asteroid

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NASA May Send Probe to Earthbound Asteroid

Rock may hit planet ... in 2182

(Newser) - Somebody call Bruce Willis, because NASA is considering landing a probe on an asteroid that’s hurtling toward Earth. Sounds exciting, right? Well, don’t run for your fallout shelter yet. There’s only a 1-in-1,000 chance the asteroid will hit, and if it does, it won’t happen...

Space Probe Visits Biggest Asteroid Yet

Europe's Rosetta snapping photos of mysterious Lutetia

(Newser) - The European Space Agency is pulling off a nifty feat 280 million miles from home. Its comet-chasing space probe Rosetta is making a flyby of the biggest asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft, reports the BBC . Rosetta will be sending back photos of Lutetia, which was first spotted 150 years...

40% of Americans Think Jesus Will Return by 2050

Poll: US in optimistic yet apocalyptic mood

(Newser) - More than 40% of Americans believe Jesus will return to earth by the year 2050, according to a Pew Research Center poll. The poll also found that Americans are optimistic about the future, but less so than a decade ago: 64% expect a rosy future for themselves and their families,...

End of the World Looms in Space
 End of the World 
 Looms in Space 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jun 19, 2010 6:07 AM CDT

End of the World Looms in Space

Time to look for other real estate

(Newser) - People should stop worrying about destruction by earthlings and worry instead about the end of the world that's developing in outer space even as you read this. That's the chilling warning from a top astronomer who is convinced the world won't end with a whimper but with a very big...

Space Probe Recovered After Mission to Asteroid

Japanese capsule thought to be carrying asteroid dust lands in Australia

(Newser) - Seven years and 4 billion miles miles later, the Hayabusa capsule is almost home—Japanese scientists today began the process of collecting it from the Australian Outback, where it fell to Earth in a fiery shower of light after its trip to the asteroid Itokawa. If it contains fragments of...

Other Natural Disasters as Weird as the Sinkhole
 Other Natural Disasters as 
 Weird as the Sinkhole 
in case you missed it
Jun 5, 2010 7:00 PM CDT

Other Natural Disasters as Weird as the Sinkhole

Fire tornadoes, asteroid strikes and more

(Newser) - As the sinkhole that swallowed a three-story building in Guatemala Monday demonstrated, natural disasters can be really weird. The Daily Beast runs through some of the strangest natural catastrophes on record:
  • The poisonous cloud: In 1986 in Cameroon, 1,700 people and 3,500 animals mysteriously dropped dead simultaneously. Scientists
...

Mystery Object to Hurtle Past Earth Tonight


 Mystery Object to Hurtle 
 Past Earth Tonight
asteroid or space junk?
Jan 13, 2010 6:37 AM CST

Mystery Object to Hurtle Past Earth Tonight

Shows small asteroids can be detected two days before hitting earth

(Newser) - Scientists aren't sure what exactly the small object whizzing toward earth is—it could be an asteroid or space junk—but they are confident that it will narrowly miss hitting our planet. The 33-foot-wide object known as 2010 AL30 will shave past earth today at a distance of 80,000...

Russia: We'll Save Earth From Asteroid

Space agency confirms secret talks are in works

(Newser) - A 1,150-foot asteroid on a collision course with Earth could create a France-sized desert in 2036—unless Russian scientists can avert the catastrophe. No, it’s not the plot of a science-fiction movie; the head of Russia’s space agency confirms secret talks are in the works to prevent...

NASA Launches Telescope to Detect Space Threats

WISE infrared telescope will scan whole sky for hazardous objects

(Newser) - NASA today launched the first orbiting telescope since 1983 designed to search the entire sky for objects and phenomena invisible to conventional optics. Over the next nine months, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer will scan the whole sky one and a half times over looking for asteroids and comets that...

Scientists Track Meteor to Earth for First Time

Discovery is like first clue to asteroid 'Rosetta Stone'

(Newser) - Scientists have accomplished a first by tracking an asteroid from space into Earth's atmosphere and down to a Sudanese desert, Wired reports. A team of searchers found about 280 small chunks of the meteor, all of a type never before collected. "This is like the first step toward a...

