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New research led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has revealed the identity of a puzzling near-Earth object by precisely tracking its motion through space and using powerful observatories that image faint celestial objects.

This object has a dual personality: Past images hadn’t revealed obvious cometlike activity, suggesting it might be an asteroid, but its motion recently proved to be irregular like that of a comet. The scientists detailed their findings in a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The puzzle began on Aug. 28, 2025, when the object, provisionally known as the asteroid 1998 SH2, passed safely within 2 million miles (3 million kilometers) of our planet during its 4½-year orbit around the Sun. Researchers looking to observe 1998 SH2 with NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) planetary radar system had calculated its position using data from previous orbits and factored in the effects that the gravity of the Sun and planets would have on its path. But when 1998 SH2 didn’t show up where they expected, they realized that something unanticipated had been influencing the object’s motion.

Object tracking

By using optical astrometry to precisely measure the object’s position in the sky, the researchers were able to identify the cause.

“After we measured the nongravitational perturbations affecting the motion of 1998 SH2 and recognized they weren’t compatible with the object being an asteroid, we suspected the object could be an active comet,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer with NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at JPL and study lead.

Although 1998 SH2’s orbit around the Sun had been well-tracked from 1998 to 2016, the object had completed two solar orbits without additional observations by telescopes until the 2025 DSN attempts. Analyzing all observations collected since the object’s discovery in 1998, researchers determined the perturbations to 1998 SH2’s motion and hypothesized that the object may be generating a small thrust by venting gas into space, causing it to deviate from its predicted path.

This venting results from the Sun heating ice mixed with rocky material, turning the ice into a gas. With regular comets, this activity forms a trademark bright tail and coma — the gas and dust surrounding a comet’s nucleus. But when an object produces gas and dust in much smaller quantities, its tail and coma may not be detectable to most observatories.

Tail, coma emerge

The August 2025 close approach to Earth of 1998 SH2 provided the perfect opportunity for the paper’s authors to gather observational evidence of visible cometary activity. They reached out to astronomers at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, a 3.6-meter (12-foot) optical/infrared telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the 1.5-meter (5-foot) European Southern Observatory’s Danish Telescope in La Silla, Chile, to observe. Astronomers at the powerful European Southern Observatory’s 8.2-meter (27-foot) Very Large Telescope on the Chilean mountain Cerro Paranal also tracked the object.

“The images we collected from these observatories showed a weak but clear tail, thus confirming that 1998 SH2 is, in fact, a comet,” said Olivier Hainaut, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory and coauthor of the study. “That’s how science works — you form a hypothesis, and you set out to test it. This data is exactly what was needed to confirm our hypothesis that 1998 SH2 was a comet.”

As an outcome of the investigation, 1998 SH2 will receive an additional comet provisional designation, P/1998 SH2.

Planetary defense implications

The research also sheds light on another, even more unusual, class of objects called dark comets. Like 1998 SH2, dark comets exhibit significant irregularities, or perturbations, in their trajectory but lack other visible evidence of comet activity — there’s no coma, tail, or visible outgassing. These enigmatic objects fall into two distinct populations: larger ones with orbits similar to those of Jupiter-family comets (short period comets with highly elliptical, or eccentric, orbits), and smaller ones that orbit closer to the Sun. Since the 2016 discovery of the first dark comet, about a dozen more have been identified.

The paper’s authors suggest that many of the larger dark comets, which have orbits like 1998 SH2’s, could turn out to be regular comets if astronomers get the right opportunity to observe them with powerful telescopes capable of imaging incredibly faint objects. And by analyzing the motion of all near-Earth objects using precision astrometry data, researchers may reveal more comets that were previously designated as asteroids if they exhibit cometlike nongravitational perturbations. 

“This work shows the importance of continuously tracking near-Earth objects,” said Farnocchia. “Because of outgassing, the motion of comets is more significantly perturbed than that of asteroids. Detecting these perturbations can be an important diagnostic tool for planetary defense that will help understand which objects may be comets rather than asteroids, how their orbits evolve, and how that influences their Earth impact risks.”

