SPACE: Did Mars Steal Our Second Moon?
An asteroid trailing after Mars could actually be the stolen twin of our moon. The asteroid in question, called (101429) 1998 VF31, is part of a group of trojan asteroids … Read more
asteroid
SPACE: NASA Just Snagged a Bit of Asteroid Rock to Bring Home (Hopefully)
For the first time ever, a NASA probe has performed a sample-snagging operation on an asteroid in deep space. The agency’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft spiraled down to the surface of the … Read more
SCIENCE: Meteor That Killed the Dinosaurs Hit Planet at Worst Possible Angle
The flaming space rock that slammed into Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, struck at the worst possible angle (for the dinosaurs, that is), new research suggests. Colliding with an … Read more
So… ‘Oumuamua Wasn’t Built By Aliens?
Our solar system’s first known interstellar visitor may have a very violent origin story. The mysterious object ‘Oumuamua, which was spotted zooming through the inner solar system in October 2017, … Read more
SPACE: Meet Arrokoth, the Most Distant Object Ever Explored
Hopefully you weren’t too attached to “2014 MU69,” because the most distant object ever explored has a new name. The 21-mile-wide (34 kilometers) body visited by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft … Read more
SCIENCE: Chesapeake Bay Asteroid Impact Created Wide Swath of Destruction
About 35 million years ago, an asteroid traveling nearly 144,000 mph (231,000 km/h) smashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the modern-day town of Cape Charles, Virginia. The space rock vaporized … Read more
New York Destroyed Again (In a Simulation)
New York City, home to 8.6 million people and one hot duck, has perished in an apocalyptic meteor strike … in a simulation. Over the past week, some 200 space … Read more
NASA Probe Captures Amazing Images of Asteroid
You’ve never seen an asteroid like this before. This technicolor marvel is a compilation of more than 11 million measurements of an asteroid called Bennu, all gathered by a NASA … Read more
SPACE: Japan Copper Bombs an Asteroid
A Japanese spacecraft deployed a heavy, explosive-packed copper plate toward the asteroid Ryugu in an attempt to create an artificial crater last night (April 4), but it’s still unclear how … Read more
SPACE: Ultima Thule is a Frankenstein Beast
Less than three months after the New Horizons spacecraft zoomed past a distant, cold space rock, scientists are beginning to piece together the story of how that object, nicknamed Ultima Thule, … Read more