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• n  any of numerous small celestial bodies composed of rock and metal that move around the sun (mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter)
• s  shaped like a star

• Astronomers are hoping for a spectacular high-impact collision as asteroid 2007 WD5 zooms toward Mars.
• Could an asteroid wipe out human life? PTI takes up the question with scientists, and the creators of the movie Deep Impact.
• A new survey of the geologic and fossil records of Mexico suggests that the asteroid was framed for the death of dinos.

• star-shaped

News & Articles

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• Crowdfunding Raises $1 Million for Asteroid Miners' Public Space Telescope
  The world's first selfie-snapping, asteroid-hunting, public space telescope is $1 million closer to its launch into Earth orbit, having surpassed its initial crowdfunding goal. [More]
  June 21, 2013 - Scientific American
• Asteroid-mining firm meets $1 million crowd-funding goal
  By Irene Klotz (Reuters) - A start-up asteroid mining firm that launched a crowd-funding campaign to gauge interest in a planned space telescope reached its $1 million goal, company officials said on Thursday. Bellevue, Washington-based Planetary Resources intends to build and operate telescopes to hunt for asteroids orbiting near Earth and robotic spacecraft to mine them. ...
  June 20, 2013 - Reuters via Yahoo! News
• Asteroid proposal may get burned
  Artist rendering of an asteroid capture. / NASA A formal Request For Information to provide ideas on NASA’s asteroid initiative is posted at NASA’s business opportunities website. Deadline for ideas is 5 p.m. July 18. NASA will consider them at a July 30 mission formulation review.
  June 19, 2013 - The Bay Bulletin

Quotes

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• Barack Obama in Space.com
  By 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the Moon into deep space,President Obama said. "We'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in...
• George Takei in CNET Crave Blog (blog)
  I am now a heavenly body,Takei said earlier this week, according to the AP. "I found out about it yesterday......I was blown away. It came out of the clear, blue sky--just like an asteroid."
• Stephen Hawking in Independent Online
  Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out,said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerised voice synthesiser.