Tag Archive for 'Oort Cloud'

An artist rendition of comet C/2014 UN271. Image credit: NSF / AUI / NSF / NRAO / M.Weiss.

ALMA Detects Molecular Activity in Largest Known Oort Cloud Comet

Jun 17, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have observed comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) — the largest...

Cutout images of all 19 detections of 2017 OF201. Image credit: Cheng et al., arXiv: 2505.15806.

Astronomers Discover Dwarf Planet Candidate on 25,000-Year Orbit

May 27, 2025 by News Staff

Named 2017 OF201, the newly-discovered trans-Neptunian object is one of the most distant visible objects in our Solar System and is likely large (about...

This image, taken by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on October 10, 2024, shows comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and its bright tail streaming from the upper left to the right; Mercury appears as a bright dot on the left. Image credit: ESA / NASA.

NASA Astronauts, SOHO Spacecraft Snap New Images of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Oct 15, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A bright comet from the Oort cloud named C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is passing by Earth and will be visible through the second half of October 2024. This...

The February 2021 fireball captured by the Global Fireball Observatory camera at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Image credit: University of Alberta.

Meteoroid from Oort Cloud Was Made of Rock, Not Ice, Scientists Say

Dec 23, 2022 by News Staff

This decimeter-sized (2 kg) rocky meteoroid entered the atmosphere of our planet about 100 km north of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at 13:23:17 UTC...

(A) the Milky Way Galaxy with superimposed spiral arms and geological events: the arm and the Solar System rotate clockwise at different rates; the ‘+’ number denotes the number of times Earth has passed through that arm; (B) model of the Oort cloud showing cometary nuclei; (C) schematic reconstruction of early Earth impact process; (D) early crustal nuclei development. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESO / R. Hurt / Kirkland et al., doi: 10.1130/G50513.1.

Transits through Milky Way’s Spiral Arms Helped Form Early Earth’s Continental Crust, Study Says

Aug 24, 2022 by News Staff

New research led by Curtin University geologists suggests that regions of space with dense interstellar clouds may send more high-energy comets crashing...

This image, taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 on January 8, 2022, shows comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Man-To Hui, Macau University of Science and Technology / David Jewitt, UCLA / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Hubble Detects Giant Nucleus of Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein

Apr 12, 2022 by News Staff

The estimated diameter of the nucleus of comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) is approximately 137 km (85 miles) across, making it the largest...

An artist’s impression of what the surface of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov might look like. Image credit: ESO / M. Kormesser.

Study: Interstellar Visitors Outnumber Solar System Objects in Oort Cloud

Aug 24, 2021 by News Staff

The recent detection of 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to visit our Solar System, implies that interstellar objects outnumber the non-interstellar...

This illustration shows comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it might look in the outer Solar System. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva.

Astronomers Discover Giant Comet in Outer Solar System

Jun 29, 2021 by News Staff

Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, which is between 100 and 200 km (62-124 miles) across, will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2031, according to an...

The Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which is among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality of the impact by the production of climate-changing gases. Image credit: Chase Stone.

Novel Theory Explains Possible Origin of Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Impactor

Feb 16, 2021 by News Staff

At the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago, a 10-km impactor crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what...

Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large armored dinosaur species, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, falling on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Non-Marine Mass Extinctions Occur with Periodicity of 27.5 Million Years: Study

Dec 11, 2020 by News Staff

Non-marine animals (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have apparently experienced at least 10 distinct episodes of intensified extinctions over...

An artist’s conception of a potential solar companion, which theorists believe was developed in the Sun’s birth cluster and later lost. If proven, the solar companion theory would provide additional credence to theories that the Oort Cloud formed as we see it today, and that Planet Nine was captured rather than formed in place. Image credit: M. Weiss.

Early Solar System May Have Had Two Suns

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Harvard University astrophysicists Avi Loeb and Amir Siraj show that an equal-mass stellar companion...

Siraj & Loeb explore the possibility that accretion flares resulting from the tidal disruption of small Oort Cloud bodies by a putative primordial black hole could power an observable optical signal that could be searched for with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Image credit: Sci-News.com / Zdeněk Bardon / ESO.

Astronomers Develop Method to Detect Tiny Black Holes in Outskirts of Our Solar System

Jul 13, 2020 by News Staff

Amir Siraj and Professor Avi Loeb from the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University have developed a new method to search for primordial black holes...

This image shows the Oort cloud comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS). Image credit: ESO / SPECULOOS Team / E. Jehin.

ESO Releases Beautiful New Image of Comet C/2016 R2

Oct 9, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released an incredibly beautiful image of an Oort cloud comet called C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS). The image was captured...

Beyond Neptune, there is a large disk of small objects, called the Kuiper Belt and beyond that is the Oort Cloud, home of the comets. This artwork shows a section of Kuiper Belt, crowded with the icy cores of potential comets. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Massive Disk of Trans-Neptunian Objects Casts Doubt on Planet Nine

Jan 23, 2019 by News Staff

In 2016, Caltech astronomers showed that six distant solar system objects (2007 TG422, 2013 RF98, 2004 VN112, 2012 VP113, 2012 GB174 and a minor planet...

Comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS). Image credit: Damian Peach, www.damianpeach.com / Jose J. Chambo, www.cometografia.es.

Astronomers Spot Rare Blue Comet: C/2016 R2

Oct 16, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS), a visitor from the Solar System’s distant Oort Cloud, sports a very complex tail dominated by blue light and is unusually rich...

This image of 2015 TG387 was taken by the Subaru Telescope on October 13, 2015. Image credit: Dave Tholen / Chad Trujillo / Scott Sheppard.

Astronomers Find New Extreme Dwarf Planet: 2015 TG387

Oct 5, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet in the Oort Cloud, a spherical ‘cloud’ of frozen objects surrounding the Solar System and extending...

An artist’s concept of a Sun-mass star passing close to the early Solar System. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Sci-News.com.

Passing Star May Have Shaped Early Outer Solar System

Aug 13, 2018 by News Staff

A close flyby of a Sun-mass star several billion years ago could explain some unusual features observed in the outer Solar System. An artist’s concept...

An artist’s concept of the minor planet Sedna; the Sun appears as an extremely bright star instead of a large, warm disc observed from Earth; in the distance is a hypothetical small moon, which scientists believe may be orbiting this distant body. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Collective Gravity, Not Planet Nine, May Explain Orbits of Sedna and Other Detached Trans-Neptunian Objects

Jun 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder has offered up a new theory for the existence of strange trans-Neptunian objects...

Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Scholz’s Star Disturbed Oort Cloud Objects 70,000 Years Ago

Mar 21, 2018 by Natali Anderson

About 70,000 years ago, a binary stellar system called ‘Scholz’s star’ passed within only 52,000 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun, i.e., within...

This artist’s concept depicts Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone. Image credit: NASA / Ames / SETI Institute / JPL-Caltech.

Solar Lensing Telescope: NASA Scientists Propose New Technique to Directly Image Surface of Distant Exoplanets

Oct 12, 2017 by News Staff

A space telescope placed far beyond the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto could one day deliver high-resolution images of distant exoplanets, according to...