<p class="c4 c18"><strong>With the world abuzz this week about <a class="c8" href="http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/30/giant-rock-sails-past-earth-friday/">Earth</a><a class="c8" href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fnewswatch.nationalgeographic.com%2F2013%2F05%2F30%2Fgiant-rock-sails-past-earth-friday%2F&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNG-1LvhORZLO6f-E4AQypAg6V6oWw">'</a><a class="c8" href="http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/30/giant-rock-sails-past-earth-friday/">s close encounter with a giant asteroid</a>, NASA scientists announced on May 30 the discovery of an entire new family of these celestial rocks hiding out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.</strong></p><p class="c4 c18"><strong></strong>This artist's impression depicts the violent birth of one of these new-found families. A violent smashup creates fragments that fly apart, forming loose groups that orbit the sun as new asteroid families.</p><p class="c4 c18">NASA researchers were able to identify 28 separate groups of asteroids by scanning millions of infrared snapshots from the asteroid-hunting portion of the&nbsp;<a class="c8" href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html">WISE</a> (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) all-sky survey.</p><p class="c4 c18">The next step will be for researchers to identify the parent objects that created these hundreds of newly discovered asteroids. (Related:&nbsp;<a class="c8" href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130214-biggest-asteroid-impacts-meteorites-space-2012da14/">“Asteroid Impacts: 10 Biggest Known Hits.”</a>)</p><p class="c4 c18">—<em>Andrew Fazekas</em></p>