Asteroid belt

October 2nd 2025

The Asteroid Belt Is Vanishing

Researchers calculated the rate at which the asteroid belt is gradually losing mass.

Space & Spaceflight Ellyn Lapointe Oct 2

February 26th 2025

An artist's concept of the the Lucy spacecraft flying past the Trojan asteroids Patroclus and Menoetius.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Snaps First Look at Upcoming Asteroid Target

The main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson is now in sight as the Discovery Program mission prepares for a flyby of the object in April.

Space & Spaceflight Isaac Schultz Feb 26

May 28th 2024

Illustration: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger

Beyond the Planets: The Quirky Underdogs of the Solar System

From centaurs to icy moons, our host star is orbited by an array of objects with bizarre features.

Science Passant Rabie May 28

January 31st 2024

Illustration: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Trojan Asteroids Loom Closer as NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Fires Up Engine for First Time

The asteroid-sleuthing probe is transitioning from its orbit around the Sun to one beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Jan 31

November 7th 2023

Image: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL

Another Lucy Bonus: Asteroid’s Surprise Moon Is Actually Two Rocks Stuck Together

The NASA mission hit the jackpot with its first target, observing the first known contact binary asteroid in orbit.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Nov 7

November 3rd 2023

Image: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO

Seeing Double: Lucy’s First Target Asteroid Has a Tiny Moon

The NASA mission's first close flyby came with an exciting surprise: Dinkinesh is a binary asteroid featuring not one but two space rocks.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Nov 3

October 30th 2023

NASA’s Lucy Ready to Explore Its First Asteroid This Week

The probe will conduct a close flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh on Wednesday to test its instruments as it steadily makes its way towards Jupiter's Trojan asteroids.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Oct 30

October 17th 2023

Gif: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL

NASA’s Lucy Probe Phones Home From 49-Million-Mile Journey to Asteroid

The spacecraft is 4.7 million miles away from Dinkinesh, but still has another 16 million miles to travel before their rendezvous.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Oct 17

October 6th 2023

What to Know About NASA’s Unprecedented Psyche Mission to a Metallic Asteroid

The Psyche spacecraft will journey 2.2 billion miles to study a metal-rich asteroid believed to have been a potential building block for a planet.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Oct 6

September 12th 2023

NASA’s Lucy Catches Glimpse of Its First Target Asteroid

Dinkinesh is the first asteroid that the mission will encounter on its way to the Jovian system.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Sep 12

September 1st 2023

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/John Landino

Ouch! Jupiter Just Got Smacked By an Unidentified Celestial Object

An amateur astronomer spotted a bright flash of light on the gas giant, indicating a small impact.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Sep 1

February 6th 2023

Illustration: N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), ESO/M. Kornmesser and S. Brunier, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)

Webb Telescope Spots a Small Asteroid From 62 Million Miles Away

The roughly Colosseum-sized rock marks a new kind of target for Webb Space Telescope.

Space & Spaceflight Isaac Schultz Feb 6

February 10th 2022

Image: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST

Asteroid Sample Brought to Earth Exposes Ryugu’s Hidden Interior

Hayabusa2 returned from Ryugu with just a teaspoon’s worth of material, but it could be enough to study the entire asteroid.

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Feb 10

July 30th 2021

Astronomers Spot Two Unusually Red Objects in the Asteroid Belt

The pair, named 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia, bear a resemblance to objects located in the outer solar system.

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Jul 30

January 28th 2019

Amateur Astronomy Equipment May Have Spotted Tiny Object Beyond Neptune

Japanese astronomers spotted evidence of tiny Kuiper Belt object at the outer edge of the Solar System using a pair of telescopes you could buy online, according to a new paper. Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) are coalesced remnants from the Solar System’s earliest days, and include smaller rocks like the recently visited MU69 and dwarf…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Jan 28

July 26th 2016

Something Is Erasing the Craters on Ceres

Ceres, the tiny asteroid belt world we’ve come to know and love through NASA’s Dawn mission, seems to delight in mysteries, from flickering bright spots to unexpected ocean minerals. Now, astronomers have discovered yet another puzzle while examining images of Ceres’ surface. Something has been erasing its craters. Craters offer a window into a planet’s…

Space & Spaceflight Maddie Stone Jul 26

December 9th 2015

We Finally Have the Full Story on Ceres’ Mysterious Bright Spots

Water ice from a subterranean ocean? Giant salt deposits from an alien mining operation? Since March, dwarf planet Ceres’ bright spots have mystified scientists, dazzled space nerds, and sparked all manner of wild speculation. A study published today in Nature has the answers we’ve been waiting for. Ceres, you are one fantastically complex beast of…

Space & Spaceflight Maddie Stone Dec 9

April 20th 2015

Dawn Is Arriving At Ceres, And The View Is Getting Pretty Sweet

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is settling into its first orbit around dwarf planet Ceres. And as you can see from this newly released animation, the view is getting to be quite spectacular. These images were taken by Dawn on April 14 and 15 from a distance of 14,000 miles (22,000 km). Each pixel represents about 1.3…

io9 George Dvorsky Apr 20

July 26th 2013

How big is our solar system?

Joe Hanson shrinks the solar system to a relatable scale in the latest episode of “It’s Okay to be Smart.” Some really great stuff in here, even if you’ve seen a scale representation of our cosmic neighborhood before. Hanson touches on habitable zones, the Voyager spacecraft, the misrepresentation of asteroids in our solar system’s asteroid…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jul 26

February 26th 2013

We now know the origin of Russia’s meteor

The Chelyabinsk meteor may have snuck up on us by surprise, but it didn’t take long for a crack team of astronomers from Colombia to figure out where the damned thing came from and the path it took to get here. By sifting through the copious amounts of video footage available, and after performing some…

io9 George Dvorsky Feb 26

Asteroid belt

The Asteroid Belt Is Vanishing

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Snaps First Look at Upcoming Asteroid Target

Beyond the Planets: The Quirky Underdogs of the Solar System

Trojan Asteroids Loom Closer as NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Fires Up Engine for First Time

Another Lucy Bonus: Asteroid’s Surprise Moon Is Actually Two Rocks Stuck Together

Seeing Double: Lucy’s First Target Asteroid Has a Tiny Moon

NASA’s Lucy Ready to Explore Its First Asteroid This Week

NASA’s Lucy Probe Phones Home From 49-Million-Mile Journey to Asteroid

What to Know About NASA’s Unprecedented Psyche Mission to a Metallic Asteroid

NASA’s Lucy Catches Glimpse of Its First Target Asteroid

Ouch! Jupiter Just Got Smacked By an Unidentified Celestial Object

Webb Telescope Spots a Small Asteroid From 62 Million Miles Away

Asteroid Sample Brought to Earth Exposes Ryugu’s Hidden Interior

Astronomers Spot Two Unusually Red Objects in the Asteroid Belt

Amateur Astronomy Equipment May Have Spotted Tiny Object Beyond Neptune

Something Is Erasing the Craters on Ceres

We Finally Have the Full Story on Ceres’ Mysterious Bright Spots

Dawn Is Arriving At Ceres, And The View Is Getting Pretty Sweet

How big is our solar system?

We now know the origin of Russia’s meteor

First Statewide Data Center Ban Passed by Maine Legislature

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