Kuiper Belt object Archives

Simulated multiband light-curve populations in the Cchroma–Ccross diagnostic plane. Left: noise-dominated, natural, and coherent variability classes (N ≈ 167 each, 500 total); ellipses show population covariance, open circles mark centroid-nearest examples. Right: normalised Rubin/LSST g, r, i light curves for those examples; coherent case shows stable cross-band structure, natural case shows stochastic variability, noise case is dominated by incoherent fluctuations. -- astro-ph.IM

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Prospects for Astrobiology And Technosignature Searches With The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey Of Space And Time

by Keith CowingJune 12, 2026June 12, 2026

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will map sources in multiband colour–variability space.

Planetary exploration is characterized by unknowns, which are both the primary reason and challenge for exploration.

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Comets and Asteroids, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors

Planetary Exploration 3.0: A Roadmap for Software-Defined, Radically Adaptive Space Systems

by Keith CowingApril 24, 2026April 24, 2026

The surface and subsurface of worlds beyond Mars remain largely unexplored. Yet these worlds hold keys to fundamental questions in planetary science – from potentially habitable subsurface oceans on icy […]

Top: Simulated EVE observation of an exocomet transit of a K7V at 100 pc expected during a 20 d stare at ∼20 Myr Theia 43 or 45 associations. We scale the optical light curve template used for the RZ Psc events into the NUV and NIR bands using a 50-50% weighted average of empirical extinction curves of ∼200 nm water ice (Kratschmer & Sorg 1985) and olivine dust (Huffman 1975). Bottom: Distribution of optical ADs versus SpT for 590 simulated detections. The SNR of the NUV detections (left) enable color differences due to composition (middle) and grain size (right) to be distinguished given the color predictions for the narrow-tail multiband comet models of K´alm´an et al. (2024). Each panel highlights the region in which EVE should detect exocomets given a 20% M-star disk fraction, but not for a 2.1% fraction. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

TESS Discovers a Second System of Transiting Exocomets in the Extreme Debris Disk of RZ Psc

by Keith CowingOctober 22, 2025October 22, 2025

We present the TESS discovery of only the second system of transiting exocomets with a sufficient number of events to measure the size distribution in the RZ Psc system, enabling […]

Mass fraction (left) and oxygen budget (right) for the detected heavy elements in WD 1647+375. The error bar represents the total uncertainty on the oxygen budget. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Discovery Of An Icy And Nitrogen-rich Extrasolar Planetesimal

by Keith CowingSeptember 22, 2025September 22, 2025

White dwarfs accreting planetary debris provide detailed insight into the bulk composition of rocky exo-planetesimals. However, only one Kuiper-Belt analogue has been identified in that way so far.

Images of the trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) Pluto [left] and Arrokoth [right], the primary flyby targets of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 and 2019. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is capable of obtaining observations for in-depth studies of a wide range of TNOs that both complement, and go beyond what was learned by New Horizons. (Image credits: NASA/SwRI/JHU-APL)

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Pluto, Status Report

Webb Reveals The Ancient Surfaces of Trans-Neptunian Objects

by Keith CowingFebruary 13, 2025February 13, 2025

Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy bodies ranging in size from Pluto and Eris (dwarf planets with diameters of about 1,500 miles) down to tens of miles (Arrokoth) and even smaller. […]

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Radiation, Status Report

Ionizing Radiation Exposure On Arrokoth Shapes A Sugar World

by Keith CowingDecember 9, 2024December 9, 2024

The flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft of the Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth revealed its reddish appearance and unraveled the unexpected presence of a methanol-rich surface.

James Webb Space Telesope NIRCam near-infrared image of the Orion Nebula. The field of view is 7.5 by 10.9 arcminutes, roughly 0.85 pc by 1.25 pc, and corresponds to the rectangle in Figure 2. Emission from ionized gas at the center is colored purple, while greens and browns denote emission from molecular gas and dust. Below and to the left of the very bright BN-KL object (seen in reddish pink) is the Trapezium cluster including θ 1 Ori C. (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI, K. Pontoppidan, A. Pagan.) -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report

The Sun’s Birth Environment: Context for Meteoritics

by Keith CowingSeptember 19, 2024September 19, 2024

Meteorites trace planet formation in the Sun’s protoplanetary disk, but they also record the influence of the Sun’s birth environment.

NASA New Horizons Visits a Kuiper Belt Object -- NASA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Press Release

Our Outer Solar System Is More Populated With Icy Worlds Than We Thought

by Keith CowingSeptember 6, 2024September 6, 2024

Observations of the outer Solar System with the Subaru Telescope have discovered new bodies where none were expected. The new objects are likely members of a much larger population waiting […]

JWST NIRCam albedos of Proteus and Puck compared to the spectra of 2004 EW95 (Plutino) and 2007 VL305 (Neptune Trojan) from JWST Programs 2418 and 2550 respectively. Also shown are Voyager-derived visual geometric albedos, with the Puck albedo selected to be at the same phase angle as the JWST observations (see Figure 6 of Karkoschka (2001) and Table 2 of Karkoschka (2003)). The spectrophotometry for Proteus and Puck closely matches the shape and albedo for the selected objects, both of which have less red/neutral spectral slopes, and perihelia also near 30AU. Higher resolution spectra for Puck and Proteus are needed to reveal surface composition. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Miranda, Neptune, Oberon, Status Report, Titania, Triton, Umbriel, Uranus

JWST Spectrophotometry of the Small Satellites of Uranus and Neptune

by Keith CowingApril 11, 2024April 11, 2024

We use 1.4-4.6 micron multi-band photometry of the small inner Uranian and Neptunian satellites obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared imager NIRCam to characterize their surface compositions.

Left image was captured by the Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), a part of the ralph instrument aboard New Horizons. Taken on January 1, 2019, just 7 minutes before its closest approach, the spacecraft was only about 6700 km from the surface. Credit for this remarkable capture goes to NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Southwest Research Institute. Right image shows the orbitally averaged temperature at the seasonal skin depth of Arrokoth, calculated based on Umurhan et al.’s 2022 method. The scale is in kilometers, and the view orientation is similar to image on left, looking down towards the south pole CREDIT NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Southwest Research Institute

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Ancient Ice May Still Exist In Distant Space Objects

by Keith CowingMarch 16, 2024March 16, 2024

A paper recently accepted by Icarus presents findings about the Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth, shedding new light on the preservation of volatile substances like carbon monoxide (CO) in such […]