Asteroid news, features and articles
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4 large asteroids, including a skyscraper-size 'city killer,' will zoom past Earth in a 12-hour span tomorrow (Oct. 24)
By Harry Baker published
Four "potentially hazardous" space rocks, which are between 100 and 580 feet across, will all make their closest approaches to Earth within less than 12 hours of one another on Thursday (Oct. 24). Two of them were only discovered earlier this month.
Astronauts could mine asteroids for food someday, scientists say
By Samantha Mathewson published
Material harvested from asteroids could be used to sustain astronauts during long-duration space missions.
Phew! No 'doomsday' asteroids hide in famous broken comet's debris stream
By Keith Cooper published
The Taurid Meteoroid Stream, which is possibly responsible for the famous Tunguska and Chelyabinsk impacts, probably doesn't hide a civilization-killing asteroid.
Can you see Earth's new 'minimoon' with the naked eye?
By Brandon Specktor published
On Sunday, Sept. 29, Earth captured a new "minimoon" called 2024 PT5. The bus-size asteroid is expected to orbit our planet for 57 days, but is too small to be visible to amateur skywatchers.
Nuking an asteroid could save Earth from destruction, researchers show in 1st-of-its-kind X-ray experiment
By Ben Turner published
A powerful burst of X-rays from a nuclear explosion could be used to stop Armageddon just in the nick of time, a new experiment suggests.
NASA reveals images of enormous, snowman-shaped asteroid 2024 ON after its ultra-close approach to Earth
By Ben Turner published
New close-up images reveal the surprising snowman shape of "potentially hazardous" asteroid 2024 ON, which tumbled safely past our planet on Sept. 17.
Earth once wore a Saturn-like ring, study of ancient craters suggests
By Ben Turner published
The ring could be responsible for a prolonged drop in temperatures millions of years ago.
Earth's new 'mini-moon' will orbit our planet for the next 2 months
By Ben Turner published
A tiny asteroid will orbit around our planet for 53 days from the end of September.
'Potentially hazardous' asteroid the size of a skyscraper to skim past Earth on Tuesday
By Ben Turner published
The gigantic asteroid 2024 ON, about the size of a skyscraper, will fly close to Earth next Tuesday, missing our planet by 2.6 times the distance between Earth and the moon.
'God of Chaos' asteroid Apophis could still hit Earth in 2029, study hints — but we won't know for 3 more years
By Harry Baker published
New simulations reveal that there is an extremely small chance that the "city-killer" asteroid Apophis could be nudged onto a collision course with Earth by another asteroid before it flies past our planet in 2029.
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