Asteroids are leftover pieces from the formation of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. In the beginning, everything was a massive cloud of gas and dust. Gravity pulled this material ...

A computer visualization maps small bodies in the solar system that are expected to be observed by the Rubin Observatory during the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Red indicates near-Earth ...

Scientists studying asteroids found that two seemingly unrelated types share a strange dusty coating of troilite. By using polarization of light instead of traditional spectra, they uncovered evidence ...

When we think about asteroids that could threaten Earth, we often imagine massive, city-sized rocks hurtling through space. But what if the real danger comes from much smaller, barely detectable ones?

Binary asteroid systems are widespread throughout our inner solar system. For decades, the standard paradigm held that many of them form when a rapidly spinning primary asteroid casts off material, ...

The ambitious mission to retrieve samples from asteroid Bennu and return them to Earth is paying off. Just as scientists had hoped, the asteroid is revealing details about the early days of our solar ...

A model of the inner solar system shows asteroids discovered by the Rubin Observatory in light teal. Previously known asteroids are dark blue. The model highlights almost 12,700 asteroids that the ...

Smithsonian researchers analyzed fragments of the near-Earth asteroid and discovered water-rich clays that hint at a distant origin Jack Tamisiea A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample ...

Unfortunately, this book can't be printed from the OpenBook. If you need to print pages from this book, we recommend downloading it as a PDF. Visit NAP.edu/10766 to get more information about this ...

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks to astronomer Sarah Greenstreet about her team's new discovery of the fastest-spinning large asteroid known to man. Forget world records because astronomers recently announced ...

Unfortunately, this book can't be printed from the OpenBook. If you need to print pages from this book, we recommend downloading it as a PDF. Visit NAP.edu/10766 to get more information about this ...