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‘Dark comet’ unmasked by its mysterious motions

A celestial body thought to be an ordinary space rock turns out to have a comet-like tail.
Illustration of 'Oumuamua, an elongated interstellar comet, illuminated by the Sun with faint gas streaming from its surface against a dark background

The behaviour of the interstellar object ’Oumuamua (artist’s illustration) could be caused by the same sort of outgassing processes seen on objects called dark comets. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser/SPL

The discovery of a ‘dark comet’ lurking near Earth could open the door to finding more of these mysterious objects1.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02192-2

References

  1. Farnocchia, D. et al. Nature Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02913-7 (2026).

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