23 Sep 2011 – 15:55 NASA has released new video of asteroid Vesta, taken by the orbiting Dawn spacecraft. The video, compiled from images collected by Dawn’s framing camera, shows a flyover view of the large asteroid, detailing features such as craters, mountains, cliffs and troughs. Dawn has been in orbit around Vesta since July […]
Earth’s mantle composition influenced by meteorites?
12 Sep 2011 A new study in the journal Nature provides evidence that a late addition of chondritic meteorite material influenced the composition of the Earth’s mantle. This late addition, popularly known as the “late veneer”, is believed to have been added to Earth ~4 billion years ago. The results of the study suggest that […]
Earth’s Companion Asteroid
1 Aug 2011 Astronomers at Canada’s Athabasca University have identified Earth’s first Trojan asteroid using data obtained from NASA’s WISE mission (WISE stands for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer). Labeled 2010 TK7, the asteroid has a diameter of approximately 1000 feet (300 metres), and is 50 million miles (80 million kilometres) from Earth. Read more about […]
Summer 2011 CMS Newsletter
20 Jul 2011 The Summer 2011 edition of the CMS Newsletter is here! Read about the ground-breaking meteorite research of Professor Peter Buseck, new additions to the CMS meteorite collection, and the study of meteorites found on the surface of Mars! You can download the PDF (675 KB) here, or read the newsletter online here. […]
OSIRIS-REx & ASU
7 Jul 2011 NASA’s recently announced OSIRIS-REx mission has an ASU connection! The mission to collect and return samples of asteroid 1999 RQ36 to Earth in 2023 will feature the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES). The instrument will be built entirely in the new Interdisciplinary Science Building IV on the ASU Tempe Campus that will […]
