The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is pleased to announce the launch of its first new journal in almost 100 years. Tentatively titled RAS Techniques and Instruments , it will cover topics in astronomy and geophysics ranging from instrumentation, data science,…
Tag: COMETS/ASTEROIDS
Tail without a comet: the dusty remains of Comet ATLAS
A serendipitous flythrough of the tail of a disintegrated comet has offered scientists a unique opportunity to study these remarkable structures, in new research presented today at the National Astronomy Meeting 2021. Comet ATLAS fragmented just before its closest approach…
National Astronomy Meeting 2021: Media invitation
Around 850 astronomers and space scientists will gather online from 19 – 23 July, for the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting 2021 (NAM 2021) hosted by the University of Bath. Postponed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the…
SwRI’s Bolton receives NSS Space Pioneer Award
National Space Society recognizes accomplishments in opening the space frontier
NASA Lucy mission’s message to the future
In the 1970s four spacecraft began their one-way trips out of our Solar System. As the first human-built objects to ever venture into interstellar space, NASA chose to place plaques on Pioneer 10 and 11 and golden records on Voyager…
Asteroid 16 Psyche might not be what scientists expected
New UArizona research finds that the target asteroid of NASA’s Psyche mission may not be as metallic or dense as previously predicted
Qorvo provides key enabling tech for identifying, mapping threats from near-earth objects
Qorvo® (Nasdaq: QRVO), a leading provider of innovative radio frequency (RF) solutions that connect the world, today announced its Spatium® solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) technology will play a key role in a new planetary radar experiment using the Green Bank…
Crowdfunding campaign to close gap in meteor tracking network and support science in India
Crowdfunding campaign to close gap in the global Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance network
Planetary scientist receives NASA’s Early Career Award
Funding will support new field-portable lab, help train next-generation analog scientists
SwRI-led PUNCH mission passes important milestone
Solar wind imaging satellites one step closer to 2023 launch
Rare 4000 year comets can cause meteor showers on Earth
Researchers report that they can detect showers from the debris in the path of comets that pass close to Earth orbit and return as infrequently as once every 4,000 years.
Nickel atoms detected in the cold gas around interstellar comet 2I/Borisov
Unbound nickel atoms and other heavy elements have been observed in very hot cosmic environments, including the atmospheres of ultra-hot exoplanets and evaporating comets that ventured too close to our Sun or other stars. A new study conducted by JU…
Heavy metal vapors unexpectedly found in comets throughout our Solar System — and beyond
A new study by a Belgian team using data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) has shown that iron and nickel exist in the atmospheres of comets throughout our Solar System, even those far from the…
New telescope at ESO’s La Silla joins effort to protect Earth from risky asteroids
Part of the world-wide effort to scan and identify near-Earth objects, the European Space Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 (TBT2), a technology demonstrator hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has now started operating. Working alongside its northern-hemisphere partner telescope,…
More than 5,000 tons of extraterrestrial dust fall to Earth each year
Every year, our planet encounters dust from comets and asteroids. These interplanetary dust particles pass through our atmosphere and give rise to shooting stars. Some of them reach the ground in the form of micrometeorites. An international program conducted for…
New study discovers ancient meteoritic impact over Antarctica 430,000 years ago
Research led by the University of Kent’s School of Physical Sciences has found new evidence of a low-altitude meteoritic touchdown event reaching the Antarctic ice sheet 430,000 years ago
First interstellar comet may be the most pristine ever found
New observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) indicate that the rogue comet 2I/Borisov, which is only the second and most recently detected interstellar visitor to our Solar System, is one of the most pristine ever…
Scientists uncover warehouse-full of complex molecules never before seen in space
Radio observations of a cold, dense cloud of molecular gas reveal more than a dozen unexpected molecules
Polarization: From better sunglasses to a better way of looking at asteroid surfaces
Unique technique may help planetary defense prepare for asteroids on a collision course with Earth
Comet Catalina suggests comets delivered carbon to rocky planets
In early 2016, an icy visitor from the edge of our solar system hurtled past Earth. It briefly became visible to stargazers as Comet Catalina before it slingshotted past the Sun to disappear forevermore out of the solar system. Among…
Planetary science intern leads study of Martian crust
Team explored the relationships between the strength of the magnetic field on planet’s surface and the composition of the crust in the Terra Sirenum-Terra Cimmeria region
NAU astronomer receives prestigious 2021 Cottrell Scholar Award
Tyler Robinson recognized for academic leadership, research quality and innovation
Asteroid dust found in crater closes case of dinosaur extinction
Researchers believe they have closed the case of what killed the dinosaurs, definitively linking their extinction with an asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago by finding a key piece of evidence: asteroid dust inside the impact crater.…
The Milky Way may be swarming with planets with oceans and continents like here on Earth
Astronomers have long been looking into the vast universe in hopes of discovering alien civilisations. But for a planet to have life, liquid water must be present. The chances of that finding scenario have seemed impossible to calculate because it…
Insight-HXMT gives insight into origin of fast radio bursts
The latest observations from Insight-HXMT were published online in Nature Astronomy on Feb. 18. Insight-HXMT has discovered the very first X-ray burst associated with a fast radio burst (FRB) and has identified that it originated from soft-gamma repeater (SGR) J1935+2154,…
Europe’s largest meteorite crater – home to deep ancient fungi
At the scenic Swedish lake of Siljan, an impressive impact structure of more than 50 km in diameter formed almost 400 million years ago. In newly retrieved bore cores from drillings deep into the crater, a team of researchers have…
SETI Institute and NASA team up to bring NASA science into the nation’s community colleges
Innovative program to bring NASA subject matter experts, research findings, and educational resources into science classrooms of community colleges
Comet or asteroid: What killed the dinosaurs and where did it come from?
