Precious earth minerals that are rare on earth are abundant in asteroids, but before they can be mined, they first have to be found. Last week, researchers at the Fisk and Vanderbilt University unveiled a new type of gamma-ray spectroscope that can better prospect asteroids for valuable minerals than existing prototypes.
Hundreds of thousands of years of volcanic eruptions in India—accelerated by a massive asteroid impact 66 million years ago—may have caused a perfect storm that led to the extinction of dinosaurs and other animals.
One of the projects involves using concentrated reflections of sunlight to drill holes in asteroids for water mining, which could be then used as space-native rocket fuel. The idea goes by the acronym of APIS, for Asteroid Provided In-Situ Supplies.
Hackers with Anonymous recently took over the U.S. Sentencing Commission website, positing a playable “Asteroids” video game on it to protest against the government’s prosecution of activist Aaron Swartz.
A new company has announced on Tuesday that it would aim to mine asteroids near the Earth for precious metals, water, and other materials, making it the second firm to make such an announcement in several months.
For the first time in history, dust grains captured from an asteroid in space are now being analyzed back on Earth to yield insights into how these space rocks develop.
A huge asteroid strike about 2.5 million years ago in the South Pacific could have caused a mega-tsunami and even changed the Earth’s climate, according to a new Australian study.
The demise of the dinosaurs, thought to have been caused by an asteroid, wasn’t the only mass extinction around that time, according to new international research.
If we learn an asteroid the size of Texas is on a collision course with Earth, we shouldn’t turn to the action movie Armageddon for solutions, according to new research from England.
Some large herbivorous dinosaurs were already on their way out before the alleged asteroid strike that ended the dinosaur age about 65.5 million years ago.