Search results for Kuiper Belt

Planetary Sciences Aug 1, 2024

A new study shows how the sun could permanently capture rogue planets

Interest in interstellar objects (ISOs) was ignited in 2017 when 'Oumuamua flew through our solar system and made a flyby of Earth. Roughly two years later, another ISO passed through our solar system—the interstellar comet ...

Planetary Sciences Jul 31, 2024

Astrophysicists build model to explain to rapid planet formation

Our solar system is our immediate cosmic neighborhood. We know it well: the sun at the center; then the rocky planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars; and then the asteroid belt; followed by the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn; ...

Planetary Sciences Jul 16, 2024

Not just space rocks: Six things we've learned about Earth from meteorites and comets

Apart from the sun, its planets and their moons, our solar system has vast amounts of space rocks—fragments left over from the formation of the inner planets.

Astronomy Jun 26, 2024

A new horizon for the Kuiper Belt: Subaru telescope's wide-field observations

The Subaru Telescope's wide and deep imaging observations are contributing information to the New Horizons spacecraft as it moves through the outer solar system. By applying a unique analysis method to images of Kuiper Belt ...

Space Exploration Jun 8, 2024

NASA considering an interstellar probe to study the heliosphere, the region of space influenced by the sun

The sun warms the Earth, making it habitable for people and animals. But that's not all it does, and it affects a much larger area of space. The heliosphere, the area of space influenced by the sun, is over a hundred times ...

Planetary Sciences Jun 4, 2024

Simulation of factors that led to Arrokoth's red color suggest its surface is rich in sugars

A team of space scientists and chemists at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Université Côte d'Azur and the Southwest Research Institute has found the planetesimal Arrokoth likely gets its red color from a surface rich in ...

Planetary Sciences Apr 18, 2024

Are Titan's dunes made of comet dust?

A new theory suggests that Titan's majestic dune fields may have come from outer space. Researchers had always assumed that the sand making up Titan's dunes was locally made, through erosion or condensed from atmospheric ...

Planetary Sciences Apr 10, 2024

If Europa has geysers, they're very faint

In 2013, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted water vapor on Jupiter's moon Europa. The vapor was evidence of plumes similar to the ones on Saturn's moon Enceladus. That, and other compelling evidence, showed that the moon ...

Astrobiology Apr 1, 2024

Meteorites: Why study them? What can they teach us about finding life beyond Earth?

Universe Today has explored the importance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, and cosmochemistry, and how this myriad ...

Planetary Sciences Mar 31, 2024

Distant 'space snowman' unlocks mystery of how some dormant deep space objects become 'ice bombs'

A new study is shaking up what scientists thought they knew about distant objects in the far reaches of the solar system, starting with an object called the space snowman.

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