Michigan State University and NASA researchers discover seven dark comets that reveal new solar system secrets.

Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) came within 8.3 million miles of the sun on January 13 as it reached its perihelion, and is now disintegrating.

In a new study my colleagues and I published in December 2024, we discovered two classes of these elusive dark comets The solar system is teeming with small bodies such as comets and asteroids.

In a new study my colleagues and I published in December 2024, we discovered two classes of these elusive dark comets. The solar system is teaming with small bodies such as comets and asteroids.

The discovery doubles the known number of these mysterious celestial objects across our solar system that ... of the inner dark comets,” Taylor said. “However, these are all hypotheses ...

"In its favor is the fact that its orbital path suggests that it visited the inner solar system about 160,000 years ago, so it may have survived a close pass before." Second, if the comet survives ...

Because the period of an object does not depend on its mass, comets’ orbital periods remain unchanged due to mass loss.