Astronomers Have Found a Brand New Dwarf Planet in Our Solar System

The hypothetical, massive outer Solar System body Planet X is still proving elusive, but the hunt for it has yielded up a different find: a tiny dwarf planet, roughly 2.5 times Pluto’s distance at the time it was found.

Posted in News


Asteroid-Deflection Mission Passes Key Development Milestone

The first-ever mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defense has moved into the final design and assembly phase, following NASA’s approval on Aug. 16.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), being designed, built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel,

Posted in News


Potentially hazardous asteroids to swing past Earth this week

Asteroids deemed potentially hazardous by officials at the US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are set to swing past Earth this week, starting on Tuesday.

The first, 2016 NFB23, will fly past Earth Tuesday at roughly 11:38 p.m.

Posted in News


The Halloween asteroid prepares to return in 2018

There is just over two months to go until asteroid 2015 TB145 approaches Earth once again, just as it did in 2015 around the night of Halloween, an occasion which astronomers did not pass up to study its characteristics. This dark object measures between 625 and 700 metres,

Posted in News


Particles collected by Hayabusa give absolute age of asteroid Itokawa

Understanding the origin and time evolution of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) is an issue of scientific interest and practical importance because they are potentially hazardous to the Earth. However, when and how these NEAs were formed and what they suffered during their lifetime remain enigmas.

Posted in News


Why Asteroid Bennu? 10 Reasons

After traveling for two years and billions of kilometers from Earth, the OSIRIS-REx probe is only a few months away from its destination: the intriguing asteroid Bennu. When it arrives in December, OSIRIS-REx will embark on a nearly two-year investigation of this clump of rock,

Posted in News


Planetary Defense Has New Tool in Weather Satellite Lightning Detector

NASA’s efforts to better understand asteroid impacts has found unexpected support from a new satellite sensor designed to detect lightning. New research published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science finds that the new Geostationary Lightning Mapper, or GLM, on two weather satellites is able to pick up signals of meteors in Earth’s atmosphere.

Posted in News


Capture an asteroid, bring it back to Earth?

Next time when your kids ask you to bring them a star from the sky, you don’t have to shrug and walk away. Tell them to wait, instead.

A group of Chinese scientists are mulling a bold idea to capture a small near-Earth asteroid,

Posted in News


Twenty Years of Planetary Defense

NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies Enters Third Decade. On March 11, 1998, asteroid astronomers around the world received an ominous message: new observational data on the recently discovered asteroid 1997 XF11 suggested there was a chance that the half-mile-wide (nearly one kilometer) object could hit Earth in 2028.

Posted in News


Cosmic Double Take: Rare Binary Asteroid Discovered Near Earth

Surprise — it’s twins!

That’s the realization that struck astronomers in June after they set out to study a near-Earth asteroid called 2017 YE5, which NASA today (July 12) announced is actually two asteroids,

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