Comets | SpaceRef

Comets TOP STORY

A Burnt-out Comet Is Covered With Talcum Powder

Mars Imaged by Hubble

The world's first ground-based observations of the bare nucleus of a comet nearing the end of its active life revealed that the nucleus has a diameter of 800 meters and is covered with large grains of phyllosilicate; on Earth large grains of phyllosilicate are commonly available as talcum powder.

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Comets TOP STORIES

First Interstellar Comet May Be The Most Pristine Ever Found

2I/Borisov

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 observed.

Comet Makes A Pit Stop Near Jupiter's Asteroids

After traveling several billion miles toward the Sun, a wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way.

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.

Comet 2019 LD2 (ATLAS) Found to Be Actively Transitioning

A comet discovered last year is offering scientists new insights into how these objects "turn on" and evolve, as it actually transitions out of the Centaur population and into the Jupiter family of comets (JFCs), according to a paper by Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist Jordan Steckloff.

Ancient Ice on Rosetta's Comet 'Fluffier Than Cappuccino Froth'

After years of detective work, scientists working on the European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta mission have now been able to locate where the Philae lander made its second and penultimate contact with the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014, before finally coming to a halt 30 metres away.

A Second Alignment Plane Of Our Solar System Has Been Discovered

A study of comet motions indicates that the Solar System has a second alignment plane.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Has An Aurora

Data from NASA instruments aboard the ESA (European Space Agency) Rosetta mission have helped reveal that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has its own far-ultraviolet aurora.

Rainbow Comet With A Heart Of Sponge

A permeable heart with a hardened facade -the resting place of Rosetta's lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is revealing more about the interior of the 'rubber duck' shaped-body looping around the Sun.

Close Up View Of The Nucleus Of Comet NEOWISE

Whether it's a surprise asteroid, colorful aurora or a heart-stopping eclipse, the landscape of the night sky is constantly changing.

Astrophysicists Suggest That Carbon Found In Comet ATLAS Will Help To Reveal The Age Of Other Comets

Astrophysicists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU, Russia), South Korea, and the USA appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggesting carbon indicates time comets have spent in the Solar System -- the less carbon, the longer they have been in the proximity of the Sun.

Comet Neowise Seen From Orbit

The tiny shooting star in the lower center of this image is Comet Neowise pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited above the Mediterranean Sea in between Tunisia and Italy.

NRL Telescope Discovers SOHO 's 4,000th Comet

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument identified the 4000th comet discovered by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA on June 15.