Tag: asteroid
How Planetary Defenders Planned to Stop That City-Killer Asteroid
A Near-Miss with a City-Killer Asteroid Highlights Gaps in Earth’s Defenses The threat from near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 may have subsided, but discoveries of other hazardous space rocks are set to soar as new observatories come online By Robin George Andrews edited by Lee Billings In mid-February 2025 astronomers announced that 2024 YR4—a recently discovered…
How Can We Know If an Asteroid Will Hit Earth?
The UniverseFridays How Can We Know If an Asteroid Will Hit Earth? “Keep your eye on the ball” is a motto for many athletes—and for astronomers trying to find Earth-threatening space rocks By Phil Plait edited by Lee Billings A not-to-scale illustration of an asteroid’s orbital path crossing the orbit of Earth around the sun.…
NASA’s Latest Asteroid Sample Hints at Life’s Extraterrestrial Origins
Asteroid Bennu Is Packed with Life’s Building Blocks, New Studies Confirm Material retrieved from the asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft shows that all the basic building blocks of life were astonishingly widespread in the early solar system By Mike Zeitz edited by Lee Billings A view of the OSIRIS-REx sample canister, containing material from…
Will Asteroid 2024 YR24 Strike Earth in 2032?
Newfound Asteroid May Hit Earth in 2032, Scientists Say The possibility of the asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting our planet might not be ruled out until 2028, raising the prospect we’ll need to prepare for the worst By Jonathan O’Callaghan edited by Lee Billings An illustration of an asteroid approaching Earth. In late December astronomers using…
Earth Life Found inside Ryugu Asteroid Samples
Scientists Discover Earth Life inside an Asteroid Sample Material from asteroid Ryugu riddled with earthly microbes provides a cautionary tale for scientists seeking signs of alien life By Sharmila Kuthunur edited by Lee Billings An artist’s concept of microbes floating in deep space. In November 2022 Matthew Genge was peering through a scanning electron microscope…