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.
The ambitious mission to retrieve samples from asteroid Bennu and return them to Earth is paying off. Just as scientists had hoped, the asteroid is revealing details about the early days of our solar system. More than just ...
Astronomy
Aug 28, 2025
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Asteroids floating through our solar system are debris left over from when our planetary neighborhood formed 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists study these ancient fragments as time capsules that reveal secrets about our solar ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 26, 2025
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When NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches in October 2026, it won't just be peering into the distant universe to study dark energy and exoplanets. This powerful observatory will also serve as Earth's newest guardian, ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 26, 2025
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New results from OSIRIS-REx, NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, reveals why some gray asteroids reflect light at different wavelengths, like red or blue, more strongly. How these asteroids reflect light at red and ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 26, 2025
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You know, if you think about it, and trust me we're about to, the moon is kind of weird. Of all the terrestrial worlds of the solar system, we're the only one with a substantial natural satellite. Mercury and Venus have nothing. ...
Space Exploration
Aug 25, 2025
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In 2020, the Hayabusa2 uncrewed spacecraft successfully returned small fragments from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, providing the first pristine samples from a carbonaceous asteroid. Grains from those samples were studied ...
Astrobiology
Aug 25, 2025
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Asteroid Bennu—the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, led by the University of Arizona—is a mixture of materials from throughout, and even beyond, our solar system. Over the past few billion years, its unique ...
Astronomy
Aug 22, 2025
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On Sept. 11, 2022, engineers at a flight control center in Turin, Italy, sent a radio signal into deep space. Its destination was NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft flying toward an asteroid more than ...
Space Exploration
Aug 21, 2025
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74
Approximately 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system formed from a huge disk of gas and dust orbiting our sun. The asteroids seen today are some of the most complete artifacts of this formation that are left to observe. ...
Astronomy
Aug 21, 2025
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New NASA research has found that Ceres may have had a lasting source of chemical energy: the right types of molecules needed to fuel some microbial metabolisms. Although there is no evidence that microorganisms ever existed ...
Astrobiology
Aug 20, 2025
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