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    Asteroid tagged posts

    Asteroid Ryugu’s Rocky Past

    September 24, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Four images of grey rocks
    Surface Rocks. Hayabusa2 captures images of unusually bright S-type rocks that stand out from the darker C-type material that makes up the bulk of Ryugu. © 2020 Tatsumi et al.

    Different kinds of rocks on Ryugu provide clues to the asteroid’s turbulent history. Researchers find evidence that asteroid Ryugu was born out of the possible destruction of a larger parent asteroid millions of years ago. Thanks to the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, the international team was able to study certain surface features in detail. Variations in the kinds of boulders scattered on Ryugu tell researchers about the processes involved in its creation. The study of asteroids including Ryugu informs the study of the evolution of life on Earth.

    The asteroid Ryugu may look like a solid piece of rock, but it’s more ...

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    Hayabusa2 reveals more Secrets from Ryugu

    May 13, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A line diagram with red and blue sections
    History of Ryugu. A diagram to show how researchers believe the surface of Ryugu evolved over time © 2020 Morota et al.

    Ryugu’s interaction with the sun changes what we know about asteroid history. In February and July of 2019, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. The readings it took with various instruments at those times have given researchers insight into the physical and chemical properties of 1-kilometer-wide asteroid. These findings could help explain the history of Ryugu and other asteroids, as well as the solar system at large.

    When our solar system formed around 5 billion years ago, most of the material it formed from became the sun, and a fraction of a percent became the planets and solid bodies, including asteroids...

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    Hubble Watches Spun-up Asteroid Coming Apart

    March 31, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space


    This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the gradual self-destruction of an asteroid, whose ejected dusty material has formed two long, thin, comet-like tails. The longer tail stretches more than 500,000 miles (800,000 kilometers) and is roughly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide. The shorter tail is about a quarter as long. The streamers will eventually disperse into space.
    Credits: NASA, ESA, K. Meech and J. Kleyna (University of Hawaii), and O. Hainaut (European Southern Observatory)

    A small asteroid has been caught in the process of spinning so fast it’s throwing off material, according to new data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories. Images from Hubble show two narrow, comet-like tails of dusty debris streaming from the asteroid (6478) Gault...

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    Asteroids are Stronger, Harder to Destroy than previously thought

    March 6, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is a frame-by-frame showing how gravity causes asteroid fragments to reaccumulate in the hours following impact.
    Credit: Charles El Mir/Johns Hopkins University

    A popular theme in the movies is that of an incoming asteroid that could extinguish life on the planet, and our heroes are launched into space to blow it up. But incoming asteroids may be harder to break than scientists previously thought, finds a Johns Hopkins study that used a new understanding of rock fracture and a new computer modeling method to simulate asteroid collisions.

    The findings, to be published in the March 15 print issue of Icarus, can aid in the creation of asteroid impact and deflection strategies, increase understanding of solar system formation and help design asteroid mining efforts.

    “We used to believ...

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