Phys.org notes that the concept involves firing a laser at the surface of an oncoming asteroid. The laser vaporizes part of the object, creating a jet of plasma that acts to change its velocity ...

An asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has roughly a 0.004% chance of hitting Earth in about eight years, NASA says — with the space agency saying it "no longer poses a significant ...

tested whether a direct impact could deflect an asteroid from its path — and it succeeded. Lab tests, too, show that laser deflections work. And scientists have long discussed using nuclear ...

An asteroid gaining notoriety for its potential to collide with Earth in 2032 was estimated Tuesday to have roughly a 3% chance of striking our planet — the highest probability ever assigned ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) fires up three of the instruments on the Hera spacecraft and takes images of the smaller ...

Along less dangerous but similar lines, another idea is to shoot laser beams from a spacecraft to vaporise the side of an asteroid, pushing it away. Lab experiments suggest this plan is viable ...

The asteroid, measuring between 130 to 300 feet wide, was discovered in December 2024. While the risk to Earth is negligible, 2024 YR4 has a slightly higher chance of impacting the moon.

The narrow difference is due to the two agencies’ use of different tools for determining the asteroid’s orbit and modeling its potential impact. But both percentages rise above the 2.7% chance ...

The chances has more than doubled in a matter of weeks, officials said. The chances of an asteroid striking Earth within the next decade has more than doubled in a matter of weeks, according to ...

Artist's impression of an asteroid. This image is not intended to reflect the characteristics of any specific known asteroid. ESA-Science Office It seems that Earth isn’t likely to be struck by ...

Update: The odds of asteroid 2024 YR4 striking Earth in 2032 have fallen to 1.5%, NASA announced Wednesday. Read the latest. The risk that an increasingly ominous asteroid dubbed 2024 YR4 will ...