Asteroids

Hidden ‘Planet-Killer’ Asteroid Found in Sun’s Glare Exposes Dangerous Blind Spot

A “Twilight” Asteroid Breaks Speed Records Astronomers are buzzing about 2025 SC79, a newfound asteroid that’s zipping around the sun at near-record pace. Scott S. Sheppard, an astronomer at Carnegie Science, first spotted the object on September 27 using the Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile carnegiescience.edu carnegiescience.edu. What he found was astonishing: an asteroid orbiting the sun in just 128 days, making it the second-fastest asteroid ever recorded space.com. Only one known asteroid orbits faster – 2021 PH27, a 1-km rock discovered by Sheppard in 2021 that races around the sun in 113 days livescience.com. Even Mercury, the innermost planet, takes

26 October 2025

‘God of Chaos’ Asteroid Apophis to Skim Earth in 2029 – Inside the Historic Flyby and the 3 Probes Racing to Study It

Astronomers Propose Blowing Up a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid

Key Facts and Summary The Asteroid 2024 YR4: From Earth Hazard to Lunar Threat 2024 YR4 is a recently discovered asteroid that has drawn intense attention from astronomers and space agencies. Detected on 27 December 2024 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, it initially appeared on a worrisome trajectory esa.int. In early 2025, automated orbit calculations raised the alarm that this ~60-meter “city-killer” asteroid had a roughly 3% chance of impacting Earth on December 22, 2032 esa.int universetoday.com. A few percent might sound small, but by asteroid risk standards it’s huge – for context, NASA’s risk list almost never

23 September 2025

Asteroids · Astronomy · Planetary Defense · Science News · Space

Cosmic Revelations: Space Launch Frenzy, Mars Life Hints & Asteroid Near-Miss – This Week’s Space Highlights

New Cargo Ships and Space Station Updates First “Cygnus XL” arrives after scare: A tense 48 hours at the ISS ended in relief as Northrop Grumman’s upsized Cygnus XL freighter resolved its in-orbit propulsion glitch and received a “go” for final approach nasa.gov. The cargo ship’s main engine had shut off early during two orbit-raising burns on Sept. 16, delaying an arrival originally set for Sept. 17 space.com. Engineers quickly developed alternate maneuvers, and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim captured Cygnus with Canadarm2 early on Sept. 18, allowing the spacecraft to be installed on the station as planned nasa.gov. NASA noted all other systems performed normally

18 September 2025

Asteroids · Astronomy News · Mars Discoveries · NYSE:NOC · Space · Space Exploration · Weekly Highlights

Cosmic Objects That Could Hit Earth: Real Threats and What Scientists Are Saying

101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36) is about 490 m in diameter and has a potential impact date of September 24, 2182 with a probability of about 1 in 2,700 (0.037%), though NASA says there is no chance of a hit for at least a century and a 1.4‑billion‑ton TNT impact could trigger an years‑long global “impact winter.” 1950 DA is roughly 1.3 km across and could hit on March 16, 2880 with a probability of about 1 in 34,500 (0.0029%), a Palermo value around −2.7, and an energy release of about 75 billion tons of TNT. 2023 TL4 is ~330 m

31 July 2025

Asteroids · Astronomy · Earth Threats · Science · Space