Search results for asteroid belt

Space Exploration Mar 28, 2019

Hubble watches spun-up asteroid coming apart

A small asteroid has been caught in the process of spinning so fast it's throwing off material, according to new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories.

Space Exploration Mar 22, 2019

Why dangerous asteroids heading to Earth are so hard to detect

Earth is often in the firing line of fragments of asteroids and comets, most of which burn up tens of kilometres above our heads. But occasionally, something larger gets through.

Space Exploration Mar 19, 2019

Team identifies water-bearing minerals on asteroid Bennu

A Southwest Research Institute-led team discovered evidence of abundant water-bearing minerals on the surface of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Using early spectral data from NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft orbiting ...

Space Exploration Mar 19, 2019

Hayabusa2 helps researchers understand ingredients for life in early solar system

The first data received from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft orbiting the asteroid Ryugu is helping space scientists explore conditions in the early solar system. The space probe gathered vast amounts of images and other data providing ...

Space Exploration Mar 19, 2019

ESA's Hera asteroid mission borrows eyes of NASA's Dawn

The mission to the smallest asteroid ever explored will employ the same main camera as the mission to the largest asteroids of all. ESA's proposed Hera spacecraft to the Didymos asteroid pair has inherited its main imager ...

Astronomy Mar 14, 2019

ALMA observes the formation sites of solar-system-like planets

Researchers have spotted the formation sites of planets around a young star resembling the sun. Two rings of dust around the star, at distances comparable to the asteroid belt and the orbit of Neptune in the solar system, ...

Astronomy Mar 12, 2019

What scientists found after sifting through dust in the solar system

Just as dust gathers in corners and along bookshelves in our homes, dust piles up in space too. But when the dust settles in the solar system, it's often in rings. Several dust rings circle the Sun. The rings trace the orbits ...

Space Exploration Feb 28, 2019

New Horizons research indicates small Kuiper Belt objects are surprisingly rare

Using New Horizons data from the Pluto-Charon flyby in 2015, a Southwest Research Institute-led team of scientists have indirectly discovered a distinct and surprising lack of very small objects in the Kuiper Belt. The evidence ...

Space Exploration Feb 20, 2019

Close encounters: planning for extra Hera flyby

ESA's proposed Hera mission will already visit two asteroids: the Didymos binary pair. The Hera team hopes to boost that number by performing a flyby of another asteroid during the mission's three-year flight.

Space Exploration Feb 18, 2019

Video: Big questions about small worlds

Scientists who study the solar system tend to ask big questions: How was our solar system formed? Where did the building blocks of life come from? What hazards from above threaten life on our planet? To find answers, they're ...

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