We regret to inform you Earth will not be destroyed by an asteroid within 1,000 years Never mind, there's always nuclear war and climate catastrophe Offbeat17 May 2023 | 38
Alien rock causes cosmic disturbance in New Jersey home Potential meteorite excites everyone but the insurance company Offbeat11 May 2023 | 36
Hold off on that 2046 Valentine's date, asteroid might hit Earth Luckily this rock is only about the size of the Arc de Triomphe, let alone the 600-to-1 chance Science12 Mar 2023 | 30
NASA finds crashing spacecraft into asteroids is a viable defence strategy Recoil from DART impact changed Dimorphos's orbit more than expected Science02 Mar 2023 | 37
NASA: Yup, thousand-pound meteorite exploded over Texas As good time as any for Europe to announce a 2030 asteroid-spotting mission Science22 Feb 2023 | 52
Truck-size asteroid makes one of the tightest fly-bys of Earth ever recorded What a tease Science27 Jan 2023 | 39
Space dust reveals Earth-killer asteroids tough to destroy Good luck blowing up a pile of rubble. Boffins suggest we'll need to create a diversion instead Science25 Jan 2023 | 50
Lucy asteroid probe forced to limp on without full solar array Attempts to fix glitch ditched – but never give up, never surrender Science24 Jan 2023 | 2
NASA reassigns Venus boffins to save short-staffed asteroid interceptor Need Another Special Artisan? The US space agency does Science08 Nov 2022 | 11
Oh, great. By peering into twilight, boffins find 'planet killer' asteroids in our system One may hit Earth, but unlikely. One could whack Venus. This is good or bad news, depending on your outlook Science01 Nov 2022 | 16
NASA's Lucy probe dodges space traffic around Earth in gravity-assist flyby Spacecraft coming through, outta the way, watch your step, we're heading to Jupiter Science17 Oct 2022 | 5
How to watch NASA Jupiter probe's flyby of Earth Lucy in the sky, with good-byes, then Science16 Oct 2022 | 10
Confirmed: Asteroid shoved by Earth crash probe DART Stand down Bruce Willis, 'first planetary defense test' a success Science12 Oct 2022 | 36
Scientists overjoyed after DART smashes into asteroid Dimorphos, contact lost Video Task failed successfully Science27 Sep 2022 | 48
This hero probe will smash into an asteroid to see if we can deflect future killer rocks Feature We chat to the scientists involved in first-of-its-kind mission Science24 Sep 2022 | 47
Rare hexagonal diamond formed by crash of dwarf planet and asteroid, scientists believe 'Lonsdaleite' is even harder than normal diamonds and its genesis shows how we might make more Science14 Sep 2022 | 34
NASA uses occult means to spot tiny moon orbiting asteroid Lucy probe is five years away from getting a closeup of Polymele's satellite Science17 Aug 2022 | 12
Ryugu asteroid: It came from the outer solar system, say scientists Japanese Hayabusa-2 probe samples reveal coarse-grained phyllosilicates that may have served as 'cradles' for organics and water Science16 Aug 2022 | 16
Asteroids may shoot pebbles into shallow temporary orbits, boffins believe OSIRIS-Rex saw this happening. An odd meteorite suggests why and how Science12 Aug 2022 | 5
City-killing asteroid won't hit Earth in 2052 after all ESA ruins our day with some bad news Science29 Jun 2022 | 29
Second Trojan asteroid confirmed to be leading our planet around the Sun Good candidate for fly-by, say scientists, and we’ve got 4,000 years to do it Science02 Feb 2022 | 46
Boffins' first take on asteroid dust from Japanese probe: Carbon rich, less lumpy than expected The five grams of Ryugu we got suggests it's made of the same stuff as the outer Sun Science22 Dec 2021 | 79
NASA installs a new and improved algorithm to better track near-Earth asteroids Nearly 20 year-old software used to protect humanity gets an upgrade Software08 Dec 2021 | 15
NASA boffins seem to think we're worth saving from fiery asteroid death so they're shooting a spaceship at one Bruce Willis not required Science24 Nov 2021 | 76
