By using data from two lightning-spotting satellites, researchers measure explosions of thousands of small meteors and create a database that could help the planetary defense community.
asteroids
Posted inNews
Asteroid May Be a Chip off the Old Moon
Spectral data suggest that Kamo‘oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid, has a composition similar to lunar rocks.
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A Remarkably Constant History of Meteorite Strikes
Researchers dissolve chunks of the ancient seafloor to trace Earth’s impact history and find that colossal clashes between asteroids don’t often trigger an uptick in meteorite strikes.
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Imagining What a Metal Volcano Would Look Like
Large-scale lava experiments are helping scientists imagine how metallic lava would flow across and shape a landscape, either on Earth or on a distant asteroid.
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An Asteroid “Double Disaster” Struck Germany in the Miocene
By analyzing sediments jostled by ground shaking, researchers have shown that two impact craters near Stuttgart were created by independent asteroid impacts rather than a binary asteroid strike.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Predicting the Unique Shape of Craters on Asteroid (16) Psyche
Models link the variety of crater shapes expected on (16) Psyche with the interior structure of this unique asteroid, in preparation for the arrival of the Psyche probe in 2026.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Up Close with an Active Asteroid
A new journal special collection investigates the ejection of particles from the asteroid Bennu and the implications of these observations for asteroid science.
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Asteroid Impact, Not Volcanism, Likely Spelled Dinosaurs’ End
Using climate and habitat modeling, researchers show that solar dimming caused by an asteroid impact would have plunged the world into an “impact winter” and decimated dinosaur habitats.
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Chicxulub Impact Crater Hosted a Long-Lived Hydrothermal System
Chemical and mineralogical evidence of fluid flow—potentially conducive to microscopic life—was revealed in rock cores extracted from the crater’s “peak ring.”
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Sunburned Surface Reveals Asteroid Formation and Orbital Secrets
Thanks to spectacular high-resolution images from Hayabusa2, scientists can now better estimate how and when the asteroid Ryugu formed, how its orbit has changed over time, and what its surface looks like.