The close approach will happen at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET on May 21 (1730 GMT), at which point the asteroid, designated 2025 KF, will pass a mere 71,700 miles (115,000 kilometers) from Earth ...

Once it has the samples in hand, Tianwen-2 will depart the asteroid in early 2027 and head for Earth, where it will release a reentry module containing bits of Kamoʻoalewa for landing in late 2027.

China embarked on Thursday on its first mission to retrieve samples from a nearby asteroid, with the nighttime launch of its Tianwen-2 spacecraft, set to make the fast-growing space power the ...

In four years, a large asteroid will make an extremely close flyby of our home planet. Named Apophis, the space rock will come within just 32,000 kilometres of Earth on April 13, 2029, closer than ...

The 1,100-foot-wide (340 meters) Apophis, also known as asteroid 99942, is set to make a very close, but safe, flyby of Earth on April 13, 2029.The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing its ...

But the race for the red planet should not overshadow China’s first bid to acquire shards of an asteroid. “This is very exciting,” said Richard Binzel , a planetary scientist at the ...