Antarctica: Metal meteorite quest set to get under way

By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent

A team of British scientists has arrived in the Antarctic to try to find the continent’s “missing meteorites”.

The group, from the University of Manchester, will spend six weeks scouring a remote region for lumps of iron that have fallen from the sky.

Posted in News


Impact crater data analysis of Ryugu asteroid illuminates complicated geological history

Analysis of the impact craters on Ryugu using the spacecraft Hayabusa 2’s remote sensing image data has illuminated the geological history of the Near-Earth asteroid.

A research group led by Assistant Professor Naoyuki Hirata of the Department of Planetology at Kobe University’s Graduate School of Science revealed 77 craters on Ryugu.

Posted in News


New Analysis Just Changed The Original Date of a Massive Meteorite Crater in Australia

By Mike McRae

In the state of Western Australia sits the famous Wolfe Creek crater, the aftermath of a 14,000-tonne meteorite crashing into Earth thousands of years ago. A new study now claims the impact happened far more recently than we suspected,

Posted in News


Beyond Jupiter, Researchers Discover a ‘Cradle of Comets’

Comets are known to have a temper. As they swoop in from the outer edges of our solar system, these icy bodies begin spewing gas and dust as they venture closer to the Sun. Their luminous outbursts can result in spectacular sights that grace the night sky for days,

Posted in News


Apollo astronaut champions Hera for planetary defence

Having spent much of the 21st century developing planetary defence techniques, Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart is a strong supporter of ESA’s proposed Hera mission. In general, when it comes to asteroid deflection, he says, two spacecraft are better than one.

Posted in News


Asteroid Hygiea could be the smallest dwarf planet yet

Astronomers using ESO’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that the asteroid Hygiea could be classified as a dwarf planet. The object is the fourth largest in the asteroid belt after Ceres, Vesta and Pallas.

For the first time,

Posted in News


Characterizing near-Earth objects to understand impact risks, exploration potential

A Southwest Research Institute scientist is helping NASA observe and characterize near-Earth objects (NEOs) that could pose a threat to Earth or have potential for further exploration. SwRI’s Dr. Tracy Becker is part of an international team of scientists who will use the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to study nearby asteroids and comets through a $19 million grant managed by the University of Central Florida (UCF).

Posted in News


Get ready for more interstellar objects

Gregory Laughlin and Malena Rice weren’t exactly surprised a few weeks ago when they learned that a second interstellar object had made its way into our solar system.

The Yale University astronomers had just put the finishing touches on a new study suggesting that these strange,

Posted in News


NASA Wants a New Space Telescope to Protect Us All from Dangerous Asteroids

Earth will soon lose a key tool in the fight to spot potentially hazardous asteroids — and NASA has decided to fund a custom-built replacement.

NASA wants to build a space telescope to survey the sky in infrared light,

Posted in News


Karla crater confirmed to be an impact structure

The Karla crater, one of the about 150 large impact structures on Earth, is situated near the border of the Republic of Tatarstan and Chuvash Republic, about 163 kilometers from Kazan Federal University.

Previous research there took place in the 1980s.

Posted in News


Visit Us

The Spaceguard Centre is a working observatory, and the main source of information
about near Earth objects in the UK.

We are open Wednesday to Sunday, so why not Visit Us?

Contact Us

The Spaceguard Centre,
Llanshay Lane,
Knighton, Powys,
LD7 1LW. United Kingdom.

Tel: 01547 520247 mail@spaceguardcentre.com