Although our solar system is billions of years old, we've only recently become better acquainted with one of its more dynamic and captivating inhabitants known as (2060) Chiron. Chiron belongs to the ...

In 1977, astronomer Charles Kowal discovered a strange, asteroid-like rocky object in the outer solar system. It was traveling slowly, as if orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. This raised some eyebrows, ...

The true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they asteroids or comets? A new study of ...

Often, the squeaky wheel, or at least the shiniest object, seems to get all the attention. In a new study led by PSI Research Scientist Eva Lilly, it is the inactive Centaurs that take center stage ...

Scientists recently led a team that found, for the first time, that Chiron has surface chemistry unlike other centaurs. Its surface it has both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ice along with carbon ...

UCF researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal one-of-a-kind attributes of (2060) Chiron, a distant “centaur” in space sharing properties of both a comet and an asteroid, giving clues ...