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+11 +1
Solar System’s biggest asteroid is an ancient ocean world
NASA spacecraft finds that Ceres is full of water. By Alexandra Witze.
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+15 +1
That's It, NASA Has Definitely Scrapped The Awesome Asteroid Redirect Mission
It's official - NASA's Asteroid Redirect mission has entered its closing down phase, which means we can't expect to see a giant boulder orbiting our Moon any time soon. Bummer. Asteroid Redirect was started in 2015 with the goal to create the first-ever mission combining robot and human efforts. The plan was to send a robotic crew to a near-Earth asteroid, grab a huge rock from it, and redirect it in a stable orbit around the Moon.
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+20 +1
An asteroid came knocking, but no one was home
Asteroid 2017 001 made a close pass by Earth, but wasn't detected until three days later.
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+20 +1
One of the largest near-Earth asteroids will sweep past us in September
Asteroid Florence will fly by Earth on 1 September at a safe distance of seven million km or "18 Earth-Moon" distances. Florence is about 4.4km wide and is known to be one of the largest near-Earth asteroids according to Nasa. Near-Earth objects are heavenly bodies that enter the Earth's neighbourhood influenced by the gravity of nearby planets.
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+28 +1
Dinosaur-killing Asteroid Could Have Caused 2 Years of Darkness
Tremendous amounts of soot, lofted into the air from global wildfires following a massive asteroid strike 66 million years ago, would have plunged Earth into darkness for nearly two years, new research finds.
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+23 +1
Enormous Near-Earth Asteroid 'Florence' Will Safely Fly by Earth Sept. 1
An asteroid named Florence that will safely sweep past Earth on Sept. 1 is the largest object to give our planet a close shave since NASA began tracking these types of near-Earth asteroids, an agency official said. The space rock measures 2.7 miles (4.4 kilometers) across. It will pass by Earth at a safe distance of 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers), or nearly 18 times the distance between Earth and the moon.
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+1 +1
The Giant Asteroid Passed Near the Earth a Week Ago is Orbited By 2 Small Moons
Humans have witnessed many cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, from the one that destroyed Pompeii in 79 A.D. to the extraordinary Krakatoa eruption of 1883. But around the world right now there are about 20 so-called “supervolcanoes” that could outdo them all. One of these monster volcanoes lurks beneath Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone Caldera is an enormous craterlike depression measuring 30 miles by 45 miles and filled with molten material (magma). If it were to blast its innards out in a super-eruption, it’s no exaggeration to say that the human race could be imperiled.
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+17 +1
Asteroid will pass Earth well inside moon's orbit, giving us a chance to practise for a collision
Astronomers around the world will turn their eyes to the sky Thursday as a roughly 20-metre-wide asteroid will fly well within the moon's orbit, about 50,000 kilometres above Earth. While this asteroid currently poses no threat to Earth, scientists are hoping to gather information to refine its orbit. With government agencies, they are also preparing for a day when a similarly sized asteroid could enter Earth's atmosphere.
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+22 +1
Asteroid to zoom 'damn close' to Earth on Thursday, will also test planetary defense system
An asteroid the size of a house will zoom past the Earth on Thursday at a distance of some 26,000 miles, NASA said. That's actually fairly close, when you consider that the moon is about 239,000 miles away. “It's damn close," Rolf Densing, head of the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, told The Telegraph. "The farthest satellites are 22,000 miles out, so this is indeed a close miss," he said.
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+15 +1
Asteroid that barely missed Earth this week could wreak havoc in the not-so-distant future
The asteroid that came “damn close” to slamming into the Earth this week could cause utter devastation several decades down the road, and scientists can’t rule out an eventual collision...
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+8 +1
It’s the 1st known interstellar asteroid
A few weeks ago, we reported on a small object visiting from beyond our solar system. Now astronomers have scrutinized data from this object, which has been given the name `Oumuamua, and which must have traveled through space for millions of years before its chance encounter with our star system. The conclusion is that it’s a dark, reddish, highly-elongated rocky or high-metal-content object. And, indeed, it is the first known asteroid from interstellar space. These new results were published today (November 20, 2017) in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
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+30 +1
The Halloween asteroid prepares to return in 2018
There is one year 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, its rotation period is around three hours and, in certain lighting conditions, it resembles a human skull.
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+41 +1
NASA says skyscraper-sized asteroid headed toward Earth is ‘potentially hazardous’
Imagine a piece of rock the size of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper speeding through space 15 times faster the world’s fastest manned aircraft. Now imagine that piece of rock buzzing toward Earth on it…
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+21 +1
The dinosaur-murdering asteroid maybe also triggered an underwater volcano meltdown
Why pick just one flavor of apocalypse? By Rachel Becker.
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+16 +1
Falcon Heavy May Have Drastically Increased the Number of Asteroids We Can Mine
Asteroid mining is about more than just heading up into space and bringing back a rock full of platinum—you actually need to land something on just the right asteroid. Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket launched by Elon Musk-led SpaceX two weeks ago, may have changed the game, says one astronomer.
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+20 +1
Mining for asteroids will be the next gold rush
Forget cryptocurrency — the next big “gold rush” isn’t even on Earth. Physicist Michio Kaku, writing in his new book “The Future of Humanity” (Doubleday), believes a bonanza is coming from mining asteroids, which he calls “flying gold mine[s] in outer space.”
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+18 +1
The Massive Prize Luring Miners to the Stars
Sending a spacecraft to the far reaches of our solar system to mine asteroids might seem like an improbable ambition best left to science fiction. But it’s inching closer to reality. By Susanne Barton, Hannah Recht.
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+16 +1
Government Scientists Have A Plan For Blowing Up Asteroids With A Nuke
The asteroid Bennu, a boulder the size of a village, is circling the sun at 63,000 mph, now a comfortable 54 million miles from Earth. But on Sept. 21, 2135, there is a 1 in 2,700 chance that it will hit us. What would we do? Government scientists now have an official plan, just in case: They’ve designed a spacecraft to hit any large oncoming asteroids with a nuclear explosion.
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+23 +1
This Asteroid Shouldn’t Be Where Astronomers Found It
Space rocks like 2004 EW95 are common between Mars and Jupiter. The discovery of the object near Neptune may provide insights into how the planets formed.
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+8 +1
'Permanent' interstellar visitor found
An asteroid in Jupiter's orbit may have come from outside our Solar System, according to a new study. Unlike 'Oumuamua, the interstellar object which briefly visited the Solar System earlier this year, 2015 BZ509 (affectionately known as BZ) seems to have been here for 4.5 billion years. This makes it the first known interstellar asteroid to have taken up residence orbiting the Sun. It is not yet known where the object came from.
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