asteroid
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How Scientists Are Preparing for Apophis’s Unnervingly Close Brush With Earth
In about five years’ time, a potentially hazardous asteroid will swing by Earth at an eerily close distance of less than 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers). During this rare encounter, Apophis will be ten times closer to Earth than the Moon and scientists want to take full advantage of its visit. Apophis is a on trajectory…
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NASA Needs Ideas to Study Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Apophis
Asteroid 99942 Apophis is fast approaching our home planet for an uncomfortably close encounter in 2029. In order to prepare for the rare event, NASA is calling for ideas for low cost missions to rendezvous with Apophis, but the space agency already has a pair of asteroid probes ready to take on the task. NASA…
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NASA Finally Cracks Open Asteroid Sample Container
The space agency has been struggling with two pesky fasteners that, for months, stood in the way of the precious Bennu sample.
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NASA Asteroid Probe Snaps First Image, Revealing a Field of Stars
It departed our planet just over two months ago, but NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is already 16 million miles from Earth, well on its way to its main destination: the asteroid Psyche. Eager to prove its readiness, the spacecraft recently beamed back the first images captured by both of its cameras to create a tantalising mosaic…