Asteroids

Brighter Comet Yet to Come in ‘Year of the comet’

March 11, 2013, 10:03 pm

The Pan-STARRS comet, visible to the naked eye this week, kicks off 2013 as ‘year of the comet’.

‘Record-Setting’ Asteroid Flyby

February 13, 2013, 4:44 pm

Skywatchers in certain parts of the world will have the chance to see a large asteroid flying near the Earth Friday.

Anonymous Hacks Government Website, Posts Game of ‘Asteroids’

January 28, 2013, 3:11 pm

Hackers with Anonymous recently took over the U.S. Sentencing Commission website, positing a playable “Asteroids” video game on it to protest against the government’s [...]

New Asteroid-Mining Company Seeks to Launch Spacecraft by 2015

January 23, 2013, 12:37 am

A new company has announced on Tuesday that it would aim to mine asteroids near the Earth for precious metals, water, and other materials, making it the second firm to make [...]

NASA May Capture Asteroid to Orbit Moon

January 14, 2013, 3:00 pm

Scientists at NASA have been asking themselves: what would happen if we caught an asteroid and dragged it a little closer to home?

Itokawa Asteroid Dust to Shed Light on Earth’s Formation

October 4, 2012, 7:00 pm

For the first time in history, dust grains captured from an asteroid in space are now being analyzed back on Earth to yield insights into how these space rocks develop.

Asteroid Oljato Loses Its Magnetism

September 24, 2012, 5:00 pm

For the last three decades, the asteroid 2201 Oljato has caused magnetic disturbances whenever it passed by Venus, but new observations show its magnetic attraction has disappeared.

Eltanin Asteroid Could Have Triggered Ice Age

September 22, 2012, 6:29 am

A huge asteroid strike about 2.5 million years ago in the South Pacific could have caused a mega-tsunami and even changed the Earth’s climate, according to a new Australian study.

Dinosaur Extinction May Have Followed Ocean-Floor Extinction

September 8, 2012, 7:45 am

The demise of the dinosaurs, thought to have been caused by an asteroid, wasn’t the only mass extinction around that time, according to new international research.

Could Bruce Willis Really Save the World?

August 8, 2012, 4:00 pm

If we learn an asteroid the size of Texas is on a collision course with Earth, we shouldn’t turn to the action movie Armageddon for solutions, according to new research from [...]