Why do so many icy objects at the edge of the solar system look like two spheres stuck together?
Why do so many icy objects at the edge of the solar system look like two spheres stuck together? A new supercomputer simulation has finally solved the mystery. In January 2019, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Arrokoth, an ancient, icy rock in the Kuiper Belt. To everyone's surprise, it looked exactly like a snowman. Even more surprising? It turns out about 10% of all planetesimals in the Kuiper Belt share this exact same "contact binary" shape.
Ghost Particle (neutrino): Did it come from the evaporation of a primordial black hole near Earth?
An immensely powerful neutrino struck a deep-sea detector. Did it come from the evaporation of a primordial black hole near Earth? Neutrinos are often called "ghost particles" because they have almost no mass and rarely interact with matter. Trillions pass through your body every second. But recently, the KM3NeT collaboration—a massive telescope network submerged in the deep Mediterranean Sea—detected something extraordinary.
When an asteroid slammed into Earth 6.3 million years ago, it launched a spray of molten rock across South America.
When an asteroid slammed into Earth 6.3 million years ago, it launched a spray of molten rock across South America. Today, researchers have finally found the fragments.
Tektites are natural glasses formed under extreme conditions. When an extraterrestrial body strikes the Earth with immense energy, it melts the local rock and flings it into the atmosphere. The molten droplets cool rapidly as they plummet back to the surface, forming distinct, aerodynamic shapes.