$100M Shield Needed to Protect Earth: Scientists

(Newser) - Scientists told the UN today that the world needs a $100 million system to seek and destroy incoming asteroids, the Guardian reports. Asteroids large enough to cause significant damage strike Earth two or three times every thousand years, they said, and the effects can be catastrophic. "We cannot shirk...

Odds of Cataclysmic Space-Rock Crash: 1 in 10

Despite danger, NASA doing little to protect planet

(Newser) - Chicken Little may have been smarter than we thought. A growing body of evidence reveals that the sky is falling, or at least gigantic space rocks are—and the Earth is at far greater risk of a catastrophic strike than previously thought, reports Atlantic. Despite the danger—an impact could...

Asteroids Could Reseed a Devastated Earth

Rock-dwelling microorganisms would make it back from space

(Newser) - If a comet ever obliterates life on Earth, don't worry—space rocks could later fall in and reseed a few basic life forms. A new study shows that organisms can survive being hit by a meteor, ejected into space, and hurtled back to Earth on the face of a rock—...

Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth
Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth
Jan 25, 2008 9:49 AM CST

Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth

Space rock to be visible Tuesday even through amateur telescopes

(Newser) - A big asteroid is set to speed past Earth on Tuesday night, and those with amateur telescopes will get a peek. NASA discovered the object in October, and scientists believe it's between 500 and 2,000 feet in diameter, LiveScience reports. It won't come closer than 334,000 miles to...

Asteroid Won't Slam Into Mars After All

Disappointed scientists were hoping to study collision

(Newser) - An asteroid heading toward Mars won't crash into it after all, according to disappointed scientists. They had initially calculated there was a 1-in-27 chance of the space rock hitting the red planet, but after new observations researchers estimate the odds are only 1 in 10,000, "effectively ruling out...

Mars Smash Looking Likelier
Mars Smash Looking Likelier
Dec 29, 2007 7:55 AM CST

Mars Smash Looking Likelier

Still a longshot, but cosmic collision now a 25-1 chance

(Newser) - Scientists say the chances of a giant asteroid smashing into Mars on January 30 have gone up steeply, the AP reports. It's still a 25-1 longshot, but stargazers have their fingers crossed. I think it'll be cool," said a NASA tracker. "Usually when an asteroid is headed toward...

Asteroid On Path to Smash Mars
Asteroid On Path to Smash Mars
Dec 20, 2007 8:17 PM CST

Asteroid On Path to Smash Mars

Big rock has a good chance of striking on Jan. 30

(Newser) - A big asteroid has a decent chance of blasting into Mars next month with potentially devastating consequences for the Red Planet, the LA Times reports. Back on earth, meanwhile, astronomers say that being able to watch an asteroid impact for the first time would be a "scientific bonanza."...

Volcanoes Helped Doom Dinos
Volcanoes Helped Doom Dinos
Nov 13, 2007 2:42 PM CST

Volcanoes Helped Doom Dinos

Research shows extinction resulted from not only an asteroid but volcanoes too

(Newser) - Not one but two catastrophic events may have spelled destruction for the Age of Dinosaurs, previously thought to have ended when an asteroid or comet struck the earth. New research suggests the prehistoric giants died off in “an unfortunate coincidence of a one-two punch—of Deccan volcanism and then...

NASA Launches Asteroid Rocket
NASA Launches Asteroid Rocket
Sep 27, 2007 10:30 AM CDT

NASA Launches Asteroid Rocket

First 'interplanetary' spaceship to visit two asteroids

(Newser) - This morning NASA launched a spacecraft that's headed to the asteroid belt, where it will get a close-up look at the belt's largest bodies, asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.  It's NASA’s first multi-target mission, and Dawn, which one engineer called “the first real interplanetary spaceship,...

Probe to Study Asteroid Too Close to Earth

Scientists weighing options on how to veer giant rock off collision course

(Newser) - Astronomers are preparing to send a probe to investigate an asteroid that in 2029 will pass closer to Earth than communications satellites do. The mission would gather information on the 1,000-foot-wide rock to figure out whether it poses a serious danger the next time it passes Earth in 2036.

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