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Phil Plait Bad Astronomy Art Asteroid Pair

These two asteroids are extremely young… and used to be just one asteroid

An asteroid flew itself apart, making new rocks 2019 PR2 and QR6.

By Phil Plait 3 months ago

An artist’s rendering of a comet (which is very similar to an asteroid) getting torn apart near a white dwarf. Many white dwarfs have rings of dust around them as well, more evidence of a planetary system orbiting them. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Even after the Sun dies, it'll still destroy asteroids

By Phil Plait 2 years ago

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The shape of rocks to come

By Phil Plait 2 years ago

Images from different cameras of the SonotaCo Network show the bright fireball of 28 April 2017 over Japan. The meteoroid likely came from the asteroid 2003 YT1.

Tracing a bright fireball back to its parent: the potentially hazardous asteroid 2003 YT1

By Phil Plait 2 years ago

This Hubble image taken in a single blue filter on February 5, 2019 shows Gault sporting two dust tails, a sure sign that it’s in trouble. Credit: NASA, ESA, K. Meech and J. Kleyna (University of Hawaii), and O. Hainaut (European Southern Observatory)

Hubble watches as an asteroid starts to tear itself apart

By Phil Plait 3 years ago