News Briefs

Comets screaming through the atmosphere of early Earth at tens of thousands of miles per hour likely contained measurable amounts of protein-forming amino acids. Upon impact, these amino acids self-assembled into significantly larger nitrogen-containing aromatic structures that are likely constituents of polymeric biomaterials.

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, which was the first mission to involve a spacecraft following a comet on its journey around the Sun, and placing a lander on its surface, has found clues about how magnetic fields may have helped the Solar System to

A citizen scientist has discovered two stars with strange dips in their light that are probably hosts to ‘exocomets’, i.e. comets that orbit stars other than our Sun. If confirmed, then these will be the first “star-grazing” exocomets to be found.

A team of international asteroid and comet experts now agree that ʻOumuamua, the first recorded interstellar visitor, has natural origins.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu.

Recently analyzed data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up its scientific target, the asteroid Bennu.

A team led by Southwest Research Institute has concluded that the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is rich in organic matter.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu Monday.

A little over 4 billion years ago, the planets in our solar system coexisted with vast numbers of small rocky or icy objects orbiting the Sun.

Forget those shepherding moons. Gravity and the odd shapes of asteroid Chariklo and dwarf planet Haumea – small objects deep in our solar system – can be credited for forming and maintaining their own rings, according new research.