The Internet is abuzz with news about a large asteroid that zoomed past Earth on July 25, catching scientists by surprise. Though experts are tracking a large number of near-Earth objects, yesterday's asteroid 2019 OK wasn't one of them. Details about the event are rolling in and joining them is an animation that helps the public visualize just how close the asteroid came to our planet.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured a stunning high contrast image of the asteroid Bennu during its record-breaking orbit, the space agency has announced. The image was captured on June 13 from an orbit taking place 0.4-miles above the asteroid's surface, making it the closest-ever orbit performed by a spacecraft. The asteroid's rocky, jagged surface is displayed in incredible detail.
NASA and FEMA both plan to participate in a 'tabletop exercise' with international partners that will help the agencies form a plan for responding to a real-life emergency asteroid impact threat. The faux emergency will take place at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference next week, where NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) will join FEMA, the ESA, and others.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a rare image of an active asteroid that is in the process of self-destructing, the ESA and NASA have jointly announced. The image features asteroid (6478) Gault, which was discovered in 1988 and is estimated to have a width of at least 2.5 miles / 4km. Visible in the image are two debris tails, which experts say are signs that the asteroid is disintegrating.
This weekend a hippopotamus-shaped asteroid will pass by our planet within observation distance of several major telescopes in the United States. The asteroid is massive - around 1 mile (or 1.6 kilometers) in length with a shape like that of a potato. The folks at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory have described the asteroid as having a shape "similar to that of the exposed portion of a hippopotamus wading in a river."
NASA has announced the successful arrival of its Origins, Spectral, Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, better known as "OSIRIS-REx." The spacecraft has traveled more than two billion miles over more than two years, according to the space agency, which has shared an animation showing a full rotation of the Bennu asteroid.
The skull-shaped asteroid that first made headlines in 2015 has returned, as foretold, for another flyby. In December 2017, scientists advised the public that asteroid 2015 TB145 will make another pass relatively near Earth in 2018, though it won't happen in time for Halloween. Instead, the giant space skull will zoom by in November.
![Japan found a cube rock in space [WATCH: LIVE FEED]](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/dice.jpg)
Japan's space mission Hayabusa2 just got real close to an asteroid whose shape becomes more interesting with each new view. On June 3rd, this spacecraft was 3100km away from this asteroid, and today Japan delivered a photo from just about 40km. The asteroid was code-named Ryugu by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and today we're seeing this die-shaped rock up as close as any human's ever gotten before.
Over the weekend, a small asteroid was detected shortly before entering Earth's atmosphere, where it appeared as a giant fireball. The space rock, which scientists have named 2018 LA, was spotted only a few hours before it hit Earth. The fireball was visible in and around Botswana, Africa, a little before 1PM local time.
Perhaps the proposal to blow up an inbound asteroid using a nuke isn't so bizarre after all. Researchers and agencies all over the world have spent years developing concepts for redirecting or destroying any asteroid that poses a threat to Earth, and at one point we heard mention of nuclear-based destruction. While the idea was mostly dismissed at the time, a new report claims that NASA has worked with experts to develop a new spacecraft with nuclear abilities.
2017 is shaping up to be a real treat for astronomy fans: not only will they be treated to a rare solar eclipse on Monday, less than two weeks after a significant asteroid fly-by will take place. Dubbed Asteroid Florence, NASA has revealed that it will be the largest to pass by our planet since it began keeping track of near-Earth asteroids, and it's scheduled to zoom past on September 1st.
Most people all around the world know that an asteroid strike on the Earth is what killed off the dinosaurs. Scientists have been studying the crater left in Mexico for many years now trying to wrap their brains around what the colossal forces created by that impact were like. We know that it caused a mass extinction event that nearly killed all life on the planet.