Newly discovered comet is likely interstellar visitor

A newly discovered comet has excited the astronomical community this week because it appears to have originated from outside the solar system. The object—designated C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) - was discovered on Aug. 30, 2019, ...

How shiny are near-Earth objects?

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are small solar system bodies whose orbits sometimes bring them close to the Earth. NEOs are consequently potential collision threats, but scientists are also interested in them because they offer ...

Twenty years of planetary defense

On March 11, 1998, asteroid astronomers around the world received an ominous message: new observational data on the recently discovered asteroid 1997 XF11 suggested there was a chance that the half-mile-wide (nearly one kilometer) ...

Unconfirmed near-Earth objects

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are small solar system bodies whose orbits sometimes bring them close to the Earth, potentially threatening a collision. NEOs are tracers of the composition, dynamics and environmental conditions ...

Image: Tunguska devastation

Fallen trees at Tunguska, Imperial Russia, seen in 1929, 15 km from epicentre of aerial blast site, caused by explosion of a meteor in 1908 (Photo N. A. Setrukov, 1928).

What it takes to discover small rocks in space

Once every month, on average, somewhere on Earth a fireball appears out of nowhere and for mere seconds, casts a blinding flash across the sky before it blows up in a thunderous explosion. It happened last Saturday over southern ...

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