20 December 2021
Last year, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid explorer returned samples from the asteroid Ryugu, and now the first analysis of the rock shows it has a primitive composition and a curiously dark colour
8 November 2021
Interstellar objects like ‘Oumuamua might pass through our solar system in such high numbers that one could have acted as a seed around which Earth grew
2 July 2021
We rarely get more than a fleeting look at interstellar objects that enter our solar system, but a new spacecraft design could be quick enough to intercept them before they leave
25 October 2017
Don’t feel so bad for losing your keys. Astronomers somehow lost a huge space rock first seen 22 years ago – and it’s far from the first cosmic object to go missing
11 October 2017
The tiny world Haumea has a ring, the most distant we’ve found in our solar system. This may mean rings encircle other far-off worlds in the solar system
22 September 2017
On its way to collect dust samples from the asteroid Bennu, NASA’S OSIRIS-REx spaceship will slingshot around Earth, passing 17,000 kilometres above Antarctica
3 August 2017
The oldest intact asteroids hint that planets didn’t grow by slowly gathering small space rocks, but came from rapidly collapsing dust
30 June 2017
Why have more space rocks been recovered in Morocco than in other countries of a similar size? It’s a great question for the world’s Asteroid Day
