Asteroids, Comets & Meteorites

What's the difference between an asteroid, comet and meteorite?

Asteroids vs comets: how do they differ, and do they pose a threat to Earth?

Asteroids:

In the glare of the Sun 

Definition by Wikipedia   

The anatomy of an asteroid

First ring system around asteroid

Rogue asteroids may be the norm

Asteroids in the inner Solar System

Asteroid Day    Asteroid Day videos

Asteroid orbit evolution due to thermal drag

New theory to explain seeds of life in asteroids

Thermal cycling breaks down asteroid boulders

NASA scientist figures way to weigh space rock

Villain in disguise: Jupiter's role in impacts on Earth

Unusual asteroid suspected of spinning to explosion

Iron volcanoes may have erupted on metal asteroids

Glassy surface of iron-rich asteroids tricks telescopes 

Asteroids are not destroyed in an impact with the Sun

Scientists reconstruct the history of asteroid collisions

Millimetre-sized stones (chondrules) formed our planet

Asteroid served up "custom orders" of life's ingredients  

First interstellar immigrant discovered in the Solar System

NASA's NEOWISE completes scan for asteroids and comets

An interstallar origin for Jupiter's retrograde co-orbital asteroid

Astronomers establish the strength of high-inclination asteroids

Asteroid nudged by sunlight: most precise measurement of Yarkovsky Effect

Trojan asteroids: 

Trojan asteroid shares orbit with Earth

Searching for Trojan asteroids, Earth's unseen companions

'Trojan' asteroids in far reaches of the Solar System more common than previously thought

Asteroid observation activities:

NEOCam

B612 Foundation

Explained: near-miss asteroids

New light on Near-Earth asteroid

NASA Near Earth Object program

About SSA-NEO coordination centre

NASA/JPL's near Earth object program

B612 Foundation - the Sentinel Mission

NASA asteroid and comet watch website'

What is Asteroid Day's 100x declaration?

NASA pushes for asteroid detection satellite

Speeding up science on Near-Earth asteroids

NASA telescope finds fewer asteroids near Earth

ESA's bug-eyed telescopes to spot risky asteroids

NASA survey counts potentially hazardous asteroids

Tucson astronomer spots asteroid before it hits Earth

UN aims to fight asteroids, creates a global warning network

Stanford professor wants to find asteroids that threaten Earth

About ESA's Near Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC)

NASA office to coordinate asteroid detection, hazard mitigation

Identifying Earth- impacting asteroids using an artifical neural network

UCLA space scientists find ways to monitor elusive collisions in space

Forces that hold gravity-defying Near-Earth asteroids together uncovered

New study ranks hazardous asteroid effects from least to most destructive

New NASA model gives glimpse into the invisible world of electric asteroids

Planetary Resources partners with NASA to crowdsource asteroid detection

Physicist's journey reveals how smaller asteroids could cause bigger problems

Update to determine te feasibility of enhancing the search an characterization of NEOs

Historical Earth impacts:

Impact cratering on Hadean Earth

Asteroid strike made 'instant Himalayas'

'Largest ever asteroid impact' found in Australia

Tiny 'spherules' reveal details about Earth's asteroid impacts

Asteroid impacts on earth make structurally bizarre diamonds

New NASA research shows giant asteroids battered early Earth

Scientists reconstruct ancient impact that dwarfs dinosaur-extinction blast

Large meteoritic event over Antarctica ca. 430ka ago inferred from chindritic spherules: Sor Rondane Mtns

Earth's planetary defense:

Busting armageddon

Great impact debates

Nukes to save the Earth

Twenty years of planetary defense  

New approaches to asteroid danger 

HERA - our planetary defence mission

Project NEOShield: asteroid defence systems

Are asteroids humanity's 'greatest challenge'?

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)

Risk of massive asteroid strike underestimated

Accidents and asteroids: addressing the threat 

Russia, US to join forces against space threats

US national Near-Earth Object preparedness strategy

Could a laser weapon save Earth from killer asteroids?

A new use for nuclear weapons: hunting rogue asteroids

US National NEO preparedness strategy and action plan

Asteroid Apophis won't impact Earth for at least a century 

Are we prepared for an asteroid headed straight to Earth?

