NASA's Lucy spacecraft is six days and less than 50 million miles (80 million km) away from its second close encounter with an asteroid; this time, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson.
Planetary Sciences
Apr 14, 2025
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188
Where do meteorites of different types come from? In a review paper in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, astronomers trace the impact orbit of observed meteorite falls to several previously unidentified source ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 18, 2025
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229
New Southwest Research Institute-led modeling indicates the main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson may have formed about 150 million years ago when a larger parent asteroid broke apart; its orbit and spin properties have ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 18, 2025
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59
Despite their overall similarities, asteroids are usually pretty distinct from one another. Vesta has a very different spectroscopic profile than Psyche, for example. So it might come as no surprise that another of the main ...
Astronomy
Mar 17, 2025
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33
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has its next flyby target, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, in its sights. By blinking between images captured by Lucy on Feb. 20 and 22, this animation shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson ...
Astronomy
Feb 25, 2025
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144
The organic material found in a few areas on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is probably of exogenic origin. Impacting asteroids from the outer asteroid belt may have brought it with them.
Astrobiology
Jan 27, 2025
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275
Emily Simpson has loved space since she was a 10-year-old kid celebrating her birthday at a planetarium. Now a recent Florida Tech graduate, she leaves with not only a dual degree in planetary science and astronomy and astrophysics ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 13, 2025
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260
Pocked with craters, the surfaces of many celestial bodies in our solar system provide clear evidence of a 4.6-billion-year battering by meteoroids and other space debris. But on some worlds, including the giant asteroid ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 21, 2024
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128
On Dec. 12, at 11:15 p.m. EST, NASA's Lucy spacecraft, currently in a two-year orbit around the sun, will skim Earth's atmosphere, passing only about 220 miles (360 kilometers) above the surface. This close flyby will result ...
Space Exploration
Dec 12, 2024
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46
The first dark comet—a celestial object that looks like an asteroid but moves through space like a comet—was reported less than two years ago. Soon after, another six were found. In a new paper, researchers announce the discovery ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 9, 2024
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