A peculiar class of meteorites has offered scientists new clues about when the planet Jupiter took shape and wandered through the solar system.
Space Exploration
Dec 9, 2016
0
266
(Phys.org)—A team of Spanish astronomers has recently observed a newly discovered asteroid designated P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS), revealing its activity and measuring its total dust loss. The findings, detailing the most probable ...
(Phys.org)—The renowned Hubble Space Telescope (HST) plays a leading role in uncovering distant locations of the universe, but it could be also a helpful tool for studying nearby objects, like space rocks whizzing through ...
Naturally formed quasicrystals—crystal-like solids with supposedly impossible symmetries—are among the rarest structures on Earth. Only two have ever been found.
Condensed Matter
Jun 13, 2016
0
490
Was it a catastrophic collision in the star's asteroid belt? A giant impact that disrupted a nearby planet? A dusty cloud of rock and debris? A family of comets breaking apart? Or was it alien megastructures built to harvest ...
Astronomy
Nov 25, 2015
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1109
Using a new process in planetary formation modeling, where planets grow from tiny bodies called "pebbles," Southwest Research Institute scientists can explain why Mars is so much smaller than Earth. This same process also ...
Space Exploration
Oct 26, 2015
39
743
First classified a planet, then an asteroid and then a "dwarf planet" with some traits of a moon—the more scientists learn about Ceres, the weirder it becomes.
Space Exploration
Apr 13, 2015
14
1551
(Phys.org) —On February 15 2013, an asteroid exploded about 30 kilometers above Chelyabinsk, Russia. The explosion, shared on video around the world, was the Earth's second largest recorded airburst. By analyzing fragments ...
Astronomers have witnessed for the first time the breakup of an asteroid into as many as 10 smaller pieces. The discovery is published online March 6 in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Astronomy
Mar 6, 2014
65
0
To get an idea of how the early solar system may have formed, scientists often look to asteroids. These relics of rock and dust represent what today's planets may have been before they differentiated into bodies of core, ...
Space Exploration
Jan 29, 2014
1
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