SPACE: Harvesting the Asteroids
There’s gold in them thar asteroids! Literally — asteroids have more than enough gold, plus other metals, to provide a few lifetimes’ worth of fortunes. But there are plenty of … Read more
asteroid
SPACE: Asteroid Bennu Totally Won’t Hit Earth in 2035. Probably.
An asteroid known as Bennu will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact with our planet … Read more
SPACE: There’s a Giant Asteroid Out There Somewhere
There’s a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth. The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor … Read more
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
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