Asteroids, Comets and Meteors News

September 20, 2024

Top Headlines

A Wobble from Mars Could Be Sign of Dark Matter

Sep. 17, 2024 — Watching for changes in Mars' orbit over time could be new way to detect passing dark matter, according to ...

Keeping Mold out of Future Space Stations

Sep. 11, 2024 — Mold can survive the harshest of environments, so to stop harmful spores from growing on future space stations, a study suggests a way to prevent its ...

Simple Shift Could Make Low Earth Orbit Satellites High Capacity

Sep. 13, 2024 — Researchers have invented a technique that enables low Earth orbit satellite antennas to manage signals for multiple users at once, slashing costs and simplifying designs for communication ...

Magnetic Field Maps of the Sun's Corona

Sep. 11, 2024 — Astronomers have achieved a major breakthrough in solar physics by successfully producing detailed maps of the Sun's coronal magnetic fields. This milestone promises to enhance our understanding of the Sun's atmosphere and how its changing ...

Latest Headlines

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Astrophysics: AI Shines a New Light on Exoplanets

Sep. 6, 2024 — A team models the atmospheres of distant planets using neural ...

Gigantic Asteroid Impact Shifted the Axis of Solar System's Biggest Moon

Sep. 3, 2024 — Around 4 billion years ago, an asteroid hit the Jupiter moon Ganymede. Now, a researcher realized that the Solar System's biggest moon's axis has shifted as a result of the impact, which confirmed ...

How Bright Is the Universe's Glow? Study Offers Best Measurement Yet

Sep. 3, 2024 — Over billions of years, the universe's stars and galaxies shined their light into space, leaving behind an imperceptibly faint night light known as the cosmic optical background. NASA's New Horizons ...

Six New Rogue Worlds: Star Birth Clues

Aug. 27, 2024 — The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted six likely rogue worlds -- objects with planet-like masses but untethered from any star's gravity -- including the lightest ever identified with a dusty ...

Extraterrestrial Chemistry With Earthbound Possibilities

Aug. 21, 2024 — Who are we? Why are we here? We are stardust, the result of chemistry occurring throughout vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust. To better understand how that chemistry could create prebiotic ...

NASA's DART Impact Permanently Changed the Shape and Orbit of Asteroid Moon

Aug. 23, 2024 — A new study provides insights on the geophysics behind asteroid formation and ...

Meteor Showers Shed Light on Where Comets Formed in the Early Solar System

Aug. 22, 2024 — Researchers studying meteor showers have found that not all comets crumble the same way when they approach the Sun. In a new study, they ascribe the differences to the conditions in the ...

Spectacular Increase in the Deuterium/hydrogen Ratio in Venus' Atmosphere

Aug. 20, 2024 — Our understanding of Venus' water history and the potential that it was once habitable in the past is being challenged by recent ...

Tracking Down the Asteroid That Sealed the Fate of the Dinosaurs

Aug. 16, 2024 — The asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago probably came from the outer solar ...

Engineers Conduct First in-Orbit Test of 'Swarm' Satellite Autonomous Navigation

Aug. 14, 2024 — With 2D cameras and space robotics algorithms, astronautics engineers have created a navigation system able to manage multiple satellites using ...

Rocks Collected on Mars Hold Key to Water and Perhaps Life on the Planet: Bring Them Back to Earth

Aug. 14, 2024 — Between July and November of 2022, NASA's Perseverance rover collected seven samples of sediment from an ancient alluvial fan in Jezero crater. While onboard analysis gave researchers some ...

Rocks from Mars' Jezero Crater, Which Likely Predate Life on Earth, Contain Signs of Water

Aug. 14, 2024 — Scientists report that rock samples from Mars' Jezero Crater contain minerals that are typically formed in water. While the presence of organic matter is inconclusive, the rocks could be ...

SwRI-Led Team Finds Evidence of Hydration on Asteroid Psyche

Aug. 13, 2024 — Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed hydroxyl molecules on the surface of the metallic asteroid Psyche. The presence of hydrated minerals suggests a ...

Scientists Find Oceans of Water on Mars: It's Just Too Deep to Tap

Aug. 12, 2024 — Quakes and meteor impacts on Mars generate seismic waves that can help map the interior. A new study analyzed seismic waves detected by the Insight lander and concludes that 11-20 kilometers beneath ...

Findings from First Archaeology Project in Space

Aug. 7, 2024 — The first-ever archeological survey in space has provided new insights into how astronauts use and adapt their living space on the International Space Station, which could influence the design of new ...

Scientists Pin Down the Origins of the Moon's Tenuous Atmosphere

Aug. 2, 2024 — Scientists say they have identified the main process that formed the moon's atmosphere and continues to sustain it today. The team reports that the lunar atmosphere is primarily a product of ...

Key to Rapid Planet Formation

Aug. 1, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new model to explain the formation of giant planets such as Jupiter, which furnishes deeper insights into the processes of planet formation and could expand our ...

Space-Trekking Muscle Tests Drugs for Microgravity-Induced Muscle Impairment

July 25, 2024 — A gentle rumble ran under a researcher's feet as a rocket carrying her research -- live, human muscle cells grown on scaffolds fixed on tiny chips -- lifted off, climbed, and disappeared into ...

Expiring Medications Could Pose Challenge on Long Space Missions

July 23, 2024 — A new study shows that over half of the medicines stocked in space -- staples such as pain relievers, antibiotics, allergy medicines, and sleep aids -- would expire before astronauts could return to ...

Researchers Explore the Effects of Stellar Magnetism on Potential Habitability of Exoplanets

July 22, 2024 — A study extends the definition of a habitable zone for planets to include their star's magnetic ...

New Dawn for Space Storm Alerts Could Help Shield Earth's Tech

July 19, 2024 — Space storms could soon be forecasted with greater accuracy than ever before thanks to a big leap forward in our understanding of exactly when a violent solar eruption may hit Earth. Scientists say ...

Life Signs Could Survive Near Surfaces of Enceladus and Europa

July 21, 2024 — Europa and Enceladus, icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively, have evidence of oceans beneath their crusts. A NASA experiment suggests -- if these oceans support life -- signatures of that life ...

How Astronomers Are Using Pulsars to Observe Evidence of Dark Matter

July 16, 2024 — Tantalizing evidence of potential dark matter objects has been detected with the help of the Universe's 'timekeepers'. These pulsars -- neutron stars which rotate and emit ...

Scorching Storms on Distant Worlds Revealed

July 15, 2024 — An international study reveals the extreme atmospheric conditions on the celestial objects, which are swathed in swirling clouds of hot sand amid temperatures of 950C. Using NASA's powerful ...

Scientific Definition of a Planet Says It Must Orbit Our Sun; A New Proposal Would Change That

July 11, 2024 — The International Astronomical Union defines a planet as a celestial body that orbits the sun, is massive enough that gravity has forced it into a spherical shape, and has cleared away other objects ...

Mars Likely Had Cold and Icy Past, New Study Finds

July 10, 2024 — The question of whether Mars ever supported life has captivated the imagination of scientists and the public for decades. Central to the discovery is gaining insight into the past climate of ...

The Origins of Dark Comets

July 10, 2024 — Up to 60% of near-Earth objects could be dark comets, mysterious asteroids that orbit the sun in our solar system that likely contain or previously contained ice and could have been one route for ...

Strong Evidence for Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri

July 10, 2024 — Most known black holes are either extremely massive, like the supermassive black holes that lie at the cores of large galaxies, or relatively lightweight, with a mass of under 100 times that of the ...

Building Materials for Water-Rich Planets in the Early Solar System

July 9, 2024 — Age data for certain classes of meteorite have made it possible to gain new findings on the origin of small water-rich astronomical bodies in the early solar system. These planetesimals continually ...

Moon 'Swirls' Could Be Magnetized by Unseen Magmas

July 3, 2024 — Mysterious, light-colored swirls on Moon's surface could be rocks magnetized by magma activity underground, laboratory experiments ...