Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors

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Newly Discovered Interstellar Object 'May be Oldest Comet Ever Seen'
July 11, 2025

Introduction:

( Eureklaert) A mystery interstellar object discovered last week is likely to be the oldest comet ever seen – possibly predating our solar system by more than three billion years, researchers say.

The "water ice-rich" visitor, named 3I/ATLAS, is only the third known object from beyond our solar system ever spotted in our cosmic neighbourhood and the first to reach us from a completely different region of our Milky Way galaxy.

It could be more than seven billion years old, according to University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins – who is discussing his findings at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham – and may be the most remarkable interstellar visitor yet.

Unlike the previous two objects to enter our solar system from elsewhere in the cosmos, 3I/ATLAS appears to be travelling on a steep path through the galaxy, with a trajectory that suggests it originated from the Milky Way's 'thick disk' – a population of ancient stars orbiting above and below the thin plane where the Sun and most stars reside.

"All non-interstellar comets such as Halley's comet formed with our solar system, so are up to 4.5 billion years old," Hopkins said.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1090778

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Meet Earth’s newest quasi-moon, recently discovered 2025 PN7

September 9, 2025

You might recall that in late 2024, Earth gained a temporary mini-moon, an asteroid that partially orbited our planet for about two months. Now astronomers have discovered another temporary companion to Earth, but this time it’s a quasi-moon. The Pan-STARRS observatory on Haleakala in Hawaii first spotted the quasi-moon, named 2025 PN7, on August 29, 2025. Older data revealed that 2025 PN7 has been in this particular orbit for about 60 years and will stay in this orbit for about another 60 years before the tug of the sun once again releases it from its quasi-moon status.

https://earthsky.org/space/earth-quasi- ... be2a1ee2ac

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NASA Responds to Claims That Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is an Advanced Alien Spacecraft
By James Felton
September 15, 2025

Extract:

(IFL Sceince) On July 1, 2025, astronomers spotted an object moving through the Solar System at nearly twice the velocity of previous interstellar visitors ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. The object, which was confirmed to be an interstellar comet with its own dusty coma, is far larger than the previous two, with an estimated nucleus (the rocky part of the comet, excluding its coma) of around 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles).
…
So far, so interesting. But unfortunately, it appears we can't enjoy the beauty of an interstellar visitor without somebody invoking aliens. Soon after the object was discovered, and before we could take a proper look at it, Israeli-American theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and astronomer Avi Loeb suggested that it may be an interstellar probe sent by an intelligent species, potentially sent to destroy Earth.
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“It looks like a comet. It does comet things. It very, very strongly resembles, in just about every way, the comets that we know,” Tom Statler, NASA’s lead scientist for Solar System small bodies, said to The Guardian about such claims.

“It has some interesting properties that are a little bit different from our solar system comets, but it behaves like a comet. And so the evidence is overwhelmingly pointing to this object being a natural body. It’s a comet.”

Scientific papers looking at the object have consistently found that it is a comet, the first we have spotted from outside our Solar System, and easily the fastest comet we have ever seen. It will be interesting to observe the object as it approaches, even though at its closest approach to the Sun, it will be out of our view. But NASA can state with quite a lot of confidence, given the observations that have taken place already, that the object is not a threat to the Earth, and is not secretly harboring alien technology to destroy us all. Thank you, NASA.

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/nasa-respon ... ft-80820

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ok guys, that's it. avi loeb has lost it

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'Invisible' asteroids near Venus may threaten Earth in the future

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-invisible ... earth.html

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^More on that:

The Second Closest Asteroid Flyby of Earth Ever Recorded Just Whizzed Over Antarctica
By Stephen Luntz
October 6, 2025

Introduction:

(IFL Science) Astronomers have witnessed the second-closest asteroid fly-by ever measured. Or at least we think they have, with government shutdowns preventing NASA from releasing a statement. Luckily, the European Space Agency is still on the ball and caught it. Once again, however, we only noticed the visitor after it had already passed us.

Not long after midnight, Universal Time, on October 1, the still-to-be-discovered asteroid 2025 TF passed the Earth at a reported distance of 6,790 kilometers (4,330 miles), according to The Watchers. That doesn’t sound particularly close, until you realize the distance was measured from the center of the Earth, not the surface.

Even allowing for the planet’s slight flattening at the poles, that meant it passed about 420 km (260 miles) over Antarctica. That’s a typical height satellites use if we don’t want them to stay in orbit too long, risking space junk, and prefer atmospheric drag to bring them down. The International Space Station (ISS) maintains orbit around 408 km (253 miles) above us while satellites with longer-term ambitions, such as Hubble, fly a bit higher, at 550 km (340 miles). Original estimates placed asteroid 2025 TF even closer.

The asteroid, which is thought to be 1-3 meters (3 to 10 feet) across, was first spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey a few hours after it had passed Earth. ESA's Planetary Defense Office saw it shortly after its discovery. Objects of this size pose no significant threat; however, it would be good if we could spot them before they potentially hit, like the recent case of 2023 CX1, the first object tracked from discovery to finding meteorites.

Humanity has got a lot better at detecting close approaches – there have been more than 100 closer than the Moon just this year. The record for an observed close approach was 2020 VT4, which passed 6,746 km (4,190 miles) from the Earth’s center on November 13, 2020.

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/the-second- ... ca-81043

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wtf

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Hera and Europa Clipper will pass through 3I/ATLAS' tail
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-hera-euro ... -tail.html
by Universe Today

All sorts of crazy things have been suggested regarding 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object that we've discovered. Some are simply conspiracy theories about it being an alien spacecraft, while others have been well-thought-out suggestions, like using Martian-based probes to observe the comet as it streaked past the red planet. A new paper pre-published on arXiv and accepted for publication by the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society by Samuel Grand and Geraint Jones, of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and ESA respectively, falls into the latter category, and suggests utilizing two spacecraft already en route to their separate destinations to potentially detect ions from the object's spectacular tail that has formed as it approaches the sun.

