Sep 22 WATCH: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returns an asteroid soil sample to Earth By Bella Isaacs-Thomas Experts say the rocks and dust the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft plucked from an asteroid named Bennu will fuel scientific research for generations. Continue reading
Aug 17 What a NASA mission to study a metallic asteroid may teach us about Earth’s core By Jim Bell, The Conversation Liftoff to the distant asteroid Psyche is scheduled for Oct. 5, 2023 – the beginning of a six-year journey to one of the most unusual objects in the solar system. Continue reading
Jan 25 An asteroid is coming exceedingly close to Earth, but will miss By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press An asteroid the size of a delivery truck will whip past Earth on Thursday night, one of the closest encounters ever recorded. NASA insists it will be a near miss. Continue reading
Oct 27 2 NASA spacecraft detect biggest meteor strikes recorded on Mars By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press Scientists reported Thursday that last year's barrages sent seismic surface waves rippling thousands of miles across Mars, the first ever detected near the surface of another planet. Continue reading
Oct 11 WATCH: NASA says DART spacecraft successfully redirected asteroid By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test. Continue reading
Oct 04 Photo shows asteroid’s 6,000 miles long debris trail after collision with NASA spacecraft By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press The asteroid that got smacked by a NASA spacecraft is now being trailed by thousands of miles of debris. Astronomers captured the scene millions of miles away with a telescope in Chile. Continue reading
Sep 26 NASA Dart spacecraft rams into an asteroid in defense test By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press Scientists say the impact should have carved out a crater and hurled streams of rocks and dirt into space. Most importantly, though, scientists are hoping the collision altered the asteroid's orbit. Continue reading
Sep 26 WATCH: NASA’s DART spacecraft crashes into an asteroid to test defense system By Svetla Ben-Itzhak, The Conversation Crashing the 1,340-pound DART probe into the small moonlet orbiting the asteroid Didymos should redirect its trajectory – and could be a model for how to save Earth in the future. Continue reading
Nov 24 Watch 5:26 Can asteroids be veered away from Earth? New NASA spacecraft aims to find out By Miles O'Brien, Ryan Connelly Holmes NASA has launched a satellite into orbit on a mission to smash itself into an asteroid, in a test to see whether it is possible to knock a speeding space rock off course — if one were on a collision… Continue watching
Nov 24 NASA launches spacecraft to test asteroid defense plan By John Antczak, Associated Press The DART spacecraft, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a $330 million project with echoes of the Bruce Willis movie “Armageddon.”… Continue reading