Latest Near-Earth asteroids Stories
In the early hours Tuesday morning a newly-discovered asteroid whizzed by Earth at a relatively safe distance of 14,000 miles, also posing no danger to communication satellites in orbit, according to reports. The asteroid, named 2012 KT42, entered the Clark Belt of geosynchronous satellites and passed by the planet shortly after midnight, SN Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society of India told PTI. The less-than-20-foot-wide asteroid ranks in the top ten closest Earth approaches....
Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com A NASA scientist would be a shoe-in at any state or county fair if hosting the "guess your weight" game. Steve Chesley of JPL's Near-Earth Object Program Office has accurately determined the mass of an asteroid from millions of miles away. Chesley used data from the Goldstone Solar System Radar in the California desert, along with the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, to make his findings. He said he first...
NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. has captured new radar images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 passing close to Earth. The asteroid safely will fly past our planet slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this size will be in 2028. The image was taken on Nov. 7 at 11:45 a.m. PST, when the...
[ Watch the Video ] NASA reports that a massive asteroid (2005 YU55) will make a rare fly-by of Earth today. The space agency said the asteroid is about 1,300 feet wide and will come closer to Earth than the Moon, at a distance of about 202,000 miles away. The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST. This will be the closest encounter by an asteroid of that size in over 30 years. It will also not happen again until 2028. Scott Fisher, program...
NASA scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the agency's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., as the space rock safely flies past Earth slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of opportunity - allowing instruments on "spacecraft Earth" to scan it during the close pass. Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid will begin at 9:30 a.m. local time (PDT)...
Every six years, asteroid 1999 RQ 36 nears the Earth - by cosmic standards - and researchers are launching a global observation campaign to learn as much as possible in preparation for the OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S.-led mission to bring back a sample of pristine asteroid material. Astronomers working on the U.S.' first asteroid-sample return mission – the NASA mission named OSIRIS-REx – have begun a months-long observing campaign that is the last chance to study their target...
Radar imaging at NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in the California desert on Dec. 11 and 12, 2010, revealed defining characteristics of recently discovered asteroid 2010 JL33. The images have been made into a short movie that shows the celestial object's rotation and shape. A team led by Marina Brozovic, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., made the discovery."Asteroid 2010 JL33 was discovered on May 6 by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, but prior...
A small asteroid will fly past Earth early Tuesday within the Earth-moon system. The asteroid, 2010 TD54, will have its closest approach to Earth's surface at an altitude of about 45,000 kilometers (27,960 miles) at 6:50 EDT a.m. (3:50 a.m. PDT). At that time, the asteroid will be over southeastern Asia in the vicinity of Singapore. During its flyby, Asteroid 2010 TD54 has zero probability of impacting Earth. A telescope of the NASA-sponsored Catalina Sky Survey north of Tucson, Arizona...
Two asteroids will pass within the moon's distance from Earth on Wednesday, Sept. 8. NASA scientists will be available for satellite interviews Tuesday, Sept. 7, and Wednesday morning to discuss these near- Earth objects. The Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Ariz., discovered both objects on Sunday, Sept. 5. The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., reviewed the observations and determined the preliminary orbits. The center's personnel concluded both objects would pass within the distance...
Scientists have discovered that a potentially hazardous asteroid might collide with Earth in 2182. The scientists used two mathematical models in order to determine the chance of impact. "The total impact probability of asteroid '(101955) 1999 RQ36' can be estimated in 0.00092 "“approximately one-in-a-thousand chance-, but what is most surprising is that over half of this chance (0.00054) corresponds to 2182," explains to SINC MarÃa Eugenia Sansaturio, co-author of the study...
