Amateur and professional astronomers have found that the comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has been experiencing an unusually large outburst recently. Normally, it has little outbursts spread throughout the year.
From Mercury to the depths of the distant Kuiper Belt, there aren't many unexplored corners of the solar system out there. One class of object, however, remains to be visited: the transitional Centaurs out beyond the orbit ...
Space Exploration
Oct 29, 2021
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53
A mega-comet—potentially the largest ever discovered—is heading from the Oort Cloud towards our direction. Estimated to be 100–200 kilometers across, the unusual celestial wanderer will make its closest approach to ...
Astronomy
Oct 15, 2021
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265
Deep in the solar system, between Jupiter and Neptune, lurk thousands of small chunks of ice and rock. Occasionally, one of them will bump into Jupiter's orbit, get caught and flung into the inner solar system—towards the ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 13, 2021
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65
The new Arid meteor shower may be making itself known in early October 2021.
Astronomy
Oct 6, 2021
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26
A pair of space scientists, one with the University of Antioquia, the other the University of Salento, has found evidence of a swarm of large asteroids hidden in the Taurid complex. Ignacio Ferrín and Vincenzo Orofino have ...
The newest known example of a rare type of object in the Solar System—a comet hidden among the main-belt asteroids—has been found and studied, according to a new paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry ...
Astronomy
Oct 4, 2021
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128
In 1994, the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) impacted Jupiter, which had captured the comet shortly before (and broken apart by its gravity). The event became a media circus as it was the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial ...
Astronomy
Sep 20, 2021
2
288
So far, we know of only two interstellar objects (ISO) to visit our solar system. They are 'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. There's a third possible ISO named CNEOS 2014-01-08, and research suggests there should be many more.
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2021
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166
It's suspected that about 5,000 years ago a comet may swept within 23 million miles of the Sun, closer than the innermost planet Mercury. The comet might have been a spectacular sight to civilizations across Eurasia and North ...
Astronomy
Aug 19, 2021
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