An asteroid passing within 26,000 mi (42,000 km) of Earth might seem like cause for concern, but when the 10 to 20 m wide asteroid 2012 TC4 did just that in the early hours of today, it provided the perfect opportunity to test a global asteroid-impact early-warning system.
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On September 22, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully completed a gravity assist flyby with Earth, which has set the probe on a course to rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu next year. At its closest point, OSIRIS-REx flew within 10,711 miles of Earth's surface.
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For the past year, NASA's OSIRIS-REx satellite has been on a solar orbit in our galaxy, readying itself for its ultimate goal of heading out to the asteroid Bennu and grabbing a sample from its surface. On Friday, Sept 22, it'll finally head off to its target with a little help from Earth's gravity.
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Astronomers have discovered a brand new celestial object: an active binary asteroid. Body 288P is the first known hybrid of two rare types of asteroid: a binary that’s made up of two rocks orbiting each other, and an active asteroid that acts more like a comet, leaving a trail of gas.
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Asteroids have a lot to teach us about the Solar System, but their nomadic nature makes them hard to study. Now a proposed mission called the Asteroid Touring Nanosat Fleet involves sending 50 tiny spacecraft to visit hundreds of asteroids, before bringing their data payloads back to Earth.
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Last week, Earth was buzzed by asteroid 3122 Florence, the largest space rock NASA has seen come this close since it began tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs). NASA took the opportunity to study Florence close up, confirming its monster size and revealing that it has two tiny moons.
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A solar eclipse might darken the day for minutes, but 65 million years ago the sun may have disappeared for 18 months. New simulations show that atmospheric particles would have blocked sunlight, disrupting plants' photosynthesis and cascading into a mass extinction event.
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Asteroids whizz past Earth on a regular basis, usually only a few meters wide. But next month we’re due for a close encounter with a monster space rock measuring 4.4 km (2.7 mi) across, making it the largest near-Earth object to come this close since NASA began tracking them almost 20 years ago.
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Asteroid 2012 TC4 hasn’t been seen since its last brush with our planet 5 years ago, but astronomers knew it would return in October 2017. Right on cue, the building-sized rock has now emerged from the darkness of space, and its trajectory has been calculated.
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NASA has established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office to detect and track potentially hazardous space rocks and coordinate response plans with the US government if an impact threat arises. Now, NASA will test its detection equipment on a known asteroid that’s due to buzz Earth in October.
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