An asteroid now bears the name of beloved musician Elliott Smith, thanks to one ambitious filmmaker. Elliott Smith passed away at the age of 34 in 2003, but his impact and his music continue to connect with people around the world. And his influence has now extended to space, thanks to independent filmmaker Orlando Campopiano, […]
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Juicy new details emerge about an asteroid NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by last year
Last year, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft encountered a bi-lobed asteroid that is a chunk of an even larger rocky body that was smashed apart in an almighty collision 155 million years ago. This little pitstop happened on Lucy’s way to a rendezvous with the Trojan asteroids that shadow Jupiter around the sun. The asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, […]
Read MoreThe asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs may have created a vast underground habitat for life that lasted 8 million years
The asteroid impact that doomed the dinosaurs may also have built one of Earth’s longest-lasting underground ecosystems. When a roughly 6-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) asteroid slammed into what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago, it triggered a global catastrophe that wiped out about 75% of life on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs. However, that […]
Read MoreDoes Dante’s Inferno from the 14th century depict an asteroid impact?
Dante’s famous 14th century epic poem, “Inferno,” which is the first part of the Italian writer’s “Divine Comedy,” represents the first time a giant impact of a massive object falling from the heavens was envisaged, according to an expert in the specialized field of geomythology. In the poem, the massive object in question is the […]
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Famous asteroid Ryugu may have been bombarded by a swarm of tiny space rocks 1,000 years ago
In 2020, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft brought samples of an asteroid named Ryugu to Earth — and now, scientists examining those samples found that the object bears the scars of a recent encounter with tiny space rocks. The reason the research team believes Ryugu was bombarded by micrometeorites is due to a fine layer of sodium, […]
Read More‘God of Chaos’ asteroid Apophis will blaze across the sky on April 13, 2029 — here’s why this once-in-a-lifetime event is worth traveling for
A rare naked-eye asteroid will light up the night sky on April 13, 2029, when the near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis makes an extraordinarily close flyby of Earth. For skywatchers, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event — and one worth traveling for. The Sahara Desert cools fast after sunset, and April’s stars come out quickly. One by one, […]
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A house-size asteroid is heading toward Earth tonight: Here’s what you need to know
A house-size asteroid will make a close pass of Earth and the moon tonight (April 9), passing a little over half the distance to the moon as it buzzes the southern hemisphere at a blistering speed of 28,030 miles per hour (45,109 kilometers per hour). The asteroid, designated 2026 GD, was discovered on Monday (April […]
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The powerful new Rubin Observatory just found 11,000 new asteroids and measured ‘tens of thousands more’
Early observations from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have already revealed more than 11,000 previously unknown asteroids, reshaping our view of the solar system and offering a striking preview of what’s to come once full science operations begin. The discovery, made using preliminary data, demonstrates Rubin‘s ability to scan the sky quickly and deeply. Even […]
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Two physicists and a curious host walk into a studio…
This March on The Curiosity Desk, GBH’s daily science show with host Edgar B. Herwick III, MIT scientists dropped by to address the questions: “How close are we to observing the dark universe?” (Thursday, March 12 episode) and “Is Earth prepared for asteroids?” (Thursday, March 26 episode). Up first, Prof. Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the […]
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Like ‘accelerating from stationary to supersonic flight’: Europe’s Hera probe boosts speed, stays on course for November asteroid rendezvous
The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft has completed a major deep-space maneuver, setting it on course to rendezvous late this year with the asteroid system targeted by NASA’s DART mission back in 2022. Hera launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in October 2024, beginning its voyage to the Didymos binary asteroid system. Hera is […]
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A car-sized asteroid is heading toward Earth for a flyby later tonight: Here’s what you need to know
A car-sized asteroid will buzz Earth at a little over half the Earth-moon distance late tonight (March 24), just three days after its discovery by the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California. The close encounter between Earth and the asteroid designated 2026 FM3 will occur at 10:07 p.m. EDT on March 24 […]
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NASA peers inside an asteroid | Space photo of the day for March 19, 2026
X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans of particles from asteroid Bennu. They show the most common types of crack networks observed in Bennu samples. One has an extensive and connect framework of curved cracks, whereas the other has sparse, straight and flat fractures. (Image credit: NASA/Scott Eckley) NASA has used advanced imaging techniques to peer inside […]
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3 Questions: Fortifying our planetary defenses
When people think of asteroids, they tend to picture rare, civilization-ending impacts like those depicted in movies such as “Armageddon.” In reality, the asteroids most likely to affect modern society are much smaller. While kilometer-scale impacts occur only every tens of millions of years, decameter-scale (building-sized) objects strike Earth far more frequently: roughly every couple […]
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Good news for the moon: Famous asteroid 2024 YR4 won’t smash into it in 2032
The James Webb Space Telescope has helped scientists determine that asteroid 2024 YR4, which previously had a 4.3% chance of crashing into our moon, will not impact our lunar companion at all. Instead, it will instead safely cruise past the moon at an altitude of 13,200 miles (21,200 kilometers). When asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered […]
Read More3 billion years old! This Australian crater is the oldest known asteroid impact site on Earth
The oldest known asteroid impact site on Earth was created 3.02 billion years ago in what’s now Western Australia — not far from where we’ve seen the oldest traces of life on our planet. A rock formation in Western Australia’s Pilbara region seems to offer evidence of an asteroid slamming into Earth‘s newly-formed rocky crust […]
Read MoreJapanese probe set for super-close flyby on July 5: ‘We’re going to discover another beast to put in the zoo of asteroids’
Japan’s Hayabusa2 sample-return spacecraft is on target to make one of the closest ever flybys of a near-Earth asteroid in early July, as part of its extended mission campaign. Hayabusa2 launched in December 2014 and rendezvoused with the asteroid Ryugu four years later. The spacecraft collected samples and delivered them to Earth in 2020, completing […]
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Ryugu asteroid sample contains all five key components of DNA, scientists find
Scientists have discovered that a sample of the Ryugu asteroid collected by Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft contains the nucleobases adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil, the building blocks of DNA and RNA upon which all life is based. Because asteroids like Ryugu formed 4.6 billion years ago when the planets were being born around the […]
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Watch an asteroid the size of a blue whale hurtle towards Earth live online TODAY
Near-Earth Asteroid 2026 JH2 extremely close encounter: online observation – 18 May 2026 – YouTube Watch On A newly discovered asteroid the size of an adult blue whale is set to fly past Earth today (May 18) at 24% of the average Earth-moon distance, and you can watch the event unfold in real time from […]
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