It’s a scenario made famous by the 1998 film ‘Armageddon’: an asteroid is spotted on a collision course with Earth, and experts scramble to plan a space mission to rendezvous with the asteroid and mitigate the danger. It’s classic science fiction,
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NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Discovers 2nd Asteroid During Dinkinesh Flyby
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Jay Tate
Jay Tateby Katherine Kretke for SwRI News, San Antonio TX (SPX) Nov 03, 2023
On Nov. 1, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by not just its first asteroid, but its first two. The first images returned by Lucy reveal that the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a binary pair.
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Daily Minor Planet volunteers spot an asteroid passing close to Earth
by Jay Tate
Jay TateVolunteers working with The Daily Minor Planet have made the project’s first big discovery: an asteroid passing very near planet Earth. On the night of October 3rd, a telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey snapped four pictures of a far northern section of the sky.
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Osiris-Rex: NASA confirms return of asteroid Bennu samples
by Jay Tate
Jay TateBy Jonathan Amos, BBC science correspondent
Dusty samples from the “most dangerous known rock in the Solar System” have been brought to Earth.
The American space agency NASA landed the materials in a capsule that came down in the West Desert of Utah state.
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New algorithm has already found one potentially hazardous asteroid headed towards Earth
by Jay Tate
Jay Tate
New algorithm has already found one potentially hazardous asteroid headed towards Earth© Provided by Earth
A new study from the University of Washington represents a major advance in asteroid detection.
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Asteroid’s comet-like tail is not made of dust, solar observatories reveal
by Jay Tate
Jay TateA weird asteroid has just gotten a little weirder.
We have known for a while that asteroid 3200 Phaethon acts like a comet. It brightens and forms a tail when it’s near the Sun, and it is the source of the annual Geminid meteor shower,
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NASA releases agency strategy for planetary defense to safeguard Earth
by Jay Tate
Jay TateTo help guide NASA’s efforts over the next decade, the agency has released its Planetary Defense Strategy and Action Plan.
For three decades, NASA has engaged in studying near-Earth objects (NEOs), asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun and come within 30 million miles of our planet’s orbit.
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This is what would happen if scientists found an asteroid heading to Earth
by Jay Tate
Jay TateScientists have explained what would happen if an asteroid was on a collision course with Earth to emphasize the need for planetary defense. The hypothetical asteroid scenario illustrates how an asteroid threat might evolve over several years and the potential devastation such a strike could cause.
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‘No need to worry’: Odds drop newly-found asteroid will hit Earth
by Jay Tate
Jay TateThe chances have plummeted that a newly-discovered asteroid with the potential to wipe out a city will hit Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046, the European Space Agency said on Tuesday.
The asteroid, which is named 2023 DW and is estimated to be around the size of a 50-metre Olympic swimming pool,
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Newly spotted 50-meter asteroid tops Risk List
by Jay Tate
Jay TateValentine’s Day 2046 could be memorable for a number of reasons. Not only might you receive a card from an admirer you never knew you had, but you might also witness a large asteroid slamming into Earth and causing widespread devastation.
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