Binary Asteroid to Pass by Earth
	Yet another reminder of the dangers to which the Earth is subjected every day has been brought to our attention by the Arecibo Radio Observatory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's LINEAR search program which discovered earlier this year an asteroid expected to make a fly-by around Earth sometime today. 2008 BT18 is a binary asteroid about 600 and 200 meters across respectively and will come as close to Earth as 2 million ... [read more >>]
	14 July 2008, 02:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Asteroids Could Be Fractured by Sunlight
	It's not often that astronomers find asteroids made out of a single massive piece, but rather containing two or more objects loosely bound together or orbiting each other, tumbling through the immensity of space. The cause to this particularity remained a subject of debate for a long time, although now a new study proposes that energy emitted from the Sun could force the asteroid into a spin which will eventually determine it to split ... [read more >>]
	10 July 2008, 05:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Rosetta Powers Up for Encounter with Mysterious Asteroid
	Europe's comet chaser, the Rosetta spacecraft, was powered up last week in anticipation for the fly-by around asteroid 2867 Steins scheduled to take place on September 5th, 2008. Rosetta was originally designed and launched in order to approach and study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with which the spacecraft will meet somewhere around the first half of 2014. Rosetta was launched into space by the European Space Ag ... [read more >>]
	07 July 2008, 03:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Superfast Rotating Asteroid Found by Amateur Astronomer
	The object in question is a newly discovered asteroid dubbed 2008 HJ, first detected on April 24 by a robotic telescope in Socorro, New Mexico. The object was then pointed by the Faulkes Telescope Project's website as a possible observation target and investigated by an amateur astronomer who discovered that 2008 HJ is the fastest spinning natural object in the solar systems, executing one rotation around its axis in less than a minut ... [read more >>]
	29 May 2008, 03:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Space Rocks Could Re-Colonize Earth
	Asteroid and comet collisions usually bring havoc to Earth, often provoking mass extinctions, but they can also seed life. In fact, we're most likely the product of such an event that took place several hundred million years ago. The last large impact that occurred is dated about 65 million years in the past and was probably responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The impact would have r ... [read more >>]
	15 May 2008, 10:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mass Extinctions Blamed on the Sun's Path Through the Galaxy
	As it travels through the Milky Way, the Sun experiences a periodical oscillation in relation to the galactic plane, meaning that the solar system intersects with some of the densest areas of the galaxy. This in turn can send comets and asteroids our way and determine catastrophic impacts with the Earth, such as that which killed the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. The same impacts could help spread life to other regions of the galaxy ... [read more >>]
	13 May 2008, 09:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA Considers Landing a Manned Mission on Near Asteroid
	2000SG344 is a Near Earth Object only 40 meters in diameter which passes periodically through the vicinity of our planet at speeds as high as 44,8 kilometers per hour. Astronomers estimate that in the next six decades or so, the asteroid will approach Earth considerably but it will not intersect the orbit of the planet. If it were to do so, the energy released during the impact would be equivalent to about 83 times that released ... [read more >>]
	08 May 2008, 10:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Suitcase-Sized Satellite to Catalogue Dangerous NEOs
	Many people don't know this but there are about 5,000 Near Earth Objects at least 10 kilometers wide that may one day decide to come crashing down on the surface without us even knowing. The consequences of an impact with such a large object are now known, but considering that an object that size may have been responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, I think it’s fair to say it’s not going to be good. Most of thes ... [read more >>]
	06 May 2008, 10:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Would an Impact with a Large Asteroid Affect Human Civilization
	The last big impact experienced by Earth occurred 65-million-year ago in Chicxulub, the Yucatan peninsula (southeastern Mexico) and doomed the world of the dinosaurs. If a similar asteroid would shock again with our planet, our very existence would be menaced. Smaller asteroids frequently hit Earth. For instance, the Tunguska explosion from 1908 devastated an area bigger than that of Greater London. The effects could vary from major mo ... [read more >>]
