Tag Archives: asteroid

Ida and Dactyl

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Nick Belsten

243 Ida is a 56 km long asteroid orbiting in the main asteroid belt with a number of notable features. Ida is an S-type asteroid, or stony asteroid, and is mostly composed of rock and iron from accretion during early solar system formation. Ida was a subject of study by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993, … Continue reading Ida and Dactyl → Continue reading →

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Blog #3: Asteroid Mining

Posted on February 14, 2017 by andrewsolarsystem

We commonly think of asteroids simply as left over debris from when the planets were formed, but researchers believe that we will be able to harness resources from them within the next 10 years. The most common type of asteroid, C-type, contains up to 20% water as well as various metals. The presence of water […] Continue reading →

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Where did all the dinosaurs go?

Posted on April 7, 2016 by sarabkeller

I think one of the more fascinating topics in Earth’s past is the mystery of the dinosaurs. They were here 65 million years ago (for a shockingly long time—if you remember, they were here for almost a week in the “calendar” of the universe!) and then suddenly disappeared. So, what happened to them? It is […] Continue reading →

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Blog #6 The Future of Mining

Posted on March 15, 2016 by seanmcsolsys

Due to Earth being a terrestrial planet, much of our world’s material falls into the categories of rock and metal. An incredible motivator through humanity’s history has been our love of gold, silver, platinum and now other rare earth metals. We have been willing to blast open mountains and strip open land in the quest […] Continue reading →

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Comet Brightness – Not Related to Test Scores

Posted on April 5, 2015 by dillonkoval

A comet is an icy Solar System body with very elliptical orbit that takes it close to the Sun on one end and far from the Sun on the other. When it gets close to the Sun it begins to outgas, forming a visible atmosphere called a coma and often also a tail. One noticeable […] Continue reading →

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When Will The Next Impact Be?

Posted on April 2, 2015 by lukegchapman

The Chelyabinsk Meteor as seen by person driving a car right during explosion I watched another video and decided to watch one on the extinction of the dinosaurs. The video is very short and not absolutely thrilling but as I was watching the beginning of the video I thought to myself what if that was… Continue reading →

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The K-T Extinction: Asteroids and Atmospheres

Posted on March 15, 2015 by dillonkoval

Let’s talk about the dinosaurs. Everyone has heard the story: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth ages ago until an asteroid hit and caused all of them to go extinct. There was a huge amount of dust thrown up into the atmosphere which blocked out the Sun and caused plants to die. This set off a chain […] Continue reading →

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The Tunguska Asteroid

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Leigh

On June 30, 1908 an asteroid about 120 feet across entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded above the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia. At an elevation of about 28,000 feet, the combination of pressure and heat made the space rock explode … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Asteroid With Rings Found

Posted on April 6, 2014 by waldentb

Last month an asteroid in orbiting between Saturn and Uranus was discovered to hang a ring system. This asteroid is …

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A terrifying gravitational encounter!

Posted on February 18, 2014 by forestcsharp

image via Wired This is a video of astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson discussing our impending gravitational encounters with Apophis, an asteroid roughly the size of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. In this video, Neil DeGrasse Tyson explains that Apophis … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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