a shorter time span. The Lucy team plans to get more images of Orus before the spacecraft’s Nov. 2028 encounter with the asteroid.Credit: NASA/Goddard/Southwest Research Institute/JHU-APL According to NASA, the observations were taken in spring, with...

Types While it is clearly an H5 ordinary chondrite, connecting it to a specific asteroid family or parent body in the asteroid belt is challenging. Future work comparing its composition with asteroid spectral data may provide clues. Deeper Mineralogical...

makeup. According to the Science Advances article, the combined data suggest the meteorite most likely originated in the asteroid belt. Recovering the stone shortly after impact also minimized terrestrial contamination, allowing researchers to examine...

A massive collision that carved the Moon’s largest basin appears to have driven widespread volatile loss, leaving an isotopic fingerprint that still survives in lunar materials billions of years later. From Earth, the Moon appears calm and unchanging,...

Astronomers have developed a new geometric method to accurately simulate the complex orbital motion of binary asteroids with irregular shapes. Predicting the long-term behavior of binary asteroid systems—where two celestial bodies dance in a tight...

roughly 31,000 km above the surface—closer than many geostationary satellites. Updated orbital calculations confirm that the asteroid poses no impact threat during this encounter, overturning earlier concerns about potential future collisions. Rather...

that could shed light on the Solar System’s formative processes. Close‑Proximity Science Begins Around 2016 HO3 Reaching the asteroid transitions Tianwen‑2 from its interplanetary cruise to a phase of detailed, short‑range investigation. The probe,...

a window into the turbulent environment of the infant solar system. According to research published in Science Advances, the asteroid Bennu acts as a chemical time capsule, revealing that the building blocks of our planetary neighborhood were far more...

Arrival The meteorite originated roughly 4.6 billion years ago, predating Earth’s final assembly, most likely within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Collisions in that region can eject fragments onto Earth‑crossing trajectories, a process...

New lunar rocks from a previously hidden region expose Earth’s early violent history, offering scientists decades‑long sought evidence. Analyses of rocks retrieved from the Moon’s far side indicate that the early Solar System experienced a prolonged...

the location of the ancient impact site in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. © Nature Communications Modeling suggests the asteroid collided with the planet at speeds exceeding 36,000 km/h. Such an event would have excavated a crater well over 100...

identified on September 6, 2026, by automated systems at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona. Designated 2026 RW1, the asteroid provided a rare, real-time look at a natural impact event. Roughly six hours after its initial detection, the space rock...

Ancient meteorites contain organic matter that predates our asteroids, offering a rare glimpse into the chemical environment of the early solar system. New research from Harvard University has provided a clearer picture of how organic molecules in our...

A massive crater on Mars’ moon Phobos may finally reveal if the mysterious satellite is a captured asteroid or debris from the Red Planet. For decades, Phobos has remained one of the solar system’s most enigmatic bodies. As a small, irregularly shaped...

survived, offering new clues about the origins of life on Earth. New analysis of microscopic dust grains retrieved from the asteroid Ryugu has provided a breakthrough in understanding how life-essential nitrogen compounds were forged and stored in the...

NASA has identified a rare, once-in-a-century lunar impact that created a massive 728-foot crater and sent shockwaves across 120 kilometers of the Moon. A routine comparative analysis of lunar imagery has unveiled a massive, previously unseen scar on...

After failed attempts to break open a mysterious red rock with tools and acid, researchers discovered it held a long-hidden, ancient cosmic secret. When David Hole began sweeping the clay-rich soils of Maryborough Regional Park with a metal detector in...

shedding new light on the long‑forgotten aftermath. A recent analysis of microscopic marine fossils indicates that the asteroid strike 66 million years ago was the primary trigger of the Cretaceous‑Paleogene extinction, with no sign of a pre‑existing...

warm‑blooded nature of tunas developed gradually over roughly 50 million years, rather than as an immediate response to the asteroid impact that ended the age of dinosaurs. Rethinking the K‑Pg Trigger Hypothesis For decades, scientists have argued that...

New research suggests an icy ’Oumuamua lost massive amounts of material over millions of years, revealing a cosmic filter shaping interstellar visitors. Interstellar space might appear to be a vast, empty void, but for frozen objects drifting between...