For nearly three decades, astronomers tracked a 1,250-foot-wide object relatively close to Earth that they thought was an asteroid. It looked like one. It followed the expected path. Telescopes saw no ...

Across Earth, every night, thousands of automated stargazers are waiting to take pictures of shooting stars. I am one of the scientists who study these meteors. Most movies and news alerts focus on ...

Asteroids, on the other hand, are leftovers from the early solar system that formed closer to the Sun. They are dry and rocky, and do not have the same ices that give comets their characteristic tails ...

Long before telescopes or space missions, our ancestors gazed up in wonder at comets that appeared in the night sky. These ghostly visitors were seen as omens, messengers, or divine portents. Today, ...

A NASA scientist has warned that thousands of city-killing asteroids could strike Earth, and there's currently no defense humanity could use to stop them. Kelly Fast, a planetary defense officer at ...

Astronomer Patrick M. Shober found a new meteor shower—and it comes from an asteroid getting broken down by the Sun. Reading time 4 minutes Across the Earth, every night, thousands of automated ...

Here’s a time lapse showing an outburst of Geminid meteors lighting up the sky. Read about a recent study that associated a new meteor shower with an asteroid that was destroyed by the sun. Image via ...

Learn about an object in space that has emerged as a dark comet, displaying a much fainter glow than most comets. Some near-Earth objects orbiting in space have a serious identity crisis. They may ...

A near-Earth object once thought to be an asteroid turns out to be a dark comet, challenging scientists' notions about identifying space rocks. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech illustration For nearly three ...