Astronomers have spotted an unusual asteroid with the shortest "year" known for any asteroid. The rocky body, dubbed 2019 LF6, is about a kilometer in size and circles the sun roughly every 151 days. In its orbit, the asteroid swings out beyond Venus and, at times, comes closer in than Mercury, which circles the sun every 88 days. 2019 LF6 is one of only 20 known "Atira" asteroids, whose orbits fall entirely within Earth's. […]

The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter preserves the processes of planetary formation, frozen in time. Vesta, the second largest asteroid in this belt, provides an outstanding opportunity for scientists to investigate the origin and formation of planets. In particular, Vesta has kept its crust, mantle and metallic core, much like Earth. Careful mapping of Vesta by NASA's Dawn mission showed that the crust at the south pole of Vesta is unusually thick. […]

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Spain has found evidence that suggests the dwarf planet Ceres is experiencing wrinkling on its surface. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the group explains their study of data from the Dawn spacecraft and what it revealed. […]

Animated view of more than 14 000 asteroids in our Solar System from the catalogue in the second data release of ESA's Gaia satellite, published in 2018. […]

A Southwest Research Institute-led team studied the orientation of distant solar system bodies to bolster the "streaming instability" theory of planet formation. […]