Comets and asteroids are small planets, ranging in size from baseball-sized meteors to one-third the size of the moon. They are the rocky and icy bodies left over from the formation of the solar system. Originally, the population was much larger. With time, however, most of these bodies ...
"Much has been said and written on the utility of newspapers; but one principal advantage which might be derived from these publications has been neglected; we mean that of reading them in schools." The Portland Eastern Herald (June 8, 1795) "News is history in its first and best form, ...
NASA billed it as asteroid autumn. In September, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft delivered a batch of rubble collected from asteroid Bennu. A couple weeks later, the Psyche spacecraft blasted off on a six-year cruise to a metal-rich asteroid bearing the same name. Then in Novembe...
PRISMATIC MIRAGE OF VENUS:This weekend, when the sun sets, go outside and look southwest. Venus is shining high in the twilight sky. The best time to see Venus, however, may be an hour later when the planet is just about to set. This is what it looked like near the horizon on Dec...
And while it may seem unlikely that life—even the tiniest bacteria—could survive in the harsh conditions of deep space, Ginsburg said studies have repeatedly shown the opposite. "The biggest worry people had for a long time with this idea was that UV radiation would just destroy life," he...
Earth is often in the firing line of fragments of asteroids and comets, most of which burn up tens of kilometres above our heads. But occasionally, something larger gets through. That's what happened off Russia's east coast on December 18 last year. Agiant explosion occurred above the Berin...
In 1986 scientists got a chance to determine the origin of terrestrial water when the best known comet of all – Halley’s Comet – approached the Earth. Surprisingly, the comet’s deuterium to hydrogen ratio was twice the terrestrial ratio. Rather than abandon an attractive theory, however, ...
NASA has approved the NEO Surveyor for the next phase of development, moving the space telescope from the concept stage to the design stage, where details of its design and hardware will be worked out. If all goes according to plan, the telescope would be launched in the first half of 202...
For two decades it was thought that most near-Earth objects (NEOs)—asteroids and comets that may pose a hazard to life on Earth—end their existence in a dramatic final plunge into the Sun. A new study published on Thursday, Feb. 18, in the journal Natu
Theprivate space telescopeforms the heart of Project Sentinel, a deep-space mission being unveiled today (June 28) in Mountain View, Calif., by the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit group of scientists and explorers that has long advocated the exploration of asteroids and better space rock monitoring...