Search results for asteroid belt

Astronomy Jun 12, 2020

NASA's IBEX charts 11 years of change at the boundary to interstellar space

Far beyond the orbits of the planets are the hazy outlines of the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble in space that we call home. This flexible cosmic bubble stretches and shrinks in response to the sun's gasps and sighs.

Space Exploration Jun 10, 2020

Ancient micrometeoroids carried specks of stardust, water to asteroid 4 Vesta

The formation of our solar system was a messy affair. Most of the material that existed before its formation—material formed around other, long-dead stars—was vaporized, then recondensed into new materials. But some grains ...

Astronomy Jun 9, 2020

Close-up view reveals binary proto-stars in the process of assemblage

High-resolution observations of a young star forming system clearly unveil a pair of proto-stars at their earliest stages of evolution deeply embedded within the source IRAS 16293-2422 in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. The ...

Space Exploration Jun 1, 2020

Asteroids Ryugu and Bennu were formed by the destruction of a large asteroid

Scientists with NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, are gaining a new understanding of asteroid Bennu's carbon-rich material and signature "spinning-top" shape. The team, led by the University of Arizona, ...

Astronomy May 29, 2020

Astronomers predict bombardment from asteroids and comets in other planetary system

The planetary system around star HR8799 is remarkably similar to our solar system. It has four gas giants in between two asteroid belts. A research team led by RuG and SRON used this similarity to model the delivery of materials ...

Astronomy May 26, 2020

Why astronomers now doubt there is an undiscovered 9th planet in our solar system

Planet Nine is a theoretical, undiscovered giant planet in the mysterious far reaches of our solar system.

Space Exploration May 18, 2020

Mystery of lava-like flows on Mars solved by scientists

The mystery of some lava-like flows on Mars has been solved by scientists who say they are caused not by lava but by mud.

Astronomy May 8, 2020

When baby planets melt: Searching for the histories of planetesimals

Let's start at the beginning. Before humans, before Earth, before any of the planets existed, there were baby planets—planetesimals. Coalesced from dust exploded outward by the solar nebula, these blobs of material were ...

Space Exploration May 8, 2020

Touching the asteroid Ryugu revealed secrets of its surface and changing orbit

On Feb. 21, 2019, we shot an asteroid.

Astronomy Apr 29, 2020

Newly discovered exoplanet dethrones former king of Kepler-88 planetary system

Our solar system has a king. The planet Jupiter, named for the most powerful god in the Greek pantheon, has bossed around the other planets through its gravitational influence. With twice the mass of Saturn, and 300 times ...

page 28 from 40