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Asteroids

A clip from Georges Méliès' 1902 short film, A Trip to the Moon

In an Out-of-This-World Observation, a Museum Curator Filmed the Moon Getting Struck by Meteors—Twice

Lunar impacts could affect plans for future bases on the moon

Two T. rex dinosaurs square up for a fight in an illustration. Dinosaurs in the Cretaceous were thriving until the Chicxulub asteroid initiated a mass extinction.

The Dinosaurs of North America Were Thriving Up Until an Asteroid Wiped Them Off the Face of the Earth, Scientists Argue

A new study of dinosaur biodiversity challenges the belief that the megafauna were on their way out 66 million years ago

The newly identified tektites.

Cool Finds

Researchers Find Evidence of a Mysterious Giant Asteroid Impact, but They Don’t Know Where Its Crater Is

Special shards of glass, known as “tektites,” were hiding in plain sight in a museum collection

Quasi-moons follow heliocentric orbits, centered around the sun, that are similar to Earth's.

Cool Finds

Astronomers Say Earth Has a Newly Discovered ‘Quasi-Moon,’ a Companion That Shares Its Orbit Around the Sun

Researchers are discussing 2025 PN7, a small celestial body that’s following a similar orbital path to our planet’s without being gravitationally tied to Earth

An artistic rendering of NASA's DART spacecraft approaching Dimorphos.

Asteroid-Deflecting Missions May Need to Hit Asteroids in the Perfect Spots to Prevent Future Collisions

NASA’s DART mission proved we are able to change an asteroid’s path by smashing a spacecraft into it, but exactly where we hit a rocky body is important

The dwarf planet Ceres, the only dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt, might have once been hospitable for life, according to a recent study.

Did the Dwarf Planet Ceres Once Host Life? Astronomers Suggest Chemical Energy Could Have Fueled Microbes Long Ago

Though no direct evidence of life has been found, models suggest Ceres had hot water shooting into its underground oceans billions of years ago, offering potentially hospitable conditions

Fragments of the McDonough Meteorite, which fell through the roof of a home in Georgia in June

A Meteorite Tore Through a Georgia Home’s Roof. It Turns Out the Space Rock Is Older Than Our Planet

A planetary geologist finds that the meteorite, which fell in June, came from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

Today's living night lizards—like Xantusia vigilis (pictured)—are descendants of a common ancestor that lived roughly 90 million years ago, well before the Chicxulub asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago.

These Lizards Mysteriously Survived the Asteroid Strike That Killed the Dinosaurs—and Their Descendants Are Still Alive Today

Small and elusive night lizards probably persisted because they have slow metabolisms and like to hide out in rock crevices, a new study suggests

This image of the the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula (bottom) was put together from 678 separate images taken over seven hours of observations.

See the First Breathtaking Images Captured by the Powerful New Telescope at the Rubin Observatory

Featuring never-before-seen views of galaxies and more than 2,100 newly discovered asteroids, the observations are only a taste of what to expect from the telescope’s upcoming decade-long survey

The asteroid Donaldjohanson, captured by NASA's Lucy spacecraft on Sunday. 

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Just Flew by a Strange, Peanut-Shaped Asteroid. See the New Images From the Approach

The close-up views of asteroid Donaldjohanson are a preview of what’s to come for Lucy on its 12-year quest to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids

The impact risk associated with asteroid 2024 YR4 rose and fell in the months following its discovery. The red dots represent the possible locations of the space rock on December 22, 2032, while the yellow dot represents its most likely location.

The ‘Riskiest Asteroid Ever’ Is No Longer a Threat as Impact Probability Drops to Near Zero

As astronomers predicted, asteroid 2024 YR4 is not expected to hit Earth in 2032. This week, NASA gave the “all clear”

Discovery images of asteroid 2024 YR4, which is highlighted in green

Chance of Asteroid Strike in 2032 Drops Sharply After Record-Setting Rise. Here’s Why It Keeps Changing

NASA announced that asteroid 2024 YR4 now has a 0.28 percent chance of hitting Earth in 2032, but that number is expected to continue shifting with further observations

The Schrödinger impact crater near the lunar south pole features two long canyons close by: Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck.

Two of the Moon’s Grand Canyons Were Formed in Just Ten Violent Minutes, New Study Suggests

Scientists say Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck—dramatic trenches near the lunar south pole—were carved in a blast that unleashed 130 times the amount of energy in Earth’s global nuclear weapons inventory

An artist's impression of a generic asteroid.

Astronomers Raise Odds of Asteroid Impact in 2032 to 2.3 Percent—Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Panic

The chance of a newly discovered space rock hitting Earth in about eight years was predicted at 1.6 percent last week. Though that number’s rising, experts say further research could bring it to zero

The Tesla Roadster and the mannequin "Starman" on the SpaceX Falcon Heavy upper stage, with Earth in background.

An Amateur Astronomer Seemingly Spotted a New Asteroid. It Turned Out to Be a Tesla in Space

The car, launched in 2018 on a SpaceX rocket’s upper stage, is one of many human-made objects in deep space that could potentially be mistaken for natural celestial bodies

A scanning electron microscope image shows sodium carbonates in a sample from the asteroid Bennu. Each needle is less than one micrometer wide by five to ten micrometers in length—for comparison, a human hair is about 100 micrometers wide.

Scientists Discover Traces of Salt Water and Building Blocks of Life in NASA’s Samples From the Asteroid Bennu

Two new papers describe hints to a brine-filled environment on the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock and the presence of amino acids, offering clues to how early Earth got its ingredients for life

The Quadrantids only last for about six hours, but they're known for producing fireballs, or bright, fiery streaks that persist longer than average meteors.

How to Watch the Quadrantid Meteor Shower, an Intense Spectacle With a Short but Strong Peak

The skyward show will produce many shooting stars from the evening of January 2 into the early morning hours of January 3—here’s how to make the most of the fleeting celestial event

An artist's illustration shows the James Webb Space Telescope peering out into the solar system toward the asteroid belt.

Astronomers Detect the Smallest Main Belt Asteroids Ever Found by Repurposing a Technique for Exoplanet Discovery

An unusual approach to spotting tiny asteroids uses James Webb Space Telescope data in a boost for planetary defense research

This image of the Geminid meteor shower, as seen from China, earned first place in the 2021 astrophotography contest by the International Astronomical Union Office of Astronomy Education.

How to Watch the Geminid Meteor Shower This Weekend

The peak of this popular annual meteor shower risks being washed out by an almost full moon this year—but stargazers can still spot shooting stars if they follow the right tips

Smithsonian magazine’s top science titles this year.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2024

From a deep dive on a fatal space shuttle disaster to a study of a dozen iconic trees, these are our favorite titles this year

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