All posts tagged: asteroids

‘God of chaos’ asteroid Apophis will pass very close to Earth in 2029

‘God of chaos’ asteroid Apophis will pass very close to Earth in 2029

Published by Jenni Sidey

For a brief stretch on April 13, 2029, a giant space rock will slip closer to Earth than some of the satellites parked high above the planet. That object is Apophis, an asteroid once treated as a serious threat. Now it is viewed as one of the most unusual scientific opportunities in modern astronomy. Apophis is not headed for impact. That part is settled. But the asteroid’s close flyby is still extraordinary because of what Earth itself may do to it on the way past. The asteroid, officially known as 99942 Apophis, is expected to pass about 20,000 miles, or 32,000 kilometers, above Earth’s surface. At roughly 375 meters across on average, it is large enough to command attention and close enough to become visible to the naked eye in parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, weather permitting. In fact, space agencies say it will be the closest approach of an asteroid this size that scientists have known about in advance. That makes the 2029 event more than a sky show. It turns Earth into …

Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon

Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon

Published by skeptic

During their flyby of the far side of the moon, the Artemis II astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft saw as many as six flashes emerging from the lunar surface. Surprisingly, they were witnessing small meteorites impacting the ground and producing brief flashes of light. NASA’s control room recorded the team’s surprise during the mission livestream, although the cameras did not pick up the flashes. According to the astronauts, the flashes were white or blue-white and lasted less than a second. The cameras they were using to document the moon weren’t fast enough to record them. Lunar surface replete with craters generated by meteorite collisions. Photograph: NASA The crew was flying between 6,000 and 7,000 kilometers away. Under normal conditions, these impacts would have gone unnoticed. However, at the time they were studying the solar eclipse, which left the far side of the moon completely dark. That extreme contrast allowed them to distinguish the brief flashes that emerged from the surface. Before the trip, the Artemis II team trained to identify possible meteorite impacts on the …

We could protect Earth from dangerous asteroids using a huge magnet

We could protect Earth from dangerous asteroids using a huge magnet

Published by skeptic

A magnet could help us divert asteroids away from Earth TimothyOLeary/Getty Images We could deflect potentially hazardous asteroids by using an enormous magnet to gently pull them apart. This idea avoids some of the pitfalls of the more traditional kinetic impactor method, which involves smashing something into an asteroid to move it, but it has yet to be tested, so we can’t be sure it would work. The idea is called non-contact orbital velocity adjustment, or NOVA, and Gunther Kletetschka at the University of Alaska Fairbanks presented it at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas on 17 March. In his calculations, he applied the NOVA concept to an asteroid called 2024 YR4, which briefly seemed like it might be on a trajectory to hit Earth or the moon in 2032, although further observations showed that it will pass safely by. The asteroid is small, less than 70 metres across, so it would present a relatively simple target to shift. The spacecraft itself would consist of a large magnet made from a coil of …

We’ve spotted a huge asteroid spinning impossibly fast

We’ve spotted a huge asteroid spinning impossibly fast

Published by skeptic

Artist’s depiction of the asteroid 2025 MN45 NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC​/AURA/P. Marenfeld The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has spotted the fastest-rotating large asteroid ever seen. Despite measuring more than half a kilometre across, this asteroid spins about once every 1.9 minutes – a speed once thought to be impossible. Dmitrii Vavilov at the University of Washington in Seattle and his colleagues found this asteroid, along with several other surprisingly speedy rotators, in the data from Rubin’s first nine nights of observations in late April and early May 2025. Vavilov presented the results at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas on 17 March. In that observation period, the researchers identified 76 asteroids for which they could reliably calculate rotational periods, with 19 of those being so-called super-fast rotators, spinning once every 2.2 hours or faster. That figure is the limit of how fast a “rubble pile” asteroid, made up of many smaller rocks loosely held together by gravity, can spin without falling apart. The vast majority of asteroids are thought to …

Private company to land on asteroid Apophis as it flies close to Earth

Private company to land on asteroid Apophis as it flies close to Earth

Published by skeptic

An artist’s impression of an asteroid flying near Earth Erik Simonsen/Getty Images Two landers from a private US company will be part of an armada to asteroid Apophis when it flies past Earth in 2029. Apophis, about 400 metres across, was discovered in 2004. Initial calculations showed it had an alarmingly high chance of hitting Earth – up to 2.7 per cent – in April 2029, in which case it could destroy an area the size of a city. Later refinements showed there was no chance of impact for at least 100 years. Nevertheless, on 13 April 2029, the asteroid will pass extremely close to Earth, just 32,000 kilometres away, closer than geostationary satellites and near enough that it will be visible to the naked eye, a once-in-thousands-of-years event for an asteroid of this size. Multiple spacecraft from the US, Europe, Japan and China are planning to study the asteroid before, during and after the flyby. Among those missions, the US company ExLabs has announced that its mothership spacecraft, called ApophisExL, passed a key review …

