Asteroids
ESA’s Hera Mission is Bringing Two Cubesats Along. They’ll Be Landing on Dimorphos
In about one year from now, the European Space Agency will launch its Hera mission. Its destination is the asteroid…
A Huge New Gaia Data Release: More Stars, Gravitational Lenses and Asteroids
The ESA's Gaia mission is releasing a new tranche of astronomical data. The mission has released three regular, massive hauls…
The OSIRIS-REx Capsule Has Landed! Asteroid Samples Returned!
The samples obtained by NASA's OSIRIS-REx of the asteroid Bennu landed this morning and will be analyzed shortly!
Lucy Has its First Asteroid Target in the Crosshairs
NASA's Lucy spacecraft launched almost one year ago, in October of 2021. Its journey is an ambitious one, and long.…
DART Had a Surprising Impact on its Target
After NASA's DART mission slammed into asteroid Dimorphous in September 2022, scientists determined the impact caused tons of rock to…
Engineers Design a Robot That Can Stick To, Crawl Along, and Sail Around Rubble Pile Asteroids
Asteroids come in many shapes and sizes. Most are spherical, though many have a feature that can make them difficult…
Threats From Above Lead the List of Space Concerns in New Survey
Sending astronauts to the moon is OK — but more Americans think NASA should instead put a high priority on…
Psyche Mission Passes Independent Review Board with Flying Colors
An independently appointed review board recently announced that NASA, their Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the California Institute of Technology…
If You’re Going to Visit Venus, Why Not Include an Asteroid Flyby Too?
A recent study submitted to Acta Astronautica examines the prospect of designing a Venus mission flight plan that would involve…
Want to be an asteroid miner? There’s a database for that.
Asteroid mining is slowly but surely coming closer to reality. Many start-ups and governmental agencies alike are getting in on…