News tagged with asteroid belt

Related topics: nasa , asteroid , solar system , comet , jupiter

Asteroid collision that spawned Vesta's asteroid family occurred more recently than thought

A team of researchers led by a NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) member based at Southwest Research Institute has discovered evidence that the giant impact crater Rheasilvia on Asteroid (4) Vesta was created ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Tiny 'spherules' reveal details about Earth's asteroid impacts

(Phys.org) -- Researchers are learning details about asteroid impacts going back to the Earth's early history by using a new method for extracting precise information from tiny "spherules" embedded in layers ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

First comet found with ocean-like water: New clues to creation of Earth's oceans

(PhysOrg.com) -- New evidence supports the theory that comets delivered a significant portion of Earth's oceans, which scientists believe formed about 8 million years after the planet itself.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 120 | with audio podcast

Swift and Hubble probe an asteroid crash (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Late last year, astronomers noticed an asteroid named Scheila had unexpectedly brightened, and it was sporting short-lived plumes. Data from NASA's Swift satellite and Hubble Space Telescope ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

New solar system formation models indicate that Jupiter's foray robbed Mars of mass

(PhysOrg.com) -- Planetary scientists have long wondered why Mars is only about half the size and one-tenth the mass of Earth. As next-door neighbors in the inner solar system, probably formed about the same ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 05, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Dawn probe reaches milestone approaching asteroid Vesta

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has reached its official approach phase to the asteroid Vesta and will begin using cameras for the first time to aid navigation for an expected July 16 orbital encounter. ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

When is an asteroid not an asteroid?

(PhysOrg.com) -- On March 29, 1807, German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers spotted Vesta as a pinprick of light in the sky. Two hundred and four years later, as NASA's Dawn spacecraft prepares to begin ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 30, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Oxygen isotope analysis tells of the wandering life of a dust grain 4.5 billion years ago

Scientists have performed a micro-probe analysis of the core and outer layers of a pea-sized piece of a meteorite some 4.57 billion years old to reconstruct the history of its formation, providing the first ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 03, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (6) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Bizarre X-shaped intruder linked to an unseen asteroid collision (w/ Video)

Last January astronomers thought they had witnessed a fresh collision between two asteroids when images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope revealed a bizarre X-shaped object at the head of a comet-like ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 13, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (12) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

You're beautiful, Vesta

When UCLA's Christopher T. Russell looks at the images of the protoplanet Vesta produced by NASA's Dawn mission, he talks about beauty as much as he talks about science.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

An Avalanche of Asteroids

Imagine you're a Brontosaurus with your face in a prehistoric tree top, munching on fresh leaves. Your relatives have ruled planet Earth for more than 150 million years. Huge and strong, you feel invincible. ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 29, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (22) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

New research suggests that near-Earth encounters can 'shake' asteroids

(PhysOrg.com) -- For decades, astronomers have analyzed the impact that asteroids could have on Earth. New research by MIT Professor of Planetary Science Richard Binzel examines the opposite scenario: that ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 20, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Study of first high-resolution images of Pallas confirms asteroid is actually a protoplanet

(PhysOrg.com) -- Britney E. Schmidt, a UCLA doctoral student in the department of Earth and space sciences, wasn't sure what she'd glean from images of the asteroid Pallas taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 12, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (22) | comments 7

Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 02, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Close-up photos of dying star show our sun's fate (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- About 550 light-years from Earth, a star like our Sun is writhing in its death throes. Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that it would swallow every planet ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (23) | comments 5