Search results for comets

Space Exploration Jun 28, 2021

Giant comet found in outer solar system by Dark Energy Survey

A giant comet from the outskirts of our solar system has been discovered in six years of data from the Dark Energy Survey. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is estimated to be about 1000 times more massive than a typical comet, ...

Earth Sciences Jun 24, 2021

Comet strike may have sparked civilisation shift

A cluster of comet fragments believed to have hit Earth nearly 13,000 years ago may have shaped the origins of human civilisation, research suggests.

Space Exploration May 20, 2021

Rare 4000-year comets can cause meteor showers on Earth

Comets that circle the Sun in very elongated orbits spread their debris so thin along their orbit or eject it out of the solar system altogether so that their meteor showers are hard to detect. From a new meteor shower survey ...

Astronomy May 19, 2021

Heavy metal vapors unexpectedly found in comets throughout our Solar System—and beyond

A new study by a Belgian team using data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has shown that iron and nickel exist in the atmospheres of comets throughout our Solar System, even those ...

Space Exploration May 14, 2021

Where do meteorites come from? We tracked hundreds of fireballs streaking through the sky to find out

If asked where meteorites come from, you might reply "from comets." But according to our new research, which tracked hundreds of fireballs on their journey through the Australian skies, you would be wrong.

Space Exploration Apr 29, 2021

'The line is getting fuzzier': Asteroids and comets may be more similar than we think

As anyone who has ever tried to clean a home knows, ridding yourself of dust is a Sisyphean effort. No surface stays free of it for long. It turns out that space is somewhat similar. Space is filled with interplanetary dust, ...

Space Exploration Apr 22, 2021

Catch comet R4 ATLAS as it nears Earth

Looking to do some springtime astronomy? With temperatures warming up in the northern hemisphere in April through May, galaxy season is upon us. At dusk, the area in the Bowl of Virgo asterism rising in the east is rife with ...

Astronomy Apr 19, 2021

When stars get too close to each other, they cast out interstellar comets and asteroids

In October 2017, humanity caught its first-ever glimpse of an interstellar object—a visitor from beyond our solar system—passing nearby the sun. We named it "Oumuamua, and its unusual properties fascinated and confounded ...

Space Exploration Apr 6, 2021

Exploring comet thermal history: Burnt-out comet covered with talcum powder

The world's first ground-based observations of the bare nucleus of a comet nearing the end of its active life revealed that the nucleus has a diameter of 800 meters and is covered with large grains of phyllosilicate; on Earth ...

Biotechnology Mar 31, 2021

Research reveals how a cell mixes its mitochondria before it divides

In a landmark study, a team led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine has discovered—and filmed—the molecular details of how a cell, just before it divides in two, shuffles important internal components called ...

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