asteroid

Never mind the recent spate of satellite showers. An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier is sailing toward Earth, NASA says.

Never fear, however. The space agency says that although next week's flyby of Asteroid 2005 YU55 will bring the rock closer to our home planet than even the moon gets, the asteroid will cruise safely past, leaving in its wake not destruction but data.

The agency has already begun using radio waves to scan the 1,300-foot-wide space rock, which will get closest to Earth on Tuesday at about 3:30 p.m. PT. With antennas at its Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., and the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico, NASA hopes to gather a wealth of detail about the asteroid's surface features, shape, dimensions, and other physical properties.… Read more

Analysis of data collected by a NASA infrared space telescope shows there are fewer near-Earth asteroids than previously believed, scientists said today.

But the majority of the nearly 20,000 bodies between 330 and 3,300 feet wide have not yet been detected and it's not yet clear whether a reduced population also means a reduced number of midsize asteroids in orbits that could pose a threat to Earth.

"We find that there are fewer near-Earth asteroids out there," said Amy Mainzer, principal investigator with NASA's NEOWISE program. "However, it's very important to note that fewer does not mean none. And there are still tens of thousands that are out there that we need to find."

Using NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer--WISE--space telescope, researchers conducted a census of near-Earth objects, or NEOs, orbiting within 120 million miles of the sun. Scanning the entire sky twice between January 2010 and February 2011, the NEOWISE project observed more than 100,000 asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and nearly 600 that pass near Earth.

"With NEOWISE, we didn't go out and find every single asteroid that's out there, but we got a good representative sample, kind of like doing a census where you take a poll of a small subset of people that you think is representative of what everybody thinks," Mainzer said. "And so, that's what we've been able to do with NEOWISE."

She said the NEOWISE data, along with surveys conducted by ground-based instruments, show that more than 90 percent of the so-called "planet busters" six-tenths of a mile across and larger have now been identified, meeting a goal set by Congress in 1998.

Previous estimates put the population of large near-Earth objects at around 1,000. The NEOWISE survey indicates the actual number is around 981, of which 911 have been detected, including all of the very large bodies like the six-mile-wide asteroid that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. None pose any threat to Earth, at least for the next few centuries.… Read more

Remember the Parrot Asteroid that was previewed at CES 2011? It was to be the first car audio receiver to be based on Google's Android mobile operating system. Well, it's here and I got my hands on it.

Like no Android device I've ever seen Although the Asteroid is based on Android 1.5, you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at it. The interface of the single DIN unit looks nothing like any Android device that you've likely ever seen. It's been heavily simplified and optimized for in-car use. Half of … Read more

Four years after launch from Cape Canaveral, NASA's ion-drive Dawn spacecraft is finally in orbit around the asteroid Vesta, studying the second largest body in the rubble-strewn belt between Mars and Jupiter in unprecedented detail. Pictures released today show a strangely tortured world with huge parallel grooves separating the heavily cratered northern hemisphere from smoother terrain in the south dominated by the chaotic remnants of a catastrophic impact.

"These photos have been already a great revelation to the team about what the surface is like," Christopher Russell, the mission's principal investigator, told reporters today. "We … Read more

Atari's Greatest Hits lets you relive the early history of video gaming, giving you tons of old-school arcade and Atari 2600 hits on your iPhone. But it's not without flaws. Games like the original Asteroids, Tempest, Gravitar, Crystal Castles, and many more are available via in-app purchases packaged with their associated Atari 2600 games and some extras. In other words, the Atari Greatest Hits app itself is free, but if you want to play Tempest, for example, you'll need to buy the Tempest pack (99 cents), which comes with Tempest, Tempest for Atari 2600, Outlaw (2600), and … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Parrot is best known for its Bluetooth hands-free products. But if the AR.Drone is any indicator, this isn't a company that's afraid to come out of left field with a seemingly random product. Enter the Parrot Asteroid, a car audio receiver powered by Android OS. Yep, you read that correctly.

The Asteroid is a single-DIN receiver with a two-part faceplate that is split between a physical control panel that is detachable for security and a large, fixed 3.2-inch LCD. The unit features three USB ports it can use to connect to digital audio sources or … Read more

Space Miner Blast is a slimmed-down arcade version of one of our favorite games on the iPhone called Space Miner: Space Ore Bust. The original game included a storyline in which you tried to keep your uncle's space-mining company afloat by mining various sectors of space and using the ore to make money so you could upgrade your ship. Though we still recommend the original as a more involved and unique game, Space Miner Blast takes the basic gameplay mechanic (flying around and shooting asteroids) and makes it into a fun challenge on its own.

Space Miner Blast tasks … Read more

Hey, iPhone gamers, I received a press release just yesterday that plenty will be excited about: Real Racing 2 is coming soon for the iPhone. As one of my favorite games for 2009, the original Real Racing might be the best in its class for graphics, gameplay, and realism (as the name suggests) among auto-racing games on the iPhone.

Though there is no information beyond the announcement (here is Firemint's cryptic info page), I'm personally hoping for new tracks, new cars, and maybe even an accelerometer-based motorcycle racing mode. I admit that last wish is probably far-fetched, but it never hurts to dream, right? It almost seems impossible to improve upon the original, so I'm excited to see what Firemint will add in the sequel.

Though I can only guess at a release date, the timing of this press release seems to suggest that we could have this product on our iPhones in time for the gift-giving season. I'm crossing my fingers!

This week's apps are both arcade games: an advanced Astroids-like title and a game where you play as a man-eating giant worm.… Read more

Scientists have recovered part of a Japanese space probe that returned to Earth after landing on an asteroid to collect samples, and they're preparing to open it. At least The Andromeda Strain inspired them to wear helmets and body armor.

The sample container from the Hayabusa probe parachuted to a soft landing in the Australian Outback on Sunday. The fridge-size probe burned up in spectacular fashion on reentry (see the NASA video below).

There was no damage to the mushroom-shaped container, and the probe's heat shield was also found, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Hayabusa … Read more