Asteroids, Comets and Meteors News

September 12, 2025

Top Headlines

Hit the Wrong Spot and an Asteroid Returns on a Collision Course

Sep. 9, 2025 — Scientists caution that asteroid deflection must be precise, as striking the wrong spot risks sending it through a gravitational keyhole that sets up a future collision with Earth. Using lessons from NASA’s DART mission, researchers are developing ...

A Star Torn Apart by a Black Hole Lit Up the Universe Twice

Aug. 22, 2025 — Astronomers using AI have captured a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event: a massive star’s violent death triggered by its black hole companion. The explosion, known as SN 2023zkd, not only produced a brilliant supernova but also shocked scientists by ...

A Record-breaking Antenna Just Deployed in Space. Here’s What It Will See

Aug. 18, 2025 — NASA and ISRO s NISAR satellite has just reached a major milestone: the successful deployment of its enormous 39-foot antenna reflector in orbit. Folded up like an umbrella during launch, the reflector is now fully extended and ready to support ...

Trapped by Moon Dust: The Physics Error That Fooled NASA for Years

July 27, 2025 — Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison uncovered a critical flaw in how lunar and Martian rovers are tested on Earth. Simulations revealed that test results have been misleading for decades because researchers only adjusted rover weight to ...

UF Students Are Bending Metal with Lasers to Build Massive Structures in Orbit

July 2, 2025 — UF engineers, backed by DARPA and NASA, are perfecting laser-forming techniques that let metal sheets fold themselves into giant solar arrays, antennas, and even space-station parts right in ...

World’s Largest Camera Just Snapped the Universe in 3,200 Megapixels

June 27, 2025 — The LSST camera at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has released its jaw-dropping first images, each capturing 45 times the area of the full moon in one shot. Over the next ten years, this cosmic giant will scan the southern sky in ultra-HD, helping ...

Martian Dust to Dream Homes: How Microbes Can Build on the Red Planet

June 25, 2025 — Imagine printing your Martian home from dust, sunlight, and a bit of biology. A new synthetic lichen system uses fungi and bacteria to grow building materials directly from Martian soil, completely autonomously and without human ...

Black Holes Could Act as Natural Supercolliders -- And Help Uncover Dark Matter

June 5, 2025 — Supermassive black holes might naturally replicate the colossal energies of man-made particle colliders possibly even revealing dark matter offering a cosmic shortcut to discoveries that would ...

Millions of New Solar System Objects to Be Found and 'Filmed in Technicolor' -- Studies Predict

June 3, 2025 — Astronomers have revealed new research showing that millions of new solar system objects are likely to be detected by a brand-new facility, which is expected to come online later this ...

Could 'Pausing' Cell Death Be the Final Frontier in Medicine on Earth and Beyond?

May 30, 2025 — The process of necrosis, a form of cell death, may represent one of the most promising ways to change the course of human aging, disease and even space travel, according to a new ...

Cosmic Mystery Deepens as Astronomers Find Object Flashing in Both Radio Waves and X-rays

May 28, 2025 — A team of international astronomers have discovered a new cosmic object emitting both radio waves and ...

'Raindrops in the Sun's Corona': New Adaptive Optics Shows Stunning Details of Our Star's Atmosphere

May 27, 2025 — Scientists have produced the finest images of the Sun's corona to date. To make these high-resolution images and movies, the team developed a new 'coronal adaptive optics' system that removes blur ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:44am EDT

Black Holes Just Proved Stephen Hawking Right With the Clearest Signal Yet

Sep. 12, 2025 — Gravitational-wave astronomy has exploded since 2015, capturing hundreds of black hole and neutron star collisions. With ever-clearer signals, researchers are testing Einstein’s relativity and ...

A Doomed Star System Could Soon Shine as Bright as the Moon

Sep. 11, 2025 — Astronomers have uncovered the violent secret of V Sagittae, a white dwarf star consuming its companion in a spectacular feeding frenzy. This cosmic dance not only makes the system burn with unusual ...

This Rare White Dwarf Looks Normal, Until Hubble Shows Its Explosive Secret

Sep. 10, 2025 — Hubble has uncovered a rare ultra-massive white dwarf created in a violent star merger. Once thought to be ordinary, the star’s ultraviolet signature revealed its explosive history and hinted that ...

NASA’s Celestial “Accident” Unlocks Secrets of Jupiter and Saturn

Sep. 10, 2025 — Astronomers studying an oddball brown dwarf called “The Accident” have finally spotted silane, a long-predicted silicon molecule missing from Jupiter and Saturn’s skies. Its ancient, ...

Life on Mars? NASA Discovers Potential Biosignatures in Martian Mudstones

Sep. 10, 2025 — NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered mudstones in Mars’ Jezero Crater that contain organic carbon and unusual textures hinting at possible biosignatures. These findings suggest that ancient ...

Planet Birth Photographed for the First Time

Sep. 9, 2025 — Astronomers have directly spotted a rare young planet, WISPIT 2b, still forming within the gap of a dusty ringed disk around a star like our sun—something long theorized but never observed until ...

Astronomers Uncover a Hidden World on the Solar System’s Edge

Sep. 6, 2025 — Astronomers have uncovered a massive new trans-Neptunian object, 2017 OF201, lurking at the edge of our solar system. With an orbit stretching 25,000 years and a size that may qualify it as a dwarf ...

MIT Scientists Uncover Shocking Origin of the Moon’s Magnetic Scars

Sep. 6, 2025 — For decades, scientists have puzzled over why lunar rocks show signs of strong magnetism when the moon itself has no global magnetic field today. New simulations suggest the answer may lie in a ...

