Asteroid moon Dimorphos as seen by NASA’s DART spacecraft 11 seconds before the impact that shifted its path through space, during the first test of asteroid deflection. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/NASA hide caption change caption Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/NASA Imagine if scientists discovered a giant asteroid with a 72% chance of … Read more
NASA has issued a warning about a giant asteroid, comparable in size to a 200-foot yacht, that will pass by Earth on June 22, 2024, at a distance that has attracted a lot of attention from astronomers and scientists alike. Asteroid 2024 LJ: size and speed Asteroid 2024 LJ is a huge space rock that … Read more
Artist’s impression of the asteroid (99942) Apophis. The Planetary Society; CC BY NC 3.0 Friday the 13th may be considered an unlucky day, but at 5:45 AM EDT (11:45 AM CEST) on Friday, April 13, 2029, it will prove just the opposite when an asteroid the size of a “dinosaur killer” safely passes by Earth. … Read more
NASA’s watchful eyes in the sky have detected an asteroid, designated 2024 LB4, that is expected to make a close approach to Earth. This asteroid, which is comparable in size to a commercial airliner and has a diameter of about 30 meters, is on a trajectory that will bring it within 3,000,000 kilometers of our … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a marvel of modern astronomy, has provided a glimpse into the dynamical processes that shape planetary systems. Recently, JWST detected a major event in the Beta Pictoris system: a colossal collision between two asteroids. This event, discovered by the JWST, has given astronomers a rare opportunity to study the … Read more
NASA/FUSE/Lynette Cook An illustration shows colliding asteroids around the central star in the Beta Pictoris system and the formation of terrestrial planets. The insets show what two of the system’s planets might look like. “The James Webb Telescope: Are We Alone?” about the whole story with Anderson Cooper offers a glimpse into the most powerful … Read more
Astronomers have observed a giant asteroid collision in Beta Pictoris using data from the Webb and Spitzer telescopes. The event, which took place 20 years ago, provides new insights into early planetary formation in this young galaxy. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: NASA New observations illuminate the volatile processes that shape star systems like ours, offering a … Read more
Standing on planet Earth, it’s easy to forget that we’re sitting on a rock hurtling through the solar system on a path that could potentially collide with other (smaller) space rocks, largely because we can’t feel that motion. If you ever have the urge to feel completely at the mercy of random space rocks, we … Read more
Nearly twenty years ago, astronomers observed a huge cloud of fine dust particles around a young star just 63 light-years away from Earth. From recent observations of the Webb Space TelescopeHowever, the dust cloud had mysteriously disappeared. Now a new paper suggests that the dust cloud may have been caused by a violent event that … Read more
Mars could encounter more than twice as many encounters with potentially dangerous asteroids as Earth, according to a new study. This could jeopardize exploration missions to the Red Planet, but also provide insight into how the inner solar system formed. Asteroids pose the greatest threat to our planet from space; for example, the 2013 Chelyabinsk … Read more