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.
A spacecraft blasted off Monday to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash. The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft rocketed away on a two-year journey to the small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA two years ago in a ...
Space Exploration
Oct 7, 2024
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In 2023, the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission returned a sample of dust and rocks collected on the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. In addition to the information about the universe gleaned from the sample itself, the data generated by ...
General Physics
Oct 7, 2024
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The European Space Agency's Hera mission will set off from Cape Canaveral on 7 October on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It will travel several hundred million kilometers to reach the double asteroid Didymos in autumn 2026.
Space Exploration
Oct 4, 2024
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Europe's Hera probe is tentatively scheduled to launch Monday on a mission to inspect the damage a NASA spacecraft made when it smashed into an asteroid during the first test of Earth's planetary defenses.
Space Exploration
Oct 4, 2024
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A team of engineers and planetary scientists at Western University's Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, in Canada, has found that it might be possible to produce food for space travelers by feeding bacteria asteroid ...
Earth's moon will soon have some company—a "mini moon."
Planetary Sciences
Sep 29, 2024
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Since the first sighting of the first-discovered and largest asteroid in our solar system was made in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, astronomers and planetary scientists have pondered the make-up of this asteroid/dwarf planet. ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 28, 2024
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Asteroid Ryugu possibly did not travel as far from its place of origin to its current near-Earth orbit as previously assumed. New research published in the journal Science Advances suggests that Ryugu was formed near Jupiter.
Planetary Sciences
Sep 27, 2024
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371
A team of astrophysicists from several institutions in Italy, working with a colleague in the U.S., has found that aliphatic hydrocarbons observed on Ceres' surface have short lifetimes, suggesting they likely appeared there ...
Humanity could use a nuclear bomb to deflect a massive, life-threatening asteroid hurtling towards Earth in the future, according to scientists who tested the theory in the laboratory by blasting X-rays at a marble-sized ...
Space Exploration
Sep 25, 2024
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