Space Exploration
Dec 18, 2024
The last meteor shower of the year peaks a few days before Christmas
The last meteor shower of the year—the Ursids—peaks Sunday, a few days before Christmas.
Search results for comets
Astronomy
Dec 16, 2024
What is a dark comet? A quick guide to the 'new' kids in the solar system
In 2017, NASA discovered and later confirmed the first interstellar object to enter our solar system.
Astronomy
Dec 13, 2024
How to find a comet before it hits Earth
How do you find a comet that could pose a threat to Earth but hasn't passed our planet in the last 200 years or more? You look for its footprint.
Planetary Sciences
Dec 9, 2024
Astronomers discover more dark comets
The first dark comet—a celestial object that looks like an asteroid but moves through space like a comet—was reported less than two years ago. Soon after, another six were found. In a new paper, researchers announce the discovery ...
Astrobiology
Dec 3, 2024
Team links comet water to Earth's oceans
Researchers have found that water on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has a similar molecular signature to the water in Earth's oceans. Contradicting some recent results, this finding reopens the case that Jupiter-family comets ...
Astronomy
Dec 3, 2024
Planetary scientists confirm new main-belt comet
A mysterious object discovered in the main asteroid belt in 2021 was determined to be a main-belt comet by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry Hsieh, Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 12, 2024
Philae's extraordinary comet landing relived
On 12 November 2014, after a 10-year journey through the solar system and over 500 million kilometers from home, Rosetta's lander Philae made space exploration history by touching down on a comet for the first time. On the ...
Astronomy
Oct 31, 2024
Astronomers predict the orbits of potentially hazardous comets from meteor showers
Comets have long been seen as omens and portents, and it's easy to understand why. They first appear as faint smudges of light in the sky, sometimes fading soon after and sometimes becoming brighter than the planets, with ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 29, 2024
'Halloween comet' breaks apart after flying close to the sun
A recently discovered comet that some stargazers had hoped to see during Halloween week has disintegrated before the day of ghosts and ghouls.
Space Exploration
Oct 17, 2024
Moonlight may hamper views of the Orionid meteor shower, debris of Halley's comet
The Orionids—one of two annual meteor showers from Halley's comet—peak early Monday. A bright waning moon may make them difficult to spot.
