Asteroids

Latest about Asteroids

An artist's impression of a blue comet with water vapor pouring off of it

James Webb telescope spots ancient water frozen in a near-Earth comet — and scientists want to collect it

By Joanna Thompson published

A new analysis of a comet in the asteroid belt reveals frozen water from the early solar system, hinting at the origins of water on Earth.

Asteroids
A black rock with pock marks sits inside on a hard wood floor.

Rock that crashed through New Jersey home may be 4.6 billion-year-old chunk of Halley's Comet

By Stephanie Pappas last updated

An apparent meteorite crashed into a bedroom in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, on Monday (May 8). A scientific analysis confirmed its extraterrestrial origin.

Asteroids
A bright meteor falling through the sky overa tree-lined forest

How to watch the Eta Aquarid meteor shower — a burst of 'shooting stars' left by Halley's Comet — peak this weekend

By Jamie Carter published

An outburst of 'shooting stars' from Halley's Comet could result in a dazzling Eta Aquarid meteor shower on May 5 and 6 — if the full moon doesn't get in the way.

Asteroids
An asteroid flying past earth

'Potentially hazardous' asteroid as tall as the Eiffel Tower will zoom by Earth today

By Harry Baker published

The hefty space rock, known as 2006 HV5, is around 1,000 feet wide and will hurtle past our planet at around 39,000 mph.

Asteroids
An illustration of a large rocky asteroid moving through space as the blue Earth sits in the distance

'Potentially hazardous' skyscraper-size asteroid will zip past Earth Thursday

By Brandon Specktor published

The potentially hazardous asteroid 2023 FM is larger than a 40-story building and will zoom within 7.5 lunar distances from Earth on Thursday, April 6, according to NASA.

Asteroids
This illustration depicts NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft prior to impact at the Didymos binary asteroid system.

Potentially hazardous asteroids: How dangerous are near-Earth objects?

By JoAnna Wendel published

Potentially hazardous objects, are large space rocks that orbit closely to Earth and could cause widespread damage to our planet.

Asteroids
Meteor crater in Arizona is one of the most well-preserved impact craters on Earth, with an estimated age of about 50,000 years. A new study of larger, less pristine craters raises new questions about how many large impacts Earth experiences in a given timeframe.

Extinction-level asteroid impacts could be far more common than we thought, controversial study suggests

By Stephanie Pappas published

New research claims that giant space rocks hit Earth far more often than has been estimated. But some scientists are skeptical.

Asteroids
3D rendering of the asteroid passing near the Earth.

Skyscraper-size asteroid will get closer to Earth than the moon on Saturday

By Stephanie Pappas published

Asteroid 2023 DZ2 will zip between Earth and the moon's orbit on March 25 and may be visible with the right telescope.

Asteroids
An animation of asteroid Ryugu made with images from JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission.

Key building block for life discovered on distant asteroid Ryugu — and it could explain how life on Earth began

By Ben Turner published

Scientists have found uracil, one of the key building blocks for RNA, on the 200 million-mile-distant asteroid Ryugu

Asteroids
A graphical representation of the asteroid 2023 DW.

Asteroid feared to hit Earth in 2046 will almost certainly miss, NASA says

By Ben Turner published

An asteroid that was initially given 1-in-600 chance of wiping out an entire city on Valentine's Day 2046 is now expected to almost definitely whizz past us without incident.

Asteroids
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Archives