Asteroids are the leftovers from the formation of the solar system, and they can tell us a lot about those early years. Now scientists have studied a weird space rock and found that it’s the oldest known igneous meteorite, dating back to one of the very first volcanic eruptions in the solar system.
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Findings from three major world observatories confirm that a very rare binary asteroid came within a cosmic whisker of Earth on June 21, 2017 The near-Earth asteroid (actually two asteroids) passed within 3.7 million of our planet for the first time in 170 years before heading out into deep space.
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They might seem like boring rocks, but asteroids and meteorites have fascinating stories to tell about the history of the solar system. New research from the University of Florida has now traced back the origins of almost all asteroids in the inner belt to just five or six ancient minor planets.
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‘Oumuamua is the first interstellar visitor ever detected passing through our Solar System, and while it was originally classed as an asteroid after its discovery, astronomers have now updated the label. ‘Oumuamua, it turns out, is a comet after all, but it’s unlike any other known comet.
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After travelling for over three and a half years through the hostile environment of outer space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has successfully made orbit around the asteroid Ryugu.
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ESA wants to send its unmanned Hera orbiter to the Didymos binary asteroids to assess the effects of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which is designed to test the feasibility of deflecting potentially dangerous asteroids away from the Earth.
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The chances of a large asteroid striking the Earth are remote, but because the consequences of such an impact are potentially catastrophic, NASA as released a 20-page multi-agency report outlining steps the US federal government needs to take over the next decade to respond to such an eventuality.
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The Japanese prospecting spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has captured the most detailed images to date of its target – the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. Once at the asteroid, Hayabusa 2 will deploy a lander and three small rovers, before obtaining surface samples for return, and creating an artificial crater.
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Evidence is growing for a ninth planet lurking on the edges of the Solar System. Objects out there move in ways that suggest an unseen world is pulling on them, but new calculations suggest that there is no Planet Nine – these distant objects might just be jostling each other like bumper cars.
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As NASA's Dawn deep space mission to Ceres draws to its conclusion, the spacecraft is maneuvering into its closest orbit yet to the dwarf planet by executing a series of extended correction burns that will send it on a spiraling trajectory to bring it to within 30 miles of the surface.
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