	30 April 2008, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

'Killer' Asteroid Estimate Corrections Dismissed by NASA
	A few days ago, 13 year-old German Nico Marquardt seemed to have embarrassed all NASA scientists when he announced that the odds of asteroid Apophis hitting the Earth in 2036 have been greatly underestimated. The funny thing is that many sources rushed to state that NASA and the ESA confirmed the schoolboy's results, only to be refuted several days later. According to NASA, the calculations made by Marquardt are generally c ... [read more >>]
	18 April 2008, 06:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

German 13 Year-Old Corrects NASA Estimates on 'Killer' Asteroid
	2004 MN4, or most popularly known as asteroid 99942 Apophis, is a near Earth asteroid discovered in December 2004. Apophis measures about 400 meters in diameter and upon its discovery, it was given a chance of 2.7 percent that it will hit our planet in 2029. On 19 October 2006, NASA estimated that Apophis had a change of 1 in 45,000 of colliding with Earth on 13 April 2036 and 1 in 12.3 million that it will hit our planet one yea ... [read more >>]
	16 April 2008, 06:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Earth: 170 Known Impact Craters
	Earth, unlike the other rocky planets in the solar system, is extremely geologically active, constantly shifting and remodeling the surface through plate tectonics shifts, volcanic eruptions and erosion, and mountains formation. This basically means that any evidence of old meteorite and asteroid impacts are mostly hidden away under the surface and underwater. Currently, there are 170 known craters all over the Earth according to ... [read more >>]
	14 April 2008, 08:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Weird Dunes on Mars Look Like Hoofmarks
	NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took lately a couple of pictures of the Martian surface revealing some sand dunes, on the Hellespontus region of the planet, looking strikingly similar to a series of hoofmarks. According to NASA, such surface formations have also been spotted on Earth and are called barchan dunes. On Mars, barchan dunes are formed under the action of powerful westerly winds, which shape them into the form ... [read more >>]
	14 April 2008, 04:42GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hayabusa Pointing in the Wrong Direction
	Hayabusa, meaning peregrine falcon in Japanese, is an unmanned space mission carried out by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, having the task of returning dust from the near-Earth asteroid known as 25143 Itokawa, measuring about 540 meters/ 270 meters/ 210 meters. Hayabusa was launched into space on 9 May 2003; however, during its trip to the Itokawa asteroid, it was hit by a large solar flare that destroyed most of its solar panel a ... [read more >>]
	14 April 2008, 03:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Asteroids: the Oldest Bodies in the Solar System
	It is widely known that ancient space rocks floating through the solar system are amongst the oldest bodies in the solar system. Meteorites found on Earth are proof for this. However, now astronomers using the Mauana Kea telescope in Hawaii claim to have discovered three asteroids that seem to be the oldest objects in the solar system, even older than the meteorites found on Earth. Jessica Sunshine of University of Maryland, the ... [read more >>]
	21 March 2008, 05:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Asteroid Discovered by Two Students
	The object now known as 2008 EB61 has been officially classified by the International Astronomical Union as the latest found asteroid. The discovery was made by Ryan Gallagher and Robbyn Kindle from the Forest Hill and North Richland Hills respectively, on March 9, after spotting a small feature of a unidentified space object, while double checking images of the asteroid belt, previously processed by a computer. Physics and astro ... [read more >>]
	18 March 2008, 06:17GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

No Primordial Soup Without Meteorites
	Add water, a mix of complex chemical substance, sunlight and you might eventually end up creating life. And don't forget about adding meteorites! Only if things were so easy. Previously, scientists believed that the primordial soup, from which the first living being emerged, was formed of ingredients found only here on Earth. Now, researchers from the Carnegie Institution argue that it might have been more than that, as they have rece ... [read more >>]
	13 March 2008, 11:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Black Holes Spell Death for Earth!
	They are out there, we know what kind of destruction their capable of, however we have also been lucky enough not have such an object forming in the vicinity of our solar system. Or haven't we? Our biggest threat right now, however, doesn't come from black holes, death rays of any kind or other impending disaster. It comes from asteroids, rogue pieces of rock traveling through our solar system. And as that wasn't h ... [read more >>]
