Comets TOP STORY
To Watch A Comet Form, A Spacecraft Could Tag Along For A Journey Toward The Sun 
© NASA
Mars Imaged by Hubble
Deep in the solar system, between Jupiter and Neptune, lurk thousands of small chunks of ice and rock.
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Comets TOP STORIES
Interstellar Comets Like Borisov May Not Be All That Rare
© NASA
Comet Borisov
In 2019, astronomers spotted something incredible in our backyard: a rogue comet from another star system. Named Borisov, the icy snowball traveled 110,000 miles per hour and marked the first and only interstellar comet ever detected by humans.
Comet Atlas May Have Been a Blast From the Past
It's suspected that about 5,000 years ago a comet 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 Africa at the end of the Stone Age.
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.
Giant Comet Found in Outer Solar System by Dark Energy Survey
A giant comet from the outskirts of our Solar System has been discovered in 6 years of data from the Dark Energy Survey.
Rare 4000-Year Comets Can Cause Meteor Showers on Earth
Comets that circle the Sun in very elongated orbits spread their debris so thin along their orbit or eject it out of the solar system altogether that their meteor showers are hard to detect.
A Burnt-out Comet Is Covered With Talcum Powder
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.
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 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.
More top stories from October.
Mission Reports
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Latest Video
Video: Rosetta Mission Comes to an End and Science Highlights
Rosetta's Comet Offered Brief and Powerful Summer Fireworks
Philae Comet Lander Faces Eternal Hibernation
Philae Lander: One Year On A Comet
Philae's Descent on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: The Director's Cut
ESA: The Organic Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Rosetta Reveals Surprises in Comet 67P's Coma
Video and Image: Rosetta Mission Results from Philae 14 November 2014
Video and Images: Rosetta Mission Philae Lander Media Briefing 13 November 2014
Artist's Impression of Exocomets Orbiting the Star Beta Pictoris
Calendar
- 18 Oct: NASA Planetary Science Advisory Committee Meeting - CANCELLED
- 18 Oct: Network for Ocean Worlds Seminar Series, Episode 3: Geochemistry & Habitability
- 18 Oct: NASA SMD Science Town Hall Meeting
- 20 Oct: Hearing: Accelerating Deep Space Travel with Space Nuclear Propulsion
- 21 Oct: NASA Earth Science Division Community Forum
- 26 Oct: What makes a planet habitable?
- 27 Oct: NASA Heliophysics Advisory Committee Meeting
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