Asteroid

Artwork depicting what ‘Oumuamua might look like; observations indicate it’s highly elongated. But where did it come from? Credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser
No, 'Oumuamua is not an alien spaceship. It might be even weirder.
Phil Plait

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Could smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid save humanity in the near future?
Elizabeth Rayne
Jan 3, 2019
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A weirdly gorgeous galaxy and an interplanetary interloper
Phil Plait
Dec 28, 2018
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An image of the galaxy NGC 3981 has an interloper: An asteroid passing between us and it, streaked due to the long exposure and colored due to different filters being used. Credit: ESO
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Deep freeze impact: Scientists find a *huge* asteroid impact crater under Greenland’s ice
Phil Plait
Nov 14, 2018
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Incoming! Somewhat fanciful artwork depicting the asteroid responsible for the Hiawatha impact crater asteroid breaking up high above the Earth before slamming into Greenland. Credit: Natural History Museum of Denmark, Cryospheric Sciences Lab, NASA/GSFC
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Another robot lands on Ryugu
Phil Plait
Oct 8, 2018
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An image from the MASCOT lander as it headed down to the asteroid Ryugu. Note the shadow of the lander to the lower left (this is reversed from the original image to get light source coming from above, so rocks don’t look like pits). Credit: JAXA/DLR/CNES
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Video from an asteroid’s surface!
Phil Plait
Oct 1, 2018
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Robots are now hopping around on the surface of an asteroid
Phil Plait
Sep 24, 2018
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An image caught mid-bounce of the MINERVAII-1 A rover showing the surface of the asteroid Ryugu (left) and a reflection of sunlight (right). Credit: JAXA
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A bright meteor over Greenland didn't spark nuclear war. [Phew]
Phil Plait
Aug 3, 2018
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The Chelyabinsk, Russia fireball on Feb. 15, 2013, seen from a dashboard camera. Credit: Евгений Славенков via YouTube
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Ryugu, front to back
Phil Plait
Jul 16, 2018
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The asteroid Ryugu from 20 kilometers away. Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu and AIST
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Incredible image of the protoplanet Vesta taken from Earth
Phil Plait
Jul 6, 2018
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The protoplanet Vesta, imaged by the amazing ZIMPOL camera on the Very Large Telescope. Credit: ESO/L. Jorda et al., P. Vernazza et al.
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Dawn is now barnstorming Ceres and seeing wonders
Phil Plait
Jul 3, 2018
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Occator crater, a 92-kilometer-wide impact feature on Ceres, is covered in mineral deposits dredged up from the interior. Cerealia Facula is arrowed (left) as well as Vinalia Faculae (right). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI / Phil Plait
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What would it be like to stand on the surface of Ryugu?
Phil Plait
Jun 29, 2018
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The small (<1 km wide) asteroid Ryugu, seen by the Hayabusa 2spacecraft when they were separated by 40 km. Credit: JAXA
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So, 'Oumuamua is likely a comet after all
Phil Plait
Jun 28, 2018
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‘Oumuamua, the first object ever seen passing through our solar system from interstellar space, is shown in this artwork to be faintly outgassing as the Sun warms its ice. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser
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Watch a boulder-sized asteroid catapult across the night sky above South Africa 
Adam Pockross
Jun 4, 2018
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Artwork depicting an asteroid with a moon passing Earth. 31232 Florence passed much farther than depicted here… but it has two moons! Credit: NASA
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So, about that 'interstellar asteroid' announced yesterday…
Phil Plait
May 22, 2018
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Eros, a lumpy potato of an asteroid, is pretty typical of such solar system objects. Credit: NASA
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The asteroid Kleopatra: Less of a dog bone and more of a dumbbell
Phil Plait
Apr 26, 2018
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A map of the slopes on the surface of the asteroid Kleopatra show it’s smooth; most of the hills have gentle slopes (most up to around 12°). Credit: Shepard et al.
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