	11 March 2008, 07:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Tag an Asteroid and Win 50,000 Bucks!
	A pretty small prize, one would say, especially considering the implications of a large asteroid hitting the Earth in the near future. We may at least stay calm until the day of 13. April 2036, that is. This is the date when the largest asteroid orbiting through the close vicinity of the Earth may execute a fly-by around the planet and fade harmlessly in the distance, or it might decide to hurdle towards the surface of the Earth. ... [read more >>]
	27 February 2008, 07:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Asteroid 2007 WD5 Flies by Mars
	We've actually come to know more about the 2007 WD 5 asteroid than about that other big hunk of rock that passed near Earth about two days ago. How is this even possible, all of a sudden Mars is more important to us than Earth? I mean, we only found out about 2007 TU24 two days before the asteroid made a flyby around Earth although it was discovered some three months back, while we've been talking about 2007 WD5's chance to ... [read more >>]
	31 January 2008, 07:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Waiting for Lucky April 13
	Yesterday, the asteroid 2007 TU 24 passed through the vicinity of our planet at a distance of only one and a half times further than the distance to the Moon, while today 2007 WD5 will make a fly-by around the planet Mars at a distance of only 26,000 kilometers. Oh... you might have noticed how both asteroid's names start with 2007, that's because they were discovered in late 2007. In fact, 2007 WD5 was discovered five ... [read more >>]
	30 January 2008, 06:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Arecibo Prepares to Take Images of Large Asteroid Flyby
	The discovery of the asteroid 2007 TU24 represents for astronomers a golden opportunity to learn more about these rogue bodies, as it will pass about 534,000 kilometers over the surface of the Earth. From 27th to 28th of January and from 1st to 4th of February, the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico will make detailed measurements and images on 2007 TU 24 before it falls back into the immensity of space. Discovered in October 200 ... [read more >>]
	26 January 2008, 04:25GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Comet Wild 2 Has Asteroid-like Composition
	The Stardust mission brings surprising new evidence once again. After the initial sample analysis revealed that most of the material inside comet Wild 2 originated in the inner regions of the solar system, now scientists have shown that, against general belief that comets are fluffy dust objects, they could instead have similar composition to that of the asteroids. In 2004 the Stardust mission succeeded in approaching the main bo ... [read more >>]
	25 January 2008, 03:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

More Asteroids Coming Our Way!
	All of a sudden, it started raining with asteroids! No wonder, astronomers estimate that there are about 7,000 such rocks, discovered and undiscovered, orbiting around the Sun and periodically coming through the vicinity of the Earth. Because they are so small in size, many less than 150 meters in diameter, astronomers can only spot them as they pass by our planet. On 11 October, last year NASA's Catalina Sky Survey discover ... [read more >>]
	25 January 2008, 02:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Doomsday Asteroid Will Miss Mars
	After nearly two months of observations on the trajectory of asteroid 2007 WD5, astronomers finally succeeded in calculating the exact trajectory of the object which only a few days ago had a chance of 1 in 28 to hit the Red Planet. Asteroid 2007 WD5, discovered on November 30 last year, is now expected to pass through the vicinity of Mars at a distance of about 30,000 kilometers. Incredibly, the object estimated to have a d ... [read more >>]
	09 January 2008, 02:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Asteroid 2007 WD5 Sends Shivers Down the Spine
	No wonder NASA received funding cuts for its Near Earth Object program, as it seems they are spending a lot of money on nothing. The threat at which NASA is exposing the human race to got updated in late November last year when asteroid 2007 WD5 was discovered. Upon calculating the trajectory of the object through the inner regions of the solar system, astrophysicists gave it a chance of 1 in 350 that the asteroid would hit plane ... [read more >>]
	04 January 2008, 03:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Kuiper Belt Shines Rainbow Colors
	Now, we consider that the outer solar system lies somewhere beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune, meaning for example the Kuiper belt, thought to be the source of the short-period orbit comets, and the Oort cloud lying more than one light year away from the Sun, which could probably be the location where long-period orbit comets originate. Although the Oort cloud hasn't been detected yet, and mostly remains a theoretical ... [read more >>]
	03 January 2008, 05:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Phaethon Spied During Close Earth Approach
	The asteroid responsible for the Geminid meteor shower which takes place every December, 3200 Phaethon, made its closest passing through the vicinity of the planet Earth since its discovery in 1983. The event, which took place on the 10th of December last year, was anticipated by the Arecibo Observatory, which pointed its telescope towards the cosmic object on December 8. Most of the meteor showers which take place on Earth ... [read more >>]
	03 January 2008, 04:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Facts About Comets
	The past civilizations on Earth mostly regarded the comets as messengers of destruction and rarely as bringers of good or prosperity, while the scientists today think they might have played a key role in the formation of our planet and view them as carriers of possible information about the galaxy, and the formation of the solar system. These dusty-icy objects were presumed to have delivered the water on Earth during collisio ... [read more >>]
	27 December 2007, 05:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Asteroid Has 1 in 75 Odds to Hit Mars
	If an asteroid hits the Red Planet, it could be the second time in history when humanity witnesses a collision between a celestial body and a planet in the solar system, other than the Earth, since the event in 2004 when the broken comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 intersected the orbit of Jupiter, creating giant fireballs in its atmosphere, most of them bigger than the diameter of our planet. Astronomers have been closely following the ... [read more >>]
	21 December 2007, 02:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Smaller Asteroids are More Dangerous
	When it comes to asteroids size really doesn't mater, as they can hit Earth's atmosphere with forces similar to those of bigger cousins. This information is even more baffling when you take into consideration that in our effort to detect the biggest threats posed by asteroids to Earth we have been unable to develop a program that would monitor the bodies with diameters smaller that 140 meters. Furthermore, statistical calculation ... [read more >>]
	19 December 2007, 05:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Best Night Spectacle this Year: December 13rd
	This year, the Geminid Meteor Shower will peak on the night of 13-14 December, and is thought to make quite a show on the night sky, or as astronomers David Levy and Stephen Edberg would say, 'if you haven't seen a Geminid fireball, then you haven't seen a meteor'. This particular meteor shower gets its name from the Gemini constellation, from which they seem to have originated, as seen from the surface of the Earth ... [read more >>]
