Related topics: nasa · spacecraft · flyby · comet

Did a Pacific Ocean meteor trigger the Ice Age?

(Phys.org)—When a huge meteor collided with Earth about 2.5 million years ago in the southern Pacific Ocean it not only likely generated a massive tsunami but also may have plunged the world into the Ice Ages, a new study ...

Japan to make crater on asteroid to get underground samples

Japan's space agency said Monday that its Hayabusa2 spacecraft will follow up last month's touchdown on a distant asteroid with another risky mission—dropping an explosive on the asteroid to make a crater and then collect ...

Japan spacecraft drops explosive on asteroid to make crater

Japan's space agency said an explosive dropped Friday from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples ...

The day the algae died

The P-T mass extinction may have been instigated by populations of algae dying. According to one group of scientists, this die-off of large numbers of relatively simple life forms caused a crash in the ocean's entire food ...

The comet cometh: Hartley 2 visible in night sky

(PhysOrg.com) -- Backyard stargazers with a telescope or binoculars and a clear night's sky can now inspect the comet that in a little over two weeks will become only the fifth in history to be imaged close up. Comet Hartley ...

NASA spacecraft unravels comet mystery

A NASA spacecraft's flyby with a comet showed erosion on the Tempel 1's surface since it skimmed by the Sun in 2005, and revealed Tuesday the first clear pictures of the crater made by a Deep Impact probe.

Deep Impact mission ends, leaves bright comet tale

(Phys.org) —NASA today announced the end of operations for the Deep Impact spacecraft, history's most traveled deep-space comet hunter, after trying unsuccessfully for more than a month to regain contact with the spacecraft.

Primordial dry ice fuels comet jets

One of the biggest comet findings coming out of the amazing images and data taken by the University of Maryland-led EPOXI mission as it zipped past comet Hartley 2 last week is that dry ice is the 'jet' fuel for this comet ...

Searching for alien earths with planet colors

Earth is invitingly blue. Mars is angry red. Venus is brilliant white. Astronomers have learned that a planet's "true colors" can reveal important details. For example, Mars is red because its soil contains rusty red stuff ...

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