Smaller bodies of rock, metal, ice, and dust can be found scattered throughout space. These objects travel on their own courses, sometimes silently beyond Jupiter and occasionally quite close to Earth ...

Have you ever been out at night and seen a streak of light blast across the sky and disappear? Ever wonder where that shooting star came from, or how it got to be in your sky? As the director of the ...

A near-Earth object once thought to be an asteroid turns out to be a dark comet, challenging scientists' notions about identifying space rocks. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech illustration For nearly three ...

People often use the words meteor and meteorite interchangeably, usually when describing a bright streak of light crossing the night sky. The distinction is simple, though the objects involved are ...

A newly discovered meteor stream may be the smoking gun of an asteroid slowly disintegrating under the Sun’s intense heat. Scientists say these fiery streaks across the night sky could reveal hidden ...

Our solar system is full of floating space debris. Depending on what they're made of and where they come from, they have different names. Let's find out what are asteroids, meteors, meteorites and ...