Space scientists have a busy decade ahead with plans to visit Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and other interplanetary bodies all on the cards.
Our solar system is far from empty. A rogue asteroid or comet may have been responsible for the largest impact site yet discovered in Warburton in central Australia.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Clear skies this Australia Day could give observers a rare look at a giant asteroid flying past Earth at 56,000kmh. The asteroid, known as 2004 BL86, will not return to Earth for around another 200 years…
In space, no one can appreciate your artistic spacecraft rendering.
JAXA
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to land on comet 67P was one of the most audacious in space history. The idea of landing on a small chunk of icy rock 300m kilometres away from Earth and hurtling…
Image captured December 2013 of several Geminids meteors seen from the Observatorio del Teide (IAC) in Tenerife.
Flickr/StarryEarth
Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Donna Burton, University of Southern Queensland y Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute
The best meteor shower of the year should put on an impressive display this weekend – weather permitting – with the annual Geminids poised to light up the sky with bright, long meteors visible as frequently…
The golden age of planetary exploration had voyagers navigating new sea routes to uncharted territory. These territories were then claimed in the name of the monarchs who had financed the expeditions…
There are millions of these lurking in Earth’s backyard.
NASA
Millions of asteroids of all shapes and sizes are littered throughout the inner solar system. In the past three decades, scientists have spotted as many as 500,000 but many more remain unseen. Many of…
That is probably an underestimate.
NASA HiRISE camera
Earth was still a violent place shortly after life began, with regular impactors arriving from space. For the first time, scientists have modelled the effects of one such violent event – the strike of…
Artist’s impression of the rings around Chariklo.
ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger
In a surprise discovery two rings have been found around the remote asteroid Chariklo, which lies more than a billion kilometres from Earth. This is the first time rings have been discovered around an…
Comets no longer have clear cut definitions.
johntewell
Comet ISON’s fate has left many sad. For the public, the comet could have made for a spectacular view in December. For scientists, it would have been a chance to learn more about these mysterious bodies…
Fallen from the sky, in your lap.
Kevin Clifford/AP
When you clean your house you are probably vacuuming up space dust. Not kidding. It is the same dust that was once part of comets and asteroids. You see that dust in the faint glow it helps create before…
The main mass of the Chelyabinsk meteorite is kept at the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Local History. The asteroid caused the largest airburst on the planet since the famed 1908 Tunguska event, which also occurred in Russia.
Andrey Yarantsev
Three studies have revealed details of the meteor that exploded above Russian city, Chelyabinsk, in February this year. Their findings, published today in a pair of papers in Nature and one in Science…
Rocky, water-rich asteroids and similar objects likely delivered the bulk of water on
Earth. Now they’re being found well outside our Solar system.
Mark A. Garlick, space-art.co.uk, University of Warwick and University of Cambridge
How will future alien scientists know whether life existed in our solar system? One method may be to sift through the planetary debris left when our sun becomes a white dwarf. Astronomers are doing just…
The chances of the weekends two asteroid events being related are next to zero.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
One of the most exciting things about science is the detective work, and never was this more the case than Friday. Within an hour or so of the event, almost everyone had seen the dramatic footage of the…
A bright flash over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region may have been a meteor.
YouTube screenshot
A fireball has flown over Russia, delivering a sonic boom with enough force to shatter windows, amateur footage shows. The astronomical event comes just one day before a large asteroid is expected to pass…
The asteroid hit Earth up to 360m years ago, the study found.
NASA
An asteroid measuring up to 20km across hit South Australia up to 360 million years ago and left behind the one of the largest asteroid impact zones on Earth, according to new research published today…
When it comes to asteroids, alert but not alarmed may be the best approach.
NASA
An asteroid named 2012 DA14 will come within 27,700 kilometres of Earth early on Saturday morning Australian time (around 6:30am AEDT). At this distance the asteroid will pass within the orbits of several…
Relax. The asteroid won’t hit Earth, NASA said.
NASA
An asteroid expected to hurtle past Earth next week will fly within range of communication satellites but will not hit the planet, experts said today. Known as 2012 DA14, the asteroid is around 45m in…
We could be engaged in off-Earth mining within a decade.
puuikibeach/Flickr
The prospect of people settling away from Earth has been a topic for dreamers and visionaries for some time. But if it’s ever to happen for real, there needs to be more than starry-eyed optimism. There…