Tag Archive for 'Near-Earth object'

Artist’s concept of a near-Earth asteroid. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

2018 LA: Boulder-Sized Asteroid Disintegrates over Botswana

Jun 6, 2018 by News Staff

A 6-foot (2 m) wide asteroid called 2018 LA disintegrated harmlessly over Botswana, Africa, just hours after its discovery on Saturday morning (June 2,...

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster as seen by the ATLAS telescope. Image credit: University of Hawaii.

Astronomers Spot Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster in Flight

Feb 17, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope on Mauna Loa in Hawaii have captured images of the Tesla Roadster...

(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...

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...

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...

An artist’s rendition of 2016 WF9 as it passes Jupiter’s orbit inbound toward the Sun. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s WISE Spacecraft Spots Two New Near-Earth Objects

Dec 30, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have discovered two celestial objects traveling through our neighborhood: 2016 WF9...

An artist’s impression of a near-Earth asteroid. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

2015 TC25: Astronomers Find Smallest Known Near-Earth Asteroid

Dec 1, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by University of Arizona scientist Dr. Vishnu Reddy has obtained observations of the smallest near-Earth asteroid...

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.

2016 TB57: Astronomers Identify 15,000th Near-Earth Asteroid

Oct 31, 2016 by News Staff

An international effort to find and catalogue the multitude of so-called near-Earth asteroids has reached a milestone: 15,000 discovered — with many...

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

NASA Launching Probe to Asteroid Bennu: Watch Live

Sep 8, 2016 by News Staff

An artist concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard. NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith...

This Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet 252P/LINEAR was photographed at 20:56 GMT on April 4, when the comet was 8.6 million miles from Earth. The visit was one of the closest encounters between this comet and our planet. This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of bluish hues. Such color ‘maps’ can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J.-Y. Li, Planetary Science Institute.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Comet 252P LINEAR

May 13, 2016 by News Staff

The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped photos of a periodic comet called 252P/LINEAR. This Hubble Space...

WT1190F observed on October 9, 2015, with the University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Image credit: B. Bolin / R. Jedicke / M. Micheli.

WT1190F: Mystery Space Object is Likely to Crash into Indian Ocean in November

Oct 29, 2015 by News Staff

A reentry of a suspected piece of space junk from a very high orbit on November 13, 2015, offers a great opportunity to gather data to improve our knowledge...

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...

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 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...

1 23