New NASA research has found that Ceres may have had a lasting source of chemical energy: the right types of molecules needed to fuel some microbial metabolisms. Although there is no evidence that microorganisms ever existed ...
A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) review of data collected from near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu supports the hypothesis that they were originally part of the Polana collisional family in the main asteroid belt between ...
A mysterious extraterrestrial visitor now has a permanent home and identity, thanks to University of Georgia researchers.
ESA's Hera mission has captured images of asteroids (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday. Though distant and faint, the early observations serve as both a successful instrument test and a demonstration of agile spacecraft operations ...
On July 1, astronomers spotted an unusual high-speed object zooming towards the sun. Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the surprising space traveler had one very special quality: its orbit showed it had come from outside our solar system.
It is true that crewed missions to the moon are expensive, difficult, and dangerous. And we now have a long history going back decades of reliable, dependable, capable robotic exploration, including fly-bys, orbiters, landers, ...
Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system.
For the first time, international researchers have pinpointed the moment when planets began to form around a star beyond the sun. Using the ALMA telescope, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, and ...
How did Earth, alone among the solar system's rocky planets, become the home for life? How, among all this frigid lifelessness, did our planet become warm, hospitable, and life-sustaining? The answer to these questions is ...
Predicting the precise path of a new asteroid or comet is a complex affair; the more observations you have, the better you know where an object will be, years hence.
