The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument identified the 4000th comet discovered by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint mission between the European Space ...
Space Exploration
Jun 26, 2020
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17
On June 15, 2020, a citizen scientist spotted a never-before-seen comet in data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO—the 4,000th comet discovery in the spacecraft's 25-year history.
Space Exploration
Jun 17, 2020
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57
ESA's Solar Orbiter will cross through the tails of Comet ATLAS during the next few days. Although the recently launched spacecraft was not due to be taking science data at this time, mission experts have worked to ensure ...
Space Exploration
May 29, 2020
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491
Recently discovered object 2019 LD2, originally believed to be the first cometary "Jupiter Trojan" asteroid by astronomers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Institute for Astronomy turns out to be an interloper comet ...
Space Exploration
May 27, 2020
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37
We often think of asteroids and comets as distinct types of small bodies, but astronomers have discovered an increasing number of "crossovers." These objects initially appear to be asteroids, and later develop activity, such ...
Space Exploration
May 21, 2020
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292
Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN), perhaps the brightest comet we will see this year, is at its best from now until mid-June. It should be visible in from the UK in the northwestern sky after sunset, close to the horizon.
Space Exploration
May 20, 2020
2
452
Currently crossing the skies above Earth, Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) has the potential to become a more prominent naked eye object by late May or early June. Yet it wasn't discovered by someone looking up at the night sky. Instead, ...
Space Exploration
May 13, 2020
0
177
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with the sharpest view yet of the breakup of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). The telescope resolved roughly 30 fragments of the fragile comet on 20 April and 25 pieces ...
Space Exploration
Apr 28, 2020
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For the first time, NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory tracked water loss from an interstellar comet as it approached and rounded the Sun. The object, 2I/Borisov, traveled through the solar system in late 2019.
Space Exploration
Apr 27, 2020
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213
Interstellar comet 2I/Borisov is providing a glimpse of another star system's planetary building blocks, using new observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Astronomy
Apr 20, 2020
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