NEOWISE spots a comet that looked like an asteroid

Comet C/2013 UQ4 (Catalina) has been observed by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft just one day after passing through its closest approach to the sun. The comet glows brightly ...

Fossil from the depths of the solar system

(Phys.org) —ISON is approaching the Sun. An international observation campaign which involves ground-based telescopes, space probes and space telescopes has been running for some time and is already providing initial findings. ...

Incoming comet ISON appears intact to Hubble

(Phys.org) —A new image of the sunward plunging Comet ISON suggests that the comet is intact despite some predictions that the fragile icy nucleus might disintegrate as the Sun warms it. The comet will pass closest to the ...

Near-Earth asteroid is really a comet

Some things are not always what they seem—even in space. For 30 years, scientists believed a large near-Earth object was an asteroid. Now, an international team including Joshua Emery, assistant professor of earth and planetary ...

Rosetta-comet will wake up early

(Phys.org) —On its way towards the Sun comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, next year's destination of ESA's spacecraft Rosetta, will start emitting gas and dust earlier than previously expected. The comet's activity should be ...

Hubble brings faraway comet into view

(Phys.org) —The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their clearest view yet of Comet ISON, a newly-discovered sun grazer comet that may light up the sky later this year, or come so close to the Sun that it ...

Herschel spots comet massacre around nearby star

(Phys.org) -- ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory has studied the dusty belt around the nearby star Fomalhaut. The dust appears to be coming from collisions that destroy up to thousands of icy comets every day.

Comet Wild2: First evidence of space weathering

(PhysOrg.com) -- The traditional picture of comets as cold, icy, unchanging bodies throughout their history is being reappraised in the light of analyses of dust grains from Comet Wild2. A team led by the University of Leicester ...

NASA probe aims to unlock Mercury's secrets (Update)

NASA scientists pored Wednesday over stunning new images of Mercury as their MESSENGER probe began a year-long mission to map the surface of the solar system's least-understood planet.

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