Asteroid

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 | 92

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

OSIRIS-REx space probe catches a whiff of water on asteroid Bennu

But how Earth ended up with all its water is still a mystery

Science11 Dec 2018 | 20

It's big, it's blue, and it'll be raining down on you – it's 3200 Phaethon

Astroboffins baffled by mysterious repeat visitor

Science24 Oct 2018 | 22

JAXA probe's lucky MASCOT plonks down on space rock Ryugu without a hitch

16 hours of rocking and rolling before the power runs out

Science03 Oct 2018 | 25

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a giant alien space cigar? Whatever it is, boffins are baffled

Pic Or 'Oumuamua could just be a weird tail-less comet

Science28 Jun 2018 | 56

NASA eggheads draw up blueprints for spotting, surviving asteroid hits

First America frets about aliens at its borders, now actual alien bodies turning up from space

Science21 Jun 2018 | 46

Japan's asteroid-hunting robot Hayabusa2 has its prey within its sights

Landing, roving, cratering. What could possibly go wrong? Hopefully, nothing

Science07 Jun 2018 | 6

NASA spots asteroid on crash course with Earth – with just hours to go

Video Not enough time to even call Bruce Willis and Armageddonoutofhere

Science04 Jun 2018 | 74

Undocumented alien caught stealing orbits in our Solar System

Bee-Zed immigrant asteroid has been here for billions of years – too late to build a wall

Science22 May 2018 | 31

That's no moon... er, that's an asteroid. And it'll be your next and final home, spacefarer

Let's take a peek at your cosmic Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria

Science26 Apr 2018 | 80

Interstellar space rock screams through Solar System

Astro-boffins have waited decades to see something with such an odd orbit

Science27 Oct 2017 | 49

NASA readies its asteroid warning system for harmless flyby

Reminder: amateur astronomers, watch out for 2012 TC4, you might get lucky

Science11 Oct 2017 | 30

Signs of ground ice found on ancient protoplanet asteroid Vesta

Scientists reignite the idea of water-bearing asteroids bringing oceans to Earth

Science13 Sep 2017 | 25

Asteroid Florence buzzes Earth, brings two moons along for the ride

4.5km rock is the largest object we've seen up close, albeit still 7,000,000km away

Science05 Sep 2017 | 49

Cancel the farewell party. Get back to work. That asteroid isn't going to hit Earth in October

ESA tells everyone to calm down and carry on

Science10 Aug 2017 | 44

Scary news: Asteroid may pass Earth by just 6,880km in October

Good news: Chelyabinsk-sized rattler won't wipe us out, will let us test asteroid defences

Science31 Jul 2017 | 74

NASA: Bring on the asteroid, so we can chuck a fridge at it

Putting Bruce Willis out of work

Science03 Jul 2017 | 103

Astroboffins dig into the weird backwards orbit of the Bee-Zed asteroid

Tiny body moves similar to Jupiter – but travels in the opposite direction

Science29 Jun 2017 | 12

Orbital boffins cut four years off NASA mission to shiniest object in the Solar System

16 Psyche mission takes a great leap forward

Science25 May 2017 | 30

NASA fires first shot in plan to bring a chunk of asteroid down to Earth

OSIRIS-REx completes initial big burn on the way to asteroid Bennu

Science19 Jan 2017 | 9

Asteroid nearly gave Earth a new feature, two days after its discovery

First flyby for 2017

Science10 Jan 2017 | 64

NASA plans seven-year trip to Jupiter – can we come with you, please?

Vid Mighty Trojan probe will eye up biggest metal ball in Solar System

Science05 Jan 2017 | 46

NASA's asteroid orbit calculator spots a hot rock zipping past

'Scout' scope gives us an asteroid-misses-Earth-by-not-much horror story for Halloween

Science31 Oct 2016 | 42

Blink and you missed it: Asteroid came within 90,000 km, only one sky-watcher saw it

SONEAR sees 25-metre-plus rock when it was, well, so near

Science31 Aug 2016 | 44

NASA to begin first asteroid sample mission: Seeks 'pristine' specimen

Bennu.... no, not a scientology overlord

Science18 Aug 2016 | 25

Asteroid-sampling spacecraft prepped for September launch

OSIRIS-REx: NASA's greatest improbable acronym

Science24 May 2016 | 14

Mars satellites show remains of massive tsunamis that ravaged Red Planet

Two asteroid strikes had huge consequences

Science20 May 2016 | 12

Laser-zapping scientists will save the Earth from meteorite destruction

Armageddon outta here

Science11 May 2016 | 50

Russian boffins want to nuke asteroids

101 things to do with a nuclear stockpile

Science12 Apr 2016 | 65

ESA decupboards asteroid-dusting brush-o-matic

Sample-gathering gadget heads for zero-grav tests

Science06 Apr 2016 | 9