SOHO Observatory Discovers Its 5,000th Comet
On March 25, 2024, Hanjie Tan, an astronomy Ph.D. student in Prague, Czech Republic, spotted a comet in an image from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which…
Wild 2 Comet Contains High Fraction of Dust from Young Solar System, Study Shows
NASA’s Stardust mission returned rocky material from the coma of comet 81P/Wild 2 (pronounced ‘Vilt 2’) to Earth on January 15, 2006. Comet Wild 2 contains volatile ices and likely…
Comet Airburst Initiated Transition to Agriculture 12,800 Years Ago, Scientists Say
Around 12,800 years ago, Earth collided with fragments of a disintegrating comet, triggering Younger Dryas climate change; this event created environmental conditions at Abu Hureyra, Syria, that favored the earliest…