With a friend in the White House, the tech billionaire's extraterrestrial ambitions are ready for lift-off - but not everybody is convinced

In the United States, funding for planetary defense has long had strong bipartisan support both inside and outside of Congress.

On Jan. 2, the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced the discovery of an unusual asteroid, designated 2018 CN41. First identified and submitted by citizen scientist H.

On Monday night you may have a chance to witness the moon obscuring the Red Planet at its brightest, as well as a comet’s closest approach to the sun.

Mars is home to perhaps the greatest mystery of the solar system: the so-called Martian dichotomy, which has baffled scientists since it was discovered in the 1970s.

The sun’s light exerts a tiny force called “solar radiation pressure” on objects in space. Lightweight human-made debris, like hollow rocket parts, gets pushed around more easily, like a tin can in the wind. Natural objects like asteroids are much denser and less affected.

"it's not completely unusual for asteroids to be near the Earth," Gallagher said. "Our moon is about a quarter million miles away from the Earth. So something 7.6 million miles out would be many, many, many times father away from the Earth than the moon is. No cause for alarm."

The Alinda asteroid will be visible with binoculars in a 'once in a decade' event as it brushes past Earth, with its return to the planet not expected until 2087

An asteroid smacking into Mars could eject debris high above the Red Planet. If Deimos and Phobos formed from debris resulting from an asteroid collision on Mars, they must be younger than the Red ...

Typically, asteroids - like the one depicted in this artist's concept - originate from the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars

The full moon will slide in front of Mars Monday evening in a rare planetary occultation. Occultations are like eclipses but instead of the Sun, it's a planet or a much more distant star being blocked by the Moon.

The UAE is developing a space craft to land on an asteroid belt beyond Mars.