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Home > News > Tags > asteroids
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Since arriving in orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta, in mid-July this year, the NASA Dawn space probe changed two observations orbits. This allowed it to compile interesting maps of the largest asteroid in our solar system, showing it to be more geologically diverse than researchers first estimated.
The large ... |
4 October 2011
04:56 GMT |
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The most recent investigations conducted with the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft suggest that the family of asteroids which was widely believed to have been responsible for the extinction event that killed off all the dinosaurs is in fact innocent of all charges.
Dinosaurs were wiped f... |
20 September 2011
04:15 GMT |
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Eager to make the most of Dawn mission to the large asteroid Vesta, mission controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, are putting the spacecraft through its paces. Over the past few weeks, the probe has snapped a large numbers of photos depicting the space rock.
The reason w... |
16 September 2011
05:19 GMT |
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Most of the precious metals that exist on Earth today may have been brought here by comets and asteroids billions of years ago. At that time, the entire inner solar system passed through a violent phase called the Late Heavy Bombardment.
During those times, vast numbers of comets, asteroids, meteorites and other s... |
8 September 2011
03:45 GMT |
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Since it formed about 4.5 billion years ago, our planet has suffered catastrophic collisions with other space bodies, which sometimes led to extinction events here. However, it could be that the same instances led to the spreading of basic lifeforms to other celestial bodies in our solar system.In a new study publish... |
22 August 2011
05:31 GMT |
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In the long run, asteroid impacts are one of the main challenges to our species' survival on this planet. While we are in no immediate danger, it's more than certain that massive impacts are imminent. Still, politicians apparently find it hard to agree that this is the case, and that we need defenses.If we ... |
17 August 2011
09:43 GMT |
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Mission controllers for the Dawn spacecraft were surprised to see an unexpected formation on the surface of the massive asteroid Vesta, in the latest batch of images the orbiter sent back to Earth. The photos show a region of the large space rock that is riddled with craters, of which several were formed in a strange... |
3 August 2011
04:58 GMT |
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After successfully entering orbit around Vesta – the largest space rock in the Inner Asteroid Belt – the NASA Dawn space probe is now getting ready to move into its first science orbits. During the year it will spend at the protoplanet, the spacecraft will take on a total of four such orbits.The orbiter i... |
2 August 2011
03:25 GMT |
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NEOWISE, the extended mission of the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), is currently helping astronomers to keep track of near-Earth objects (NEO) that may pose a threat to the planet. Just a few days ago, it found Earth's first Trojan. Every planet or moon out there has five special points in thei... |
1 August 2011
07:21 GMT |
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Astronomers say that they may have discovered the trails left behind by a comet passing through our neighborhood recently. The object itself has yet to be identified, but researchers say that it could pose a threat to our planet. Investigators base their conclusions on an analysis of a surprising meteor shower, that ... |
28 July 2011
04:28 GMT |
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Astronomers long ago proposed the existence of asteroids or other space rocks that trail or precede our planet in its orbit around the Sun. The first such object was recently discovered, confirming that theoretical predictions were correct.Experts say that this class of objects is characterized by the fact that they ... |
28 July 2011
03:05 GMT |
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Just a couple of days after becoming the first probe to orbit a body in the Inner Asteroid Belt, the NASA Dawn spacecraft managed to send back the first close-up images of the giant asteroid Vesta.
The object is the largest known space rock in the solar system, bordering on being classified as a protoplanet. The ... |
19 July 2011
02:28 GMT |
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Mission controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, confirmed that the Dawn spacecraft successfully entered orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta, on Saturday, July 16. The maneuver took place 117 million miles away from Earth. This achievement marks the first time that a spacecr... |
18 July 2011
03:04 GMT |
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Paleontologists have recently determined that the end of the Age of Dinosaurs came about abruptly, in one fell swoop, rather than progressively, as other researchers suggested in the past. These conclusions are based on a thorough analysis of a single dinosaur horn. The issue as to whether the extinction of these gia... |
13 July 2011
07:24 GMT |
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One of the most debated mysteries surrounding the large asteroid/protoplanet Vesta is whether the celestial body has a moon or not. As Dawn gets ready to enter orbit around the space rock, the issue is about to be resolved, scientists on both sides of the fence believe. There are many things that experts hope the NAS... |
11 July 2011
08:27 GMT |
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Well underway to enter orbit around the largest asteroid in our solar system, the NASA Dawn space probe has just sent back a series of new images of the enormous rock. The levels of detail we now have on the object are higher than ever before. Dawn is currently expected to start orbiting its target on July 16, and to... |
8 July 2011
02:46 GMT |
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With the passing of a medium-sized asteroid past Earth on June 27, the issue of space impactors has again been brought to the spotlight. Based on historical evidence, astronomers are wondering whether our planet is indeed overdue for a huge collision. Over millions of years, numerous comets and asteroids have slammed... |
28 June 2011
09:37 GMT |
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Next month, researchers at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will have an important reason to celebrate, when the Dawn spacecraft will finally reach Vesta, the most massive asteroid in our solar system. The probe is now scheduled to enter orbit around the large space rock on July 16. According to mission ... |
24 June 2011
03:13 GMT |
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As the NASA Dawn spacecraft is heading for a July 2011 rendezvous with Vesta, the largest asteroid in the solar system, the cameras on the probe have put together a short clip of the approaching space rock.The new data will help mission controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California,... |
13 June 2011
11:04 GMT |
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Molecules without which life would have not appeared and developed on Earth appear to be produced in large quantities on asteroids. The space rock then spread their “products” via meteorites through solar systems, and on nearby planets. The same thing happened on Earth. Even now, molecules produced by the... |
10 June 2011
05:16 GMT |
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The Dawn space probe is scheduled to soon enter orbit around the largest asteroid in the solar system, Vesta. The massive space object is already within reach, and instruments aboard the probe can already see it as a very distant object. At this point, the massive asteroid is located about 143 million miles from Eart... |
10 June 2011
03:00 GMT |
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Astronomers say that the asteroid Kleopatra is home to two twin moons, each of which is very small, yet noticeable using telescopes. The new discovery has important implications for the way we understand comets, experts add. Until now, the debate on whether comets were solid objects or not has been raging on in the i... |
2 June 2011
09:12 GMT |
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The radio science component of the OSIRIS-REx mission will be managed by experts at the University of Colorado in Boulder (UCB). Experts here will be in charge of mapping the asteroid, in order to understand how the space rock formed and evolved over the eons.
The spacecraft, which NASA plans to launch in 2016, w... |
28 May 2011
04:46 GMT |
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As early as 2016, the American space agency will launch a new sample-return mission, which will target a study campaign of the asteroid 1999 RQ36 in 2020. The mission will provide invaluable data on this object, experts at NASA announced on Wednesday, May 25.
The flight will be carried out by an unmanned spacecraft ... |
26 May 2011
02:43 GMT |
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One of the main directions of development for NASA today is the creation of a mission capable of taking people to near-Earth objects (NEO), the Moon or Mars. But technologies to do so are still under-researched, and this is why experts are recreating the surface of asteroids below the sea surface.
The ocean floor... |
11 May 2011
02:38 GMT |
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Officials at the American space agency say that the Dawn mission has achieved a remarkable milestone recently, when it managed to use its onboard cameras for navigation for the first time.
The robotic probe is heading towards the asteroid Vesta, which many astronomers believe could be a protoplanet that was not g... |
4 May 2011
01:47 GMT |
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Until now, studying comets and asteroids was a fairly straightforward business. This type of exploration called for the use of space probes, but an upcoming flyby of a large asteroid will require no such thing. For all intents and purposes, it will be our planet carrying out the flyby.
The space rock in question i... |
3 May 2011
01:40 GMT |
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In late 2010, astronomers observed an asteroid that apparently changed its brightness over time. In a series of investigations that were concluded recently, experts manage to establish and prove that this phenomenon was caused by collisions between two or more space rocks.
This is the only possible way of explain... |
29 April 2011
02:54 GMT |
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An asteroid that astronomers discovered earlier this year is apparently winking at observers once every four minutes or so, according to experts who surveyed the space rock. The object, called 2011 GP59, goes dark, and then becomes bright again, at regular intervals. Experts say that this type of blinking behavior is... |
15 April 2011
04:44 GMT |
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Astronomers announce that skywatchers will have the opportunity this year to witness an interesting cosmic event. The massive space rock that is expected to whirl past our planet in November is one of the largest, potentially-harmful such structures ever detected. When experts say potentially dangerous, they mean tha... |
7 April 2011
06:02 GMT |
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Though the twin Earth hypothesis has been abandoned a long time ago, some astronomers have not given up the quest of searching for cosmic objects that may accompany Earth in its orbit. Their work paid off too, and recently a team was able to identify an asteroid that meets this criterion.In the past, people believed ... |
5 April 2011
09:33 GMT |
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More than 204 years after the initial discovery of the massive asteroid Vesta, NASA is finally gearing up to begin observing the large space rock directly. The Dawn spacecraft, which has been traveling through space for years, is now getting ready to enter orbit around the space boulder. German astronomer Heinrich Wi... |
30 March 2011
05:59 GMT |
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Asteroid impacts helped shape the way the solar system, and indeed our planet, look today, and yet these phenomena are not that well understood. Experts are now moving away from computer models, and are taking studies of such collisions into construction yards.Such a study involved suspending two ball-shaped boulders... |
24 March 2011
10:53 GMT |
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Officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) say that work is progressing smoothly in analyzing the ultra-small particles that the Hayabusa sample-return mission brought back to Earth.The mission investigated asteroid 25143 Itokawa, which was discovered back in 1998 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid ... |
18 March 2011
04:20 GMT |
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Scientists are currently keeping a close eye on a dangerous space rock, that has a small chance of slamming into our planet in 2029, and then again in 2036 and 2068. Recently, astronomers managed to take the first picture of the object in more than three years. According to calculations, the asteroid Apophis has a 1-... |
11 March 2011
04:27 GMT |
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Astronomers announce that a space object the size of a car will pass close to our planet today, February 9. They say that there is no chance of the asteroid slamming into our planet, or causing any other type of damage.This is the second time in 5 days that a near-Earth object (NEO) zips past our planet, experts say.... |
9 February 2011
04:33 GMT |
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Given the propensity that life-supporting planets in the Universe have for being struck by comets, experts believe that we need to develop a system of ensuring that doesn't happen anytime soon.They explain that there are literally tens of thousands of asteroids, meteorites and comets out there, some of which are... |
8 February 2011
10:38 GMT |
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Recently, astronomers from the Russian Federation released a report arguing that the large asteroid Apophis will strike our planet in 2036. Now, experts at NASA have taken stage to refute those claims.
