Monday, April 1, 2013 - 11:31am
A Spanish farmer recently learned that a 220 pound rock he has used for 33 years to press ham, is actually an asteroid worth over $5 million.
asteroid stories
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 3:32pm
On Friday a house-sized asteroid will pass so close to the Earth, that satellites are scurrying to get out of its path.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 12:27pm
While most astronomers seem to be understandably worried about the best way to steer asteroids away from Earth, Chinese scientists are instead trying to figure out how they can capture nearby asteroids into Earth orbit. And then mine them.
Thursday, August 18, 2011 - 6:47pm
Hot on the heels of the European Space Agency's announcement that it's going to have a go at deflecting an asteroid, researchers in China are intending to do the same. To the same asteroid, to boot, only with a fancier spacecraft.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - 8:21am
The European Space Agency has announced that it will finally — finally! — give the business of asteroid deflection a go. You know, before a really, really big one is careening toward Earth and we're out of time. So, what's the plan?
Monday, July 18, 2011 - 6:44am
After a three year, 117 million mile trip out to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has entered orbit around a 300-mile-wide asteroid named Vesta, snapping the clearest picture ever of what some scientists say might actually be a tiny little protoplanet.
Thursday, May 26, 2011 - 9:16am
For the first time ever, NASA will launch the OSIRIS-REx, an unmanned robotic spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016 to collect "pristine" space rock samples. It's going to be a tough mission because of the weird gravity fields asteroids have, but the samples could provide valuable info on how planets formed.
Friday, June 18, 2010 - 1:03pm
You think your fancy new digital camera has a lot of megapixels? Well if you plan to hunt in deepest space for asteroids that could be hurtling towards Earth, you're going to need some serious resolution.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - 2:39pm
The spectral collection you see above was first spied by MIT's LINEAR, and then further investigated by the Hubble telescope. What looks to an alien ship decloaking a comet trail was actually found to be a collection of debris from...
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 9:05am
As NASA readies the Ares 1-X test rocket, a commission of experts appointed by the president says hold everything. NASA should forget about going to the moon for now, and land humans on a nearby asteroid or comet, or one...
