Accumulation of dust and ice particles into planetesimals is an important step in the planet formation process. Planetesimals are the seeds of both terrestrial planets and the solid cores of gas and ...

Bit by bit, NASA’s New Horizons probe is bringing into sharper focus the most distant space object ever explored by a spacecraft. Known as Arrokoth, this ancient, icy body sits far beyond Pluto in a ...

Not that long ago, it seemed the glory days of NASA’s New Horizons mission were in the rearview mirror, left behind with its historic Pluto encounter in 2015. Then, early last year, the spacecraft ...

A new study posits that the large, approximately 5-kilometer-long mounds that dominate the appearance of the larger lobe of the pristine Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a ...

During the early stages of planet formation, two different mechanisms may work in concert to help dust grains come together more rapidly Figure 1: This artist’s impression shows a young star ...

Planets start out as loose clumps of dust grains. And, like flour clumps up as you mix it into cake batter, cosmic dust clumps eventually build up to become planets like Earth as gravity pulls them ...

Data from NASA's New Horizons mission are providing new insights into how planets and planetesimals -- the building blocks of the planets -- were formed. Data from NASA's New Horizons mission are ...