Asteroid

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