asteroids

In 2022, a NASA spacecraft intentionally barreled into the tiny asteroid Dimorphos during a planetary defense test. The objective was to assess whether humanity could protect Earth from cosmic threats,…

In 2022, a NASA spacecraft intentionally barreled into the tiny asteroid Dimorphos during a planetary defense test. The objective was to assess whether humanity could protect Earth from cosmic threats,…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA issued a welcomed all-clear Thursday, saying there's now zero chance that asteroid 2024 YR will crash into the moon in 2032.The space agency had been predicting a 4.3% chance of a direct hit. But observations…

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory spent the night staring at the dark cosmos, alerting astronomers of ongoing changes in the skies in real-time. The observatory fired off its first wave of notifications from its new alert…

Retired astronaut and current Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) celebrated NASA’s “pretty exciting” announcement on Thursday after the space agency highlighted how scientists found sugars essential for life on samples of a near-Earth…

A hidden population of asteroids sharing Venus' orbit could threaten Earth in a few thousand years, and we might not even see them coming without better telescopes.These so-called Venus co-orbital asteroids are currently undetected…

On Sept. 11, 2022, engineers at a flight control center in Turin, Italy, sent a radio signal into deep space. Its destination was NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft flying toward an asteroid more than 5…

For years, scientists have floated an alternative theory to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs—one involving extreme volcanism. It’s an intriguing idea, but new research seems to have…

The likelihood of the "God of Destruction" asteroid Apophis striking Earth in 2029 is more than 1 in 2 billion, according to Space.com. There's no cause for concern – at least not yet.Every year, over 3,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs)…

Researchers found evidence of microbial life in what should have been a pristine sample of an asteroid, a frustrating sign that avoiding earthly contamination may be harder than we thought. A…