We don’t know much about the target asteroid of Nasa’s imminent Dart mission, so it’s hard to predict what will happen when we crash into it.
Articles on Asteroids
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Crashing the 1,340-pound DART probe into the small moonlet orbiting the asteroid Didymos should redirect its trajectory – and could be a model for how to save Earth in the future.
The dinosaurs were possibly annihilated by two asteroids.
Giant meteorite impacts may have created the land we live on
By tracking a meteorite found in Morocco back to its origin in an asteroid crater on Mars millions of years ago, scientists can learn more about how the planets formed.
When the meteor exploded into pieces above New Zealand, it produced a shock wave strong enough to be picked up by earthquake seismometers. But any fragments have likely dropped into the ocean.
Current trends suggest that powerful nations are defining the rules of resource use in space and satellite access in ways that will make it hard for developing nations to ever catch up.
A recent BBC documentary examined fossils thought to have been made when an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.
NASA has only mapped 40% of the potentially dangerous asteroids that could crash into Earth. New projects will boost that number, and upcoming missions will test tech that could prevent collisions.
The Hayabusa2 mission brought a piece of asteroid Ryugu back to Earth, where it has helped scientists resolve a long-standing puzzle.
There may be many more asteroids in the same orbit as Earth, some of which we might be able to mine.
There’s no need to panic about the asteroids heading ‘close’ to Earth in January.
Nasa plans to test its new rocket system for the Moon, and a new rover is due to begin its journey to Mars.
Experts give us a science preview for 2022, plus what lies in store for global inequality. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
We may be on the brink of discovering whether water and organic material, which enabled life on Earth, came from asteroids.
Tiny pieces of an asteroid have revealed an unlikely origin for much of the water in Earth’s oceans.
An asteroid that landed in Russia in 2013 injured 1,500 people – and was just 20 metres in diameter. What could we do if a major threat was detected?
The Lucy mission could revolutionise our knowledge of the Solar System’s history, while the DART mission could help redirect hazardous asteroids in the future.
This article was based on research that has been retracted. See editor’s note.
If the asteroid caused the very sudden end of the dinosaurs, a new study shows that their decline had begun 10 million years earlier.
Top contributors
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Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
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Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland
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Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria Research Institute; The University of Melbourne
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Head of Research Data & Software, Macquarie University
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John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University
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Professor, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland
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Adjunct professor, UNSW
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Associate Professor, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University
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Director, Binar Space Program, Curtin University
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Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of Bristol
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Lecturer in Astronomy, Nottingham Trent University
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Postdoctoral Researcher in Radio Astronomy, University of Sydney
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Senior Lecturer, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University
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Research Associate, Curtin University
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Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University