Read the latest positive news, breakthroughs, and inspiring stories about asteroids, curated daily by BrightWire.
The United Arab Emirates just revealed the spacecraft that will visit seven asteroids and land on a mysterious red space rock 342 million miles from Earth. The ambitious eight-year journey launches in March 2028, following the nation's successful Mars mission.
The United Arab Emirates is sending a spacecraft on an ambitious six-year journey to visit seven asteroids and land on one 200 million miles from Earth. The mission represents a bold leap for the nation's young space program, which already has a probe orbiting Mars.
Scientists discovered that a single ancient asteroid collision may have reshaped nearly the entire surface of Deimos, Mars' mysterious smaller moon. New computer simulations and spacecraft images reveal how one impact created both the moon's giant southern crater and its strangely smooth, dusty surface.
A new Arizona telescope just recorded its first scientific discovery, capturing an asteroid's shadow passing over Earth in less than one second. The breakthrough proves the center's cutting-edge technology works with stunning accuracy.
A quick flyby of a tiny asteroid just revealed an epic geological tale spanning 155 million years. NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured the life story of a tumbling space rock made of two ancient chunks slowly morphing under gravity's gentle pull.
A spacecraft on its way to Jupiter just uncovered the complete life story of an ancient asteroid, proving we can read cosmic history like a detective novel. The discovery shows how scientists will unlock secrets from rocks that witnessed our solar system's birth.
China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft just arrived at a tiny asteroid that dances alongside Earth in a rare quasi-moon orbit. The mission will collect samples and solve the mystery of whether this strange space rock is actually a chunk of our own moon.
A powerful new telescope in Chile is about to reveal millions of solar system objects we've never seen before. The Rubin Observatory could triple known near-Earth asteroids and find 40,000 new trans-Neptunian objects over the next decade.
Despite fuel leaks, engine failures, and a broken sampling system, Japan's Hayabusa probe completed a seven-year journey in 2010 to deliver the first asteroid dust ever returned to Earth. The mission failed in almost every way it was supposed to work, yet succeeded in answering a fundamental question about where meteorites come from.
The world's most powerful space survey telescope just started collecting data, and it's already discovering asteroids at a mind-blowing pace. In its very first images, the Rubin Observatory found 1,500 new asteroids, including some spinning faster than scientists thought possible.
A team at UC Santa Barbara has designed a system to blast dangerous asteroids into harmless bits using rockets and technology we already have. Unlike asteroid deflection methods, this "Pulverize It" program could work even with short warning times.
When a building-sized asteroid set Earth in its crosshairs last year, one British lawyer had to alert every government on the planet. Aarti Holla-Maini successfully activated the UN's planetary defense system for the first time ever.