Science, Asteroid | featured news

If scientists detected a major asteroid headed for Earth now, it would take at least five years and billions of dollars to develop an effective defense system to either alter its course or destroy it, scientists say.

Private group works to prevent next close encounter with an asteroid or meteors. The Earth may have survived its close encounters with an asteroid and a meteor Friday, but the episodes focused new attention on gaps in astronomers' ability to identify smaller space rocks like these capable of inflicting widespread destruction.

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The best way for most of us to watch asteroid 2012 DA14 come within 17,200 miles of Earth, and then recede harmlessly into the cosmos, is to watch the show online.

Another company joined the commercial space race Tuesday with ambitious plans to mine asteroids near Earth, but experts say the physics and economics of the Final Frontier remain still daunting.

Upon further review, a big scary-sounding asteroid is no longer even a remote threat to smash into Earth in about 20 years, NASA says....

Nasa scientists are planning to capture a 500 ton asteroid , relocate it and turn it into a space station for astronauts on their way to Mars. The White House's Office of Science and technology will consider the £1.6bn plan in the coming weeks as it prepares to set its space exploration agenda for the next decade.

A giant asteroid will make a flyby of Earth over the next few days, and armchair astronomers can watch the action live on their computers.

It sounds like the plot of a bad Bruce Willis movie, but some experts are saying it should be a reality. In order to prepare for massive asteroids that could aim for Earth in the future, researchers should ram a spaceship into a real asteroid to see if the space rock would shift course, scientists say.

A city-block size asteroid will fly by Earth this weekend, well beyond the orbit of the moon, and you can watch it zip safely by live in an online webcast.

A group of high-tech tycoons wants to mine nearby asteroids, hoping to turn science fiction into real profits. The plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals like platinum and gold out of the lifeless rocks that routinely whiz by Earth. One of the company founders predicts they could have their version of a space-based gas station up and running by 2020.