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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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    Eyes on the Solar System lets you explore the planets, their moons, asteroids, comets and the spacecraft exploring them from 1950 to 2050. Ride with the Curiosity Rover as it lands on Mars or fly by Pluto with the New Horizons spacecraft all from the comfort of your home computer.

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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
    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
    The first map showing the global geology of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has been completed and fully reveals a dynamic world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains.
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    The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed
    The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed
    A research team led out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has detected water vapor for the first time above Europa’s surface.
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    NASA Scientists Confirm Water Vapor on Europa
    NASA Scientists Confirm Water Vapor on Europa
    Naiad and Thalassa race around the ice giant in odd orbits seemingly to avoid each other.
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    NASA Finds Neptune Moons Locked in ‘Dance of Avoidance'
    NASA Finds Neptune Moons Locked in ‘Dance of Avoidance'
    On Nov. 12, 2019, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe team released scientific data collected during the spacecraft’s first two solar orbits to the general public.
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    First Parker Solar Probe Science Data Released to Public
    First Parker Solar Probe Science Data Released to Public
    In a fitting tribute to the farthest flyby ever conducted by spacecraft, the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 has been officially named Arrokoth, a Native American term meaning “sky” in the Powhatan/Algonquian language.
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    Far, Far Away in the Sky: New Horizons Kuiper Belt Flyby Object Officially Named 'Arrokoth'
    Far, Far Away in the Sky: New Horizons Kuiper Belt Flyby Object Officially Named 'Arrokoth'
    A new paper identifies a ring of minerals at the rover's landing site that are ideal for fossilizing microbial life.
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    NASA's Mars 2020 Will Hunt for Microscopic Fossils
    NASA's Mars 2020 Will Hunt for Microscopic Fossils
    Scientists have found that oxygen in the air above Gale Crater on Mars behaves in a way that, so far, cannot be explained through any known chemical processes.
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    With Mars Methane Mystery Unsolved, Curiosity Serves Scientists a New One: Oxygen
    With Mars Methane Mystery Unsolved, Curiosity Serves Scientists a New One: Oxygen
    From our perspective on Earth, Mercury looked like a tiny black dot gliding across the Sun’s face.This only happens about 13 times a century.
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    Mercury Transit in Pictures
    Mercury Transit in Pictures
    The Lunar IceCube mission, led by Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, will study water distribution and interaction on the Moon.
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    Lunar IceCube Mission to Locate, Study Resources Needed for Sustained Presence on Moon
    Lunar IceCube Mission to Locate, Study Resources Needed for Sustained Presence on Moon