near earth object
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How Scientists Are Preparing for Apophis’s Unnervingly Close Brush With Earth
In about five years’ time, a potentially hazardous asteroid will swing by Earth at an eerily close distance of less than 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers). During this rare encounter, Apophis will be ten times closer to Earth than the Moon and scientists want to take full advantage of its visit. Apophis is a on trajectory…
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NASA Finally Opened the Asteroid Container and Holy Crap That’s a Lot of Asteroid
After months of struggling to get to the bulk of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample, the space agency has unveiled a treasure trove of ancient rocks and dust.
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It’s Been 2 Months. Why Can’t NASA Open the Asteroid Sample Container?
The space agency is having to develop new tools to crack open the canister containing bits from asteroid Bennu.
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Returned Asteroid Sample Canister Contains Way More Asteroid Than Expected
Scientists working to open up the sample canister containing rock and dust from asteroid Bennu have run into a problem: there’s just too much of it. The process of disassembling the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head is taking longer than anticipated due to the abundance of material found when the canister lid was removed…