News

An Asteroid Will Fly By Earth in 4 Years. Scientists Are Racing to Uncover Its Secrets.
As the asteroid lines up for a planetary flyby in 2029, space agencies are coordinating to conduct some groundbreaking ...
"Blew Us Away": Experts On Life-Building Chemicals In Asteroid Bennu Samples
Scientists have found special chemical compounds necessary for the existence of life in samples collected from asteroid Bennu ...
Why meteorites that hit Earth have less water than the asteroid bits brought back by space probes — a planetary scientist explains
A planetary scientist explains new research explaining the differing compositions between space rocks that hit Earth and are ...
RealClearScience2d
Asteroid May Have Delivered Ingredients for Life on Earth
One of these lumps became the asteroid Bennu whose minerals, recently returned to Earth by the US robot space probe OSIRIS-REx, have now been found to contain rich levels of complex chemicals that are ...
Smithsonian Magazine on MSN3h
NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Just Flew by a Strange, Peanut-Shaped Asteroid. See the New Images From the Approach
The close-up views of asteroid Donaldjohanson are a preview of what’s to come for Lucy on its 12-year quest to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids ...
IFLScience2d
The Surprising Cosmic Connection That Led To Popes Choosing Their Names
Monarchs have donned regnal names after having ascended to their thrones since ancient times. When it comes to Popes, this is a standard and important practice, and the name chosen has a lot of ...
Smithsonian Magazine6d
Robot Geologists Will Soon Bring Asteroid Samples Back to Earth
Late last year, NASA announced it had selected sites to grab samples from the asteroid Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx mission was launched in September 2016, and, after a journey of two years, it began ...
NASA’s Lucy Gears Up for a Thrilling Close Encounter With a Mysterious Space Relic
NASA’s Lucy mission is about to fly past asteroid Donaldjohanson, a strange, elongated rock in the main belt. While this ...
Houston Chronicle9d
Why the meteorites that hit Earth have less water than the asteroid bits brought back by space probes – a planetary scientist explains new research
So, the OSIRIS‑REx mission ventured to the asteroid Bennu to retrieve an unaltered sample. Retrieving this sample allowed scientists to examine the asteroid’s composition in detail.