New theory says asteroid belt is contaminated with icy invaders from beyond Neptune and Pluto

October 13th, 2009 LONDON - Two independent scientific teams have found what may be the first direct evidence of water ice on the surface of an asteroid, a discovery that lends support to the idea that asteroids could have helped deliver water to the early Earth. Asteroids are generally considered to be rocky, and comets icy.

October 13th, 2009 LONDON - Astronomers have identified the cosmic version of 'Peter Pan', namely a 600 km-wide asteroid that started out on the process of becoming a planet but never grew up into the real thing. Called '2 Pallas', it is one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System.

September 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a very rare finding, scientists have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered that it came from the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Meteorites are the only surviving physical record of the formation of our Solar System.

August 12th, 2009 LONDON - A committee appointed by the White House to review NASA's aims has put forward the idea to send astronauts on progressively longer space trips to asteroids, in order to prepare them for a landing on Mars. According to a report in New Scientist, committee member Edward Crawley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that the first mission would fly by the moon.

August 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of astronomers might be pushing for Pluto to be given back the status of a 'planet', but many experts feel that the definition will remain the same, that is, of a 'dwarf planet'. The debate surrounding the demoted planet Pluto is set to reignite as astronomers meet next week in Brazil.

July 23rd, 2009 LONDON - A new computer simulation has suggested that millions of objects in the solar system's main asteroid belt may be icy interlopers from beyond Neptune that were flung into their present orbits after a violent migration of the giant planets. The solar system's main asteroid belt is a diverse mix of objects that orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new theory by a University of Melbourne physicist has said that Galileo knew he had discovered a new planet, that we now know as Neptune, in the year 1613, 234 years before its official discovery date. Professor David Jamieson, Head of the School of Physics, has put the theory forward.

July 7th, 2009 SYDNEY - Galileo's notebooks contain hidden clues that is likely to clinch his discovery of Neptune in 1613, 234 years before the date of discovery accepted now, according to a new theory. David Jamieson, who heads the Melbourne University (MU) School of Physics, is investigating the notebooks of Galileo from 400 years ago.

June 11th, 2009 London, June 11 (ANI: A new analysis of craters of the Moon has suggested that the shattered remnants of a dwarf planet may have bombarded the inner planets in the early solar system. According to a report in New Scientist, several large impact scars on the moon appear to be around 3.9 billion years old, suggesting that the Earth and other objects of the inner solar system were heavily pounded at that time.

May 27th, 2009 LONDON - Tomorrow morning, sky watchers, using Jupiter as a guiding light, will be able to catch a glimpse of Neptune, the most distant planet in the solar system. The gas giant Neptune is too far-flung to be visible to the naked eye.

May 8th, 2009 Venetia Phair, who named planet Pluto, dies at 90LONDON — Venetia Phair, who was 11 years old when she suggested Pluto as the name of the newly discovered planet, has died at age 90, her family said. She died at home in Epsom on April 30, the family said; the cause of death was not disclosed.

May 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A geoscientist and her research team from Princeton University have compiled new evidence disproving a popular theory that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. Gerta Keller, the scientist in question, whose studies of rock formations at many sites in the United States, Mexico and India have led her to conclude that volcanoes, not a vast meteorite, were the more likely culprits in the demise of the Earth's giant reptiles, is producing new data supporting her claim.

April 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A scientist in the US has found an effective way to deflect an Earth-threatening asteroid, by attaching a long tether and ballast to the incoming object. The theory has been put forward by David French, a doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering at North Carolina (NC) State University, US.

March 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have identified a tiny asteroid before it hit the earth, helping computers pinpoint its origins and predict the arrival of its shattered parts. The four-metre-diameter asteroid, called 2008 TC3, was initially sighted by the automated Catalina Sky Survey telescope at Mount Lemmon, Arizona, on Oct 6 last year.

March 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An asteroid as big as a 10-storeyed building flew past Earth Tuesday, the US space website has said. The space rock was perhaps a bit larger than one thought to have created a colossal explosion in the air above Siberia in 1908 that flattened 500,000 acres (2,000 square km) of forest.