Hygeia was first seen in 1849 as a moving spot in a telescope. It’s thought to have formed into its current shape between 2 billion and 3 billion years ago, when it collided with another asteroid.

The asteroid Ryugu has a texture that is highly porous, new images from a Japanese spacecraft reveal. “It is something like freeze-[dried] coffee,” planetary scientist Tatsuaki Okada of the ...

Hygeia knows and embodies the belief that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” DashDividers_1_500x100 The classification of asteroids to dwarf planets to centaurs have changed throughout time.

The asteroid Ryugu is light and fluffy. Images taken by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft suggest the whole asteroid is highly porous, scientists report in Nature on March 16. “It is something like ...

The observations have shown that Hygeia could be classified as a dwarf planet. The object is said to be the fourth-largest asteroid in the belts behind Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas.

Two billion years ago, one world was destroyed, but a new one was born. Hygiea, the 4th largest asteroid in the main-belt, is the result of this catastrophic disruption of an asteroid. A team of ...

Although it's just 270 miles across — about as big as Alabama — the asteroid Hygeia has surprised astronomers by being round.