images of Near-Earth Asteroid 1999 JD6

Aug 4, 2015 by News Staff

Using NSF’s Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, astronomers bounced radar signals...

Deposits of impact glass have been preserved in Martian craters, including Alga Crater, shown here. In color coding based on analysis of data from the CRISM instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, green indicates the presence of glass; blues are pyroxene; reds are olivine. This view shows Alga Crater’s central peak, which is about 3 miles (5 km) wide within the 12-mile (19-km) diameter of this southern-hemisphere crater. The information from CRISM is shown over a terrain model and image based on observations by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of two. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / JHUAPL / University of Arizona.

Scientists Detect Large Deposits of Impact Glass on Mars

Jun 9, 2015 by News Staff

Glasses formed by asteroid impacts are an important target to search for signs of ancient life on Mars, but until now they have not been detected on the...

Warburton East and West sub-basins, northeast South Australia; the Birdsville Track Ridge divides the Warburton East Basin from the Warburton West Basin. Image credit: A.Y. Glikson et al.

Giant Asteroid Impact Basin Found in Australia

Mar 23, 2015 by News Staff

A 400 km-wide (250 mile-wide) impact basin from a massive asteroid that broke in two moments before it slammed into our planet has been found in north-eastern...

This image shows the asteroid 2004 BL86 and its small companion. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Sci-News.com.

Asteroid 2004 BL86 and its Moon Fly Safely Past Earth

Jan 27, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna have captured the first radar images of asteroid 2004 BL86, which made its closest approach January...

Imilac, a pallasite meteorite found in the Atacama Desert, Chile, in 1822. Image credit: Juan Manuel Fluxa / CC BY 2.0.

Meteorites Contain Magnetic Messages from Early Solar System, Say Scientists

Jan 22, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers using the BESSY II synchrotron in Berlin, Germany have captured information stored in ancient meteorites, formed in the early Solar System...

Chondrules in meteorites are the remnants of early protoplanetary collisions, scientists say. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Meteorites are Byproducts, not Building Blocks

Jan 15, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of scientists co-led by Prof Maria Zuber of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Prof Jay Melosh of Purdue University, meteorites...

This graph displays the different values of the deuterium/ hydrogen ratio in water observed in various objects in the Solar System: the data points are grouped by color as planets and moons (blue), chondritic meteorites from the asteroid belt (grey), comets originating from the Oort cloud (purple) and Jupiter family comets (pink). Rosetta’s Jupiter-family comet is highlighted in yellow. Diamonds represent data obtained in situ; circles represent data obtained by astronomical methods. Image credit: ESA / ATG medialab / Rosetta / NavCam / Altwegg et al.

Rosetta Data Suggest Earth’s Oceans Likely Came from Asteroids

Dec 11, 2014 by News Staff

The Rosetta Orbiter Sensor for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument aboard ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has found that the composition of the...

Global geologic map of Vesta, showing the spatial distribution of major types of materials. Image credit: D.A. Williams et al.

Scientists Create Global Geologic Map of Asteroid Vesta

Nov 18, 2014 by News Staff

An international group of planetary scientists has produced the first global geologic and tectonic map of Vesta, and constructed the geologic time scale...

Magnetic field lines weave through the cloud of dusty gas surrounding the young Sun; in the foreground are asteroids and chondrules, the building blocks of chondrite meteorites. Image credit: Hernan Canellas / MIT Paleomagnetism Laboratory.

Strong Magnetic Fields Recorded in Meteorite Provide Clues to How Early Solar System Evolved

Nov 17, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists working on a primitive meteorite known as Semarkona have found evidence that the protoplanetary disk of the early Solar System was shaped by...

Top: the full Moon as seen from the Earth, with the Procellarum border structures superimposed in red. Image credit: Kopernik Observatory / NASA / Colorado School of Mines / MIT / JPL / Goddard Space Flight Center. Bottom: global maps of lunar properties – topography and gravity gradient. Image credit: Jeffrey C. Andrews-Hanna et al.

Planetary Researchers Solve Mystery of Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum

Oct 2, 2014 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Prof Maria Zuber of MIT, Oceanus Procellarum – a vast mare on the western edge of the Moon’s near side –...

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