Retrieving samples from distant solar system bodies has revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it.
asteroids
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A Splashy Meteorite Was Forged in Multiple Collisions
The Winchcombe meteorite was recovered, largely from a driveway, just hours after it fell to Earth, preserving evidence that its early relatives could have filled Earth’s oceans.
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Giant Impacts Might Have Triggered Snowball Earth Events
Running into the right space rock at the right time may have been enough to tip Earth into a runaway cold spell.
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Preparing to Meet a Metal-Rich Asteroid
The recently launched ‘Psyche’ mission will explore the eponymous asteroid and determine whether it is a fragment of a planetary core or a primordial, metal-rich body.
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Getting Psyched Up for an Asteroid Mission
The first mission to a metallic asteroid, scheduled for launch on 5 October, could provide clues to the formation of Earth and the solar system’s other inner planets.
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There and Back Again: Asteroid Samples Return to Earth
OSIRIS-REx will help reveal Bennu’s detailed carbon chemistry and history of space weathering and unlock a key piece of the solar system’s early history.
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Tiny Martian Moon May Be a Chip Off the Old Block
A close approach to Deimos reveals that its surface does not look like that of an asteroid, hinting at a Martian origin.
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Asteroid Impacts Could Have Warmed Ancient Mars
Hydrogen released during large impacts might have boosted Mars’s surface temperature above freezing for thousands or even millions of years, enabling liquid water to flow over the Red Planet.
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Mercury Isn’t Alone in Orbit, and Scientists Don’t Know Why
A cloud of dust traces the innermost planet’s orbital path. By all accounts, it shouldn’t be there.
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NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Success
The mission, focused on the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system, proved that an asteroid’s orbit can be altered by kinetic impactor technology.