Tag Archive for 'Asteroid'

This image, taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope, shows the near-Earth asteroid 1998 KY26. Image credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

Subaru Telescope Captures Images of Near-Earth Asteroid 1998 KY26

Dec 18, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope have produced spectacular images of 1998 KY26, a future asteroid target of JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft. This...

Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large armored dinosaur species, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, falling on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Non-Marine Mass Extinctions Occur with Periodicity of 27.5 Million Years: Study

Dec 11, 2020 by News Staff

Non-marine animals (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have apparently experienced at least 10 distinct episodes of intensified extinctions over...

A whimsical view of the planets of our Solar System and the missions sent from Earth to explore them. Image credit: Jenny Mottar / NASA.

Astronomers Discover New ‘Celestial Autobahn’ in Solar System

Dec 9, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from Serbia and the United States has discovered a new superhighway network to travel through our Solar System much...

Hayabusa-2’s container with material from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu and its parachute in South Australia. Image credit: JAXA.

Hayabusa-2 Returns Samples of Asteroid Ryugu to Earth

Dec 7, 2020 by News Staff

On December 6, 2020, JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft delivered a landing capsule with samples of material collected from the surface of the near-Earth asteroid...

This image, taken with the 8-m Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea, shows Earth’s minimoon 2020 CD3 (center, point source). The image combines three images each obtained using different filters to produce this color composite. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / G. Fedorets.

Earth’s Second Known Minimoon is Natural Object, Astronomers Say

Nov 25, 2020 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the Astronomical Journal, astronomers from the United States, Canada and Europe provide a detailed characterization of the...

The young Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 m deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 km. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Water Present on All Rocky Planets, Martian Meteorite Study Suggests

Nov 10, 2020 by News Staff

Water may emerge in connection with the formation of terrestrial planets, according to a new analysis of a Martian meteorite called North West Africa (NWA)...

This image shows OSIRIS-REx’s collector head hovering over the Sample Return Capsule after the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism arm moved it into the proper position for capture. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona / Lockheed Martin.

OSIRIS-REx Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu’s Regolith

Oct 30, 2020 by News Staff

On October 28, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully stowed its Sample Return Capsule (SRC) with a sample of surface material from the near-Earth...

Hubble Detects Iron and Iron Oxide on Asteroid Psyche

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the main-belt asteroid (16) Psyche, the...

This image from OSIRIS-REx’s SamCam camera shows that the spacecraft’s sampler head is full of rocks and dust collected from the surface of Bennu. Image credit: NASA.

OSIRIS-REx Collects Sufficient Sample of Asteroid Bennu’s Regolith

Oct 26, 2020 by News Staff

During the ‘Touch-And-Go’ sample collection event on October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected more than enough surface material (at...

An artist concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard.

New Images Show OSIRIS-REx’s Sample Collection on Bennu

Oct 23, 2020 by News Staff

Stunning new images, taken by the SamCam imager onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on October 20, 2020, show the historic Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft readies itself to touch the surface of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona.

OSIRIS-REx Attempts to Collect Sample of Near-Earth Asteroid Bennu

Oct 21, 2020 by News Staff

On October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft briefly touched...

The Chicxulub asteroid impact. Image credit: Victor Leshyk.

Dust and Soot Contributed to End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction

Oct 9, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the US, the UK and Australia has analyzed burn markers from the boundary of the impact site of the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at asteroid Bennu. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

New Studies Detail Complex History of Near-Earth Asteroid Bennu

Oct 9, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu is...

Meteoroids bombarded the Earth-Moon system 800 million years ago. Image credit: Murayama, Osaka University.

Moon May Have Fragments of Ancient Venus on Its Surface

Oct 7, 2020 by News Staff

If the atmosphere of Venus was at any point thin and similar to Earth’s, then ancient asteroid impacts transferred potentially detectable amounts of...

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

Asteroid 2020 SW Flew Safely Past Earth Today

Sep 24, 2020 by News Staff

A small near-Earth asteroid designated 2020 SW made its closest approach to Earth today at 7:12 a.m. EDT (4:12 a.m. PDT) at a distance of about 22,000...

The bright boulders (circled in the images) on the surface of near-Earth asteroid Bennu are pyroxene-rich material from Vesta; some bright material appear to be individual rocks (left) while others appear to be clasts within larger boulders (right). Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona.

OSIRIS-REx Finds Fragments of Minor Planet Vesta on Near-Earth Asteroid Bennu

Sep 22, 2020 by News Staff

In 2019, scientists from the OSIRIS-REx team discovered several unusually bright boulders on the surface of near-Earth asteroid Bennu in images acquired...

Composite image of Uranus. Image credit: Marcos van Dam / W. M. Keck Observatory.

Herschel Measures Thermal Properties of Uranian Moons

Sep 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from the PACS photometer onboard ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers have found that thermal properties of the five major moons...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on a mission to explore the asteroid Bennu and return a sample to Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

OSIRIS-REx Team Explores Activity of Asteroid Bennu

Sep 10, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, launched in 2016, is currently orbiting the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu with the aim of briefly touching on the...

A piece of the enstatite chondrite meteorite Sahara 97096. Image credit: Christine Fieni / Laurette Piani / French National Museum of Natural History.

Earth’s Water Came from Enstatite Chondrite-Like Asteroids, Study Suggests

Aug 28, 2020 by News Staff

A type of meteorite called an enstatite chondrite has similar isotopic composition to terrestrial rocks and thus may be representative of the material...

2020 QG (circled streak) was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility on August 16, 2020. Image credit: ZTF / Caltech Optical Observatories.

Tiny Near-Earth Asteroid Makes Closest Fly-By of Earth on Record

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A small near-Earth asteroid designated 2020 QG safely flew past our planet on August 16 at 12:08 a.m. EDT (August 15 at 9:08 p.m. PDT) at a distance of...

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