Asteroids on the main belt, situated between Mars and Jupiter, move around the sun in quasi circular orbits, so they do not undergo the temperature changes which, in comets, produce the characteristic tails. Nevertheless, ...
Space Exploration
Mar 2, 2017
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25
While best known for its surveys of the stars and mapping the Milky Way in three dimensions, ESA's Gaia has many more strings to its bow. Among them, its contribution to our understanding of the asteroids that litter the ...
Space Exploration
Jan 24, 2017
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52
The appearance of small bodies in the outer solar system could be deceiving. Asteroids and dwarf planets may be camouflaged with an outer layer of material that actually comes from somewhere else.
Space Exploration
Jan 20, 2017
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145
NASA's NEOWISE mission has recently discovered some celestial objects traveling through our neighborhood, including one on the blurry line between asteroid and comet. Another—definitely a comet—might be seen with binoculars ...
Space Exploration
Dec 29, 2016
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405
At first glance, Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, may not look icy. Images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft have revealed a dark, heavily cratered world whose brightest area is made of highly reflective salts—not ...
Space Exploration
Dec 15, 2016
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460
A peculiar class of meteorites has offered scientists new clues about when the planet Jupiter took shape and wandered through the solar system.
Space Exploration
Dec 9, 2016
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266
A Professor at the University of Strathclyde has had his name written among the stars, after an asteroid was named after him.
Space Exploration
Sep 13, 2016
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17
Hubble Space Telescope observations of the dwarf planet Ceres have discovered the first evidence of sulfur, sulfur dioxide and graphitized carbon found on an asteroid. The sulfur species are likely associated with regions ...
Space Exploration
Sep 2, 2016
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857
(Phys.org)—A trio of researchers is suggesting that a meteorite retrieved from the surface of a frozen lake in Canada may have come from the Kuiper belt—which if true, would be the first to be so identified. In their ...
(Phys.org)—A team of Spanish astronomers has recently observed a newly discovered asteroid designated P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS), revealing its activity and measuring its total dust loss. The findings, detailing the most probable ...
