Comet

INTERNATIONAL STATION FLY-BYS The International Space Station will make numerous flybys across the North Texas sky this month. The ISS will appear as a fast-moving star across the night sky. The…

Astronomers recently detected a massive eruption from an icy volcanic comet that is currently flying through our solar system. (via Spaceweather.com) The comet in question is known as 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann (29P) and is…

Debris from the most spectacular comet outburst ever is visible from Earth this month and astronomers hope the observations might shed some light on the puzzling event that brightened up the sky in 2007. When the faint Comet 17P/Holmes…

This ground-based image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken on July 16, 2020, from the Northern Hemisphere. The inset image, taken on August 8, 2020, by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals a close-up of the comet after its pass by the…

A new meteor shower could materialize from a crumbling comet and here’s how to watch it. On the evening of Monday, May 30, astronomy lovers may get to see a brand new meteor shower light up the night sky. Dubbed…

Out there, in the far recesses of the Solar System, a great existential threat lies in wait for planet Earth: the Oort cloud. Formed at the outset of the Solar System, it largely consists of the remnants of the primitive material that…

Diagram comparing the size of the icy, solid nucleus of comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) to several other comets. Credit: NASA, ESA, Zena Levy (STScI)…

Throughout human history, comets have been seen as intensely meaningful, and as such have been the subject of intense study from ancient philosophers, priests, astrologers and scientists. Though often comparable in…

In 2014, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA launched the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to visit asteroid Ryugu. It arrived at the asteroid in June 2018 and studied it from orbit for over a year. Hayabusa 2 even dispatched four rovers to the…

Using ground-based and space-based observations, a team of researchers has been monitoring a difficult-to-see comet carefully. It’s called Comet 323P/SOHO, and it was discovered over 20 years ago in 1999. But it’s difficult to observe…