Comet ISON is 3 days to perihelion.
NASA Probe to Observe Double Comet Encounter
On Nov. 18-19, two comets (ISON and Encke) are going to fly by the planet Mercury in quick succession. NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft will have a front-row seat for the rare double encounter.
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Six-tailed Comet Spotted by Hubble
The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a strange asteroid spewing six comet-like tails of dust.
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Comet Pan-STARRS brightening
Comet Pan-STARRS, now visible in the southern hemisphere, is brightening as it approaches the sun. The comet will pass about 100 million miles from Earth in March and is expected to be visible to observers in the northern hemisphere.
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Comet water found to be similar to that in earth’s oceans
The water in a comet called 103P/Hartley 2 is chemically very similar to water on Earth, researchers find. more | journal article
NASA Spacecraft Closes in on Comet Tempel 1
Stardust-NExT is closing in for a second look of the comet on Feb. 14, 2011.
NASA Spacecraft Hurtles Toward Comet
NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI spacecraft is hurtling toward Comet Hartley 2 for a breathtaking 435-mile flyby on Nov. 4th. Mission scientists say all systems are go for a close encounter with one of the smallest yet most active comets they’ve seen.
NASA Researchers discover glycine in comet
Researches confirm presence of amino acid returned from dust collected from Comet Wild 2 with the Stardust spacecraft.
Comet Lulin brightens to naked-eye visibility
The comet makes its closest approach to Earth (0.41 AU) on Feb. 24, 2009
Exploding comet astounds astronomers
Comet Holmes, a dim comet visible only in telescopes, unexpectedly brightened in the past couple of weeks and is now visible to the naked eye.
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Brightest comet in 40 years
Comet McNaught, discovered last year, is continuing to brighten and is now visible to viewers in the southen hemisphere.
Mini-Comets Flies past Earth
A cometary “string-of-pearls” flew past Earth in May 2006 giving astronomers a fantastic view of a dying comet.
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Stardust Samples Show Evidence of Fire, Ice
Scientists find presence of minerals that formed in high temperatures in the comet dust returned by NASA’s Stardust mission. The presence of Olivine suggests that the material may have been formed near the center of the solar system, instead of outside the solar system, as previously believed.
NASA’S Stardust Mission
NASA’s Stardust Mission Returns to Earth
After seven years in space, NASA’s Stardust sample return mission returned safely to Earth when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles successfully touched down at 5:10 a.m. Eastern time (3:10 a.m. Mountain time) in the desert salt flats of the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range.