IRON AND ICE

News About Asteroids And Comets

2,240 articles

OSIRIS-REx adjusts course to target sample capsule's landing zone
Sep 12, 2023 (SPX)
Yesterday's trajectory-correction maneuver changed the spacecraft's velocity about a 0.5 mph (less than 1 kph) relative to Earth. Without this tiny but critical...
Here's How Sept. 24 Asteroid Sample Delivery Will Work
Sep 11, 2023 (SPX)
When it approaches Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft won't slow down as it makes its sample drop-off. Instead, when it reaches 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometer...
Psyche on track for liftoff next month
Sep 08, 2023 (JPL)
The spacecraft's solar arrays are folded like an envelope into their stowed position. Xenon gas - fuel for the journey to the asteroid belt - is loaded. All fou...
Newly discovered comet visible in night sky this weekend
Sep 06, 2023 (AFP)
The ball of rock and ice, whose exact size remains unknown, is named after the Japanese amateur astronomer Hideo Nishimura who first spotted it on August 11. It...
NASA completes last OSIRIS-REx test before asteroid sample delivery
Sep 04, 2023 (SPX)
"We are now mere weeks away from receiving a piece of solar system history on Earth, and this successful drop test ensures we're ready," said Nicola Fox, associ...
Hera asteroid spacecraft assembled
Aug 25, 2023 (SPX)
The mating took place at OHB Bremen in Germany, with Hera's Core Module raised more than 3 m above its Propulsion Module then gradually and carefully slotted in...
Asteroid's impact allowed mammals to rule Earth, but why so?
Aug 21, 2023 (SPX)
But just how did we evolve from rat-like creatures running between the feet of dinosaurs to take over their ecological niches? Dr. Kendra Chritz, assistant prof...
NASA's $985 million Psyche mission to all-metal asteroid nears liftoff
Aug 16, 2023 (UPI)
Named after its interplanetary target, the $985 million mission is intended to help scientists determine whether the 140-mile-wide asteroid -- which varies betw...
Hera's mini-radar will probe asteroid's heart
Aug 11, 2023 (SPX)
"This delivery marks a definite milestone," comments Alain Herique of Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG) at the University Grenoble ...
Winchcombe meteorite is helping us to understand more about asteroids
Aug 09, 2023 (SPX)
Since it crash-landed in the eponymous town in Gloucestershire in 2021, scientists have been attempting to unlock the secrets of the Wincombe meteorite. The rar...
A Banner Year For The Perseid Meteor Shower
Aug 08, 2023 (SPX)
"Conditions this year couldn't be more perfect," says Diana Hannikainen, Sky and Telescope's Observing Editor. "The waning crescent Moon, which is only 8% illum...
Earth's most ancient impact craters are disappearing
Aug 03, 2023 (SPX)
Geologists have found evidence of impacts, such as ejecta (material flung far away from the impact), melted rocks, and high-pressure minerals from more than 3.5...
Asteroid Institute Unveils Rapid Online Precovery Tool For Searching Multiple Astronomical Datasets in Minutes
Aug 03, 2023 (SPX)
The utility of this ADAM::Precovery service is illustrated by three recent use cases. Earlier this week, Asteroid Institute scientists found a collection of pre...
Algorithm ensnares its first 'potentially hazardous' asteroid
Aug 01, 2023 (SPX)
"By demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of the software that Rubin will use to look for thousands of yet-unknown potentially hazardous asteroids, the dis...
Tracing Ryugu's Anhydrous Lineage: A connection to outer protoplanetary disk
Jul 25, 2023 (SPX)
Ryugu owes its existence to a previous, larger body in the main asteroid belt, with its formation resulting from the reassembly of fragments from that entity. T...
Asteroid-smashing NASA probe sent boulders into space
Jul 20, 2023 (AFP)
NASA's fridge-sized DART probe smashed into the pyramid-sized, rugby ball-shaped asteroid Dimorphos roughly 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) from Earth...
Psyche enters home stretch before launch
Jul 19, 2023 (JPL)
With less than 100 days to go before its Oct. 5 launch, NASA's Psyche spacecraft is undergoing final preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams of engineers...
Practicing the game-winning asteroid sample catch
Jul 08, 2023 (SPX)
Instead, it was a replica of the sample capsule mounted on NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which has been cruising through space since it departed asteroid Bennu ...
Imagine walking on Hera's asteroid
Jul 02, 2023 (ESA)
Following on from DART, Hera will carry with it a pair of shoebox-sized 'CubeSats' that conclude their own observations by landing on Dimorphos. Team members ha...
OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample will have new home in Houston
Jun 21, 2023 (SPX)
The rocks and dust, called regolith, were collected from Bennu's surface in 2020. Bennu is likely to be a well preserved, 4.5 billion year old remanent of the e...
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