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After two months of careful observations, scientists from the United States and Europe have lowered the threat level of a newly discovered asteroid that previously posed a significant collision risk with Earth. These risks have now been fully ruled out, NASA said in a post on its Planetary Defense blog. Asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered on Dec. 27, 2024, by the ATLAS telescope in northern Chile. Circling our solar system in a four-year orbit, the rock was measured to be approximately 130 feet to 300 feet across. Automated warning systems quickly identified that the object had a small, but worrisome...

An asteroid with a once-alarming chance of hitting Earth in 2032 was quickly brought under control by global astronomers, including a leading Finnish team. Its trajectory has been clarified, but a small risk to the Moon remains. Credit: SciTechDaily.com ******************************************************************* A recently discovered asteroid, 2024 YR4, sparked the first-ever global alert from the International Asteroid Warning Network after it showed a small but real chance of hitting Earth in 2032. Finnish astronomers and an international team jumped into action, using telescopes from the Canary Islands to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to track the object and refine its size, trajectory,...

A lunar impact could generate debris that damages key satellites, the ISS…and potentially any lunar installations that had been constructed as part of the new space race. Asteroid 2024 YR4 is a near-Earth object approximately 53–67 meters wide that was discovered in December 2024. While initial models suggested a small chance of Earth impact, refined tracking now indicates that there is no risk to Earth, but about a 4% probability that it will strike the Moon on December 22, 2032. Earlier this year, asteroid 2024 YR4 drew global attention when its estimated chance of striking Earth in 2032 reached 3%....

An asteroid has a small chance of hitting Earth less than eight years from now, and astronomers are enlisting the help of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study it. Characterized as a potential "city-killer," the asteroid was first detected in December and its odds of impacting our planet have increased slightly since then, according to the European Space Agency. The space rock is formally named 2024 YR4. Scientists say it currently carries a 2% risk of making contact with Earth when it eventually reaches this part of the solar system on Dec. 22, 2032. Although the asteroid will most...

A large fragment of an asteroid that punched 160km-wide (100 miles) hole in the Earth's surface has been found. The beachball-sized fossil meteorite was dug out of the 145-million-year-old Morokweng crater in South Africa. It is a unique discovery because large objects are widely believed to completely melt or vaporise as they collide with the planet. Writing in the journal Nature, an international team says the find will further knowledge on asteroid impacts. The Morokweng crater is one of the largest on Earth, and was formed at the boundary of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Created by an asteroid...

Explanation: This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo enroute to explore the Jovian system in 1993, encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage. The second minor planet it photographed, 243 Ida, was discovered to have a moon. The tiny moon, named Dactyl, is only about 1.6 kilometers across and seen as a small dot to the right in the image. In contrast, Ida is much larger, measuring about 60 kilometers long and 25 km wide. In fact, Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered. But now many asteroids are known to have...

A century after its discovery, asteroid 433 Eros is back—gliding past Earth this weekend in a rare, mesmerizing show! The legendary asteroid 433 Eros, a rocky world that once transformed our understanding of near-Earth space, is making its long-awaited return. This weekend, skywatchers will get a rare chance to glimpse this celestial traveler as it makes a close approach to our planet. The event will be live-streamed globally, allowing enthusiasts to witness history in real time through virtualtelescope.eu. For astronomers and casual stargazers alike, it’s a rendezvous with one of the most storied objects in the solar system. A Historic...

Explanation: Orbiting 400 kilometers above Quebec, Canada, planet Earth, the International Space Station Expedition 59 crew captured this snapshot of the broad St. Lawrence River and curiously circular Lake Manicouagan on April 11, 2019. Right of center, the ring-shaped lake is a modern reservoir within the eroded remnant of an ancient 100 kilometer diameter impact crater. The ancient crater is very conspicuous from orbit, a visible reminder that Earth is vulnerable to rocks from space. Over 200 million years old, the Manicouagan crater was likely caused by the impact of a rocky body about 5 kilometers in diameter. Currently, there...

Astronomers have discovered a 2,300-foot-wide (700 meters) asteroid hidden in the sun's glare, and it’s whizzing through our solar system at a near record-breaking pace.The skyscraper-size asteroid, named 2025 SC79, loops around the sun once every 128 days, giving it the second-fastest asteroid orbit in the solar system. It is also only the second known space object that orbits entirely inside of Venus' orbit, occasionally even crossing the orbit of Mercury.Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Science research institute in Washington, D.C., first spotted 2025 SC79 on Sep. 27...To put its 2,300-foot diameter in context, the so-called "city-killer" asteroid...

A small asteroid narrowly missed Earth over Antarctica, passing within the altitude of the International Space Station. Credit: Shutterstock ===================================================================== Asteroid 2025 TF zoomed over Antarctica just 266 miles above Earth, roughly the same height as the ISS. Detected only hours later, the 1–3 meter rock posed no threat but provided valuable data for astronomers. Close Encounter Over Antarctica In the early hours of October 1, Asteroid 2025 TF swept over Antarctica at 00:47:26 UTC ± 18 seconds, passing within just 428 ± 7 km (266 ± 4 miles) of Earth’s surface. That distance places it nearly at the same...

