A very bright Kreutz-family Sungrazing comet was destroyed by the Sun on May 10, 2021. The object entered the view of the SOHO spacecraft's LASCO C3 instrument early May 8 and C2 on May 10. The object appeared to be tens of meters in diameter, which is fairly…
A large fireball that exploded over Botswana in 2018 (asteroid 2018 LA) likely originated from Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, according to an international team of scientists who analyzed fragments recovered after the impact. Vesta is the…
ESA's Rosetta mission has revealed that its target comet, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, has its own far-ultraviolet aurora. This is the first time such electromagnetic emissions in the far-ultraviolet have been detected on a celestial object, aside from any…
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spotted an unusual object identified as a triple comet flying past the Sun in early August. Although the satellite captures comets all the time– most of which are Kreutz sungrazers– the particular object is not a…
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) has survived its close encounter with the Sun and is currently observable from the northern hemisphere with the naked eye. To receive this celestial gift, get up before dawn, look to the NNE and see it before the Sun takes over, or wait a…
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) is set to make its closest approach to Earth on July 23, 2020, when it will pass at a distance of 0.69 AU. Some experienced observers under clear skies have already reported spotting the comet with the naked eye. The comet was discovered on…
A citizen scientist from Europe discovered SOHO's 4 000th comet in the spacecraft's 25-year history. SOHO — Solar and Heliospheric Observatory — jointly operated by NASA and ESA since 1995. The comet was discovered on June 15, 2020, and is currently…
ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft passed through the ion tail of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) on May 31 and June 1, 2020, and through its dust tail on June 6. This is the 7th space mission to fly through the tail of a comet, and the first one whose upcoming crossing was…
Astronomers at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy (UH IfA) have spotted a new asteroid with a comet-like tail moving in the same orbit as Jupiter. These objects are usually called Trojan asteroids, but this one was described to be the first one…
Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 has reported new observations of Ryugu, revealing more secrets about the object's remarkable history– particularly signs of a close encounter with the Sun. Hayabusa-2 launched in December 2014 and reached Ryugu in 2018. In…
