Related topics: nasa · spacecraft · solar system · earth · asteroid

Comets play a role in the history of civilization

The sight of a bright comet has fascinated humankind through the ages. But what's behind such celestial spectacles? It's only in modern times that researchers have got wise to the phenomenon - by then, the comets already ...

Amazing new photo of Rosetta comet

As the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft closes to within 1000 km of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta science team has released a new image and made the first temperature measurements of the comet's core. The temperature ...

'Hello Earth!': Comet probe Philae wakes up

The European space probe Philae woke up overnight after nearly seven months in hibernation as it hurtled towards the Sun on the back of a comet, mission control said Sunday.

Study shows comets impacted start of life on earth

The Big Bang may have started the universe, but it's likely that littler bangs played a key role in life on Earth, say Albion College Physics Professor Nicolle Zellner and Chemistry Professor Vanessa McCaffrey. They (along ...

The comet cometh: Hartley 2 visible in night sky

(PhysOrg.com) -- Backyard stargazers with a telescope or binoculars and a clear night's sky can now inspect the comet that in a little over two weeks will become only the fifth in history to be imaged close up. Comet Hartley ...

Artificial comet contains building blocks of life

The first molecules of life form naturally in comets, reveals a French-German study led by Uwe Meierhenrich and Cornelia Meinert at the Institut de Chimie de Nice and by Louis Le Sergeant d'Hendecourt at the Institut d'Astrophysique ...

The three surprises of 'Oumuamua

One of the defining moments in planetary astronomy in 2017 is that this is the year we discovered the first astronomical object to enter the Solar System from interstellar space. Now known as `Oumuamua (Hawaiian for "scout"), ...

Rosetta measures comet's temperature

(Phys.org) —ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has made its first temperature measurements of its target comet, finding that it is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.

page 15 from 40