Small Solar System Body

Learn why a black hole is becoming active and why experts still can't explain the source of its regular, periodic pattern of X-ray energy flashes.

The number of planets that orbit the sun depends on what you mean by "planet," and that's not so easy to define

Dark comets are small bodies with no detected coma that have significant accelerations explainable by outgassing of volatiles, analogous to the first interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua.

Are there hidden planets in our solar system? New technologies, like the powerful Rubin Observatory, brings us closer to answers.

Astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) have investigated the Taurid resonant swarm, a large interplanetary system that contains comet 2P/Encke, several meteoroid streams, and possibly a number of near-Earth asteroids.

'It would be very inconvenient for us if we were being repeatedly blasted by supernovae.'

Researchers used observations from the Webb Telescope to identify carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Charon, Pluto's largest moon.

The Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers both peak around 31 July – and stargazers should head out of the city for the best views

"It will miss the Earth. It will miss the Earth. It will miss the Earth."

Though Pluto has formally been considered a dwarf planet for almost two decades, it still has many lessons left for planetary scientists — including hints about how the solar system formed.

Astronomers find multiple streams of dust spiraling into the heart of the nearby Andromeda galaxy, where a supermassive black hole lurks.

NASA has revealed the findings

The DART mission has proven that we can substantially affect potentially hazardous asteroids.

Two infant stars are surrounded by swirling clouds that astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope found contain icy molecules that could form the...

On October 19th, 2017, astronomers with the Pann-STARRS survey observed an interstellar object passing through our system—1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua. This was the first time an ISO was detected, confirming that such objects pass through the solar system regularly, as astronomers predicted decades prior. Just two years later, a second object was detected, the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. Given 'Oumuamua's unusual nature…

Astronomers have discovered a radio signal from a 'JuMBO' in the Orion nebula, a weird celestial object discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope that...

Jupiter is our solar system's undisputed king of the planets. Jupiter is bright and easy to spot from our vantage point on Earth, helped by its massive size and banded, reflective cloud tops. Jupiter even possesses moons the size of planets: Ganymede, its largest, is bigger than the planet Mercury. What's more, you can easily observe Jupiter and its moons with a modest instrument, just like Galileo did over 400…

Dr. Christopher Stark from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and his colleagues present new coronagraphic images that reveal previously unseen structures in the debris disk around the young star Beta Pictoris.

Beta Pictoris, a young planetary system located just 63 light-years away, continues to intrigue scientists even after decades of in-depth study. It possesses the first dust disk imaged around another star—a disk of debris produced by collisions between asteroids, comets, and planetesimals.

Beta Pictoris, a young planetary system located just 63 light-years away, continues to intrigue scientists even after decades of in-depth study. It possesses