Astronomers Document Remarkable Changes on Comet 67P
The Rosetta mission has documented remarkable changes on the surface of Comet 67P, revealing growing fractures, collapsing cliffs, rolling boulders and moving material. Images returned…
comet
NASA Study Shows Change in Water ‘Fingerprint’ of Comet Lovejoy
A new study suggests that a trip past the sun may have selectively altered the production of one form of water in a comet. Astronomers…
NEOWISE Mission Spots One Comet, Maybe Two
NASA’s NEOWISE mission has discovered some celestial objects traveling through our neighborhood, including one on the blurry line between asteroid and comet. An object called…
Rosetta’s Final Descent Images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
These newly released images are the last taken by ESA’s Rosetta Spacecraft shortly before its controlled impact into the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. A new image of…
Hubble Views Cosmic Fragments of Comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami
This newly released Hubble image shows comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami. This intriguing new image captured with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a dust-bathed cluster of fragments…
Astronomers Identify Greenhouse Gases in Comets
Using data from the NEOWISE Space Telescope, astronomers have gained new insights into the dust and production rates for difficult-to-observe gases like carbon dioxide and…
“Skull Shaped” Asteroid 2015 TB145 Will Flyby Earth This Halloween
Just in time for Halloween, a large space rock that bears an eerie resemblance to a skull will zip past Earth this weekend. Scientists observing…
Harvard Astronomers Discover NEOs That Are Dormant, Short-Period Comets
In a new study, scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reveal that between about 0.3 and 3% of the moderately bright NEOs are actually…
NASA Comet Hitchhiker Would Take Tour of Small Asteroids and Comets
Comet Hitchhiker is in Phase I study through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program. Its goal is to use the kinetic energy of comets and…
Rosetta Views Comet 67P Making Its Closest Approach to the Sun
ESA’s Rosetta Spacecraft views Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko making its closest approach to the Sun, coming within 186 million km of the Sun. In the year that…
Rosetta Spacecraft Views an Outburst from Comet 67P
A new set of images from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft shows a short-lived outburst from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft…
Rosetta Monitors Active Pits on Comet 67P
A newly published study reveals that 18 quasi-circular pits in the northern hemisphere of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s are responsible for its halo of dust and gas….
Rosetta Uncovers Unexpected Processes at Work in Comet’s Coma
Rosetta’s continued study of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has revealed an unexpected process at work that causes the rapid breakup of water and carbon dioxide molecules spewing…
Rosetta and Philae Reveal That Comet 67P is Not Magnetized
New data from Rosetta and Philae reveal that the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is not magnetized. Studying the properties of a comet can provide clues…
An Unusual Comet Skimmed Past the Sun
A new comet was discovered sling-shotting around the sun by ESA/NASA’s SOHO. The comet is not from any known family of comets. An comet circles…
A Closer Look at the Icy Conditions of Comets
New research from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory used a cryostat instrument, nicknamed “Himalaya,” to study the icy conditions under which comets form. Astronomers tinkering with…
Research Shows a Significant Increase in the Amount of Water “Pouring” Out of Comet 67P
Data from ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft revelas that there has been a significant increase in the amount of water “pouring” out of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet…
NEOWISE: One Year of Observations Mapped
NASA reviews the past 12 months of NEOWISE discoveries with a short video that shows the progression of the NEOWISE survey in the year after…