Hunting for near-Earth objects

NASA’s upcoming Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor will collect data that can be used to support this effort. The first space survey telescope to be built for planetary defense, this next-generation mission will seek out some of the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light.

NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, the Goldstone Solar System Radar Group, and NEO Surveyor all are managed by JPL and supported by the agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office in Washington. Caltech in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. The DSN receives programmatic oversight from the SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program office, also at NASA headquarters.

More information about planetary radar, NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, and near-Earth objects can be found at:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch

News Media Contacts

Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov

2026-046

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope takes us 4.4 billion years in the past with this July 3, 2026, image of a young galaxy cluster, MACS J0553.4-3342. The cluster is composed of two actively merging sub-clusters, roughly equal in mass. Each sub-cluster is anchored on an immensely bright and massive elliptical galaxy, easily identifiable as the two brightest points in the center of this scene with the largest glowing halos around them.

Read more about the image.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, S. Fujimoto

After a slow start to Canada’s 2026 fire season, activity picked up by the end of June amid dry, warm conditions and returned closer to the 25-year average. By mid-July, almost 850 fires were actively burning across the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. More than 180 of those were burning in Ontario.

This NOAA-21 image, acquired on the afternoon of July 14, 2026, shows smoke billowing from the Ontario fires. Winds carried the smoke primarily southeast over much of the southern part of the province, as well as parts of Quebec and the U.S. Midwest and Northeast, tinting the sky shades of gray and yellow and the Sun orange in many areas.

The smoke’s impact on air quality varied, depending largely on altitude. In areas where smoke was high in the atmosphere, air quality impacts were negligible; where it drifted closer to the ground, conditions worsened. Air quality in Toronto, for instance, reached unhealthy levels, according to AirNow. People in the southern parts of the province were also grappling with a heat wave, compounding the health risks.

Much of the smoke came from fires in Northwestern Ontario, where eight blazes saw significant growth on July 13 and 14. The fires prompted officials to issue evacuation orders for several communities in this part of the province, according to news reports.

As of July 14, fires across Canada have burned 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) since the start of the year—still well below the season totals from the extreme fire years of 2023 and 2025. How the rest of the season plays out remains to be seen. A seasonal fire outlook—compiled by wildland fire experts from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico—shows where fire conditions are more or less likely through July, August, and September.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE , GIBS/Worldview , and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). Story by Kathryn Hansen.

References & Resources

• AirNow (2026, July 15) Wildfires. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• CBC (2026, July 15) Heat, wildfire smoke combine to create dangerous conditions across southwestern Ontario. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario (2026, July 14) Forest fires. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center, Natural Resources Canada, and Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (2026, July 14) North American Seasonal Fire Assessment and Outlook. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• The New York Times (2026, July 15) Toronto Under an Orange Sky as Wildfire Smoke Pours Into the U.S. Northeast. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• Reuters (2026, July 15) Canadian wildfire smoke chokes Toronto, threatens US cities. Accessed July 15, 2026.

Testing new aerospace concepts in flight remains one of NASA’s most effective ways to advance knowledge and reduce risk.

The Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, supports this mission by using small, remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft as cost‑effective platforms to mature innovative ideas, accelerate learning, and enable smoother transitions to full‑scale flight.

When experiments require a flight platform, several NASA remotely piloted aircraft are available: the Alta‑X quadrotor; the Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone (DROID) with its 10‑foot wingspan; and the Multi‑Use Cub, a 14‑foot‑span fixed‑wing aircraft with an expandable payload capacity for flight experiments. For electric vertical takeoff and landing testing, the HQ‑90 quadrotor provides an additional option.

Once aircraft and experiments are cleared for operations, laboratory pilots support the mission, including ground operations and flight activities.

Flight expertise

Each staff member serves as an experienced and certified subscale aircraft pilot and is prepared to fly unique one-of-a-kind or modified commercial aircraft wherever the mission requires.