	07 December 2007, 10:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What to do with The Pesky Planet Destroyers?
	Everything is fine on planet Earth. Well... not really. Not only that we commit suicide every day, by dumping enormous quantities of green house effect gases into our atmosphere, amongst other several problems, but we have no clear viable plan to handle the threat posed by the asteroid in the vicinity of our planet, that could intersect the orbit of Earth and cause havok. A potential 22 million tons asteroid, the weight of some of the s ... [read more >>]
	29 November 2007, 08:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Natural Satellites Got Stoned
	The planets and the moons in the solar system often get pounded by differently sized objects, creating large cracks and craters on their surface. These energetic impacts are often due to the moon's regular motion and spinning. To better understand the effect that these events have on the motion of a planet or moon, imagine a spherical object with a hole on one of its sides. The statistical calculations show that such an object rolling ... [read more >>]
	26 November 2007, 09:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Near-Miss Asteroid. Or Not?
	Last weekend, the Minor Planet Center announced they detected a Near Earth Object that would miss the Earth only by 5,600 kilometers. The newly discovered object, has been given an official name by the MPC, run by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. 2007 VN84 was tracked by a number of astronomers around the world to determine the threat this object poses. It would be the closest approach of a sizable asteroid, located at a distance ... [read more >>]
	13 November 2007, 03:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA Exposes Mankind to Total Annihilation
	Remember the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and almost wiped all life from the face of the Earth? NASA says there is no immediate risk of that happening in the near future, although there might be a lot of such objects in the near vicinity of our planet that could intersect Earth's orbit and cause havoc, which could remain undetected. NASA is now exposing us to a possible planetary catastrophe if a big enough asteroid evades obse ... [read more >>]
	09 November 2007, 10:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Has the Tunguska Meteorite Been Found?
	On June 30, 1908, the biggest space impact that Earth suffered in modern times, known as the Tunguska event, took place in a remote Siberian area, destroying more than 2,000 sq km (770 square mi) of forest near the Tunguska River (central Siberia). The ball of fire that could have been a comet or asteroid, blasted about 6 mi (10 km) off the ground in the atmosphere with a power similar to 1,000 Hiroshima bomb explosions (20 millions tones ... [read more >>]
	08 November 2007, 04:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?
	The first dinosaur fossils were recognized in the nineteenth century, and quickly began to represent a major attraction for museum visitors, and spawned a whole culture among children and adults, featuring in different movies and best-seller books. Dinosaurs formed one of the most successful groups ever to live on Earth. They have dominated the Earth's ecosystem for more than 160 million years only till they suddenly dis ... [read more >>]
	05 November 2007, 02:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Flying Mirrors Will Impede the Armageddon
	A solution reminding us of the "Armageddon" movie and high-skilled drillers like Bruce Willis would help only as plan B. In fact, scientists are focusing on flying mirrors to save the Earth from a catastrophic asteroid collision. No less than 5,000 mirrors would be necessary to focus a sunlight fascicle on to the asteroid, melting the rock and shifting its orbital route away from Earth. The proposal came after a res ... [read more >>]
	08 October 2007, 05:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Oceans - "Made in Earth", Not a Product of Asteroids
	Some people sustain that our oceans came from space, brought by water-filled asteroids and comets showering on a juvenile Earth, 3.8 billion years ago. But this concept is challenged by Japanese planetary scientists, who point out that the oceans are a self production of the Earth, originating from a thick blanket of hydrogen, which oxidized with oxides from the Earth's mantle to form lakes and seas. "Water is essential for t ... [read more >>]
	08 October 2007, 05:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Hybrid Asteroid-Comet
	This weird space object observed repeatedly plunging close to the Sun has been puzzling astronomers: is it a comet or an asteroid? Now, it seems like a comet playing the asteroid. P/2007 R5 was first detected passing near the Sun in 1999 and spotted again in 2003 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Sebastian Hoenig of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, realized it could have been the ... [read more >>]
