A new study suggests that a close encounter with a massive interstellar object, possibly eight times the mass of Jupiter, may have significantly altered the orbits of the four outer planets in our ...

“We knew that lunar ejecta were potentially hiding in these kinds of really near-Earth orbits,” said Teddy Kareta, a postdoctoral researcher at Lowell Observatory in Arizona who led the researc ...

Kareta and members of his team at Lowell Observatory, who study near-Earth asteroids on close orbits, were already observing the object before anyone dubbed it a potential mini-moon. To ensure ...

These changes in appearance are the phases of the moon. As the moon orbits Earth, it cycles through eight distinct phases. The four primary phases of the moon (new moon, first quarter, full moon ...

Orbits of natural bodies in the universe are usually not perfectly circular — they are elliptical. Some orbits are ever so slightly elliptical (like a somewhat squashed circle, or, in ...

Kareta and members of his team at Lowell Observatory, who study near-Earth asteroids on close orbits, were already observing the object before anyone dubbed it a potential mini-moon. To ensure that ...