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    Don’t let the name fool you. Our solar system’s small bodies—asteroids, comets and meteors—pack big surprises. Asteroids and comets—and the meteors that sometimes come from them—are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. While the planets and moons have changed over the millennia, many of these small chunks of ice, rock and metal have not. They are a lot like a fossil record of planetary evolution.

    There are currently known asteroids and known comets.

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    Small Bodies News

    'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object to travel through our solar system, got an unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory last year, a new study shows.
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    Our Solar System's First Known Interstellar Object Gets Unexpected Speed Boost
    Our Solar System's First Known Interstellar Object Gets Unexpected Speed Boost
    Asteroid 2018 LA entered Earth’s atmosphere at about 9:44 a.m. PDT (12:44 p.m. EDT, 16:44 UTC), and later disintegrated in the upper atmosphere near Botswana, Africa.
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    Tiny Asteroid Discovered Disintegrates Hours Later
    Tiny Asteroid Discovered Disintegrates Hours Later
    The spacecraft discovered that asteroid Bennu could be active, consistently discharging particles into space.
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    NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Explains Bennu's Mysterious Particle Events
    NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Explains Bennu's Mysterious Particle Events
    NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is just days away from selecting the site where the spacecraft will snag a sample from asteroid Bennu.
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    NASA's OSIRIS-REx in the Midst of Site Selection
    NASA's OSIRIS-REx in the Midst of Site Selection
    The Sun is revealing itself in dramatic detail thanks to NASA's Parker Solar Probe.
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    First NASA Parker Solar Probe Results Reveal Surprising Details About Our Sun
    First NASA Parker Solar Probe Results Reveal Surprising Details About Our Sun
    Four new papers in the journal Nature describe what scientists have learned so far from NASA's Parker Solar Probe.
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    NASA's Parker Solar Probe Sheds New Light on the Sun
    NASA's Parker Solar Probe Sheds New Light on the Sun
    Using data from NASA’s TESS, astronomers have captured an image of an explosive emission of dust, ice and gases from comet 46P/Wirtanen in late 2018.
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    NASA's Exoplanet-Hunting Mission Catches a Natural Comet Outburst in Unprecedented Detail
    NASA's Exoplanet-Hunting Mission Catches a Natural Comet Outburst in Unprecedented Detail
    This image shows the Vikram Lander impact point and associated debris field.
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    Vikram Lander Found
    Vikram Lander Found
    Scientists shed new light on a phenomenon observed within Mars' dust storms: dust towers, or concentrated clouds of dust that warm in sunlight and rise high into the air.
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    Global Storms on Mars Launch Dust Towers Into the Sky
    Global Storms on Mars Launch Dust Towers Into the Sky
    Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower, predicted to peak around 11:50pm ET on Nov. 21, has the potential to generate a brief outburst of many meteors — but what you actually see will depend on many factors, including location, weather and more.
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    About the Upcoming (maybe) Alpha Monocerotid Meteor Shower Outburst…
    About the Upcoming (maybe) Alpha Monocerotid Meteor Shower Outburst…
    An international team has found sugars essential to life in meteorites. The new discovery adds to the growing list of biologically important compounds found in meteorites.
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    First Detection of Sugars in Meteorites Gives Clues to Origin of Life
    First Detection of Sugars in Meteorites Gives Clues to Origin of Life
    NASA has added five American companies to the pool of vendors that will be eligible to bid on proposals to provide deliveries to the surface of the Moon.
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    New Companies Join Growing Ranks of NASA Partners for Artemis Program
    New Companies Join Growing Ranks of NASA Partners for Artemis Program