Solar System's fastest-orbiting asteroid spotted, flies closer to the Sun than Mercury Boffins ponder where space rock came from Science24 Aug 2021 | 34
Good news: There's a slightly increased chance of asteroid Bennu hitting Earth. Bad news: It's still really slight Don't get your hopes up about that Sept 24, 2182 end-of-world party Science12 Aug 2021 | 37
Euro space boffins hatch comms satellite hijack plan to save Earth from extinction Liv Tyler-friendly Armageddon-avoidance project won't want to miss a thing with repurposed orbiters Science13 Jul 2021 | 55
Sadly, the catastrophic impact with Apophis asteroid isn't going to happen in 2068 Astroboffins are so confident, this once dangerous near-Earth object has now been struck off official risk lists Science28 Mar 2021 | 67
We got it! Japanese space agency confirms its probe has Ryugu asteroid samples Andromeda Strain anyone? Science15 Dec 2020 | 30
No need for more asteroid-blasting attempts, NASA's OSIRIS-REx has more than enough space dirt There may be carbon, water, clay, perhaps even platinum, gold in them hills Science30 Oct 2020 | 24
FYI: NASA appears to have scooped dirt from an asteroid 200 million miles away and plans to bring it back home Would be nice if civilization could hold out for 2023 to see its return Science21 Oct 2020 | 62
A 73bn-kg, skyscraper-size chocolate creme egg spinning fast enough to eventually explode – it's asteroid Bennu And we're about to extract a sample from it Science09 Oct 2020 | 36
Bennu Jerry's, anyone? OSIRIS-REx probe to attempt 3 scoops of asteroid next month before bringing samples home Video Dress rehearsals done, nice shingly crater chosen – it's go time Science25 Sep 2020 | 13
NASA is sending two small hand-luggage suitcase-sized spacecraft into the void to study binary asteroids Janus mission seeks solution to orbiting space rocks in the Solar System Science12 Sep 2020 | 27
Shine on you crazy diamond: We don't know who needs to hear it but NASA's explained the weird shape of the Bennu asteroid Something that doesn't involve viruses, politics and wildfires Science10 Sep 2020 | 16
If you think you've got problems, pal, spare a thought for these boffins baffled by 'oddball' meteorites Chondritic and achondritic? Back to the drawing board, then Science27 Jul 2020 | 28
We've heard of littering but this is ridiculous: Asteroid dumps up to 50 quadrillion kg of space dirt on Earth, Moon Sadly, missing all of us by 800 million years Science22 Jul 2020 | 22
Don't panic: An asteroid larger than the Empire State Building is flying past Earth this weekend but we're just fine 2002 NN4 will visit us fairly frequently, and always miss - ignore the clickbait Science06 Jun 2020 | 39
Well, that's something boffins haven't seen before: A strange alien streaks around Jupiter Pic We know this sounds like a tall tail but... Science22 May 2020 | 36
We dunno what's more wild: This vid of Japan's probe bouncing off an asteroid to collect a sample – or that the rock was sun-burnt Video Hayabusa 2 expected to return with out-of-this-world material in December Science08 May 2020 | 25
Nineteen mysterious invaders from another Solar System spotted hanging around the outside edge of ours Plus astroboffins confirm 'masked' asteroid heading Earthwards Science24 Apr 2020 | 19
BEHOLD! Japan's Hayabusa2 probe left human imprints on ASTEROID SAND Sure, the bullet couldn't shift a big boulder, but it may have learned Ryugu's composition and birthday Science26 Mar 2020 | 17
Aww, a cute mini-moon is orbiting Earth right now. But like all good things, it too will abandon us at some point Vid Elon Musk confirms car-sized space rock isn't his Tesla Roadster Science27 Feb 2020 | 79