The first discovered asteroid of 2014 collides with the Earth

Near Earth Object media/risk communications working group report

Large asteroid to hurtle past Earth & comet PanSTARRS flyby on 19 april 2017

Defending planet Earth: near-Earth object surveys and hazard mitigation strategies

A newly discovered branch of the Taurid meteoroid stream contains hazardous asteroids  

Asteroid diversion & deflection:

Understanding what it takes to divert asteroids

Engineers set their sights on asteroid deflection

DART: Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission

AIDA: asteroid impact and deflection assessment study

AIDA collaboration highlights case for planetary defence

Responding to potential asteroid redirect mission targets

The FastKD Project: how to deflect an asteroid - and do it fast

Required deflection impulses as a function of time before impact for Earth-impacting asteroids 

Known asteroids & asteroid catalogs:

Near Earth asteroids

Mappig the inner Solar System

15,000 space rocks and counting     

Asteroid 2011 AGS: a reality check 

Small asteroid to whiz past Earth safely 

Tiny asteroid whizzes by Earth (2017 EA)

!0,000th near-Earth object unearthed in space

WISE finds mysterious Centaurs may be comets

WISE mission finds lost asteroid family members

NASA's Swift Observatory catches asteroid flyby

Earth flyby of 'space peanut' captured in new video

New map shows frequency of small asteroid impacts

Surprsing recent discoveries of three Near-Earth Objects

The flyby clock: visualizing a century of asteroid encounters

Astronomers characterize one of the smallest known asteroids

Number of known accessible Near-Earth asteroids doubles since 2010

Acoustic gravity waves help scientists pinpoint spot, time objects hit the ocean

An asteroid that split in two and whose fragments, year later, developed tails: P/2016J1

Asteroid space missions:

Asteroids close encounters with Mars

Asteroid impact mission targets Didymos

Bringing home NASA's first asteroid samples

PANIC lander to revolutionize asteroid research     

Asteroids: The New 'It Mission' for Space Exploration

Rosetta flyby uncovers the complex history of asteroid Lutetia    

Can Congress grant private companies the right to mine asteroids?

The JAXA Ryugu asteroid landing program: 

Australia set to welcome JAXA's Hayabusa2

A stereoscopic image of Ryugu at high resolution 

Sunburned surface reveals Ryugu formation and orbital secrets

MINERVA-II1: successful image capture, landing on Ryugu and hop!

Itokawa:

New clues to ancient water on Itokawa

Separating pebbles from boulders on asteroid Itokawa

Identification of origin of particles brought back by Hayabusa

Vesta:

Vesta 360

Vesta's rocky history

Soar over asteroid Vesta in 3-D 

Vesta in Dawn's rear view mirror

Vesta: giant impacts delivered carbon

Is Vesta the "Smallest Terrestrial Planet?"

High resolution tour of giant asteroid Vesta

Dawn sees new surface features on giant asteroid  

DAWN reality-checks telescope studies of asteroids

New NASA Dawn visuals show Vesta's 'color palette'

Asteroid Vesta to reshape theories of planet formation 

Geologic maps of Vesta from NASA's Dawn mission published

Bennu:

OSIRIS-Rex zooms in on Bennu

The long strange trip of asteroid Bennu

Ancient asteroid Bennu contains ingredients for life

Embedding with a the scientist behind a NASA spacecraft flyby

Comets:    

The Age of Comets

How comets are born

Definition by Wikipedia

Comets as solar probes

NASA near Earth object table 

The colors of comet Neowise 

When is a comet not a comet?

ALMA discovers comet factory

NEOWISE spies its first comet 

Giant  comets may threaten Earth 

Science on the surface of a comet 

First ever evidence of comet striking Earth

One of the largest comets is headed our way

Solar Observatory discovers its 3,000th comet 

3D study of comets reveals chemical factory at work

Evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth

Philae probe results shed light on the nature of comets

New in sights on comet tails are blowing in the solar wind

Some comets are like couples: they break up then make up

Thermal history of comets during residence in the Oort cloud

Avalanches, not internal pressure, cause comet nuclei outbursts

While shooting stars get noticed, cosmic dust hitting us all the time

New study reveals relationships between chemicals found on comets

A second interstellar object has almost certainly been found in our Solar System 

Studies of proton irradiated H2O+CO2 and H2O+CO ices and analysis of synthesized molecules

Comet gateway discovered at inner Solar System, may alter fundamental understanding of comet evolution

Specific comet events:

Tail of comet Lovejoy

Comet C/2016 R2 GIF Jan 10

Catching a comet death on camera

Armageddon at 10,000 BCE in Syria

Comet death observed for first time (July, 2011) 

'Lazarus comets' explain Solar System mystery

Comet Lovejoy plunges into the Sun and survives

The great daylight fireball of 1972        1972 Photo

The Hopewell airburst event, 1699-1567 years ago (252-383 CE)

March 22, 2016 comet flying by Earth observed with radar and infrared    

Evidence of cosmic impact at Abu Hureyra, Syria at the Younger-Dryas Onset (~12.8ka): Melting > 2200C

Comet ISON:

Countdown to perihelion

Comet ISON's dramatic final hour

Comet ISON observing campaign

Fire vs Ice: the science of ISON at perihelion    

Comets ISON and ENKE approaching the sun      

What might happen to Comet ISON from here on out?  

The ESA Rosetta/Philae comet landing program:

How to land on a comet 

A map of Rosetta's comet  

Rosetta: what happens next? 

Rosetta image archive complete

A comet turns into Rosetta stone   

Kepler gets the 'big picture' of 67P

Organic molecules detected by Philae

Rosetta: catching up with the comet's coma

Rosetta continues into its full science phase 

Rosetta timeline: countdown to comet arrival

Rosetta fuels debate on origin of Earth's ocean

Pioneering Philae completes main mission before hibernation

Rosetta measures production of water at comet over two years

Before and after: the unique changes spotted on Rosetta's comet    

Mission complete: Rosetta's journey ends in daring descent to comet

Meteorites:

Definition by Wikipedia

Tales from a Martian meteorite

Stardust found in Antarctic snow

Fireballs that produce meteorites

Russian meteor million of years old 

Study supports extraterrestrial impact

Meteorite diamonds tell of a lost planet

What gives meteorites their cone shape?

Measuring massive magnetic meteorites 

Meteorites key to the story of Earth's layers

Meteorites: toolkits for creating life on Earth

Scientists strike scientific gold with meteorite

Meteorites: magnetic messengers from space

Meteorite from Mars fell in Morocco: scientists

Warped meteor showers hit Earth at all angles

Novarto: California's rough and tumble journey

Impact glass stores biodata for millions of years

CSI-style investigation of meteorite hits on Earth

A remarkably constant history of meteorite strikes

Rare meteorites common in the Ordovician period

Rare meteorites created in violent celestial collision

Researchers uncover remnants of early solar system

New found UK meteorite could provide many answers

Meteorite's magnetic fields reveal how planets were formed

New study sheds iight on origin of most common meteorites

Meteor Crater zircon crystal sheds ight on Earth, Moon, Mars

Machine Learning pinpoints meteorite-rich areas in Antarctica

Researchers reproduce processes behind astrophysical shocks

Firsr detection of sugars in meteorites gives clues to origin of life

Egyptian desert expedition confirms spectacular meteorite impact

NASA Ames helps search for and study of Sutter's Mill meteorites

Research shows why meteorites explode before they reach Earth

Every recorded meteorite impact on Earth from 2500 BCE to 2012

Magnets wipe memories from meteorites, erasing billion-year-old data 

Earth bears evidence of cosmic impacts, both ancient and more recent

Organic makeup of ancient mateorites sheds light on early Solar System

A 15-metric ton meteorite crashed in Africa. Now 2 new minerals have been found in it

Shock compression research shows hexagonal diamond could serve as meteor impact marker

Crystalline silica in primitive meteorite brings scientists a step closer to understanding solar evolution          

Tunguska 1908:

In Siberia in 1908, a huge explosion came out of nowhere

Discovery of probable Tunguska meteorites at the bottom of Khushmo river's shoal 

Chelyabinsk 2013:

First study of Russian meteorite

Crucial data regarding Chelyabinks meteorite

Russian meteor shockwave circled globe twice

Russian meteor created new 'dust layer' instratosphere

Researchers aim to measure risk of exploding asteroids

After Chelyabinsk: European experts assess asteroid options

Around the world in four days: NASA tracks Chelyabinsk meteor plume

Seismic detection of the Chelyabinsk meteor from the dense ChinArray

The mystery about the Chelyabinsk superbolide continues three years kater

Link between potentially hazardous asteroid (86039) 1999 NC43 and the Chelyabinsk meteoroid tenuous