Sentences with phrase «moon than another asteroid»

Its orbit places Vesta in the Main Asteriod Belt, but the object more closely resembles a small planet or Earth's Moon than another asteroid (more discussion).

Not exact matches

And yet Ceres — the largest object in the asteroid belt — is less than one - tenth of a percent the size of Earth and less than 2 % the size of the moon:

Further calculations showed that the object, named 1996 JA1, would pass by at less of a distance than the moon is from Earth, spawning the first widespread media coverage of an asteroid threat.

But Phobos and Deimos, among the smallest moons in the solar system, look more like misshapen asteroids than Earth's moon, Sumner says.

We now know that hordes of asteroids pass close to our planet, some closer than the Moon itself.

Scientists estimate that several dozen asteroids in the 20 - to -40-foot (6 - to -12-meter) size range fly by Earth at a distance even closer than the moon every year.

The first image in the upper left was taken about 9.5 hours before closest approach, when Rosetta was still 510,000 km (315,000 miles) from the asteroid - more distant than the Moon is from the Earth!

The kind of asteroid needed to form the Martian dichotomy would fall in between that size and those of the rocks that formed other large craters, such as the South Pole — Aitken impact basin on the moon and the Hellas Basin in Mars's southern hemisphere, both more than 1,30 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide.

Because asteroids» gravity is so weak, landing on one takes less energy than reaching the surface of the moon or Mars.

Ideas abounded: using ion engines to ferry up the components of a moon base; beaming power to robotic rovers on the Martian moon Phobos; attaching high - power Hall effect thrusters to the International Space Station (ISS) and putting it on a Mars cycler orbit; preplacing chemical rocket boosters along an interplanetary trajectory in advance so astronauts could pick them up along the way; using exploration pods like those in 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than space suits; instead of sending astronauts to an asteroid, bringing a (very small) asteroid to astronauts at the space station.

The 2018 budget request cancels NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission — an Obama administration - era project to bring part of an asteroid near the moon so astronauts could visit the space rock and retrieve samples — but included no details on cancelation other than it was needed «to accommodate increasing development costsAsteroid Redirect Mission — an Obama administration - era project to bring part of an asteroid near the moon so astronauts could visit the space rock and retrieve samples — but included no details on cancelation other than it was needed «to accommodate increasing development costsasteroid near the moon so astronauts could visit the space rock and retrieve samples — but included no details on cancelation other than it was needed «to accommodate increasing development costs.»

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University]-- Around 3.8 billion years ago, an asteroid more than 150 miles across, roughly equal to the length of New Jersey, slammed into the Moon and created the Imbrium Basin — the right eye of the fabled Man in the Moon.

It really made me feel like they just want to spend money on design and fabricate some test vehicles but not launch them because # 1 it to expensive and # 2 they really don't know where to go or than an asteroid mission because Planetary Resources really doesn't want to spend their own money on R&D... Considering the events in the Ukraine and Iran... The world may end before the SLS / Orion goes anywhere other LEO or maybe just maybe to the Moon!!!

«A newfound asteroid will safely pass Earth on June 8 from a distance of about 777,000 miles (1.25 million kilometers), more than three times farther away than our moon.»

This graphic depicts the passage of asteroid 2004 BL86, which will come no closer than about three times the distance from Earth to the Moon on Jan. 26, 2015.

Only discovered sixteen days ago, the 400 - metre - wide asteroid will fly past Earth at a safe distance slightly farther than the Moon's orbit on 31 October at 5:05 pm GMT.

During its approach, Rosetta has trained its navcams and OSIRIS camera at the comet, which sent back dramatic pictures of Churyumov — Gerasimenko; revealing it to be craggier and sharper edged than the asteroids and moons previously explored that had been worn down by billions of years of meteor impacts.

While the new definition would make Pluto a planet again, it would also make many moons, large asteroids and object in the remote Kuiper Belt into planets as well, bringing the grand total number of planets in our Solar System to more than 100.

Indeed, if all asteroids down to the size of meter - or yard - sized boulders or less were combined together, the resulting object would measure less than 1,300 to 1,500 km (810 to 930 miles) across, which is less than one third to one half the diameter of the Earth's Moon.

And as you know shoving an asteroid slightly off its course is far simpler (and cheaper) than going out to take pictures of yet another of Saturn's moons!

Asteroid 2005 YU55, photographed on Nov. 7, is passing Earth this evening at slightly less than the distance of the Moon's orbit.