Astronomy

December 28, 2022

Meteorite Contains Two New Minerals Not Found on Earth

Space is full of rocks. This “celestial debris” known as meteoroids hurtles through space, occasionally entering Earth's atmosphere where the materials begin to burn up. These “shooting stars” are meteors. Most are obliterated before they come close to the surface of Earth, but a few survive the fall. These rocks which hit Earth are known as meteorites, and they are a scientist's dream. Meteorites provide hints to the chemical composition of the universe.

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November 18, 2022

NASA’s Artemis I Rocket Successfully Launches Into Outer Space

A new era in space exploration has begun thanks to the successful launch of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). The rocket, which is the most powerful in the world, took off from the Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022, as part of the Artemis I mission. The rocket is carrying the Orion spacecraft 40,000 miles beyond the Moon before it returns back to Earth on December 11.

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October 13, 2022

NASA’s DART Mission Successfully Moved a Stadium-Sized Asteroid’s Orbit

Someday an asteroid might threaten Earth. In preparation for that day, NASA has been strategizing how to deflect incoming celestial bodies. This plan for planetary defense was recently tested for the first time when the DART mission's spacecraft collided intentionally with a small asteroid named Dimorphos which currently poses no danger to us. The results are now in: the collision shortened the period of Dimorphos' orbit.

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