When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Main: An illustration shows an asteroid streaking toward the molten primordial Earth with the sun ...

The universe is often portrayed as a vast stretch of emptiness, but in reality, it’s filled with unfathomable explosions, mind-bending gravitational anomalies, and an untold number of cataclysmic ...

Figure 1: β Pic mid-infrared images. We used standard chop-nod techniques at the Gemini South telescope with a 15-arcsec chop throw orthogonal to the disk's major axis. The PSF at 8.7–18.3 µm was ...

system. Detailed structure of such inner region has been revealed for the first time thanks to the mid-infrared high-resolution observations. The results here have a large impact on the study of ...

A distant white dwarf star has been observed consuming a frozen, Pluto-like world rich in ice and volatile materials. Astronomers have detected nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and carbon in the remnants.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/SMA/ L. Matrà et al. Rings of comets have been discovered around 74 ...

Astronomers have analyzed an exceptional white dwarf displaying periodic transits produced by fragments of a shredded planetesimal. A new study, led by Paula Izquierdo, a doctoral student at the ...

Most meteorites that have landed on Earth are fragments of planetesimals, the very earliest protoplanetary bodies in the solar system. Scientists have thought that these primordial bodies either ...

The first scientific report from the flyby of the distant Kuiper belt object (KBO) Ultima Thule, shows two objects gently joined together in a cosmic kiss that is believed to be the process that ...