Near-Earth objects (NEOs) as a research area encompass the observational, theoretical, and modeling studies of asteroids and comets whose orbits bring them into proximity with Earth, typically with perihelion distances less than 1.3 astronomical units. This field integrates asteroid/comet discovery surveys, orbit determination and dynamical evolution, physical and compositional characterization, impact probability assessment, and planetary defense strategies. Research includes population statistics, source regions and transport mechanisms from main-belt or trans-Neptunian reservoirs, surface and internal structure studies, non-gravitational forces such as the Yarkovsky effect, and development of mitigation techniques for potentially hazardous objects, often using ground-based telescopes, radar, and spacecraft missions.
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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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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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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A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) review of data collected from near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu supports the hypothesis that they were originally part of the Polana collisional family in the main asteroid belt between ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 18, 2025
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138
Most people are aware that an asteroid wiped out much of life on Earth around 65 million years ago, and this knowledge contributes to that chill of fear that many people experience, at least occasionally, that something like ...
A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS using the crisp vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble is one of many missions across NASA's fleet of space ...
Astronomy
Aug 7, 2025
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100
Since 2017, three interstellar objects have been spotted passing through our solar system: 1I/ʻOumuamua, 2I/Borisov… and just this month, 3I/ATLAS. Discovered on July 1 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert Survey, ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 4, 2025
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199
Predicting the precise path of a new asteroid or comet is a complex affair; the more observations you have, the better you know where an object will be, years hence.
Astronomy
Jul 7, 2025
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