Near-Earth Object Impacts News

June 11, 2025

Top Headlines

Space Junk Falling to Earth Needs to Be Tracked: Meteoroid Sounds Can Help

May 2, 2025 — Space junk and meteoroids are falling to Earth every year, posing a growing risk as they re-enter the atmosphere at high speeds. Researchers are using infrasound sensors to track these objects, including bolides, which are meteoroids breaking apart ...

Billion-Year-Old Impact in Scotland Sparks Questions About Life on Land

Apr. 28, 2025 — New research has revealed that a massive meteorite struck northwestern Scotland about 200 million years later than previously thought, in a discovery that not only rewrites Scotland's geological history but alters our understanding of the evolution ...

Scientists Find Evidence That Overturns Theories of the Origin of Water on Earth

Apr. 16, 2025 — Researchers have helped overturn the popular theory that water on Earth originated from asteroids bombarding its surface; Scientists have analyzed a meteorite analogous to the early Earth to ...

Mammals Were Adapting from Life in the Trees to Living on the Ground Before Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid

Apr. 1, 2025 — More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research has ...

World's Oldest Impact Crater Found, Rewriting Earth's Ancient History

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have discovered the world's oldest known meteorite impact crater, which could significantly redefine our understanding of the origins of life and how our planet was shaped. The team found evidence of a major meteorite impact 3.5 billion ...

Meteorite Discovery Challenges Long-Held Theories on Earth's Missing Elements

Feb. 5, 2025 — Earliest inner solar system planetesimals shaped the inventory of moderately volatile elements in terrestrial ...

Scientists Simulate Asteroid Collision Effects on Climate and Plants

Feb. 5, 2025 — A new climate modeling study presents a new scenario of how climate and life on our planet would change in response to a potential future strike of a medium-sized (~500 m) ...

Life-Bearing Water Arrived on Earth Later Rather Than Sooner

Feb. 3, 2025 — Scientist have concluded water did not arrive as early during Earth's formation as previously thought, an insight that bears directly on the question of when life originated on the planet. The finding is significant because the data reported by the ...

Asteroid Impact Sulfur Release Less Lethal in Dinosaur Extinction

Jan. 16, 2025 — Previous studies have posited that the mass extinction that wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the Earth was caused by the release of large volumes of sulfur from rocks within the Chicxulub impact crater 66 million years ago. A new study questions ...

Massive Asteroid Impacts Did Not Change Earth's Climate in the Long Term

Dec. 4, 2024 — Two massive asteroids hit Earth around 35.65 million years ago, but did not lead to any lasting changes in the Earth's climate, according to a new ...

What Happened When a Meteorite the Size of Four Mount Everests Hit Earth?

Oct. 21, 2024 — Scientists paint a compelling picture of what happened the day the S2 meteorite crashed into Earth 3.26 billion years ...

Carvings at Ancient Monument May Be World's Oldest Calendars

Aug. 6, 2024 — Markings on a stone pillar at a 12,000 year-old archaeological site in Turkey likely represent the world's oldest solar calendar, created as a memorial to a devastating comet strike, experts ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:50am EDT

Building Materials for Water-Rich Planets in the Early Solar System

July 9, 2024 — Age data for certain classes of meteorite have made it possible to gain new findings on the origin of small water-rich astronomical bodies in the early solar system. These planetesimals continually ...

Shocked Quartz Reveals Evidence of Historical Cosmic Airburst

June 26, 2024 — Researchers continue to expand the case for the Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis. The idea proposes that a fragmented comet smashed into the Earth's atmosphere 12,800 years ago, causing a widespread ...

Climate Change Threatens Antarctic Meteorites

Apr. 8, 2024 — Antarctica harbors a large concentration of meteorites imbuing the icy continent with an unparalleled wealth of information on our solar system. However, these precious meteorites are rapidly ...

Scientists Propose New Theory That Explains Sand Ripples on Mars and on Earth

Mar. 12, 2024 — Sand ripples are symmetrical. Yet wind -- which causes them -- is very much not. Furthermore, sand ripples can be found on Mars and on Earth. They ...

Records of Cometary Dust Hitting the Asteroid Ryugu

Jan. 23, 2024 — The Hayabusa2 mission that collected samples from the asteroid Ryugu has provided a treasure trove of insights into our solar system. After analyzing samples further, a team of researchers have ...

Meteorite Analysis Shows Earth's Building Blocks Contained Water

Jan. 9, 2024 — Analysis of iron meteorites from the earliest years of the solar system indicate that the planetary 'seeds' that ultimately formed Earth contained ...

'Bouncing' Comets Could Deliver Building Blocks for Life to Exoplanets

Nov. 14, 2023 — How did the molecular building blocks for life end up on Earth? One long-standing theory is that they could have been delivered by comets. Now, researchers have shown how comets could deposit similar ...

The Remains of an Ancient Planet Lie Deep Within Earth

Nov. 1, 2023 — The remnants of an ancient planet that collided with Earth to form the Moon lie deep within the earth, according to a new ...

Signatures of the Space Age: Spacecraft Metals Left in the Wake of Humanity's Path to the Stars

Oct. 16, 2023 — Using tools hitched to the nose cone of their research planes and sampling more than 11 miles above the planet's surface, researchers have discovered ...

