NASA releases first clear images of distant Kuiper Belt object

NASA's New Horizons team has released the promised first images from its history-making flyby of (486958) 2014 MU69, and they're already shedding some light on the early Solar System -- while also raising some questions. The snapshots, captured from...

‘Farout’ is the farthest Solar System object known to date

The reach of the Solar System extends well beyond the full-size planets, and that's becoming clearer than ever with a new discovery. Astronomers have detected 2018 VG18 "Farout," which is the most distant Solar System object known to date at 120AU fr...

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft already found water on its target asteroid

It didn't take long for NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to glean valuable insights from the asteroid Bennu. The vessel has helped scientists discover water trapped inside Bennu's clays thanks to its two spectrometers, which spotted the hydroxyls (bonded...

New Horizons probe may have detected Solar System’s hydrogen ‘wall’

Scientists have learned a bit about the edge of the Solar System from Voyager 1, but there hasn't been a lot of corroborating data without follow-up spacecraft. They appear to be getting a second chance, though. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has det...

First observed interstellar object is a speedy, cigar-shaped asteroid

Last month, astronomers running the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii spotted an intriguing object moving through our solar system and it became clear pretty quickly that the object, whether it was a comet or an asteroid, had come from outside of our...