Tag Archives: asteroid

Chicxulub Impactor Found?

In class, we discussed the Chicxulub impact, which is highly likely to have triggered the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. Despite the large size of the impactor, the catastrophic impact and 65 million years of geological processes have hidden the exact nature of the impactor from scientists. While iridium deposits in sedimentary rock layersContinue reading “Chicxulub Impactor Found?” Continue reading

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Asteroid, meteor, meteoroid, meteorite

These four terms are often misunderstood and the objects/occurrences they represent are thought of to be similar when in reality that is not the case. I am here to put these false assumptions about these misunderstood terms to rest. Looking at the definitions. An asteroid is a rock in space orbiting the sun, a meteoroid […] Continue reading

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Asteroid Mining

Rocky asteroids contain metals that are commonly used on Earth. What if there was a way to mine those metals from asteroids and bring them back to Earth? The potential gains seem promising, as even a small asteroid can contain enough industrial metals … Continue reading

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Blog 6: Asteroids

On this Tuesday, April 5th, an asteroid the size of a house flew by the Earth. This asteroid flew by 79,000 miles away from us, which is actually pretty close. That distance is around 1/3 the distance between us and the Moon. Although there is always some panic that an asteroid could hit Earth, this […] Continue reading

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Florida Asteroid Burning Up

On Monday April 13th, a small asteroid was spotted in the night sky off the east coast of Florida. One of my family members was all the way across the state on the western side of Florida and saw the asteroid’s fireball-like appearance as it passed by Earth over 26,000 km away. According to theContinue reading “Florida Asteroid Burning Up” Continue reading

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Asteroid Mining

Asteroids are failed planetesimals made up of rock and metals, some of which may be valuable such as platinum, silver, and gold. Around 8% of the asteroids in the asteroid belt are ones full of precious metals. Some platinum heavy asteroids may contain 175 times the amount of platinum mined yearly on Earth. For this […] Continue reading

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Large Asteroid Flyby on April 29th

If you’ve been scrolling through random news articles over the past few weeks, you may have come across an article about a large asteroid that may end human civilization if it strikes the Earth. Just to be clear, this asteroid will not hit Earth and will barely have any effect on civilization. NASA is currentlyContinue reading “Large Asteroid Flyby on April 29th” Continue reading

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Oumuamua – space rock or spaceship?

Some scientists called it an asteroid.  Others theorized that it was an alien spacecraft.  Still others cast it off as a mere “space cucumber.” This mysterious space rock known as Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “first messenger”) has captivated scientists since its discovery in mid-October of 2017.  Oumuamua was discovered in Hawaii, hence its awesome name. This…

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Ceres Harbors Building Blocks of Life

Ceres, the largest asteroid in the Solar System, and now considered a dwarf planet, may have once been habitable. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft collected samples from the surface and were found to contain organic compounds and amino acids, which are often referred to as the building blocks of life. Dawn has also discovered evidence of a subsurface… Continue reading Ceres Harbors Building Blocks of Life Continue reading

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Meteor, Meteorite & Asteroid… What is the difference?

We often misuse words such as meteor, meteorite, and asteroid while talking about space and not realizing that these three things are actually different! In this post I will explain the difference between all of them. What are meteors? Meteors are objects that enter the Earth’s atmosphere from space. Sometimes they are called “shooting stars”, […] Continue reading

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