The asteroid belt was a vast collection of rocks that was believed to be the remains of a planet that never formed. During the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, Jupiter's ...

Lying between Mars and Jupiter is a massive ring of rock debris—the asteroid belt. Now thin, it's fading away gradually. In a new study, planetary scientist Julio A. Fernández of Uruguay's Universidad ...

The night sky occasionally offers a reminder that the Solar System is far from empty. Bright comets appear with glowing tails, while reports of passing asteroids often make headlines.

In the distant past, the solar system was rife with impacts and collisions. Millions of rocky objects zoomed chaotically through the system, smashing into each other in collisional cascades. Over time ...

Scientists from the Southwest Research Institute have found strong evidence that near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu share a common origin with Polana, a much larger asteroid in the main belt. By ...

A newly discovered asteroid is sticking close to our sun -- much closer than our own planet Earth. The asteroid, called 2021 PH27, completes an orbit around the sun every 113 days and comes within ...

Evidence of chemical alteration by liquid water has been found on the asteroid Donaldjohanson, which formed further from the sun before being shoved inwards.

On April 20, 2025, the Lucy spacecraft swooped by an odd-looking asteroid, capturing close-up views of its peanut-shaped body and cratered surface. The images told a brutal origin story, one that ...