Researchers reporting in Nature Astronomy revealed first detailed images of asteroid 2 Pallas, including its heavily cratered surface. Pallas has a diameter of about 513 km (318 miles), which is roughly 15 percent of the moon's diameter. It is the third-largest…
Our solar system seems like a neat and orderly place, with small, rocky worlds near the Sun and big, gaseous worlds farther out, all eight planets following orbital paths unchanged since they formed.
However, the true history of the solar system is more riotous.
Astronomers have observed a unique and baffling object in asteroid belt with six comet like tails of dust radiating from it. While this object is on an asteroid-like orbit, it looks like a comet, and is sending out tails of dust into space.
Unlike all other
Millions of infrared snapshots from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to a discovery of new and improved asteroid family members in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. NEOWISE all-sky survey identified 28 new
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has found the very first asteroid that (more or less) shares an orbit with Earth! Called 2010 TK7, this asteroid is about 300 meters (roughly 1000 feet) across, and is the first in an up-to-now theoretical class of
