comet

Artwork showing what the surface of the comet 2/I Borisov might look like. Credit: ESO/M. Kormesser

The interstellar comet Borisov was shiny and new when it passed through our solar system

By Phil Plait 9 months ago

Artwork showing the Philae lander just before contacting the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

A doomed lander reveals one last secret: Comets are fluffy like cappuccino foam

By Phil Plait 1 year ago

The comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko vents gas and dust into space. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

For the first time, an aurora is seen around a comet

By Phil Plait 1 year ago

The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov passed through our solar system in 2019. Credit: Gemini Observatory

An alien comet dropped something off on its way out of the solar system

By Phil Plait 1 year ago

Hubble Space Telescope image of the comet 2I/Borisov (formerly C/2019 Q4 (Borisov)). The blue color was added to a grayscale image. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles)

Hubble observes an alien visitor: the comet 2I/Borisov

By Phil Plait 2 years ago

Artwork depicting what ‘Oumuamua might look like; observations indicate it’s highly elongated. But where did it come from? Credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser

No, 'Oumuamua is not an alien spaceship. It might be even weirder.

By Phil Plait 2 years ago

NASA’s TESS orbiting exoplanet-hunting spacecraft caught the comet C/2018 N1 (NEOWISE) on July 25, 2018. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

TESS watches a comet (and variable stars and Mars and a bunch of asteroids) go by

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

‘Oumuamua, the first object ever seen passing through our solar system from interstellar space, was thought to be emitting gas like a comet to explain its weird motion, but a new idea is that the comet is just very, very porous.

So, 'Oumuamua is likely a comet after all

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

The comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko vents gas and dust into space. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

MUST SEE VIDEO: Snowstorm on a comet!

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

No image available

So long, rock from an alien solar system. I mean that literally: So. Long.

By Phil Plait 4 years ago