A New Asteroid Crater Was Just Discovered Under The Sea | 8:01 OzGeology | 149K subscribers | 106,346 views | September 24, 2025 00:00-00:36 - The Silverpit Impact Crater Is First Discovered 00:37-00:56 - The Silverpit Mystery 00:57-02:07 - The Silverpit Impact Structure 02:08-03:00 - The Geological Debate 03:01-03:57 - The Recent Data That Led To The Discovery 03:58-04:31 - What The Asteroid Collision Would've Looked Like 04:32-04:50 - The Mega Tsunami The Collision Generated 04:51-05:25 - Why The Silverpit Crater Has Survived Intact 05:26-06:11 - The Chance Discovery 06:12-06:43 - Life During The Eocene 06:44-07:16 - The Questions That...

NASA reveals a breathtaking photo of Earth and Moon taken from deep space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel From nearly 290 million kilometers away, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft turned its gaze homeward and captured an arresting glimpse of Earth and the Moon, now just distant specks of light nestled among the stars of the Aries constellation. According to NASA, this deep-space photo opportunity came as part of a scheduled instrument calibration while the spacecraft continues its cruise toward the asteroid Psyche. Testing Cameras With Familiar Cosmic Landmarks The image, taken on July 20 and 23, was created...

Across the globe, technology that is designed to generate solar energy could potentially be employed for yet another planet-saving enterprise: Asteroid detection. One scientist at Sandia National Labs has started to get the ball rolling on a theory using a large-scale mirror, and a bit of ingenuity and hope. Sitting just south of Albuquerque is a field of more than 200 large-scale mirrors. These heliostats focus the immense power of the sun on to a 200-foot tower, collecting as much as a million watts of power during the day, but at night, they don’t have a job — they’re just...

A mysterious intergalactic object could potentially be a “hostile” alien spacecraft that’s slated to attack our planet in November, according to a controversial new study by a small group of scientists. “The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity,” the researchers wrote in the inflammatory paper, which was published July 16 to the preprint server arXiv, South West News Service reported. Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar entity was discovered on July 1...

On July 28, a plane-sized asteroid, named 2025 OW, is scheduled to pass Earth at a distance of 393,000 miles. While this event has captured public attention, NASA experts are quick to remind us that it’s not as extraordinary as it may seem. In fact, according to NASA specialists, close encounters with asteroids like 2025 OW are routine occurrences in the solar system and pose no threat to Earth. As Ian J. O’Neill, media relations specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told ABC News, “This is very routine. If there was a threat, you would hear from us. We...

Earth's famous Hubble Telescope has just revealed the first images of a mysterious interstellar object racing through our solar system. Spotted on Monday, Hubble has helped astronomers confirm that the massive, high-speed visitor is a comet from a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy. First spotted in late June, the comet named 3I/ATLAS has been on an 800-million-year journey to reach this solar system. The new images from Hubble captured what appears to be an icy tail that's ejecting rocky material from its 12-mile-long core. Those observations were reinforced by a new study published Tuesday morning which revealed 3I/ATLAS...

NASA’s DART asteroid redirection mission may have inadvertently made future asteroid deflections much more challenging after its test sent boulders hurtling through space on unexpected trajectories. In September 2022, the DART mission successfully altered the orbit of asteroid moon Dimorphos. Unfortunately, the smaller space rocks that were dislodged when the kinetic impactor struck the natural satellite achieved three times the momentum of the spacecraft that created them. The University of Maryland-led team (UMD) behind the new research paper on DART’s repercussions cautions that results demonstrate planetary defense may be considerably more complex than previously suspected, with the potential for many...

Astronomers are making a surprising breakthrough in the study of Venus, as new simulations suggest there may be a hidden family of asteroids quietly orbiting the Sun alongside the planet. This discovery, detailed in a recent study by Valerio Carruba and his team at São Paulo State University, is like uncovering an entire continent that was previously unknown. The research, published on the preprint server arXiv, uncovers important insights about the dynamics of Venus’ orbit and could have significant implications for our understanding of the solar system. Venus has long been one of the most mysterious planets in our solar...

NEW YORK (AP) — The largest digital camera ever built released its first shots of the universe Monday — including colorful nebulas, stars and galaxies.The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on a mountaintop in Chile, was built to take a deeper look at the night sky, covering hidden corners. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, it will survey the southern sky for the next 10 years.The observatory’s first look features the vibrant Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles. A gaggle of galaxies known...

The first few images from the Rubin Observatory have dropped, and there are more coming later today. A mosaic of 678 images taken over seven hours of observation shows the Trifid (top right in pink) and Lagoon (center) Nebulae. Image Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially unveiled its first images, and truly, it is going to be as revolutionary as people expect it to be. Thanks to its incredible eye on the cosmos, which is the largest digital camera in the world, the images are absolutely breathtaking – and we can’t even share...