IRON AND ICE

News About Asteroids And Comets

2,240 articles

Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System
Oct 27, 2017 (JPL)
This unusual object - for now designated A/2017 U1 - is less than a quarter-mile (400 meters) in diameter and is moving remarkably fast. Astronomers are urgentl...
Rosetta Reveals Dust Jet from Comet
Oct 27, 2017 (SPX)
This is the result of a study published by a team of scientists headed by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany analyzing a dust j...
Scientists detect comets outside our solar system
Oct 27, 2017 (SPX)
These cosmic balls of ice and dust, which were about the size of Halley's Comet and traveled about 100,000 miles per hour before they ultimately vaporized, are ...
Asteroid Luca
Oct 24, 2017 (ESA)
The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre has confirmed a new name for an asteroid formerly known merely as 1993 TD: (37627) Lucaparmitano. The...
Dawn Mission Extended at Ceres
Oct 20, 2017 (JPL)
The Dawn flight team is studying ways to maneuver Dawn into a new elliptical orbit, which may take the spacecraft to less than 120 miles (200 kilometers) from t...
Orionid meteor shower to peak this weekend
Oct 20, 2017 (UPI)
Almost all meteor showers are best viewed between midnight and dawn, and the Orionid shower is no different. With a new moon only barely in the rear view mirror...
Spinning comet rapidly slows down during close approach to Earth
Oct 19, 2017 (SPX)
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak is a short period comet that now completes an orbit around the Sun every 5.4 years. First discovered by H. Tuttle in 1858, it ...
A solar-powered asteroid nursery at the orbit of Mars
Oct 19, 2017 (SPX)
Now, an international team of astronomers believe they have identified the culprit: sunlight. Their findings, which highlight how small asteroids near the Sun m...
SwRI scientists dig into the origin of organics on Ceres
Oct 19, 2017 (SPX)
"The discovery of a locally high concentration of organics close to the Ernutet crater poses an interesting conundrum," said Dr. Simone Marchi, a principal scie...
Samples brought back from asteroid reveal 'rubble pile' had a violent past
Oct 19, 2017 (SPX)
The scientists studied two incredibly small particles brought back to Earth from the asteroid Itokawa, after they were collected in 2005 from the surface of the...
Number of Undiscovered Near-Earth Asteroids Revised Downward
Oct 18, 2017 (SPX)
Observers have been cataloging potentially hazardous asteroids for decades. Based on the number of finds, the area of sky explored, and the limiting brightness ...
Earth's New Traveling Buddy Is an Asteroid, Not Space Junk
Oct 18, 2017 (SPX)
Was it a burned-out rocket booster, tumbling along a peculiar near-Earth orbit around the Sun, and only occasionally getting close enough to be studied with eve...
Close Approach of Asteroid 2012 TC4 Poses no Danger to Earth
Oct 16, 2017 (SPX)
"The actual miss distance is pinned down to around 50,000 kilometers, which makes it about a once in two years occurrence, a bit noteworthy, but not really a ve...
Asteroid Tracking Network Observes Close Approach
Oct 16, 2017 (JPL)
2012 TC4 is estimated to be 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) in size. Orbit prediction experts say the asteroid poses no risk of impact with Earth. Nonetheless,...
Asteroid to pass inside moon's orbit, help scientists calibrate tracking technology
Oct 11, 2017 (UPI)
The closest approach of 2012 TC4 will occur above Antarctica at 1:42 a.m. EDT. The space rock, measuring between 50 and 100 feet in width, will pass within just...
Team led by UCLA astrophysicist observes primitive comet 2 billion kilometres from the sun
Oct 09, 2017 (SPX)
Jewitt said the discovery will enable scientists to monitor the developing activity of a comet over an extraordinary range of distances. C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), ...
A geochemist from MSU has assessed the oxidative environment inside asteroids
Oct 06, 2017 (SPX)
Asteroids were formed by accretion in the early stages of the Solar System development. Accretion is growth of a celestial object by the attachment of the mater...
Studies of 'Crater Capital' in the Baltics Show Impactful History
Oct 03, 2017 (SPX)
Illumetsa are a pair of small craters in Polva County, Estonia, that have recently been studied by a team led by Dr. Anna Losiak, a young researcher at the Poli...
Unexpected Surprise: A Final Image from Rosetta
Oct 02, 2017 (ESA)
"The last complete image transmitted from Rosetta was the final one that we saw arriving back on Earth in one piece moments before the touchdown at Sais," says ...
Hubble Observes the Farthest Active Inbound Comet Yet Seen
Sep 29, 2017 (SPX)
The comet, called C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) or "K2," has been travelling for millions of years from its home in the frigid outer reaches of the solar system, where ...
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