IRON AND ICE

News About Asteroids And Comets

2,240 articles

New small satellites to rendezvous with binary asteroids
Sep 11, 2020 (SPX)
These bodies are pairs of asteroids that orbit around each other in space, much like the Earth and moon. In a project review on Sept. 3, NASA gave the official ...
New small satellite mission to rendezvous with binary asteroids
Sep 11, 2020 (SPX)
These bodies are pairs of asteroids that orbit around each other in space, much like the Earth and Moon. In a project review on Sept. 3, NASA gave the official ...
Why is Asteroid Bennu ejecting particles into space
Sep 10, 2020 (JPL)
A collection of studies in a special edition of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets homes in on the asteroid and these enigmatic particles. The studies...
How small particles could reshape Bennu and other asteroids
Sep 10, 2020 (SPX)
OSIRIS-REx is an unprecedented effort to investigate what makes up asteroids like Bennu and how they move through space. But, as those leaping particles show, t...
SwRI-led study indicates sand-sized meteoroids are peppering asteroid Bennu
Sep 10, 2020 (SPX)
Launched in 2016, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is currently orbiting Bennu with the aim of briefly touching on the surface and obtaining a sample from the aster...
OSIRIS-REx observes an asteroid in action
Sep 10, 2020 (SPX)
In a special collection of research papers published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the OSIRIS-REx science team reports detailed observations ...
Meteorites show transport of material in early solar system
Sep 09, 2020 (SPX)
The consensus theory on how planets form is that they accrete from a disk of dust and gas that rotates around a new-formed star. Evidence for the composition of...
Rainbow comet with a heart of sponge
Sep 08, 2020 (ESA)
A recent study suggests that the comet's interior is more porous than the material near the surface. The results confirm that solar radiation has significantly ...
Meteorite study suggests Earth may have been wet since it formed
Aug 31, 2020 (SPX)
Researchers from the Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG, CNRS/Universite de Lorraine) in Nancy, France, including one who is now a postd...
NASA's Lucy mission one step closer to exploring the Trojan Asteroids
Aug 31, 2020 (SPX)
This major decision was made after a series of independent reviews of the status of the spacecraft, instruments, schedule and budget. The milestone, known as Ke...
Meteorite strikes may create unexpected form of silica
Aug 27, 2020 (SPX)
New work led by Carnegie's Sally June Tracy examined the crystal structure of the silica mineral quartz under shock compression and is challenging longstanding ...
A dizzying show by Comet NEOWISE
Aug 25, 2020 (SPX)
Close-up observations, led by Michal Drahus and Piotr Guzik of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, used the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's ...
Hubble snaps close-up of celebrity Comet NEOWISE
Aug 24, 2020 (SPX)
The comet photos were taken after NEOWISE skimmed closest to the Sun on July 3, 2020, at a distance of 27 million miles (43 million kilometers). Other comets of...
Small asteroid becomes closest ever seen passing Earth: NASA
Aug 19, 2020 (AFP)
If it had been on a collision course with Earth, the asteroid -- named 2020 QG -- would likely not have caused any damage, instead disintegrating in the atmosph...
Tiny Asteroid Buzzes by Earth - the Closest Flyby on Record
Aug 19, 2020 (JPL)
At roughly 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) across, asteroid 2020 QG is very small by asteroid standards: If it had actually been on an impact trajectory, it would...
The Hayabusa2 Re-entry Capsule Approved to Land in Australia
Aug 19, 2020 (SPX)
The Hayabusa2 re-entry capsule will return to Earth in South Australia on December 6, 2020 (Japan Time and Australian Time). The landing site will be the Woomer...
ZTF Finds Closest Known Asteroid to Fly By Earth
Aug 19, 2020 (SPX)
Asteroid 2020 QG is about 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) across, or roughly the size of an SUV, so it was not big enough to do any damage even if it had been poi...
'Oumuamua isn't made from molecular hydrogen ice after all
Aug 18, 2020 (SPX)
The earlier study, published by Seligman and Laughlin in 2020 - after observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope set tight limits on the outgassing of carbon-b...
Bright hydrothermal deposits on dwarf planet Ceres have a style all their own
Aug 14, 2020 (SPX)
Using a combination of stereo images and detailed topographic maps derived from Dawn observations, scientists from the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) and o...
Second rehearsal puts OSIRIS-REx on path to sample collection
Aug 14, 2020 (SPX)
The approximately four-hour "Matchpoint" rehearsal took the spacecraft through the first three of the sampling sequence's four maneuvers: the orbit departure bu...
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