The Oort cloud is a region in our solar system's vicinity we don’t know all that much about. Named after Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, it is a theoretical concept comprising planetesimals (solid objects ...

The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize: a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the Sun and eight planets as it extends trillions of miles into deep space. The spherical shell known as ...

ATLAS, the interstellar anomaly that has rivetted scientists as it hurtles through our solar system, might not be as special ...

Here, we show that the detection of Borisov implies that interstellar objects outnumber Solar system objects in the Oort cloud, whereas the reverse is true near the Sun due to the stronger ...

Comet spotter: the object was first observed in data taken by the Dark Energy Camera in Chile, which was used for the Dark Energy Survey. (Courtesy: Reidar Hahn/Fermilab) Astronomers sifting through ...

The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the Sun and eight planets as it extends trillions of miles into deep space. The spherical shell known as ...

An object of unusual size will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2031, during which time it will swing past the orbit of Saturn and possibly turn into an exceptionally large comet. Astronomers ...

‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered near the Earth, left us with more questions than answers. The visitor was first observed during its exit from the solar system, and the limited data ...

The Oort cloud, postulated in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, defines the periphery of the solar system—extending out beyond 100,000 times the Earth-sun separation. It contains billions of icy ...

Launched in 1997, NASA’s Voyager spacecraft has been traveling ever since, and it was around 167 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth. It was the first spacecraft to go beyond the heliosphere, ...

Planet-hunters scouring the heavens have found thousands of distant worlds around other stars, but astronomers may have overlooked one lurking much closer to home. Scientists searching for glimmers of ...