asteroid

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Asteroid Named After Anti-Taliban Activist

Malala Yousafzai honored by NASA researcher

(Newser) - A dark rock you might spot orbiting the sun every 5.5 years now has its own name: 316201 Malala (2010 ML48) . The part we all understand—Malala—refers to Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, 17, who drew the world's attention by defying Taliban rule...

Biggest-Ever Asteroid Impact Found

Asteroid broke in two, scarring Earth more than 300M years ago

(Newser) - More than 300 million years after a massive asteroid collided with Earth, scientists have found the planet's 118-mile-long scars. Experts say two huge underground domes in the Earth's crust, about 19 miles beneath central Australia's Warburton Basin, are evidence of the largest and most powerful asteroid impact...

Biggest Asteroid Fly-By Until 2027 Happens Monday

Grab your binoculars to spot 2004 BL86, NASA says

(Newser) - If you've ever wanted to get a good look at an asteroid, Monday night will be your best chance for more than a decade. Asteroid 2004 BL86, a space rock about a third of a mile in diameter, will be 745,000 miles away on Monday, around three times...

How We Could Survive After the Apocalypse
How We Could Survive
After the Apocalypse
in case you missed it
Dec 27, 2014 7:33 AM CST

How We Could Survive After the Apocalypse

Joshua Pearce, David Denkenberger explain how survivors could eat for 5 years

(Newser) - Imagine this: an apocalyptic event strikes the planet—say, a super-volcano, asteroid, or nuclear winter. While a small portion of the population would die, most of us wouldn't. But the skies would blacken, our crops would die, and the darkness would keep us from sowing new ones. (Yes, LED-light-equipped...

Japan Launches Explorer to Blast Crater in Asteroid

Hayabusa 2 will shoot asteroid, collect rock samples for clues to Earth's origins

(Newser) - A Japanese space explorer took off today on a six-year journey to blow a crater in a remote asteroid and bring back rock samples in hopes of gathering clues to the origin of Earth. Hayabusa 2 is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018, spend about 18 months studying it,...

US Keeping Nukes in Case of ... Asteroids?

Threat cited as reason to keep old warheads

(Newser) - Somebody's been watching Armageddon: American nuclear authorities say they have delayed getting rid of old warhead components because they could help protect the world from killer asteroids. Authorities say the warheads are being kept "pending a senior-level government evaluation of their use in planetary defense against earthbound asteroids,...

Crater Mystery Has Nicaragua Stumped

If a passing asteroid didn't create the huge hole, then what did?

(Newser) - When an asteroid passed by Earth and then a huge crater showed up in Nicaragua, the government there put two and two together and figured an errant piece of space rock was responsible for the hole. But scientists have since cast doubt on the theory, and now Nicaragua is asking...

Passing Asteroid Tied to Blast in Nicaragua

Scientists say 'Pitbull' 2014 RC caused Managua blast

(Newser) - A house-sized asteroid nicknamed "Pitbull" came close to Earth over the weekend—and appears to have taken a bite out of Nicaragua. There was a mysterious blast in the capital, Managua, late Saturday night, and government scientists believe it's connected to asteroid 2014 RC, reports Reuters . The explosion...

Asteroid Zips by Earth This Weekend

'Pitbull' won't hit us, though

(Newser) - Sky-watchers, take note: An asteroid is going to whiz by our planet this weekend. Asteroid 2014 RC, aka "Pitbull," will make its closest pass 25,000 miles over New Zealand about 2:15pm Eastern tomorrow, reports USA Today . Nobody will be able to see the 60-foot-wide rock with...

&#39;Bad Timing&#39; Wiped Out Dinosaurs
 'Bad Timing' 
 Wiped Out 
 Dinosaurs 
in case you missed it
Aug 2, 2014 11:59 AM CDT

'Bad Timing' Wiped Out Dinosaurs

Asteroid hit at just the wrong time, researchers say

(Newser) - The huge asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago was very bad timing for the dinosaurs, a new study says—it wiped them out, but they probably would have survived if it had hit at a "more convenient" time. The impact in what is now Mexico is almost...

