Impacts
Is This Nearby Asteroid a Chunk of the Moon?
The Moon dominates our view of the night sky. But it's not the only thing orbiting Earth. A small number…
Watch the Chelyabinsk Meteor Breakup in this Detailed Simulation
The people of Chelyabinsk in Russia got the surprise of their lives on the morning of February 15, 2013. That's…
Recreating the Extreme Forces of an Asteroid Impact in the Lab
About 50,000 years ago, a nickel-iron meteorite some 50 meters across plowed into the Pleistocene-era grasslands of what is now…
Should Planetary Defence Take Center Stage?
Throughout the Solar System, planets and moons bear the scars of a past fraught with collisions. The Moon, Mercury, and…
Asteroids Didn’t Create the Moon’s Largest Craters. Left-Over Planetesimals Did
The Moon's pock-marked surface tells the story of its history. It's marked by over 9,000 impact craters, according to the…
InSight Felt the Ground Shake From a Meteorite Impact on Mars
The Mars InSight lander might be nearing the end of its life on the Red Planet, but its scientific data…
Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Asteroid That Created the Biggest Known Crater on Earth
Ancient impacts played a powerful role in Earth's complex history. On other Solar System bodies like the Moon or Mercury,…
The Moon was Pummeled by Asteroids at the Same Time the Dinosaurs Died. Coincidence?
It only takes a quick look at the Moon to see its impact-beaten surface. There are craters everywhere. Some of…
Would We Have Continents Without Asteroid Impacts?
Early Earth was a wild and wooly place. In its first billion years, during a period called the Archean, our…
You can see Where JWST Took a Direct hit From a Micrometeorite on one of its Mirrors
A recently-released report examines the James Webb Space Telescope's performance and discusses the micrometeoroid impacts that could threaten the mission