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.
To uncover the history of our solar system, it is necessary to study the dynamic evolution of the ancient solar nebula materials. These materials interacted and coevolved with the weak but widespread magnetic field of the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 3, 2026
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Estimating a mass for a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is perhaps the single most important thing to understand about it, after its trajectory. Actually doing so isn't easy though, as the mass for objects in the tens ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 2, 2026
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25
Asteroid mining companies are finally getting off the ground, and that is raising some concerns about the impact those activities will have on the space environment. A new paper published in Acta Astronautica by Anna Marie ...
Space Exploration
Feb 24, 2026
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40
Amino acids, the building blocks necessary for life, were previously found in samples of 4.6-billion-year-old rocks from an asteroid called Bennu, delivered to Earth in 2023 by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. How those amino acids—the ...
Astrobiology
Feb 9, 2026
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262
Most near-Earth asteroids are thought to drift in from the main asteroid belt. But a small subset may have a much closer origin: the moon. One intriguing example is 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3), an Earth quasi-satellite ...
Astronomy
Feb 2, 2026
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32
There's a bright side to every situation. In 2032, the moon itself might have a particularly bright side if it is blasted by a 60-meter-wide asteroid. The chances of such an event are still relatively small (only around 4%) ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 27, 2026
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47
Back in the earlier days of the internet, there was a viral video from a creator called Bill Wurtz called "the history of the entire world, i guess" which spawned a number of memorable memes, some of which are still in use ...
Astronomy
Jan 15, 2026
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40
Physicists at the University of Oxford have contributed to a new study which has found that iron-rich asteroids can tolerate far more energy than previously thought without breaking apart—a breakthrough with direct implications ...
Astronomy
Jan 8, 2026
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39
Astronomers analyzing data from Vera C. Rubin Observatory have discovered the fastest-ever spinning asteroid with a diameter over half a kilometer—a feat uniquely enabled by Rubin. The study provides crucial information about ...
Astronomy
Jan 7, 2026
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148
In the aftermath of the giant asteroid that crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula about 66 million years ago, approximately 75% of all species on Earth were wiped out, including the dinosaurs. Among those thought to have perished ...
