Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Asteroids, comets and Kuiper belt are bodies smaller than planets that orbit the sun. Asteroids are composed of metals and rock, whereas comets also contain ice and dust. The Kuiper belt is a collection of such bodies that orbits at the edge of the solar system.
The amount of S released by the Chicxulub impact event is empirically determined to be 5 times lower than previously estimated, with important consequences for our understanding of the climate cooling that ultimately led to the K-Pg mass extinction.
Numerical simulations suggest that Pluto’s moon Charon was captured intact, in a scenario in which the two bodies temporarily merged in a collision but did not coalesce due to solid strength effects.
The icy surface compositions, as revealed by JWST, of small bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune can be classified into three groups that can be related to the ice retention lines in the early Solar System, possibly before the planets migrated.
JWST/NIRSpec spectra are used to analyse the surfaces of Centaurs, revealing two main compositions: those with refractory materials and water ice and those rich in carbon-based materials. Strong surface weathering due to thermal processing may be responsible.
Sodium carbonates, chloride and sulfate have been found in samples from asteroid Ryugu. The formation of these compounds from alkaline brines through freezing or evaporation accounts for the loss of liquid water from the parent carbonaceous body.
Four years ago the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 mission returned samples of an asteroid to Earth. The latest results in the analysis of the sample material are presented in this issue of Nature Astronomy.
A new study shows that many ‘ultra-wide’ binaries (UWBs) in the Kuiper belt are not primordial but attained their present large separations during multiple encounters with other trans-Neptunian objects, and constrain Solar System formation and evolution differently than previously thought.
In October 2024, two spacecrafts were successfully launched towards different bodies: Europa, a prime astrobiological target, and Dimorphos, the first test of planetary defence. Joined in their exploration by other missions, they are perfect examples of intra-agency synergy to enhance our knowledge of the Solar System.
A model for the formation of our Solar System proposes that its population of small bodies could have been formed after a stellar encounter between our Sun and another star early on in its history.