New theory explains possible origin of the Armageddon-causing object.
The comet that killed the dinosaurs
New theory explains possible origin of the Chicxulub impactor
Young planets with teenage sun give space studies a lift
New planetary system offers glimpse into how planets evolve
A new way of forming planets
In the last 25 years, scientists have discovered over 4000 planets beyond the borders of our solar system. From relatively small rock and water worlds to blisteringly hot gas giants, the planets display a remarkable variety. This variety is not…
‘Farfarout’! Solar system’s most distant planetoid confirmed
A team, including an astronomer from the University of Hawai?i Institute for Astronomy (IfA), have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the Sun than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever observed in our solar…
Astronomers confirm orbit of most distant object ever observed in our solar system
Scientists have collected enough observations to determine the planetoid’s orbit based on its slow motion across the sky
NASA’s first mission to the trojan asteroids installs its final scientific instrument
With less than a year to launch, NASA’s Lucy mission’s third and final scientific instrument has been integrated onto the spacecraft. The spacecraft, which will be the first to explore the Trojan asteroids—a population of small bodies that share an…
Shining a new light on dark energy
Dark Energy Survey releases catalog of 700 million objects
Remote sensing data sheds light on when and how asteroid Ryugu lost its water
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Last month, Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission brought home a cache of rocks collected from a near-Earth asteroid called Ryugu. While analysis of those returned samples is just getting underway, researchers are using data from the spacecraft’s…
NASA’s first mission to the Trojan asteroids integrates its second scientific instrument
NASA’s Lucy mission is one step closer to launch as L’TES, the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer, has been successfully integrated on to the spacecraft. “Having two of the three instruments integrated onto the spacecraft is an exciting milestone,” said Donya…
Scientists and philosopher team up, propose a new way to categorize minerals
A diamond lasts forever, but that doesn’t mean all diamonds have a common history
SwRI-led team finds meteoric evidence for a previously unknown asteroid
Mineralogy points to large, water-rich parent asteroid for carbonaceous chondrite meteorite
Recently discovered comet seen during 2020 total solar eclipse
As Chile and Argentina witnessed the total solar eclipse on Dec. 14, 2020, unbeknownst to skywatchers, a little tiny speck was flying past the Sun — a recently discovered comet. This comet was first spotted in satellite data by Thai…
A pair of lonely planet-like objects born like stars
Star-forming processes sometimes create mysterious astronomical objects called brown dwarfs, which are smaller and colder than stars, and can have masses and temperatures down to those of exoplanets in the most extreme cases. Just like stars, brown dwarfs often wander…
First presentation after Hayabusa2 mission return set for SPIE conference 14 December
Details of the successful mission will be discussed during the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation Digital Forum
Exoplanet around distant star resembles reputed ‘Planet Nine’ in our solar system
Astronomers confirm bound orbit for planet far from its star, showing that far-flung planets exist
Researchers discover a new superhighway system in the Solar System
Researchers have discovered a new superhighway network to travel through the Solar System much faster than was previously possible. Such routes can drive comets and asteroids near Jupiter to Neptune’s distance in under a decade and to 100 astronomical units…
Key building block for organic molecules discovered in meteorites
Scientists from Japan and the USA have confirmed the presence in meteorites of a key organic molecule which may have been used to build other organic molecules, including some used by life. The discovery validates theories of the formation of…
Asteroid Ryugu dust delivered to earth; NASA astrobiologists prepare to probe it
On Dec. 6 local time (Dec. 5 in the United States), Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 dropped a capsule to the ground of the Australian Outback from about 120 miles (or 200 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. Inside that capsule is some of…
Rochester researchers uncover key clues about the solar system’s history
New clues lead to a better understanding of the evolution of the solar system and the origin of Earth as a habitable planet
Gaia space telescope measured the acceleration of the Solar System
The Gaia space telescope has measured the acceleration of the Solar System when it orbits the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Solar System motion relative to the stars agrees with the results by Finnish astronomers in the 19th…
Planetary scientist named key partner on NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission
Christopher Edwards joins multi-institutional team led by Caltech to design and build instrumentation for satellite to study the Moon’s water cycle and make critical basemaps
Chaotic early solar system collisions resembled ‘asteroids’ arcade game
One Friday evening in 1992, a meteorite ended a more than 150 million-mile journey by smashing into the trunk of a red Chevrolet Malibu in Peekskill, New York. The car’s owner reported that the 30-pound remnant of the earliest days…