NASA Asteroid Mission

Earth can breathe a sigh of relief. NASA on Wednesday downgraded the odds of an 885-foot asteroid striking the planet in 2036. Scientists initially believed there was a 1-in-45,000 chance that Apophis could hit the planet on April 13, 2036. But the threat was lowered to a 1-in-250,000 chance after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path. "It wasn't anything to worry about before. Now it's even less so," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Chesley and his colleagues refined the asteroid's orbit after an astronomer in Hawaii analyzed previously unreleased images that gave scientists a ... Read Full Story

The first images from Rosetta’s OSIRIS imaging system and VIRTIS infrared spectrometer were derived from raw data and have delivered breathtaking results. "Steins looks like a diamond in the sky," said Uwe Keller, Principal Investigator for the OSIRIS imaging system from the Max Planck Institute. Visible in the image are several small craters on the asteroid, and two huge ones, one of which is 2 km in diameter, indicating that the asteroid must be very old. Rita Schulz, Rosetta Project Scientist, said, "In the images is a chain of impact craters, which must have formed from recurring impact as the asteroid rotated. The impact ... Read Full Story

Image Credit: Don Davis/NASA Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid. The refined path indicates a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036. The Apophis asteroid is approximately the size of two-and-a-half football fields. The new data were documented by near-Earth object scientists Steve Chesley and Paul Chodas at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. They will present their updated findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences in Puerto Rico on Oct. 8. “Apophis has been one of those celestial bodies that has captured the public’s interest ... Read Full Story

This sounds like something from a science fiction movie, but it is a real threat to the whole planet. It can happen any time. A medium sized asteroid of a few kilometers in diameter crashing into the Earth can completely destroy our civilization and exterminate the whole human race, just like it happened to the dinosaurs. But fortunately there are some ways to prevent all this. The human race is at the point that it can prevent it’s own extinction. There are numerous ways of deflecting such an asteroid to a safer orbit, but it has to be spotted years before potential impact, otherwise ... Read Full Story

Browse > Home / BREAKING NEWS , PRESS RELEASE , SCIENCE , World News / Small Asteroid Lit Up Sky Over Sudan October 7, 2008 Impact of Asteroid 2008 TC3 Confirmed Confirmation has been received that the asteroid impact fireball occurred at the predicted time and place. The energy recorded was estimated to be 0.9 to 1.0 kT of TNT and the time of detection was 02:45:45 on October 7 (Greenwich Standard Time). More details on this detection will be forthcoming. An additional confirmation was apparently reported by a KLM airliner as reported by Peter Brown (University of Western Ontario, Canada), a preliminary examination ... Read Full Story