Good news: Neural network says 11 asteroids thought to be harmless may hit Earth. Bad news: They are not due to arrive for hundreds of years And also, crucial point, the software may be wrong and we'll never be released by these angels of death AI + ML17 Feb 2020 | 81
Raw sunlight is going to cause our asteroid belt to spin itself to death by YORPing – but not for another six billion years The cosmic ballet goes on... Science11 Feb 2020 | 24
Two billion years ago, snowball Earth was defrosted in huge asteroid crash – and it's been downhill ever since Pic Space prang raised temperatures, melted glaciers, influenced climate, next thing we know: we're sharing AI-filtered selfies on Insta Science23 Jan 2020 | 82
It's a billion-ton, 14-million-mile long mysterious alien formation – and Earth is heading right into it Yes, it's the debris tail of asteroid 3200 Phaethon, the source of the annual Geminids meteor shower Science12 Dec 2019 | 42
Asteroid Bennu is flinging particles of dust and rock from its surface – and scientists can't work out why Pic Images beamed back from NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft leave scientists baffled Science06 Dec 2019 | 26
We don't usually sugar-coat the news but... Alien sugars found in Earth-bound meteorites More evidence that building blocks for life on our home world replicable in outer space Science22 Nov 2019 | 51
Move over Ceres! There's a new, smaller dwarf planet in town called Hygiea PIC Spherical shape kicks asteroid into new role Science28 Oct 2019 | 13
Exploding super-prang asteroid to pepper Earth, trigger deadly ice age – no, wait, it happened 466 million years ago Aww, shucks. Cancel the End of the World party Science20 Sep 2019 | 23
Geo-boffins drill into dino-killing asteroid crater, discover extinction involves bad smells, chilly weather, no broadband internet... Sounds like normal life in the Shetland Islands Science10 Sep 2019 | 136
City-obliterating asteroid screamed past Earth the other night – and boffins only clocked it just 26 hours beforehand Video 'We should have seen it earlier' astro-prof tells El Reg after rock whizzed between us and Moon Science26 Jul 2019 | 126
Bad news: Earth is not going to be walloped by asteroid 2006 QV89. Good news: Boffins have lost sight of it, so all hope is not yet lost Pic Wait, did we get that the right way around? Science17 Jul 2019 | 59
Boffins find asteroid with the shortest solar year of any space rock in our Solar System Kilometre-sized chunk of rock that was missed for decades Science09 Jul 2019 | 19
Bad news. Asteroid 1999 KW4 flew by, did not hit Earth killing us all. Good news: Another one, Didymos, is on the way Not due to whiz past, 5.9 million km away, until 2123. NASA still wants to crash a DART into it Science04 Jun 2019 | 93
Water big surprise: H2O found in samples of 'dry' asteroid brought to Earth over millions of miles by plucky probe Parched Itokawa was hiding watery tricks up its sleeve Science03 May 2019 | 25
We regret to inform you the massive asteroid NASA's all excited about probably won't hit Earth Apophis will be inside satellite belt, visible to the naked eye from our home world, sweet release not imminent... Science02 May 2019 | 174
Slip-sliding to May: Another Dragon delay and JAXA makes a bigger splash Round-up Ooooh, and lets not forget Manx Moon Stamps 'cos everyone loves an anniversary Science29 Apr 2019 | 10
You spin me right round, baby, right round like an exploding asteroid, baby, right round round round Pic Dying space rock spurts out twin streams of debris Science29 Mar 2019 | 18
Never thought we'd ever utter these words, but... can anyone recommend a spin doctor for NASA? Boffins baffled by Bennu: We're due to visit asteroid but it's whirling faster and faster Science14 Mar 2019 | 43
Official science: Massive asteroids are so difficult to destroy, Bruce Willis wouldn't stand a chance Videos 'Only a matter of time before these questions go from being academic to defining our response to a major threat' Science05 Mar 2019 | 63