The newly discovered comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is anticipated to be spectacularly bright late next year. But it’s important to temper our expectations.
There was little time for water from the Earth’s atmosphere to contaminate the meteorite after it fell.
Trustees of the Natural History Museum
The unusual planetary system has a host star orbited by two giants. One has an incredible odd route around its star. And the other (unlike our own gas giants) is hellishly hot.
This image shows meteors that skimmed the atmosphere during just one night in March this year.
When the meteor exploded into pieces above New Zealand, it produced a shock wave strong enough to be picked up by earthquake seismometers. But any fragments have likely dropped into the ocean.
Pluto was recategorized from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006.
(Shutterstock)
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and one of our closest neighbors in space. But it’s not a very welcoming place for an Earthling to visit.
There is a U.S. flag on the Moon, but in the future, countries may start to turn access to the Moon and asteroids into serious wealth.
NASA/Neil A. Armstrong
Current trends suggest that powerful nations are defining the rules of resource use in space and satellite access in ways that will make it hard for developing nations to ever catch up.
Pluto, the largest of the dwarf planets. This image was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Most of what we know about planets outside our Solar System relates to gas-giant planets. A new study has identified and characterised a smaller exoplanet.