asteroid

This weekend is a rare opportunity to see a space rock the size of a city block go for a joyride past the much bigger space rock we call Earth.

The snappily named asteroid 2002 AM31 will cruise by our planet this Sunday, coming within 13.7 lunar distances, or about 3.2 million miles.

If you consider yourself a bit of a NEO (near-Earth object) groupie, you can watch the whole spectacle online at the Web site of the Slooh space camera (really a network of robotic telescopes around the globe). Webcasts are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. PT and will feature live commentary and feeds from telescopes in Arizona and the Canary Islands. … Read more

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Space startup Planetary Resources today launched an ambitious plan to capture water and precious metals from near-Earth asteroids, a feat founders say would enrich earthbound society and enable further space exploration

The two-year-old company announced its plans at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, where its founders said that technology has advanced to the point that space-mining valuable natural resources is now economically feasible.

Some asteroids that pass near the Earth may hold water -- a vital commodity for making spacecraft fuel and supporting the lives of astronauts. And that's just the beginning. A single 500-meter-wide asteroid could contain … Read more

As people come to terms with the limits of the Earth's natural resources, startup company Planetary Resources is eyeing another source: space.

The company, founded by XPrize Foundation CEO Peter Diamandis and aerospace engineer Eric Anderson, will launch at the Museum of Flight in Seattle later today. Its list of advisers includes Google CEO Larry Page, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, filmmaker James Cameron, and the former Microsoft chief software architect and space tourist Charles Simonyi. Other advisers are Google board member and investor Ram Shriram and Ross Perot Jr., son of the former presidential candidate.

Planetary Resources' goal … Read more

Get ready for another asteroid to zoom past the Earth, closer than the moon.

Space.com reports that Asteroid 2012 EG5 will get within 143,000 miles of the planet at 8:32 a.m. PT on Sunday -- that's a little more than half the distance to the moon.

About the size of a passenger jet (a mere 150 feet or so wide), this wee space pebble is nothing compared with the aircraft-carrier-size Asteroid 2005 YU55 that screamed by us all back in November.

Besides, the NASA-affiliated Near Earth Object Office assures us via Twitter that the stone … Read more

Two small asteroids now bear the names of two towering figures in computing history, Unix inventors Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie.

Asteroid 300909 Kenthompson and 294727 Dennisritchie both were discovered in 2008 by Tom Glinos and D. H. Levy (the latter famous for being a discover of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which smashed into Jupiter in 1994).

Rob Pike, who worked with the pair where the influential operating system was invented, AT&T's Bell Labs, flagged the news in a Google+ post yesterday; the new names apparently arrived in February. Pike nowadays is heavily involved in Google's … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The Parrot Asteroid Android-powered car stereo is back at CES, and this time it's brought a few new family members.

First up is the Parrot Asteroid CK. This 3.2-inch-screened device installs on the vehicle's dashboard, providing Bluetooth hands-free calling, A2DP audio streaming, voice command for dialing, and digital audio playback from a connected iPod, iPhone, USB storage device, or SD card. You can Bluetooth-tether a smartphone or connect a USB 3G dongle, and the Asteroid CK can connect to the Internet to stream music from the cloud or access geolocation services. The CK does not appear … Read more

Asteroids Gunner follows the same basic gameplay as the original stand-up arcade game, but adds much more to the action. At the beginning of the game, you find yourself in an asteroid field and your job is to maneuver your ship and break up asteroids until you've cleared the area. Also like in the original, occasionally a UFO will materialize that you can shoot for bonus points. But what brings Asteroids Gunner squarely into the present day are several improvements that will keep you coming back for more. For starters, Asteroids Gunner uses a dual-stick control method with the … Read more

Asteroids Gunner was released by Atari today in the iTunes App Store, taking some cues from the company's arcade classic, Asteroids, and adding contemporary gaming mechanics that might make it a hit for iOS gamers.

When I think of the classic arcade games of old, the titles that pop into my head are games like Pac-Man, Defender, Galaga, and Asteroids, among many others. You can still find many of these games using emulation software on desktops or purchase them in newer iOS collections like Atari's Greatest Hits. But today Atari released a sequel to Asteroids (first released in 1979) called Asteroids Gunner, and it has just the right mix of action and contemporary gameplay elements to make it a must-have for those who like old arcade hits.… Read more