NASA’s FireSense project conducted flights in the Geneva State Forest, located about 100 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama. NASA Armstrong flight research staff integrated the instrument onto an Alta-X drone and tested the system before deployment. Two team members then transported the drone and sensor to the forest, prepared the vehicle for flight, and operated it during the mission. The NASA sensor was flown on the drone to demonstrate how remotely piloted aircraft can gather localized weather data that influences smoke movement and fire behavior. This information may help operational agencies improve wildfire decision-making and better allocate firefighters and resources.

Other missions occur closer to NASA Armstrong, such as the Enhancing Parachutes by Instrumenting the Canopy (EPIC) project. EPIC involved air‑launching a capsule containing a parachute and flexible sensor from the Alta‑X. Laboratory staff piloted the flights, supported flight operations, and worked with the EPIC team to design and integrate the parachute‑drop mechanism and safety system into the aircraft.

These tests demonstrated that a flexible sensor could help researchers study supersonic parachutes. Continuation of this work can help fill gaps in computer models, making supersonic parachutes safer and more reliable for delivering science instruments and payloads to Mars.

Advancing challenging research

The Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory uses rapid design and testing capabilities to help small aircraft fly big ideas. These concepts could lead to future breakthroughs that support NASA’s missions across aeronautics, science, and exploration.

For decades, NASA and its partners have advanced Automatic Collision Avoidance Technology. The research demonstrated an autopilot could detect and recover from an imminent ground collision – a capability now helping save lives in high‑performance U.S. military jets. NASA Armstrong had key roles in that work and developed a simplified version, the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, which was installed on the DROID for testing.

The system demonstrated on the DROID — developed to assist general aviation pilots as well as remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft — performed well and led to further research toward a version that provides alerts and steering cues. The NASA Armstrong Technology Transfer Office is working to license the technology for U.S. businesses to develop the system as a commercial product.

The Prandtl‑D (Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Lower Drag) flying‑wing glider was also designed, fabricated, and flown at NASA Armstrong. Researchers found that its twisted wing design could reduce drag and generate thrust at the wingtips, advancing concepts that may support greater fuel economy for future aircraft. The original Prandtl‑D is now part of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection in Washington, and the Prandtl-D3 is at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Researchers continue developing the next generation of the design in the laboratory.

A wide range of capabilities in the laboratory help transform promising concepts into flight-ready test structures. These include rapid prototyping using traditional and advanced 3D manufacturing techniques, as well as composite and conventional fabrication processes. The team of engineers and technicians also provides custom component design and specialized fabrication to meet unique research needs.

The laboratory supports electrical and mechanical design, hardware and software integration, and the safety and flight-readiness processes required for successful missions. Additional technical facilities, such as the Experimental Fabrication Branch and the Environmental Laboratory at NASA Armstrong, further enhance these capabilities. Together, they support development, testing, and validation activities that advance NASA’s aeronautics and exploration goals.

A meteorite recovered immediately upon its fall to Earth on July 16, 2024, is helping NASA scientists uncover new clues about ancient water, the chemical evolution of primitive asteroids, and the ingredients that may have helped make life possible throughout the early solar system.

This rapid recovery began when an amateur astronomer in New Jersey quickly recognized that a newly fallen meteorite had landed on his property. Recognizing its scientific value and wearing protective gloves, he collected the fragments and stored them in aluminum foil and glass containers, which preserved delicate minerals and organic compounds that are often altered by moisture, weather, and contamination.

As the meteorite fell to Earth, cameras across New Jersey captured its fiery passage through the atmosphere. Scientists used these observations to reconstruct the fireball’s trajectory and, after recovering the meteorite, combined this data with laboratory analyses to determine where in the solar system the rock most likely originated. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers found evidence that ancient salty water altered minerals within the meteorite’s parent asteroid, preserving unique minerals and a rich inventory of organic compounds.

“When we have both a documented fireball and a quick recovery of its meteorite, we can learn not only what the rock is made of, but where it came from in the asteroid belt,” said Peter Jenniskens, meteor astronomer at both NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and the SETI Institute, and lead author of the study.

Named for the township where it was recovered, the Hillsborough meteorite belongs to a class of carbon-rich meteorites known as CM carbonaceous chondrites. These primitive rocks preserve some of the oldest materials in the solar system, recording the chemical processes that shaped asteroids more than 4.5 billion years ago.

