Comets
Earth Gains 5,200 Tons of Dust From Space Every Year
Whenever I wipe the dust off my coffee table or catch a glimpse of dust motes floating in sunlight, my…
Comets Already Grow a Coma out in the Kuiper Belt
Just when do comets get their signature coma? Conventional wisdom says it only happens when they get close enough to…
Jupiter has Added a Comet to its Trojan Collection
Jupiter is notorious for capturing objects that venture too close to the gas giant and its enormous pull of gravity.…
Did a Comet Wipe out the Dinosaurs?
About 66 million years ago a massive chunk of rock slammed into Earth in what is the modern-day Yucatan Peninsula.…
Comet Records From 1240 Accurately Date When a Byzantine Princess Died
Rome was the world's first mega-empire. At its height it stretched from Western Europe to the Middle East, and over…
Solid Phosphorus has been Found in Comets. This Means They Contain All the Raw Elements for Life
Did comets deliver the elements essential for life on Earth? It's looking more and more like they could have. At…
One of the Building Blocks of Life Can Form in the Harsh Environment of Deep Space Itself. No Star Required
In many ways, stars are the engines of creation. Their energy drives a whole host of processes necessary for life.…
Even Comets Can Have Auroras. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Does
The ESA's Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ended four years ago. On September 30th 2016 the spacecraft was directed into…
Rosetta’s Philae Lander Was Alive on the Surface of 67P for 63 Hours, Trying to Communicate
In August 2014, the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft arrived at its destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, after a 10 year journey. Rosetta carried…
Comet NEOWISE Was Spiraling and Spinning as it Passed by Earth
Earlier this week, we shared an image of Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. And now,…