On Deck Today: 'Beast' Asteroid Does Earth Fly-By

2014 HQ124 will come within 777K miles of your planet

(Newser) - Earthlings, prepare to meet the Beast: An 1,100-foot-wide asteroid thus nicknamed is doing a fly-by of the planet today, and if it were on a slightly different trajectory, well, we'd be in some trouble. As Space.com reports, the Beast, better known as 2014 HQ124, is traveling at...

Chances of a City-Leveling Asteroid: Pretty Darned High

Which is why we need to build an asteroid-hunting telescope, experts say

(Newser) - Bad news: The chances that an asteroid will take out your city are higher than you might think, according to a nonprofit group currently working on an asteroid-tracking telescope. "There is a popular misconception that asteroid impacts are extraordinarily rare," says Ed Lu, the former astronaut who heads...

Moon Gets a New Birthday
 Moon Gets a New Birthday 
Apr 3, 2014 1:36 AM CDT

Moon Gets a New Birthday

Formation happened later than thought, study says

(Newser) - The cataclysmic event that formed the moon happened much later than previously believed, according to researchers who have shifted the satellite's "birthday" forward around 60 million years. New computer simulations and analysis of elements in the Earth's crust suggest that the moon formed 95 million years after...

Solar System First: Asteroid With Rings

'Centaur' has only rings seen outside gas giants

(Newser) - Only five bodies in the solar system are known to have rings: The gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus—and Chariklo, a remote asteroid just 154 miles across. Astronomers say they were amazed to spot two rings made up of billion of bits of dust and ice circling the...

Earth Once Slammed by 'Double Impact'

Scientists: Asteroid, moon made impact at same time 458M years ago

(Newser) - Around 15% of near-Earth asteroids are binaries—an asteroid with an orbiting "moon" sometimes nearly as big as itself—but what happens when a binary slams into our planet? The answer, at least some of the time, is the creation of two huge craters, and Spanish researchers believe they...

Hubble Captures Asteroid's Odd Death

They're the first such photographs ever

(Newser) - The Hubble Space Telescope continues to wow astronomers. NASA today released a series of photographs that the AP calls the "first pictures of a disintegrating asteroid." Hubble zoomed in for a closer look after other telescopes spotted something unusual in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars...

Huge Asteroid to Whiz Near Earth Today

But odds of a hit are just 1 in 10M, NASA says

(Newser) - A massive asteroid will be hurtling past Earth today, and it's expected to sail past a bit closer than the moon does. At somewhere between 60 and 140 feet in diameter, asteroid 2014 DX110 is bigger than the space rock that injured hundreds of people in Russia last year...

Moon Struck by 'Extraordinary' Asteroid Blast

Spanish astronomer spotted the dramatic strike last year

(Newser) - A car-sized asteroid smashed into the moon last year and left the longest-ever afterglow for a lunar impact ever seen—one big enough to be spotted by the naked eye under good viewing conditions, a Spanish astronomer said Monday. Jose Maria Madiedo said he witnessed the blast while working two...

Asteroid Whizzes by Earth Tonight

It won't hit us, but you can watch it online

(Newser) - It's big (about the size of three football fields) and it's fast (about 27,000mph), and it's zipping by our planet tonight. Earthlings, meet asteroid 2000 EM26. As Space.com explains, the asteroid poses no threat of actually hitting the planet when it flies by at a...

Sign of Life? Vapor Rises on Dwarf Planet

Find suggests Ceres has huge subsurface ocean

(Newser) - There may be a new contender for the likeliest place to host life elsewhere in our solar system—and it's not a planet or a moon. Astronomers have spotted water vapor from Ceres, classed as both the smallest dwarf planet and largest asteroid, marking the first time water has...

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