Earth's Most Ancient Impact Craters Are Disappearing

Aug. 1, 2023 — Earth's oldest craters could give scientists critical information about the structure of the early Earth and the composition of bodies in the solar system as well as help to interpret crater records ...

Sun 'Umbrella' Tethered to Asteroid Might Help Mitigate Climate Change

July 31, 2023 — Earth is rapidly warming and scientists are developing a variety of approaches to reduce the effects of climate change. An astronomer has proposed a novel approach -- a solar shield to reduce the ...

Humans' Ancestors Survived the Asteroid Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs

June 27, 2023 — A Cretaceous origin for placental mammals, the group that includes humans, dogs and bats, has been revealed by in-depth analysis of the fossil record, showing they co-existed with dinosaurs for a ...

Earth Was Created Much Faster Than We Thought: This Makes the Chance of Finding Other Habitable Planets in the Universe More Likely

June 14, 2023 — Over the past decades, researchers thought Earth was created over a period of more than 100 million years. However, a new study from suggests that the creation of Earth was much more rapid, and that ...

Where Did Earth's Water Come From? Not Melted Meteorites, According to Scientists

Mar. 15, 2023 — A new study brings scientists one step closer to answering the question of where Earth's water came ...

Gas Monitoring at Volcanic Fields Outside Naples, Italy, Exposes Multiple Sources of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Mar. 7, 2023 — The Phlegraean volcanic fields just west of Naples, Italy, are among the top eight emitters of volcanic carbon dioxide in the world. Since 2005, the Solfatara crater -- one of many circular ...

Hubble Captures Movie of DART Asteroid Impact Debris

Mar. 1, 2023 — In 2022 NASA embarked on a bold experiment to see if they could change an asteroid's velocity by smacking it with a ballistic probe -- kind of like hitting it with a hammer. This experiment was ...

New NASA DART Data Prove Viability of Asteroid Deflection as Planetary Defense Strategy

Mar. 1, 2023 — Astronomers offer new insight into how deflection missions can protect the planet from future Earth-bound asteroids and ...

Meteorite Crater Discovered in French Winery

Feb. 22, 2023 — Countless meteorites have struck Earth in the past and shaped the history of our planet. It is assumed, for example, that meteorites brought with them a large part of its water. The extinction of the ...

Meteorites Reveal Likely Origin of Earth's Volatile Chemicals

Jan. 27, 2023 — By analyzing meteorites, researchers have uncovered the likely far-flung origin of Earth's volatile chemicals, some of which form the building blocks of ...

Asteroid Findings from Specks of Space Dust Could Save the Planet

Jan. 23, 2023 — New research into the durability and age of an ancient asteroid made of rocky rubble and dust, revealed significant findings that could contribute to potentially saving the planet if one ever hurtled ...

17-Pound Meteorite Discovered in Antarctica

Jan. 18, 2023 — Antarctica is a tough place to work, for obvious reasons -- it's bitterly cold, remote, and wild. However, it's one of the best places in the world to hunt for meteorites. That's ...

New Study Models the Transmission of Foreshock Waves Towards Earth

Dec. 22, 2022 — As the supersonic solar wind surges towards Earth, its interaction with our planet's magnetic field creates a shock to deflect its flow, and a foreshock filled with electromagnetic waves. How ...

How Magnetism Could Help Explain Earth's Formation

Nov. 3, 2022 — A peculiar property of the Earth's magnetic field could help us to work out how our planet was created 4.5 billion years ago, according to a new scientific ...

Space Probe's Collision With Asteroid: Study Assesses Ejecta Momentum Enhancement

Nov. 1, 2022 — On September 26, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos, a moonlet of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos, at 14,000 miles per hour. Prior to the impact, ...

Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs Triggered 'Mega-Earthquake' That Lasted Weeks to Months

Oct. 6, 2022 — Some 66 million years ago, a 10-kilometer asteroid hit Earth, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs. New evidence suggests that the Chicxulub impact also triggered an earthquake so massive that ...

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Triggered Global Tsunami That Scoured Seafloor Thousands of Miles from Impact Site

Oct. 4, 2022 — The miles-wide asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago wiped out nearly all the dinosaurs and roughly three-quarters of the planet's plant and animal ...

Collision May Have Formed the Moon in Mere Hours, Simulations Reveal

Oct. 4, 2022 — Most theories claim the Moon formed out of the debris of a collision between the Earth and an object about the size of Mars, called Theia, coalescing in orbit over months or years. A new simulation ...

Comet Impacts Formed Continents When Solar System Entered Arms of Milky Way

Aug. 24, 2022 — New research has found evidence that Earth's early continents resulted from being hit by comets as our Solar System passed into and out of the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, turning ...

One More Clue to the Moon's Origin

Aug. 10, 2022 — Researchers discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth's mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards ...

What Part of a Space Rock Survives to the Ground?

Aug. 8, 2022 — When a small asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere from space, its surface is brutally heated, causing melting and fragmenting. Therefore, it was somewhat of a mystery why the rocks near the ...