While asteroids are the lesser-known populace of the solar system, they have possibly the greatest significance as these floating bodies of rock are as old as the solar system itself and studying them ...

Scientists have found traces of water in dust grains from the peanut-shaped asteroid Itokawa, and the discovery could shed light on how Earth got its water. Researchers at Arizona State University ...

Japan’s asteroid-visiting Hayabusa spacecraft wasn’t a complete disaster, but it definitely got off to a rocky start. Launched in 2003, the world’s first sample-return mission was quickly sidelined ...

Researchers have taken the first measurements of water in samples collected from an asteroid—and the findings cast new light on the mysterious origin of the substance on Earth. Analysis of the samples ...

During a seven-year round trip, the Japanese probe Hayabusa collected samples from the asteroid Itokawa and returned them to Earth in 2010. Now researchers from Arizona State University have ...

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of an asteroid? For most of us, the last thing we would think of would be a peanut. However, recent observations by the ESO and JAXA show the ...

There are currently two missions collecting material from asteroids, Hayabusa-2 and OSIRIS-REx. But before them, there was Hayabusa (the original), which brought back small samples of space rock to be ...

Over 70 percent of Earth’s surface is covered in water, almost all of which is in the oceans. But where did all this water come from? Several hypotheses seek to explain how water arrived on our planet ...

For almost two years and three months after the launch in May of 2003, Hayabusa spacecraft has traveled a long journey by way of Earth gravity assist in May of 2004, and will make a world’s first low ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Photos from Japan's beleaguered asteroid mission Hayabusa to visit the asteroid Itokawa and ...

The small asteroid Itokawa is just a loosely packed pile of rubble that collected after a collision between asteroids, according to a slew of new studies based on data from Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft ...