Mysterious Visitor From the Depths of Space Swings Past Sun
When astronomers see something in the universe that at first glance seems like one-of-a-kind, it’s bound to stir up a lot of excitement and attention….
Comet
“Very Surprised!” – NASA’s Exoplanet-Hunting Mission Catches an Explosive Comet Outburst
Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers at the University of Maryland (UMD), in College Park, Maryland, have captured a clear start-to-finish…
Dozens of ‘Comet Crumbs’ Detected by LISA Pathfinder [Video]
LISA Pathfinder, a mission led by ESA (the European Space Agency) that included NASA contributions, successfully demonstrated technologies needed to build a future space-based gravitational…
First Confirmed Interstellar Comet Observed by Hubble [Video]
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their best look yet at an interstellar visitor — comet 2I/Borisov — whose speed and trajectory indicate it…
Initial Characterization of First-Ever Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Complete – Including Size
For decades, astronomers have speculated that the space between stars may be populated by exosolar minor bodies — comets and asteroids — ejected from their…
New Interstellar Visitor Is Confirmed and It Has a Name
Second interstellar object has been spotted and named just two years after the first. A new object from interstellar space has been found within the…
Discovery of Comet Gateway to Inner Solar System Alters Fundamental Understanding of Comet Evolution
Our understanding of comets is linked to knowing our solar system’s early composition. A new study led by a University of Central Florida researcher may…
NASA Confirms Newly Discovered Comet Is Likely Interstellar Visitor
A newly discovered comet has excited the astronomical community this week because it appears to have originated from outside the solar system. The object –…
First-Ever Interstellar Comet Captured in Multicolor Image
The first-ever comet from beyond our Solar System has been successfully imaged by the Gemini Observatory in multiple colors. The image of the newly discovered…
Comet Discovery Reopens Debate About The Origin of Earth’s Water
Where did the Earth’s water come from? Although comets, with their icy nuclei, seem like ideal candidates, analyses have so far shown that their water…
Hubble and SOFIA Take a Close Look at Comet 46P
As the brilliant comet 46P/Wirtanen streaked across the sky, NASA telescopes caught it on camera from multiple angles. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed comet 46P/Wirtanen…
View Passing Comet 46P/Wirtanen This Sunday
On Sunday, December 16, the comet known as 46P/Wirtanen will make one of the 10 closest comet flybys of Earth in 70 years, and you…
Asteroids, Comets and Other Small Objects Provide Clues of Mysterious Distant Past
The entire history of human existence is a tiny blip in our solar system’s 4.5-billion-year history. No one was around to see planets forming and…
NASA’s Planet-Hunting Satellite Catches a Comet in Motion
Before NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) started science operations on July 25, 2018, the planet hunter sent back a stunning sequence of serendipitous images…
Scientists Detail the Origin of Molecular Oxygen in Comet 67P
Scientists have found that molecular oxygen around comet 67P is not produced on its surface, as some suggested, but may be from its body. The…
A Star Disturbed Solar System Comets and Asteroids 70,000 Years Ago
About 70,000 years ago, when the human species was already on Earth, a small reddish star approached our solar system and gravitationally disturbed comets and…
Astronomers Reveal How Catastrophic Collisions Form Two Lobe Comets
Comets made up of two lobes, such as 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, visited by the Rosetta spacecraft, are produced when the debris resulting from a destructive collision between…
Swift Mission Views an Unprecedented Change in the Rotation of Comet 41P
Observations by NASA’s Swift spacecraft, now renamed the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory after the mission’s late principal investigator, have captured an unprecedented change in the…