A new analysis of archival Hubble Space Telescope photos reveals that a peculiar comet slowed its spin before fully reversing its rotational direction during a flyby of Earth in 2017.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@europeanspaceflight/115503247728842863
1st #Ariane6 launch 2026 🚀 February 12 for #Amazon : $106.00 million*. #Arianespace has been contracted to perform 18 missions for Amazon’s Project #Kuiper https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/6930/
* subsidized 💶 by #European #taxpayers
The #ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), has produced the sharpest images ever of 24 debris discs, the dusty belts left after #planets finish forming.
These discs are the cosmic equivalent of the teenage years for planetary systems – somewhat more mature than newborn, planet-forming discs, but not yet settled into adulthood.
Debris discs are representing the collision-dominated phase of the #planet formation process.
With ALMA, astronomers are able to characterise the disc structures pointing to the presence of planets. In parallel, with direct imaging and radial velocity studies, searches for young planets in these systems is possible.
Solar System’s counterpart to this phase is the #Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy debris beyond #Neptune that preserves a record of massive collisions and planetary migrations from billions of years ago.
By studying 24 exoplanetary debris belts, the ARKS team has opened a window into what our Solar System went through as the Moon was forming and as planets jostled for their final places, and sometimes trading orbits.
#astronomy #exoplanets
https://www.mpia.de/news/science/2026-01-arks-survey
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