Researchers find water in samples from asteroid Itokawa

Two cosmochemists at Arizona State University have made the first-ever measurements of water contained in samples from the surface of an asteroid. The samples came from asteroid Itokawa and were collected by the Japanese space probe Hayabusa. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-05-samples-asteroid-itokawa.html…

Hera’s CubeSat to perform first radar probe of an asteroid

Small enough to be an aircraft carry-on, the Juventas spacecraft nevertheless has big mission goals. Once in orbit around its target body, Juventas will unfurl an antenna larger than itself, to perform the very first subsurface radar survey of an asteroid. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-05-hera-cubesat-radar-probe-asteroid.html…

Preparing for asteroid Apophis

Astronomers are meeting today at the Planetary Defense Conference to discuss plans to observe asteroid 99942 Apophis, a relatively large asteroid that’ll sweep past Earth safely – but rather closely – in 2029. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/preparing-asteroid-apophis-april-13-2029-passage…

What if an asteroid was about to hit Earth? Scientists ponder question

Here’s a hypothetical: a telescope detects an asteroid between 100 and 300 meters in diameter racing through our solar system at 14 kilometers per second, 57 million kilometers from Earth. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-04-asteroid-earth-scientists-ponder.html…

Scientists planning now for asteroid flyby a decade away

On April 13, 2029, a speck of light will streak across the sky, getting brighter and faster. At one point it will travel more than the width of the full Moon within a minute and it will get as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper. But it won’t be a satellite or an airplane—it will be a 1,100-foot-wide (340-meter-wide)…

Gaia’s first asteroid discoveries

While scanning the sky to chart a billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, ESA’s Gaia satellite is also sensitive to celestial bodies closer to home, and regularly observes asteroids in our solar system. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-04-gaia-asteroid-discoveries.html…