Asteroid Stories
Engineers with NASA’s Psyche mission are working to determine what caused a recent decrease in fuel pressure in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft took this image of the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson during its flyby on April 20, 2025, showing the elongated contact binary (an object formed when two smaller bodies collide). This was Lucy’s second flyby in the spacecraft’s…
In its second asteroid encounter, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft obtained a close look at a uniquely shaped fragment of an asteroid that formed about 150 million years ago. The spacecraft has begun returning images that were collected as it flew approximately…
The Lucy operations team has confirmed NASA’s Lucy spacecraft phoned home after its encounter with the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the asteroid occurred at 1:51 pm EDT on Sunday. Initial information indicates that the spacecraft…
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will soon reach the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. In this image, created by stacking images that the Lucy spacecraft took during its approach, the asteroid appears as a series of points in front of the static…
The asteroid 2024 YR4 made headlines in February with the news that it had a chance of hitting Earth on Dec. 22, 2032, as determined by an analysis from NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency’s…
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is less than one month away from its next asteroid encounter. As it approaches, Lucy is keeping an eye on its target, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, using its high-resolution imager, L’LORRI, for optical navigation. At…
Work on NASA’s purpose-built asteroid hunter, Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, is progressing toward a targeted late 2027 launch. A major component of the mission, the spacecraft’s instrument enclosure journeyed back to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in…
Work on NASA’s purpose-built asteroid hunter, Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, is progressing toward a targeted late 2027 launch. A major component of the mission, the spacecraft’s instrument enclosure journeyed back to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in early March…
NASA has selected eight participating scientists to join its Lucy mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are remnants of our early solar system trapped on stable orbits associated with — but not close to — the planet Jupiter. NASA’s…