While examining the unusually pristine meteorite, researchers found a mosaic of tiny broken-up rocks and noticed that some contained unusually high concentrations of sodium — an unexpected finding for this type of meteorite. The surprising signal prompted a closer investigation using powerful electron microscopes that allowed scientists to examine the meteorite from the millimeter scale down to individual atoms. By combining observations across multiple scales, researchers reconstructed the history of the minerals and the fluids that once flowed through them.

These analyses revealed microscopic fractures filled with sodium-rich material left behind by ancient brines. Unlike pure water, brines contain dissolved salts that allow them to transport elements and chemically alter the rocks they move through. In the case of the Hillsborough sample, those ancient fluids altered the asteroid’s minerals and left behind chemical evidence that remained preserved for billions of years.

Scientists were also able to detect fragile sodium-carbonate salts that normally react with moisture in Earth’s atmosphere before they can be studied. Jangmi Han, a paper co-author and mineralogist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, identified evidence of ancient brines preserved within microscopic fractures. Similar salts were identified in samples returned from the asteroids Bennu and Ryugu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission and JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission. However,Hillsborough marks the first time the salts have been identified in a CM carbonaceous chondrite meteorite, offering a new glimpse into the surfaces of the primitive asteroids that produced these meteorites.

Together, these findings suggest that ancient, salt-rich brines were more widespread among primitive asteroids than previously recognized, and provide scientists with new opportunities to compare how water altered different asteroid bodies across the early solar system.

“The chips of the most salt-rich bits of this meteorite are quite comparable to the samples returned by the Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx missions,” said Mike Zolensky, a meteorite researcher at NASA Johnson and co-author of the study. “They’re not identical. They’re different in some very interesting ways, but they’ve seen very similar processes.”

Scientists expected Hillsborough to contain a rich suite of organic compounds because it is a CM carbonaceous chondrite. What made the meteorite exceptional was how quickly it was recovered, allowing researchers to study those compounds before prolonged exposure to Earth’s environment could contaminate the sample.

“One of the big surprises for me when we analyzed a small chip of the Hillsborough meteorite was the complexity of amino acids and other organic compounds,” said Danny Glavin, senior scientist in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and co-author of the study.

Its diversity of amino acids and other organic compounds is, comparable to the Murchison meteorite, a nearly 100-kilogram carbonaceous chondrite that fell in Australia in 1969 and became the benchmark for extraterrestrial organic chemistry.

“It’s just more proof that the chemical building blocks of life could have been delivered — and are still being delivered — to Earth today by these carbonaceous asteroid fragments,” said Glavin, who was a co-investigator on OSIRIS-REx, leading an international team that studied the organic composition of the samples delivered to Earth from asteroid Bennu in 2023.

Understanding the Hillsborough meteorite required expertise from multiple scientific disciplines.

Astronomers reconstructed the meteorite’s journey through space, finding evidence that it may have originated from the Erigone asteroid family in the inner asteroid belt, home to the asteroid Donaldjohanson, which was visited in 2025 by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft. Mineralogists identified evidence of ancient brines preserved within microscopic fractures, while organic chemists analyzed the meteorite’s inventory of amino acids and other organic compounds.

“Together, those complementary studies are helping scientists build one of the clearest pictures yet of how primitive asteroids such as the asteroid Erigone evolved chemically over billions of years,” said Jenniskens.

Researchers continue to study the Hillsborough meteorite, revealing new details about how water transformed primitive asteroids and shaped the early solar system.

By tracing the history of water on primitive asteroids, scientists are learning how water and the chemical ingredients for life were distributed throughout the early solar system.

“If you follow the water through the solar system, you’re actually following life,” Zolensky said. “Following the history of water through the solar system is an essential part of understanding the origin of life.”

For more information on NASA’s astromaterials research and exploration, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/astromaterials

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
240-285-5155 / 240-419-1732
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov

Victoria Segovia
NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111
victoria.segovia@nasa.gov

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