New research finds that 'Oumuamua, the rocky object identified as the first confirmed interstellar asteroid, very likely came from a binary star system.
Astronomy
Mar 19, 2018
5
1097
When NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew past its first official target Dinkinesh in November 2023, researchers discovered that the asteroid—known as "Dinky"—was not alone in space. A satellite asteroid, which the team named ...
Planetary Sciences
May 29, 2024
0
54
Is our Sun part of a binary star system? An unseen companion star, nicknamed 'Nemesis,' may be sending comets towards Earth. If Nemesis exists, NASA's new WISE telescope should be able to spot it.
Astronomy
Mar 11, 2010
2
0
NASA on Tuesday celebrated exceeding expectations during a mission to deflect a distant asteroid, in a sci-fi like test of humanity's ability to stop an incoming cosmic object from devastating life on Earth.
Planetary Sciences
Oct 11, 2022
20
709
Asteroid researchers and spacecraft engineers from the US, Europe and around the world will gather in Rome next week to discuss the latest progress in their common goal: an ambitious double-spacecraft mission to deflect an ...
Space Exploration
Sep 2, 2019
6
567
An ambitious joint US-European mission, called AIDA, is being planned to divert the orbit of a binary asteroid's small moon, as well as to give us new insights into the structure of asteroids. A pair of spacecraft, the ESA-led ...
Space Exploration
Sep 30, 2015
0
202
On Nov. 1, NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew by not just its first asteroid, but its first two. The first images returned by Lucy reveal that the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a binary pair.
Planetary Sciences
Nov 2, 2023
0
1681
A specially upgraded radio-frequency chamber in ESA's technical heart is testing what is set to become the smallest radar system to be flown in space, hosted aboard a breadbox-sized spacecraft.
Space Exploration
Nov 17, 2021
0
36
When ESA's planned Hera mission journeys to its target binary asteroid system, it will not be alone. The spacecraft will carry two tiny CubeSats for deployment around – and eventual landing on – the Didymos asteroids. ...
Space Exploration
Jan 7, 2019
0
22
ESA's planet-defending Hera mission will set a new record in space. The asteroid investigator will not only be the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair – but the smaller of these two ...
Space Exploration
Feb 4, 2019
0
16
