Scientists and engineers from all over the world will gather from 15 to 19 May in Tokyo, Japan, at the 5th Planetary Defence Conference (PDC) to discuss the threat posed by asteroids and comets.

This bi-annual conference, organized by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) will discuss actions that might be taken to deflect an incoming object.

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When the asteroid named 2014 J025 passed by the Earth in April, it came within 1.1 million miles of the planet — a close shave by cosmic standards and also the nearest in more than a decade. And J025 was big.

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Yesterday (on May 8th, 2017), an asteroid swung past Earth on its way towards the Sun. This Near Earth Object (NEO), known as 2017 HX4, measures between 10 and 33 meters (32.8 and 108 feet) and made its closest approach to Earth at 11:58 am UT (7:58 am EDT;

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A basin in the Falkland Islands exhibits traits of a large impact crater, according to a new analysis by a team of scientists. The structure measures approximately 250 kilometers, or more than 150 miles, in diameter and is described in the latest issue of the journal Terra Nova.

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About 14,500 years ago, Earth began transitioning from its cold, glacial self to a warmer interglacial state. However, partway through this period, temperatures suddenly returned to near-glacial conditions. This abrupt change (known as the Younger Dryas period) is believed by some to be the reason why hunter-gatherers started forming sedentary communities,

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A peanut-shaped asteroid 1.3 kilometres (3,280 feet) across streaked past Earth on Wednesday, giving astronomers a rare chance to check out a big space rock up close.

But not too close.

Dubbed 2014-JO25, the asteroid came nearest at 12:20 GMT and is now hurtling away from the centre of our solar system,

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If an asteroid struck Earth, which of its effects – scorching heat, flying debris, towering tsunamis – would claim the most lives? A new study has the answer: violent winds and shock waves are the most dangerous effects produced by Earth-impacting asteroids.

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A fairly large asteroid discovered nearly three years ago will fly safely past Earth on April 19 at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. Although there is absolutely no chance that the asteroid will collide with our planet,

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For at least a million years, an asteroid orbiting the “wrong” way around the Sun has been playing a cosmic game of chicken with giant Jupiter and about 6,000 other asteroids sharing the giant planet’s space, says a report published in the latest issue of Nature.

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NASA has awarded ExoTerra Corporation a $2.5M contract to demonstrate a novel solar electric propulsion system for CubeSats that will enable the shoebox-sized spacecraft to triple their available power and produce over 2.5 km/s of propulsion.

Under the “Utilizing Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Tipping Point Technologies”

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