Every building block of DNA and RNA has been found on an asteroid

Every building block of DNA and RNA has been found on an asteroid

Published by Jenni Sidey

A rock measuring 900 meters is on a journey through our solar system, providing what is arguably one of the strongest pieces of evidence yet that life originated from outside of planet Earth. Scientists from a Japanese research group published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy. They verified, through analyses of material taken from the asteroid Ryugu, that all five nucleobases—the molecular components that contain the genetic information of both DNA and RNA—exist in all samples from Ryugu. This was not totally unexpected. Over two years ago, when uracil was discovered in one of the Ryugu samples, a more complete picture began to emerge. Now, there is confirmation of five nucleobases in total: adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil. These originated from less than one teaspoon of asteroidal material that has traveled over 300 million kilometers to Earth. According to Prof. Toshiki Koga, from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and the senior author of this study, the existence of these nucleobases means that “primitive asteroids may be capable of synthesizing and …

The asteroid Ryugu has all of the main ingredients for life

The asteroid Ryugu has all of the main ingredients for life

Published by skeptic

Ryugu is an asteroid that sometimes passes close to Earth JAXA All five of the main ingredients for DNA and RNA have been found in samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This strengthens the idea that asteroids may have brought the ingredients for the first living organisms to Earth long ago. Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft visited Ryugu in 2018, where it shot two projectiles – one small and one large – into the surface of the asteroid and collected the resulting debris. It arrived back at Earth with the samples in 2020 and researchers have been analysing these in detail ever since. Yasuhiro Oba at Hokkaido University in Japan and his colleagues examined two samples, one from the asteroid’s surface and one comprised of subsurface materials excavated by the projectiles. In both, the team found all five primary nucleobases, which are the compounds that make up the nucleic acids DNA and RNA when combined with sugars and phosphoric acid. This isn’t the first time that nucleobases have been found in asteroid samples: they have been seen …

A meteor soared across Europe—and possibly hit a house

A meteor soared across Europe—and possibly hit a house

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The European Space Agency (ESA) is investigating a bright fireball that lit up the early evening sky across at least five countries on March 8th. At around 5:55 p.m. local time, residents across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands spotted a glowing object soaring across the sky for an estimated six seconds before disintegrating into multiple fragments. In the German town of Güls—around 50 miles west of Frankfurt—at least one house was damaged by debris . Although more information is needed, the ESA’s Planetary Defense team believes the object was a meteor measuring at least a few feet in diameter. And while astronomers stressed there isn’t much to fear, there is no denying it: such events aren’t exactly rare. “Objects in this size range strike Earth from once every few weeks to once every few years,” the ESA explained. Fireball over Europe, 8 March 2026 The planet is bombarded by thousands of tiny space rocks every day, but …

NASA DART Mission data reshapes understanding of how near-Earth asteroids evolve over time

NASA DART Mission data reshapes understanding of how near-Earth asteroids evolve over time

Published by Jenni Sidey

Bright streaks on a small asteroid moon looked, at first, like a camera problem. They were faint, fan-shaped, and easy to miss in the final images NASA’s DART spacecraft took before it slammed into Dimorphos in 2022. However, after months of image cleanup and modeling, astronomers concluded the marks were real. They now say the streaks are the first direct visual evidence that one asteroid in a binary system can shed material that lands on its companion. The finding, published in The Planetary Science Journal, points to a surprisingly active relationship between the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moon, Dimorphos. Rather than acting like two isolated rocks in space, the pair appears to exchange debris in slow, gentle impacts. These impacts leave visible traces on the surface. “At first, we thought something was wrong with the camera, and then we thought it could’ve been something wrong with our image processing,” said lead author Jessica Sunshine, a professor with joint appointments in the Department of Astronomy and Department of Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at the …

Asteroid 2024 YR4 once feared to strike the Moon now appears harmless

Asteroid 2024 YR4 once feared to strike the Moon now appears harmless

Published by Jenni Sidey

Initially, much uncertainty surrounded the flight path of the space rock known as 2024 YR4, a small asteroid that has recently become an object of much scientific attention. 2024 YR4, measuring between 174 and 220 feet, was once thought likely to collide with Earth’s Moon in December 2032. Early estimates showed around a 4.3% chance of impact. However, through consideration of new observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists have since eliminated this potential collision. The JWST’s measurements show that the asteroid will safely fly by the Moon in December 2032, missing by approximately 13,200 miles (or about 21,200 km). Using two sets of data taken by the JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on February 18, 2026, and February 26, 2026, scientists from NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were able to refine the asteroid’s trajectory and eliminate the possibility of impact with either the Moon or Earth. The asteroid will pass by the Moon without impacting it on 22 December 2032. Animation of asteroid 2024 YR4’s potential …