Asteroids
Latest about Asteroids
What are asteroids?
By Robert Lea last updated
Reference Asteroids are relics from the birth of our solar system and provide us with a window into our cosmic neighborhood's violent past.
What's it like to have an asteroid named after you? Our night sky columnist Joe Rao explains
By Brett Tingley published
Space.com's night sky columnist Joe Rao explains what it was like to have asteroid 200009 Joerao named after him for his many years of astronomy outreach with the general public.
Where did the interstellar object 'Oumuamua come from? Its speed could tell us
By Keith Cooper published
The velocity of interstellar objects passing through our solar system, like 'Oumuamua, can be correlated to their chemistry and the type of star they came from.
What would it be like to walk on an asteroid? Scientists explain (video)
By Robert Lea published
How would astronauts walk on an asteroid? With the potential to sink into killer "ball pits" or to take jumps that launch them into space, the answer is "carefully."
Salty 'peanut' asteroid may reveal where Earth got its water
By Robert Lea published
Tiny salt grains discovered in samples returned by the Hayabusa mission could indicate that the largest population of space rocks in the solar system is more watery than previously thought.
This tiny probe the size of your cell phone could measure asteroid gravity in a space 1st
By Josh Dinner published
The European Space Agency (ESA) has designed a tiny mobile phone-sized probe that could become the world's first to measure the gravity on the surface of an asteroid.
Earth is safe from a devastating asteroid impact for 1,000 years (probably)
By Robert Lea published
Earth probably won't get hit by an asteroid at least 0.6 miles (1 kilometers) wide in the next 1,000 years, a new study finds.
The strange mystery of asteroid Phaethon's comet-like tail may have just been solved
By Robert Lea published
Astronomers observing the strange "rock comet" hybrid Phaethon as it passed the sun have found a surprise that could upend 14 years of thinking about the weird asteroid.
Rare red asteroids around Neptune could reveal the secrets of the early solar system
By Joanna Thompson published
Scientists have observed that some of Neptune's Trojan asteroids are deep red, possibly revealing what asteroids may have been like in the early days of the solar system.
No asteroid impacts needed: Newborn Earth made its own water, study suggests
By Sharmila Kuthunur published
Contrary to a popular theory that icy comets or asteroids delivered water to a dry newborn Earth, the planet itself may have produced its earliest water supply, a new study suggests.
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