Because the Kuiper Belt had seemed small, one theory had been that the solar nebula that formed our planetary system had also been smaller than normal. The discovery of this Kuiper Belt 2 suggests ...

There are five known dwarf planets in our solar system. One of them is named Ceres, after the Roman goddess of corn, agriculture, and harvests. Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the sun. It has ...

This artist’s concept of Comet 238P/Read shows the main belt comet sublimating—its water ice vaporizing as its orbit approaches the Sun Photo: NASA, ESA ...

Indeed, our own solar system's asteroid belt is considered to be a "failed planet" of sorts; there are multiple small spherical bodies that make up the asteroid belt, including Ceres, Vesta, and ...

The first asteroid belt ever seen outside the solar system is more complex than expected, astronomers found, using observations by the James Webb Space Telescope. Looking at the warm dust around a ...

China extends its reach into the Solar System with launch of asteroid mission Tianwen-2 will first return samples from an asteroid, then explore a mysterious comet-like object.

Chemical signatures from the Chicxulub asteroid’s impact—which caused a mass extinction on Earth 66 million years ago—match those of carbonaceous meteorites formed beyond Jupiter.

Pluto follows a path with an angle 17 degrees above the plane of the solar system’s planets. NASA This bizarre and distant Earth-like planet, though, isn’t the first hidden world to be proposed.

Meet the surprising, oddball worlds moving around our solar system. From meteorites that impact Earth, to a moon that orbits backwards, to an imposter lurking in the asteroid belt, a variety of ...

As an ancient planetesimal in the Kuiper Belt, Arrokoth likely formed 4 to 4.5 billion years ago from a sea of icy particles in the far reaches of the solar system.

At a NASA observatory in Hawaii, scientists have detected a new type of water-rich ancient asteroid similar to the dwarf planet Ceres in the main belt. The discovery adds to the mounting evidence ...