New Atlas

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Antarctic meteorite tells the tale of an asteroid that ate a comet

Michael Irving April 15, 2019

Scientists have discovered a tiny fragment of a comet in a meteorite. The bulk of the rock itself was once an asteroid, but when the team cracked it open and analyzed the inside, they found that the growing asteroid must have swept up the seed of a comet billions of years ago.

Scientists have discovered the seeds of a comet inside a meteorite from an asteroid

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Early asteroids may have had iron-spewing volcanoes

David Szondy April 8, 2019

Metallic asteroids in the early days of the solar system may have had volcanoes spewing molten iron instead of lava. Based on models of how metallic asteroids form and cool, a new study by planetary scientists at UC Santa Cruz opens the window on such a spectacular possibility.

As a metallic asteroid such as Psyche cooled and solidified, iron volcanoes may have erupted onto ...

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Jupiter may have formed much farther from the Sun than we thought

Michael Irving March 24, 2019

As the largest planet in the solar system by a wide margin, Jupiter has a lot of sway, but its history is still a bit of a mystery. Now astronomers have put forward a new theory, suggesting that the gas giant formed much farther away from the Sun and then migrated into its current position.

A new theory suggests that Jupiter formed five times further from the Sun than its current ...

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Astronomers spot a new planetary system forming nearby

Michael Irving March 17, 2019

Roughly 4.6 billion years ago, all the planets in our solar system began to form in a huge disk of dust and gas that swirled around the Sun. Now astronomers have spotted the same kind of thing happening around a nearby young star, which could give us a better understanding of planet formation.

An artist's impression of the two dust disks surrounding the nearby young star DM Tau, which ...

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Astronomers make unexpected dusty discoveries in Mercury's and Venus' orbits

Michael Irving March 12, 2019

Saturn may sport the most famous rings in the solar system, but it’s far from the only thing with some bling. Now, two new studies have found evidence of new rings in the inner solar system – a dusty one in the orbit of Mercury and a new set of asteroids following Venus’ path around the Sun.

Astronomers have discovered a dusty ring near Mercury, and hypothesized that there's an undetected population of ...

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New clues emerge in the hunt for Planet Nine

Michael Irving February 27, 2019

In the last few years, evidence suggests there’s an unknown rocky world lurking on the fringes of the solar system. The astronomers who originally proposed the Planet Nine hypothesis have now published two more papers analyzing the case, highlighting a few new clues.

An artist's impression of the hypothetical Planet Nine

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"Risky" close-ups of Ultima Thule are New Horizons' finest ever work

Michael Irving February 24, 2019

New Horizons has sent back the clearest images of Ultima Thule to date. The new images were snapped just minutes before the spacecraft made its closest pass of the Kuiper Belt object on January 1, in what the science team calls a risky “stretch goal” of the project.

This image of Ultima Thule was snapped about 19 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach, showing ...

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Flatland: New images reveal Ultima Thule's shape is a "scientific puzzle"

Michael Irving February 10, 2019

Ultima Thule's shape has been described as a bowling pin, then a snowman. Now, new images snapped as the probe sped away from the object show that Ultima Thule is more like a flat “pancake” stuck to a “dented walnut,” leaving astronomers puzzled as to how such a shape is even possible.

A new view of Ultima Thule reveals that it's surprisingly flat

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Japanese astronomers spot new class of object in the Kuiper Belt

Michael Irving January 29, 2019

A team at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has discovered a new class of object that has long been thought to exist in the Kuiper belt on the fringes of the solar system. It's a small body on the scale of a few kilometers.

An artist's impression of the newly-discovered object

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"Planet Nine" may be a distant, dusty disc of rock and ice

Michael Irving January 22, 2019

In recent years astronomers have found evidence that there might be a huge “Planet Nine” lurking on the fringes of the solar system. A new study has now poured some cold water on the idea, instead pitching the possibility that a dusty disc is causing all the weirdness out there.

An artist's rendering of the hypothetical Planet Nine