The Sun’s Hidden Particle Engines Finally Exposed

Sep. 3, 2025 — Solar Orbiter has identified the Sun’s dual “engines” for superfast electrons: explosive flares and sweeping coronal mass ejections. By catching over 300 events close to their origin, the ...

A Weirdly Shaped Telescope Could Finally Find Earth 2. 0

Sep. 3, 2025 — Spotting Earth-like planets is nearly impossible with conventional telescopes, but researchers propose a bold fix: a rectangular design that can separate a planet’s faint glow from its blinding ...

NASA’s X-Ray Telescope Finds Bizarre Features in a Cosmic Hand

Aug. 31, 2025 — Astronomers have taken a fresh look at the famous “Hand of God” pulsar, combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra Observatory with new radio observations from the Australia Telescope Compact ...

Astronomers Stunned as James Webb Finds a Planet Nursery Flooded With Carbon Dioxide

Aug. 31, 2025 — Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered a planet-forming disk shockingly rich in carbon dioxide but nearly devoid of water, upending traditional theories of planetary ...

Scientists Uncover Hidden Shards of Mars’ Violent Birth, Frozen for Billions of Years

Aug. 31, 2025 — Mars isn’t the neatly layered world we once imagined — its mantle is filled with ancient, jagged fragments left over from colossal impacts billions of years ago. Seismic data from NASA’s ...

Butterfly Nebula Reveals Sparkling Gems, Fiery Dust, and the Ingredients of Life

Aug. 28, 2025 — James Webb has revealed that the Butterfly Nebula hides a complex mix of gemstone-like crystals, fiery dust, and unexpected carbon molecules. The discovery may rewrite how we understand the chemistry ...

NASA’s SPHEREx Captures Comet 3I/ATLAS, a Visitor From Beyond the Solar System

Sep. 2, 2025 — NASA’s SPHEREx joined Webb and Hubble in studying interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, gathering data on its size, chemistry, and physical traits. While harmless to Earth, the comet provides scientists a ...

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Reveals Secrets of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Sep. 2, 2025 — Webb, Hubble, and SPHEREx are joining forces to study the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, revealing details about its structure and chemistry. The comet isn’t dangerous, but it’s offering scientists ...

Scientists Finally Pinpoint Jupiter’s Birth Using “molten Rock Raindrops”

Aug. 26, 2025 — Billions of years ago, Jupiter’s violent growth transformed the young solar system, smashing icy and rocky bodies together at incredible speeds. These cataclysmic collisions created tiny molten ...

Dark Matter Could Be Turning Giant Planets Into Black Holes

Sep. 1, 2025 — Astronomers have found over 5,000 exoplanets, and now scientists think these distant worlds could unlock one of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark matter. A new study suggests that ...

Are We Accidentally Broadcasting Our Location to Alien Civilizations?

Aug. 23, 2025 — Earth may already be broadcasting its presence to alien civilizations without realizing it. A new study shows that our deep-space transmissions, especially those aimed at Mars and interplanetary ...

These Asteroids Share a Strange Fingerprint from Billions of Years Ago

Aug. 23, 2025 — Scientists studying asteroids found that two seemingly unrelated types share a strange dusty coating of troilite. By using polarization of light instead of traditional spectra, they uncovered ...

Astronomers Stunned by the Strangest Supernova Ever Seen

Aug. 21, 2025 — Scientists have identified a never-before-seen supernova, SN2021yfj, which exploded after losing nearly all of its outer layers. Instead of light elements, it revealed silicon and sulfur from deep ...

Voyager Missed It, but James Webb Just Found Uranus’ Hidden Moon

Aug. 21, 2025 — Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered a tiny new moon orbiting Uranus, increasing the planet’s moon tally to 29. The object, only about six miles wide, escaped Voyager ...

Ancient Solar System Crash May Explain Bennu and Ryugu’s Origin

Aug. 21, 2025 — Scientists from the Southwest Research Institute have found strong evidence that near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu share a common origin with Polana, a much larger asteroid in the main belt. By ...

After 70 Years, the Sun’s Explosive Mystery Is Finally Solved

Aug. 20, 2025 — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has directly observed magnetic reconnection in the Sun’s atmosphere for the first time, confirming decades-old theories about solar explosions. This discovery bridges ...

Strange New Shapes May Rewrite the Laws of Physics

Aug. 18, 2025 — By exploring positive geometry, mathematicians are revealing hidden shapes that may unify particle physics and cosmology, offering new ways to understand both collisions in accelerators and the ...

Mysterious “little Red Dots” Could Reveal How the First Black Holes Formed

Aug. 22, 2025 — Astronomers may have uncovered the origins of the mysterious “little red dots,” some of the strangest galaxies seen in the early universe. These tiny but brilliant objects, discovered by the ...

The Disappearing Planet Next Door Has Astronomers Intrigued

Aug. 14, 2025 — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected strong evidence for a giant planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, the nearest Sun-like star to Earth. Located just 4 light-years away, this possible ...

NASA’s Webb Telescope Just Found 300 Galaxies That Defy Explanation

Aug. 31, 2025 — Astronomers at the University of Missouri, using the James Webb Space Telescope, have uncovered 300 unusually bright cosmic objects that may be some of the earliest galaxies ever formed. By applying ...

Scientists Stunned by the Universe’s First Known Black Hole

Aug. 31, 2025 — Just 500 million years after the Big Bang, a colossal black hole, 300 million times the mass of the Sun, was already blazing at the heart of a tiny, brilliant galaxy. Found with JWST, this discovery ...

What If Dark Matter Came from a Mirror Universe?

Aug. 13, 2025 — UC Santa Cruz physicist Stefano Profumo has put forward two imaginative but scientifically grounded theories that may help solve one of the biggest mysteries in physics: the origin of dark matter. In ...