A magnet could help us divert asteroids away from Earth TimothyOLeary/Getty Images We could deflect potentially hazardous asteroids by using an enormous magnet to gently pull them apart. This idea avoids some of the pitfalls of the more traditional kinetic impactor method, which involves smashing something into an asteroid to move it, but it has…
Artist’s depiction of the asteroid 2025 MN45 NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Marenfeld The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has spotted the fastest-rotating large asteroid ever seen. Despite measuring more than half a kilometre across, this asteroid spins about once every 1.9 minutes – a speed once thought to be impossible. Dmitrii Vavilov at…
An artist’s impression of an asteroid flying near Earth Erik Simonsen/Getty Images Two landers from a private US company will be part of an armada to asteroid Apophis when it flies past Earth in 2029. Apophis, about 400 metres across, was discovered in 2004. Initial calculations showed it had an alarmingly high chance of hitting…
These X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans released on March 17, 2026, give us a glimpse inside asteroid Bennu. They show the most common types of crack networks observed in Bennu samples; these networks solved a mystery that baffled NASA for years. When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft first approached asteroid Bennu in 2018, scientists expected to see smooth, sandy beach-like surfaces. Instead, they…
Ryugu is an asteroid that sometimes passes close to Earth JAXA All five of the main ingredients for DNA and RNA have been found in samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This strengthens the idea that asteroids may have brought the ingredients for the first living organisms to Earth long ago. Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft visited…