	27 September 2007, 05:27GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Will We Be Hit by an Asteroid in 2036?
	Should we rely by 2036 on Bruce Willis’ deep-core drilling skills or should we take a more scientific approach to the asteroid 99942 Apophis? By 2036, people on Earth could see the Armageddon movie turned into reality. British space engineers have already unveiled designs for the development of a satellite that would track and monitor Apophis, the potential Earth-colliding asteroid discovered in 2004 and having a width of 390 m [ADMARK ... [read more >>]
	21 September 2007, 04:23GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Dinosaur Armageddon Originated in the Asteroid Belt, and There is Still Enough Material for Ours
	A breakup in the asteroid belt of the Sun System has now been connected by an American-Czech team from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Charles University in Prague to the catastrophic event that destroyed the dinosaurs and many contemporaneous species 65 million years ago, after combining observations with various numerical simulations. The parent object of asteroid (298) Baptistina exploded when it was hit by another large aste ... [read more >>]
	06 September 2007, 03:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How to Fight an Asteroid Hitting the Earth? The Moon - Noah's Ark
	We have barely escaped from an Armageddon. Next time we may not be that lucky. That's why some see the moon as our possible escape in case such a scenario happens. NASA is already planning a permanent lunar outpost by 2024. "But that plan should be expanded to include a way to preserve humanity's learning, culture, and technology if Earth is hit by a doomsday asteroid or comet," said Jim Burke, a scientist at NA ... [read more >>]
	15 August 2007, 03:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Could the Next Mass Extinction Be Close?
	At least five mass extinctions may have occurred in the history of our planet, meaning that in a relatively short period of time, a large number of species have disappeared. Probably the most famous one took place 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, when the dinosaur domination reached its end. There is an interesting, yet highly controversial theory, claiming that it might not have been only the huge asteroid imp ... [read more >>]
	28 July 2007, 07:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What's With this Strange Asteroid Following Mars Around?
	Astronomers have just discovered another unusual celestial body in our solar system. It's a small asteroid, only 1 kilometer across that seems to follow Mars during its rotation cycle around the Sun. This is the first object of its kind to show this unusual movement. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. Initial theories said it may have been part of the Trojan asteroids, a large ... [read more >>]
	24 July 2007, 05:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Top 10 Countries Most at Risk of Asteroid Impact
	Scientists performed a new study to evaluate what countries are most at risk of what they call "small" asteroid impact. The term small must not be taken literally, since a 1-kilometer-wide asteroid may not be large in astronomical terms, but it still can produce a disaster. Using a new computer software, called NEOimpactor, researchers at the University of Southampton assessed the potential human and economic consequences of ... [read more >>]
	10 July 2007, 02:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

This Sunday, NASA Will Launch New Mission, Toward the Two Largest Asteroids in the Solar System
	This weekend, NASA will launch a new mission, the Dawn spacecraft, which will venture into the asteroid belt to rendez-vous with two of the largest asteroids in the solar system, Ceres and Vesta. The asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, is the largest concentration of asteroids in the solar system, where 98.5% of asteroid orbits can be found. Ceres is the largest asteroid about the size of Texas, recently classif ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 06:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Moon Didn't Form the Way We Think!
	Presently, the widely accepted theory about the formation process of the Moon is a giant impact between the early Earth and a celestial body the size of Mars, that threw out enough material in orbit that accreted in time to form our only natural satellite. However this hypothesis is not accepted by all the scientific community, since no data was ever presented about the size of the asteroid that supposedly hit the proto-Earth ... [read more >>]
	28 June 2007, 04:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Spectacular Photos of Two of the Largest Known Asteroids!
	The Hubble Space Telescope has recently sent some very impressive pictures of two of the largest known asteroids, showing the craters and other spectacular features on the two cosmic boulders, that will soon be explored in detail by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Hubble is a telescope in orbit around the Earth, named after astronomer Edwin Hubble. Its position outside the Earth's atmosphere provides significant advantages over groun ... [read more >>]
	21 June 2007, 04:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia