Comets
Astronomers Finally Think They Understand Where Interstellar Object Oumuamua Came From and How it Formed
'Oumuamua caused quite a stir when it visited our Solar System in 2017. It didn't stay long, however, and when…
When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth
Comet breakups are a timely topic right now. The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov just broke into at least two pieces. And…
Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half
In 2019, amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov discovered a comet, which now bears his name. There's a long history of amateur…
Rosetta Saw the Building Blocks of Life on Comet 67P
Why is there so little nitrogen in Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P)? That's a question scientists asked themselves when they looked at…
Comets and Interstellar Objects Could be Exporting Earth Life Out into the Milky Way
A new study suggests that comets and asteroids that graze Earth's atmosphere might be responsible for the spread of life…
Here’s the Picture We’ve Been Waiting for. Hubble’s Photo of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov
Leave it up to the good ole Hubble Space Telescope. The workhorse telescope has given us a photo of the…
Images are Starting to Come in of the New Interstellar Comet
Thanks to the Gemini Observatory, we now have our first glimpse at the interstellar comet, C/2019 Q4, the second interstellar…
An Astrophotographer Noticed a Chunk of Ice Orbiting Comet 67P in Rosetta’s Photos
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission spent two years at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At the end of September 2016,…
Meet the Comet Interceptor. It’ll Wait Patiently In Space for a Comet, Then Pounce On It
The ESA has announced a new mission to explore a comet. The Comet Interceptor mission will have a spacecraft wait…
Astronomers Find a Chunk of a Comet Inside a Meteorite
The early days of the Solar System are hard to piece together from our vantage point, billions of years after…