The American space agency decided to get involved in this controversy because the claims that were made are very ... |
4 February 2011
02:46 GMT |
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As talk of setting up a worldwide asteroid-deflection system is intensifying, experts are continuing to present evidence of why such a defense network is needed. Recently, scientists highlighted the effects that a massive asteroid impact would have on our planet.
The experts were talking about a K-T extinction eve... |
30 January 2011
07:54 GMT |
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An international team of investigators led by American researchers has recently determined that the space object which slammed into Jupiter's atmosphere on July 19, 2009 was in fact an asteroid, and not a comet, as previously stated. The group was also able to determine that the space rock was approximately the ... |
27 January 2011
04:33 GMT |
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Between December 11 and 12, astronomers got the chance to boost their knowledge about near-Earth objects (NEO), and asteroids in general, when they managed to snap a series of images of a space object as it was rotating around itself while traveling through the inner solar system.
The observations were conducted w... |
15 January 2011
04:34 GMT |
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The second-largest asteroid in our solar system, Vesta, apparently just gave birth to a new object recently, a mini-asteroid that has been dubbed 1999 AT10. This space rock, which boasts a violent history, could be used to derive more data on the earliest days of the solar system.
One of the most interesting thin... |
8 January 2011
03:55 GMT |
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Not many people know that Mars has two small moons. And not many astronomers know the reason why these two space bodies exist in orbit around the Red Planet. Now, a debate on their origin brings three competing theories seeking to explain their existence face to face. The discussion is focused on the Martian moon Pho... |
6 January 2011
09:56 GMT |
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Scientists have recently determined that its possible for white dwarfs to grow by accreting medium-sized celestial bodies such as protoplanets called planetesimals. These space bodies can even contain water in concentrated forms, astronomers say.The discovery was made as experts were investigating the ways in which e... |
6 January 2011
05:38 GMT |
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Recent observations conducted on a large asteroid revealed that the space body may not be a barren rock after all, but rather a dormant comet of some kind, that is only now beginning to come back to life. Astronomers found 596 Scheila, the object in question, more than 100 years ago, and have always been convinced th... |
5 January 2011
03:08 GMT |
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According to the recent discoveries of a scientific investigation, it would appear that water ice and organic molecules are common place in the solar system, and especially on asteroids making their way among the planets. Astronomers were able to make an impressive breakthrough in this field of research when they wer... |
3 January 2011
06:59 GMT |
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A planetary geologist at NASA proposes that, in order to understand how the past climate of the Red Planet looked like, we need to study prehistoric craters back on Earth in more details. Expert Adriana Ocampo says that the massive Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula is a great example. The researcher and her t... |
29 December 2010
05:07 GMT |
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According to a proposal made earlier this year at a scientific conference, it may be that one of the most effective ways of changing the path of dangerous asteroids that may beheading our way would be to deploy solar sails to nudge them off-course.On May 21 of this year, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAX... |
23 December 2010
02:52 GMT |
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For many years, experts with the American space agency have been arguing for the development of a space mission destined to find near-Earth objects before they become a threat. Now, increasing numbers of scientists are joining forces to support the proposal.Earth's neighborhood is a very dangerous one, astronome... |
22 December 2010
05:17 GMT |
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According to expert, nuclear missiles and bombs may prove to be a final line of defense if our planet is to defend itself against an incoming asteroid, or other large space rock. A well-aimed strike could either break the threat apart, or nudge it off its course slightly, just enough for it to avoid hitting Earth. Th... |
15 December 2010
03:32 GMT |
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