Comets as a research area encompass the multidisciplinary study of small icy bodies in the Solar System, focusing on their composition, physical properties, dynamics, and role in planetary system formation and evolution. This field integrates observational astronomy, spectroscopy, celestial mechanics, laboratory astrophysics, and space mission data to characterize volatile and refractory components, dust-gas interactions, nucleus structure, coma and tail formation, and outgassing processes. Research addresses orbital evolution, non-gravitational forces, and reservoirs such as the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, with implications for understanding primordial Solar System materials, delivery of volatiles and organics to terrestrial planets, and comparative planetology.
Elements essential to life, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, were "delivered" to Earth and the moon during the early stages of the solar system via asteroids and comets impacting their surfaces. These ...
Astrobiology
Apr 10, 2026
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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that the spinning of a small comet slowed and then reversed its direction of rotation, offering a dramatic example of how volatile activity can affect the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 26, 2026
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In a happy twist of fate, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope witnessed a comet in the act of breaking apart. The chance of that happening while Hubble watched is extraordinarily minuscule. The findings are published in the journal ...
Astronomy
Mar 18, 2026
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Comet 3I/ATLAS continues to make astonishing headlines, thanks to new findings from astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This new research reveals that 3I/ATLAS is packed with an unusually ...
Astronomy
Mar 9, 2026
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This striking image from the science camera on ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) shows interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS spewing dust and gas. The tiny nucleus of the comet (not visible) is surrounded by a bright halo of ...
Astronomy
Feb 27, 2026
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When you look up at the night sky, it appears unchanging. But if you look deep enough you will find that the sky is in fact constantly shifting. Satellites, asteroids and interstellar objects pass by. Stars not only shine ...
Astronomy
Feb 26, 2026
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142
The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that it would extend its Mars probe mission, now in its fifth year, for an additional three, underlining the oil-rich state's space ambitions.
Space Exploration
Feb 17, 2026
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The arrival of 3I/ATLAS in our solar system spawned multiple proposals for a rendezvous mission to study it up close. As the third interstellar object (ISO) ever detected, the wealth of information direct studies could provide ...
Space Exploration
Feb 16, 2026
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159
New analysis on 2017 Hubble images of the Jupiter-family comet, 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresak (41P/TGK), indicates that the comet underwent a spin reversal between April and December 2017. While this behavior is not unheard ...
NASA's Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) was built for the ambitious purpose of performing an all-sky survey. The data it collects from more than 450 million ...
Astronomy
Feb 11, 2026
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