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Tesla in Australia Struck by Mystery Object
By Michele Starr
November 3, 2025

Introduction:

(Science Alert) An object that struck an Australian man's Tesla as he was traveling along a highway may have been a meteorite.

Andrew Melville-Smith, a veterinarian from Whyalla in South Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the object hit his windscreen with such force that the glass appeared to soften and partially melt, and cracks spidered out from the point of impact.

The car, which was reportedly in Autopilot mode at the time, continued driving blithely as though nothing had happened.

Melville-Smith reported the incident and its location to the South Australian Museum, which is currently investigating to determine the provenance of the projectile.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/tesla-in- ... ld-first

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China's 900 Metre Impact Crater Rewrites Recent History
by Mark Thompson
November 14 , 2025

Introduction:

(Universe Today) Nestled on a hillside in Guangdong Province near Zhaoqing City, the Jinlin crater managed to hide in plain sight until researchers identified it as an impact structure. Only about 200 confirmed impact craters exist worldwide, making each discovery scientifically valuable. But this one stands out for its exceptional size and youth.

The crater formed during the Holocene epoch when the last ice age ended roughly 11,700 years ago. Based on measurements of nearby soil erosion, researchers estimate it was carved sometime during the early to mid Holocene. With a diameter between 820 and 900 metres and a depth of 90 metres, it dwarfs Russia's 300 metre Macha crater, previously the largest known Holocene impact structure.

Finding such a massive, well preserved crater is surprising given the region's climate. Guangdong Province experiences regular monsoons, heavy rainfall, and high humidity precisely the conditions that accelerate erosion and should have long ago obliterated any visible crater. Yet the Jinlin crater remains remarkably intact, preserved within thick layers of weathered granite that protected its structure from the elements.

The evidence confirming its extraterrestrial origin lies in the details. Within the granite, researchers found numerous quartz fragments exhibiting planar deformation features microscopic characteristics that serve as geological fingerprints of impact events.

"On Earth, the formation of planar deformation features in quartz is only from the intense shockwaves generated by celestial body impacts," - Ming Chen, lead author from the Centre for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research in Shanghai.

Read more here: https://www.universetoday.com/articles ... -history

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Finding 40,000 Asteroids Before They Find Us
By Mark Thompson
November 25, 2025

Introduction:

(Universe Today) The number 40,000 might not sound particularly dramatic, but it represents humanity's growing catalogue of near Earth asteroids, rocky remnants from the Solar System's violent birth that cross paths with our planet's orbit. We've come a long way since 1898, when astronomers discovered the first of these wanderers, an asteroid called Eros.

For most of the twentieth century, discoveries came slowly, with astronomers spotting perhaps a handful of new asteroids each year. Then dedicated survey telescopes arrived in the 1990s and 2000s, purpose built to scan the sky methodically, and the numbers began climbing exponentially. The count reached 1,000 at the turn of the century, 15,000 by 2016, and 30,000 in 2022. This November, the 40,000 target was crossed, with roughly 10,000 of those discoveries made in just the past three years.

The acceleration shows no signs of slowing yet. New facilities like Chile's Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which opened this year, will discover tens of thousands more asteroids despite not being exclusively dedicated to asteroid hunting. Meanwhile, ESA's Flyeye telescopes use wide, almost insect like views of the sky to catch objects that slip past current surveys.

Near Earth asteroids are defined by proximity rather than size. Any space rock whose orbit brings it within about 45 million kilometres of Earth's orbit earns the designation, whether it's a few metres across or several kilometres wide. Each new discovery triggers a cascade of calculations, with astronomers using available observations to predict the object's path years, decades, even centuries ahead. Software systems assess whether any chance exists, however remote, of an Earth impact within the next century.

Almost 2,000 known near Earth asteroids have non zero impact probabilities over the next hundred years. Before panic sets in, most are tiny and pose negligible danger, with impact probabilities typically well below one percent. More reassuringly, the largest asteroids, those exceeding one kilometre that could cause global catastrophe, are also easiest to spot. Scientists believe the vast majority have already been found.

Read more here: https://www.universetoday.com/articles ... -find-us

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Scientists found tryptophan, the ‘sleepy’ amino acid, in an asteroid. Here’s what it means

Nov 28, 2025

Tryptophan, the essential amino acid behind the Thanksgiving myth that eating turkey can make you sleepy, has been found to exist on Bennu, a small asteroid that swings by our planet about every six years.

The discovery stems from an unprecedented sample collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which landed a spacecraft on the asteroid in 2020, captured 4.3 ounces (121.6 grams) of rocks and dust, and safely returned the cache to Earth in 2023. NASA has since distributed a small portion of that sample to researchers around the world to be analyzed.

Studying Bennu is important because its composition reflects that of the early solar system, giving scientists a glimpse into the beginnings of life. Previous research on Bennu samples had already found 14 of the 20 amino acids all living organisms on Earth stem from, as well as all five biological nucleobases — the components that make up the genetic code in DNA and RNA.

Researchers also previously detected amino acids in samples from another asteroid, Ryugu, which the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency collected in 2019, as well as in various meteorites that have fallen to Earth. This growing body of evidence suggests that asteroids might have delivered essential life ingredients to our planet early on, according to experts.

Now, a new analysis of Bennu samples has confidently, although not yet conclusively, identified tryptophan, increasing the tally of protein-building amino acids in the asteroid to 15 out of 20.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/27/scie ... asa-sample



A mosaic of Bennu created from observations made by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which was in close proximity to the asteroid for over two years. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

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