Knowledge is power, and NASA has just invested $19
million into the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to gain a lot of knowledge
about asteroids.

NASA awarded the University of Central Florida
(which manages the site on behalf of National Science Foundation) the four-year
grant to observe and characterize near-Earth objects (NEO) that pose a
potential hazard to Earth or that could be candidates for future space
missions.

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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has previously
claimed that the Earth has no defence against giant asteroids approaching the
planet, with NASA and SpaceX currently developing systems that would help to
redirect space rocks from bumping into the Earth.

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In the summer of 2018, the asteroid Ryugu, which
measures only approximately 850 metres across, was visited by the Japanese
Hayabusa2 spacecraft. On board was the 10-kilogram German-French Mobile
Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) – a lander no bigger than a microwave oven and
equipped with four instruments.

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The existing astronomical observatories on Maunakea
returned to operations this weekend, and it didn’t take long for a significant
result to be achieved, not only for science, but for assuring the safety of the
Earth.

Observations of the near-Earth asteroid 2006 QV89
made on August 11 with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) have ruled out
any potential future impact threat to the Earth by this asteroid for the next
century.

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After months grappling with the rugged reality of
asteroid Bennu’s surface, the team leading NASA’s first asteroid sample return
mission has selected four potential sites for the Origins, Spectral
Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer
(OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to “tag” its cosmic dance partner.

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On 25 July, an asteroid the size of a football
field flew by Earth, coming within 65 000 km of our planet’s surface during its
closest approach – about one fifth of the distance to the Moon.

The 100 m-wide asteroid dubbed ‘2019 OK’

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Ryugu and other
asteroids of the common ‘C-class’ consist of more porous material than was
previously thought. Small fragments of their material are therefore too fragile
to survive entry into the atmosphere in the event of a collision with Earth.

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Modeling the
shape and movement of near-Earth asteroids is now up to 25 times faster thanks
to new Washington State University research.

The WSU
scientists improved the software used to track thousands of near-Earth
asteroids and comets, which are defined as being within 121 million miles or
about 1.3 times the distance to the sun.

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Asteroid 2006
QV89, a small object 20 to 50 metres in diameter, was in the news lately
because of a very small, 1-in-7000 chance of impact with Earth on 9 September
2019.

In the first
known case of ruling out an asteroid impact through a ‘non-detection’,

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Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe made a “perfect”
touchdown Thursday on a distant asteroid, collecting samples from beneath the
surface in an unprecedented mission that could shed light on the origins of the
solar system.

“We’ve collected a part of the solar system’s
history,”

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