Asteroids as a research area encompasses the scientific investigation of small rocky bodies primarily located in the asteroid belt and throughout the Solar System, focusing on their composition, internal structure, dynamical evolution, and role in planetary formation and collisional processes. This field integrates observational astronomy, spectroscopy, celestial mechanics, planetary geology, and space mission data to constrain asteroid taxonomies, surface and subsurface properties, impact hazards, and resource potential. Research addresses accretion and differentiation histories, space weathering, binary and rubble-pile formation, migration mechanisms, and their contribution to the delivery of volatiles and organics to terrestrial planets, providing constraints on early Solar System conditions.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently turned its watchful eye toward asteroid 2024 YR4, which we now know poses no significant threat to Earth in 2032 and beyond.
Planetary Sciences
Apr 2, 2025
0
35
While life on Earth has been dramatic enough lately, there's also been an unusual amount of news from space in the early months of 2025. So far, debris from SpaceX and Blue Origin rockets has landed in locations including ...
Space Exploration
Apr 2, 2025
0
38
Asteroid 2024 YR4, first discovered in December 2024, triggered a first-ever notification from the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) on January 29, 2025. The early calculations predicted an impact probability ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 2, 2025
0
77
In April 2019, rare primitive meteorites fell near the town of Aguas Zarcas in northern Costa Rica. In an article published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, an international team of researchers describes the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 31, 2025
0
152
There is a non-zero chance that somewhere in the nearby solar system is a rock that might kill us all.
Space Exploration
Mar 27, 2025
0
96
In late 2024, astronomers spotted asteroid 2024 YR4 on a trajectory that could potentially threaten Earth. This observation triggered a fervid series of observations of the object—possibly as big as a football field—to determine ...
Astronomy
Mar 24, 2025
0
39
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
0
59
There are many home-grown problems on Earth, but there's still time to worry about bad things arriving from above. The most recent is the asteroid 2024 YR4, which could be a "city killer" if it hits a heavily populated area ...
Astrobiology
Mar 18, 2025
0
25
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
0
33
On the way to investigate the scene of a historic asteroid collision, a European spacecraft swung by Mars and captured rare images of the red planet's mysterious small moon Deimos, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Thursday.
Planetary Sciences
Mar 13, 2025
0
84
