Asteroid 1998 QE2 to Sail Past Earth Nine Times Larger Than Cruise Ship May 15, 2013 On May 31, 2013, asteroid 1998 QE2 will sail serenely past Earth, getting no closer than about 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers), or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon. Full Story

NASA-Funded Asteroid Tracking Sensor Passes Key Test April 15, 2013 An infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future detecting and tracking of asteroids and comets has passed a critical design test. The test assessed performance of the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) in an environment that mimicked the temperatures and pressures of deep space. NEOCam is the cornerstone instrument for a proposed new space-based asteroid-hunting telescope. Full Story

Update: Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) Will Make A Very Close Approach to Mars in October 2014 April 12, 2013 New observations of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) have allowed NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. to further refine the comet's orbit. Based on data through April 7, 2013, the latest orbital plot places the comet's closest approach to Mars slightly closer than previous estimates, at about 68,000 miles (110,000 kilometers). Full Story

Goldstone Radar Snags Images of Asteroid 2013 ET March 18, 2013 A sequence of radar images of asteroid 2013 ET was obtained on March 10, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about 693,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 2.9 lunar distances. Full Story

Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) Will Make A Very Close Approach to Mars in October 2014 March 5, 2013 On Oct. 19, 2014, Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will pass extraordinarily close to Mars, almost certainly within 300,000 km of the planet and possibly much closer. Our current best estimate has it passing about 50,000 km from the surface of Mars. Our current estimate for the impact probability is less than one in six hundred and we expect that future observations will allow us to completely rule out a Mars impact. Full Story

Additional Details on the Large Fireball Event over Russia on Feb. 15, 2013 March 1, 2013 The large fireball observed on the morning of February 15, 2013 in the skies near Chelyabinsk, Russia, was caused by a relatively small asteroid approximately 17 to 20 meters in size, entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed and a shallow angle. In doing so it released a tremendous amount of energy, fragmented at high altitude, and produced a shower of pieces of various sizes that fell to the ground as meteorites. The fireball was observed not only by video cameras anD LOw frequency infrasound detectors, but also by U.S. Government sensors. As a result, the details of the impact have become clearer. Full Story

Apophis Risk Assessment Updated February 21, 2013 A recent study has updated the impact hazard assessment for 99942 Apophis, a 325-meter diameter near-Earth asteroid that has been the focus of considerable attention after it was found in December 2004 to have a significant probability of Earth impact in April 2029. While the 2029 potential impact was ruled out within days through the measurement of archival telescope images, the possibility of a potential impact in the years after 2029 continues to prove difficult to rule out. Full Story

NASA Releases Radar Movie of Asteroid 2012 DA14 February 19, 2013 An initial sequence of radar images of asteroid 2012 DA14 was obtained on the night of Feb. 15/16, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif. Each of the 72 frames required 320 seconds of data collection by the Goldstone radar. Full Story

Russian Meteor Not Associated With Asteroid 2012 DA14 February 15, 2013 Preliminary information indicates that a meteor in Chelyabinsk, Russia, is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14, which is flying by Earth safely today. The Russia meteor is the largest reported since 1908, when a meteor hit Tunguska, Siberia. Full Story

NASA to Chronicle Close Earth Flyby of Asteroid 2012 DA14 February 13, 2013 NASA Television will provide commentary starting at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) on Friday, Feb. 15, during the close, but safe, flyby of a small near-Earth asteroid named 2012 DA14. Full Story

Asteroid 2012 DA14 To Pass Very Close to the Earth on February 15, 2013 February 1, 2013 The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to the Earth on February 15, 2013, so close that the asteroid will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communication s satellites. NASA's NEO Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known, there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with the Earth. Full Story

NASA Rules Out Earth Impact in 2036 for Asteroid Apophis January 10, 2013 NASA scientists at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., effectively have ruled out the possibility the asteroid Aphophis will impact Earth during a close flyby in 2036. Full Story

"All Clear" Given on Potential 2040 Impact of Asteroid 2011 AG5 December 21, 2012 NASA scientists have announced that new observations of 2011 AG5 show that this asteroid, once thought to have a worrisome potential to threaten Earth, no longer poses a significant risk of impact. Full Story

Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth December 14, 2012 Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a series of radar data images of a three-mile-long (4.8-kilometer) asteroid that made its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 12, 2012. Full Story

Nine Radar Images of Asteroid 2007 PA8 November 26, 2012 A collage shows nine radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2007 PA8 that were obtained between Oct. 31 and Nov. 13, 2012, with data collected by NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif. Full Story

NASA Releases Workshop Data and Findings on Asteroid 2011 AG5 June 15, 2012 Researchers anticipate that asteroid 2011 AG5, discovered in January 2011, will fly safely past and not impact Earth in 2040. Current findings and analysis data were reported at a May 29 workshop at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., attended by scientists and engineers from around the world. Discussions focused on observations of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). Full Story

NASA Survey Counts Potentially Hazardous Asteroids May 16, 2012 Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids. The results reveal new information about their total numbers, origins and the possible dangers they may pose. Full Story

New Website Tool Now Available For Identifying Mission-Accessible Near-Earth Asteroids and Their Next Observing Opportunities March 20, 2012 Observers, mission planners, and other interested users are invited to use a new website tool to view a list of near-Earth asteroids that are among the most accessible for future robotic or human space flight round-trip rendezvous missions Full Story