Vomit Comet “These measurements give us a look at how this enormous, icy world works,” said lead author Nathan Roth of American University and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. “We’re seeing explosive ...

The Oort cloud has sent its biggest comet yet towards the inner solar system, and it is travelling at an insane speed, ...

Astronomers have long been intrigued by the makeup of the asteroid belt’s largest body. When it was first spotted in 1801, Ceres appeared dry and rocky, its surface marked by craters and dents.

That said, the inner Oort cloud is affected by these galactic tides as well, albeit over a much longer time frame—like, age-of-the-Solar-System long.

The identity of this presumed cloud is not fully known, but scientists strongly believe that it is a source of long-period comets (LPCs) that enter the inner solar system from time to time and can ...

The Oort cloud is even further out, but despite a dwindling fuel supply, New Horizons may be able to hold on long enough to get out there and scan for the presence of something from Alpha Centauri.

They include objects in the Kuiper Belt, such as Pluto and Eris, and more distant regions, such as the scattered disk and the Oort cloud. TNOs are thought to be remnants from the early solar system.

It's the Oort Cloud, named after Jan Hendrik Oort. Unlike our local asteroid belt, and the more distant Kuiper Belt, which form orbiting bands, this is an enormous spherical cloud.

The Oort Cloud is technically outside our solar system so this comet, nicknamed A3 — or as stargazing fans are calling it, the "Comet of the Century" — is visiting us from interstellar space.

Comets like C/2023 A3 typically come from the distant Oort Cloud, a region of icy bodies at the outer edges of the solar system. These comets are often on orbits so long that they only visit the ...

Main Asteroid Belt The main asteroid belt is the most well-known and largest asteroid belt. It lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, about 2.2 to 3.2 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun.