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Also TryMaterialsPapers
- Asteroid Belt Coloring Book (EnchantedLearning.com)
Provides a picture, including the location in the solar system. 1-05
- Asteroids (Wikibooks.org)
Provides a description in simple language. 1-05
Projects
- -Asteroids Are Coming (Christian Science Monitor)
" 'While most large asteroids with the potential to destroy an entire country or continent have been detected, less than 10,000 of the more than a million dangerous asteroids with the potential to destroy an entire major metropolitan area have been found by all existing space or terrestrially operated observatories,' former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, who started the B612 Foundation in 2002 with fellow astronaut Rusty Schweickart and colleagues, said in a statement. 'Because we don't know where or when the next major impact will occur, the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a "city-killer" sized asteroid has been blind luck.' "
"The B612 Foundation is trying to build a privately funded infrared space telescope to find dangerous asteroids when they are still millions of miles away. This Sentinel Space Telescope mission would ideally give humans years to devise a plan to deflect killer space rocks, officials with the non-profit say. The organization is aiming for a 2018 launch." 12-14
- An Asteroid Is Coming (CNN News)
"Asteroids can be chock full of metals and other materials, which could be mined for use on earth or on space stations. NASA has discussed the possibility of capturing near-Earth asteroids and placing them into Earth's orbit to study them and extract their resources."
"At least two start-up companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, plan to mine asteroids and sell the acquired bounty on Earth and in space."
"Being able to exploit asteroids' resources would allow humans to fly farther out into the solar system, build stations a long way from Earth and supply them with materials gathered out in space." 02-13
- Asteroid - Near-Collision With Earth (CNN)
Provides information on the mile wide asteroid 1997 XF11, which is expected to pass 30,000 miles from the earth in 2028. 11-99
- Asteroid Exploration (JHUAPL)
Provides information about the Near Earth Asteroid Rendevous (NEAR) Mission to orbit the asteroid Eros 433 in 1999.
- Asteroid NT7 Unlikely to Hit Earth (CNN News)
"The asteroid, dubbed 2002 NT7, is travelling at 28 kilometres per second and there is a chance, initial calculations indicate, that it could hit our planet on February 1, 2019." "However, scientists said on Wednesday that the calculations are preliminary and the risk to the planet was low." 7-02
- Asteroid Reports to Prevent an Extinction Level Event (National Geographic)
"The Minor Planet Center, a clearing house for asteroid observations, receives up to 15,000 new sightings a day from the LINEAR telescopes alone."
"The Center is part of a (U.S.) 3.5-million dollar-a-year NASA program, called Spaceguard, that locates asteroids in Earth's neighborhood. This program focuses on the estimated 1,200 to 1,500 larger asteroids in our area that are over 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) wide and could be potential planet killers, like the one that probably killed the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago."
- Asteroids (Hamilton)
Includes articles and pictures of asteroids.
- Astronomy - Mission to Visit an Asteroid (CNN)
Summarizes the plan by Japan to land on an asteroid and then have the spacecraft return to earth with a sample. Visitors sometimes misspell as astroid or astroide. 6-02
- Averting an Asteroid Strike (Christian Science Monitor)
"Scientists and engineers who have studied the problem of deflecting a dangerous asteroid believe the technical issues are difficult but solvable. The challenge now is figuring out the legal issues of who takes action on behalf of humankind and of what their responsibilities and liabilities will be." 05-09
- Computer Model: Microbes Probably Survived Asteroid Bombardment (NASA)
"The study focused on a particularly cataclysmic occurrence known as the Late Heavy Bombardment, or LHB. This event occurred approximately 3.9 billion years ago and lasted 20 to 200 million years. In a letter published in the May 21 issue of Nature magazine titled 'Microbial Habitability of the Hadean Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment,' Oleg Abramov and Stephen J. Mojzsis, astrobiologists at the University of Colorado's Department of Geological Sciences, report on the results of a computer modeling project designed to study the heating of Earth by the bombardment."
"Results from their project show that while the Late Heavy Bombardment might have generated enough heat to sterilize Earth's surface, microbial life in subsurface and underwater environments almost certainly would have survived." 05-09
- Earth's Tugboat Astereoid (Time.com)
"Now there's word out of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that astronomers have just discovered Earth's first Trojan asteroid — a rock that shares our own solar orbit, leading us around the sun like a tugboat pulling an ocean liner. That's big news not just because such an object had never been spotted before, but also because a Trojan could make such an easy and nifty place for astronauts to visit." 08-11
- Earth's Tugboat Asteroid (Time.com)
"Now there's word out of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that astronomers have just discovered Earth's first Trojan asteroid — a rock that shares our own solar orbit, leading us around the sun like a tugboat pulling an ocean liner. That's big news not just because such an object had never been spotted before, but also because a Trojan could make such an easy and nifty place for astronauts to visit." 08-11
- Extinction Level Event (National Geographic)
"Scientists studying the fallout from a huge asteroid that crashed into Earth 65 million years ago have gained better understanding of the event that most likely took out the dinosaurs and much other life on the planet."
"The asteroid that created the Chicxulub (pronounced CHEEK-shoo-loob) crater, located on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, was probably more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide, researchers estimate. The resulting crater was 110 to 125 miles (180 to 200 kilometers) wide and very deep. Today it is buried under several miles of limestone and is mostly underwater."
- Preventing an Asteroid from Hitting Earth (MSNBC News)
"In order to prepare for massive asteroids that could aim for Earth in the future, researchers should ram a spaceship into a real asteroid to see if the space rock would shift course, scientists say." 12-12
- Questions About Asteroids (ASK and Astronomer for Kids)
Provides questions and answers for kids and adults. Visitors sometimes misspell as astroids, asteroides, or astroides. 01-06
- Spacecraft Orbits Asteroid (Time.com)
"The fact is, however, Vesta is the second largest object in our solar system's asteroid belt — and one of the oldest objects in the solar system as a whole — and Dawn is one of the coolest little spacecraft NASA has ever built. Together they could yield important clues to the origins of the sun and the planets, not to mention helping NASA engineers demonstrate their increasingly sophisticated cosmic-flying skills." 07-11
- Spacecraft to Bring Back Sample from Asteroid (SpaceDaily.com)
"If all goes well, Hayabusa will be the first spacecraft to bring home raw material from an asteroid, part of the primeval rubble left over from the making of the Solar System." 9-05
- Asteroid Collisions (Hamilton)
Simulate an asteroid collision with the earth or another planet..
- Asteroids (NASA - Jet Propulsion Lab)
Provides basic information about asteroids that orbit the sun. Also provides directions on making an asteroid-like object out of potatoes. 3-00
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