And asteroids have their own satellites
The European Space Agency’s Gaia star-gazing mission has once again proven its ability to explore asteroids, discovering potential moons around more than 350 asteroids that are not known to have moons.
Analysis of a sample of asteroid Bennu reveals dust rich in carbon, nitrogen and organic compounds needed for life
Early analysis of a sample of the asteroid Bennu returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed dust rich in carbon, nitrogen and organic compounds, all of which are essential components for life as we know it. The sample, dominated by clay minerals, particularly serpentine, reflects the type of rock found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth.
The Erigone family of asteroids are water-rich space rocks that offer a window into the solar system’s past
A family of primitive asteroids is giving astronomers a window into the past as they seek to unravel the history of these small space rocks that are believed to have once brought water to Earth.
Asteroids still pose a danger to our planet. Earth scientists are actively working on this problem
NASA’s new NEO Surveyor spacecraft will search for the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to our planet, making it the agency’s first space telescope designed specifically for planetary defense. The impact craters that scar the Earth’s surface are evidence of the enormous impact asteroids have had on the history and development of our planet.
Hera mission to visit previously shot down asteroid Dimorphos to assess impact of its DART collision
Dimorphos is a moon of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos. This binary asteroid system was previously visited by NASA’s DART spacecraft, which deliberately collided with Dimorphos in 2022 and changed its orbit around Didymos as a demonstration of a planetary defense technique designed to change the trajectory of a potentially hazardous asteroid.
Earth temporarily has a new ‘mini-Moon’
On Sunday, September 29, Earth captured a new “mini-moon” called 2024 PT5. The bus-sized asteroid is expected to orbit our planet for 57 days, but it’s too small to be seen by amateur skywatchers. This isn’t the first time such a phenomenon has occurred. In 2020, astronomers identified another mini-moon, 2020 CD3, which orbited Earth for more than a year.
Martian Phobos and Deimos Hide the Secret of Their Origin
For years, researchers have puzzled over the origins of Phobos and its twin, Deimos. Some have suggested that the moons are former asteroids attracted by Mars’ gravity, as their chemical composition is similar to that of some rocks in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, computer models simulating this capture process have failed to reproduce the pair’s nearly circular paths around Mars. Another hypothesis suggests that a giant impact, similar to the one that created our Moon, ejected the duo from the Red Planet; however, Phobos has a different chemical composition than Mars, making this scenario unlikely.
Scientists have proven: there are asteroids – piles of rubble that carry water, carbon and amino acids
Scientists have proven that there are asteroids that are resistant to external influences. This means that the tested methods are not suitable for protecting the Earth from such objects. Scientists have discovered possible “seeds of life” in the matter of asteroids: The idea that life originated outside our solar system has been around for a very long time, and now analysis of new asteroid samples is providing evidence for this “panspermia” theory.
Carbonaceous materials from an asteroid, chelates and soda lakes: scientists are closer to understanding the origin of life
The research results may explain how life arose on Earth and can also be applied to other planets and bodies in the solar system and to exoplanets.
Eighth asteroid discovered before it collides with Earth
On January 20, 2024, astronomer Christian Sarnecki discovered an asteroid approaching Earth, which just hours later crashed into our planet’s atmosphere 50 km west of Berlin, creating a fireball. Dubbed “2024 BX1”, it is only the eighth asteroid discovered by humanity before the impact, and the third discovered by Sarnetsky. The asteroid impact created a bright fireball, or bolide, that was visible from as far away as the Czech Republic and may have scattered small meteorites across the ground at the impact site about 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Berlin.
The scientific community is studying the Apophis asteroid approaching Earth
Scientists estimate that asteroids the size of Apophis, about 367 yards across, come this close to Earth only once every 7,500 years. Asteroid Apophis will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet on April 13, 2029. Although Apophis will not collide with Earth during this approach or in the foreseeable future, its passage in 2029 will be within 32,000 kilometers of Earth. At this point, it will be closer than some satellites and can be seen with the naked eye in Earth’s eastern hemisphere. Although the encounter with Apophis is more than five years away, the next milestone on its path will be the first of six close transits of the Sun.
DART mission changed the trajectory of an asteroid using a spacecraft
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of photographs of the rapid changes to the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately struck by a 545-kilogram spacecraft on September 26, 2022. The main goal of NASA’s mission, called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), is to test the ability to change the trajectory of an asteroid as it orbits its larger companion asteroid.
Planetologists continue to study asteroids
Organic substances have been discovered on the Ryugu asteroid. Another asteroid, 2022 FD1, discovered by astronomers only on the night of March 24-25, flew past the Earth at noon on March 25 at a distance of only about eight thousand kilometers.
Potentially dangerous asteroids for the Earth do not leave their orbits
In 2029, the asteroid Apophis will fly at a distance of 30 thousand km from the Earth, on February 8, 2022, the asteroid 2007 UY1 will approach the Earth, it will be at a distance of just over five million kilometers from the planet. A potential collision with asteroid d2022 AE is possible on July 4, 2023.
The Greenland ice sheet preserves the impact crater of a two-kilometer asteroid and ancient vegetation
The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second largest on Earth after the Antarctic Ice Sheet and covers 1.5 million square meters, with ice depths reaching 3,000 meters
A special NASA mission is testing to change the orbit of an asteroid
On the morning of October 24, 2021, a Falcon 9 launch vehicle with the DRAT space probe launched from a military spaceport in California, which will crash into an asteroid to test technology for protecting the Earth from collisions with space objects.
Evidence of the possibility of extraterrestrial origin of life found on an asteroid
Organic substances have been discovered on a rocky S-class asteroid. It is this class of asteroids that most often falls on Earth.