Asteroid News Topics :: Latest Breaking Asteroid News Updates

NASA Wants To Lasso An Asteroid And Drag It Close To The Moon To Study

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 12:59

Washington, D.C. -

A 20-ish year old scientist from Italy, Marco Tantardini, has managed to convince NASA to launch a mission to lasso an asteroid and drag it close to the moon so that future missions can study the 25 foot wide, 55 ton object.

Marco Tantardini had proposed the mission while interning for Lou Friedman of The Planetary Society and after a lot of persistence, managed to get Friedman on board with the idea.

The mission will now be considered by the House science committee who's chair, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has said he want to hear more about the idea.

Asteroid 2013ET To Fly By Earth This Weekend

Submitted by News Desk 3 on Sat, 03/09/2013 - 13:11

Yet again Earth will have an asteroid passing by this weekend but not as close as recent flybys. The 80 meter asteroid was discovered last Sunday. The reason for the short notice is due to its size most search telescopes cannot pick it up till it gets near Earth.

The asteroid will be fly by 604,500 miles away from Earth which is about 2 ½ the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The asteroid named 2013ET can be seen at night but only with sophisticated amateur telescopes. At its nearest point it will be in the daytime sky and not visible.

Asteriod Renamed Wikipedia; It Was 274301

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Tue, 02/05/2013 - 17:40

The Committee for Small Body Nomenclature has officially taken the usual step and renamed the asteroid 274301 to Wikipedia, giving it an actual name.

Wikipedia orbits the sun every 3.68 earth years and is roughly a mile in diameter, and is not expected to approach earth.

Wikipedia was first spotted by the Audrushivka Astronomical Observatory in Ukraine in 2008 and was subsequently verified by three other observatories around the world.

NASA Identifies Astroid To Impact Earth In 2030, 2011 AG5 Will Make Keyhole Pass By Earth In 2023

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Tue, 05/22/2012 - 23:58

NASA has identified a new asteroid that is expected to make an approach to earth so close in 2030, it has gotten the attention of the United Nations.

Asteroid 2011 AG5 is expected to make a "heyhole" pass by earth in 2023 before finally returning in 2030 where it will have a 1 in 625 chance of impacting the earth. Scientist warn those odds are likely to get worse as they track the asteroid better, saying the projected pass of about just 0.02 astronomical units from earth is about the most it will miss us by.