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.
On 12 March 2025, ESA's Hera spacecraft for planetary defense performs a flyby of Mars. The gravity of the red planet shifts the spacecraft's trajectory towards the Didymos binary asteroid system, shortening its trip by months ...
Space Exploration
Mar 12, 2025
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Last year, astronomers detected the near-earth asteroid (NEA) 2024 YR4, which orbits the sun every four years and periodically crosses Earth's orbit. The nature of its orbit makes it a potentially hazardous object (PHO), ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 11, 2025
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144
On December 3, 2018, NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) successfully rendezvoused with the near-earth asteroid (NEA) 101955 Bennu. Over the next two ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 3, 2025
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825
For a brief window, Asteroid 2024 YR4 looked like a planetary hazard in the making. At up to 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter, it was described as a potential "city killer." On its estimated trajectory, it could've collided ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 3, 2025
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47
For a few days in mid-February, headlines around the world buzzed about the potential for an asteroid to hit the Earth in 2023—specifically, asteroid 2024 YR4. The chance of this impact rose to a high of 3.1 percent on Feb. ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 1, 2025
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126
New information is pushing Asteroid 2024 YR4 off of our front pages. Initial estimates gave it a 2.8% chance of striking Earth in 2032. Now, the European Space Agency says the chance of it striking our planet is down to a ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 26, 2025
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56
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
New observations of 2024 YR4 conducted with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) and facilities around the world have all but ruled out an impact of the asteroid with our planet. The asteroid ...
Astronomy
Feb 25, 2025
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37
The chance that a football field-sized asteroid capable of destroying a city will strike Earth in 2032 has fallen to 0.001 percent, the European Space Agency said on Tuesday.
Space Exploration
Feb 25, 2025
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54
In December 2024, astronomers in Chile spotted a new asteroid streaking through the sky, which they named 2024 YR4. What's significant about this 100m-wide space rock is that it has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2032.
Astronomy
Feb 24, 2025
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