CNEOS

NASA Discovers Interstellar Comet Moving Through Solar System On July 1, the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, first reported observations of a comet that originated from interstellar space. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

Latest Calculations Conclude Asteroid 2024 YR4 Now Poses No Significant Threat to Earth in 2032 and Beyond NASA has significantly lowered the risk of near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 as an impact threat to Earth for the foreseeable future. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

Asteroid 2024 YR4 reaches level 3 on the Torino Scale NASA analysis of a near-Earth asteroid, designated 2024 YR4, indicates it has a small chance of impacting Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA Study: Asteroid’s Orbit, Shape Changed After DART Impact After NASA’s historic Double Asteroid Redirection Test, a JPL-led study has shown that the shape of asteroid Dimorphos has changed and its orbit has shrunk. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA System Predicts Impact of a Very Small Asteroid Over Germany The Scout impact assessment system calculated where and when the asteroid 2024 BX1 would impact Earth’s atmosphere, providing a useful demonstration of planetary defense capability. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

CNEOS Predicts Another Small Asteroid Impact, This One over Northwestern France Another tiny asteroid on a collision course with Earth was detected over the weekend, and JPL’s CNEOS Scout system accurately predicted where and when the impact would happen, well before it actually occurred. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA System Predicts Small Asteroid to Pass Close by Earth This Week On Thursday, Jan. 26, a small near-Earth asteroid will have a very close encounter with our planet. Designated 2023 BU, the asteroid will zoom over the southern tip of South America at about 4:27 p.m. PST (7:27 p.m. EST) only 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) above the planet’s surface and well within the orbit of geosynchronous satellites. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA Program Predicted Impact of Small Asteroid Over Ontario, Canada In the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 19, the skies over southern Ontario, Canada, lit up as a tiny asteroid harmlessly streaked across the sky high in Earth’s atmosphere, broke up, and likely scattered small meteorites over the southern coastline of Lake Ontario. The fireball wasn’t a surprise. Roughly 1 meter (3 feet) wide, the asteroid was detected 3 ½ hours before impact, making this event the sixth time in history a small asteroid has been tracked in space before impacting Earth’s atmosphere. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

US Space Force Releases Decades of Bolide Data to NASA for Planetary Defense Studies Hosted by JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, the data can be used by the science community to better understand how asteroids break up when entering the atmosphere. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

Updated Calculations Refine the Impact Probability for (29075) 1950 DA (29075) 1950 DA is a kilometer-sized asteroid that will make a close approach to Earth in 2880 and, because of the corresponding impact probability and size, has ranked at the top of the Sentry risk list since 2014. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA System Predicts Impact of Small Asteroid A small asteroid hit Earth’s atmosphere over the Norwegian Sea before disintegrating on March 11, 2022. But this event wasn’t a complete surprise: Astronomers knew it was on a collision course, predicting exactly where and when the impact would happen. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Impact Monitoring System Goes Online To date, nearly 28,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) have been found by survey telescopes that continually scan the night sky, adding new discoveries at a rate of about 3,000 per year. But as larger and more advanced survey telescopes turbocharge the search over the next few years, a rapid uptick in discoveries is expected. In anticipation of this increase, NASA astronomers have developed a next-generation impact monitoring algorithm called Sentry-II to better evaluate NEA impact probabilities. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

International Observation Campaign Will Assess Asteroid Timing Accuracies The International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) will conduct an observational campaign in November with the goal of assessing the accuracy of the observation times reported by asteroid observers. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA Spacecraft Provides Insight into Asteroid Bennu’s Future Orbit In a study released Wednesday, NASA researchers used precision-tracking data from the agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to better understand movements of the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu through the year 2300, significantly reducing uncertainties related to its future orbit, and improving scientists’ ability to determine the total impact probability and predict orbits of other asteroids. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

NASA Analysis: Earth Is Safe From Asteroid Apophis for 100-Plus Years After its discovery in 2004, asteroid 99942 Apophis had been identified as one of the most hazardous asteroids that could impact Earth. But that impact assessment changed as astronomers tracked Apophis and its orbit became better determined. Now, the results from a new radar observation campaign combined with precise orbit analysis have helped astronomers conclude that there is no risk of Apophis impacting our planet for at least a century. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

Asteroid 2001 FO32 Will Safely Pass by Earth March 21 The largest asteroid predicted to pass by our planet in 2021 will be at its closest on March 21, providing astronomers a rare opportunity to get a good look at a rocky relic that formed at the dawn of our solar system. Called 2001 FO32, the near-Earth asteroid will make its closest approach at a distance of about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) – or 5 1/4 times the distance from Earth to the Moon. There is no threat of a collision with our planet now or for centuries to come. NASA CNEOS GoRead More →

Earth May Have Captured a 1960s-Era Rocket Booster Earth has captured a tiny object from its orbit around the Sun and will keep it as a temporary satellite for a few months before it escapes back to a solar orbit. But the object is likely not an asteroid; it’s probably the Centaur upper stage rocket booster that helped lift NASA’s ill-fated Surveyor 2 spacecraft toward the Moon in 1966. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

School Bus-Size Asteroid to Safely Zoom Past Earth A small near-Earth asteroid (or NEA) will briefly visit Earth’s neighborhood on Thursday, Sept. 24, zooming past at a distance of about 13,000 miles (22,000 kilometers) above our planet’s surface. The asteroid will make its close approach below the ring of geostationary satellites orbiting about 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) away from Earth. NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →

Tiny Asteroid Buzzes by Earth – the Closest Flyby on Record Near Earth Asteroids, or NEAs, pass by our home planet all the time. But an SUV-size asteroid set the record this past weekend for coming closer to Earth than any other known NEA: It passed 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) above the southern Indian Ocean on Sunday, Aug. 16 at 12:08 a.m. EDT (Saturday, Aug. 15 at 9:08 p.m. PDT). NASA CNEOS Go to SourceRead More →