Scientists have long known many objects floating at the solar system's outer edges resemble snowmen, but the reasons why were never clear. Now, a student at Michigan State University has created the ...

Researchers simulated how gravitational collapse forms two-lobed contact binaries in the Kuiper Belt without destructive collisions.

Far beyond Neptune, in the frozen depths of the Kuiper Belt, many ancient objects oddly resemble giant snowmen made of ice and rock. For years, scientists wondered how these delicate two-lobed shapes ...

These peculiar celestial 'snowmen' are found in the Kuiper Belt, a vast expanse beyond Neptune, which is filled with icy remnants dating back to the solar system's formation. The region lies beyond ...

Out in the Kuiper Belt, the massive doughnut of debris beyond Neptune, about one in 10 kilometer-scale objects have surprised ...

Astronomers have puzzled for years over a strange pattern in the outer solar system. A surprising number of icy bodies far beyond Neptune resemble snowmen, made of two rounded lobes stuck together.

Astronomers who have debated why these globular icy objects look the way they do finally have an answer ...

Research adds weight to theory Arrokoth’s two lobes produced by gravitational collapse – and reveals process ...

On a frigid orbit beyond Neptune, some of the solar system’s smallest worlds project a strange silhouette. Two rounded lobes, ...

In the distant reaches of the solar system are many icy objects that resemble snowmen. Now, a new study reveals the simple ...

Astronomers had decent guesses about how these peanut-shaped asteroids formed but couldn’t get the physics to work—until now.

A new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society argues the simplest answer may work: contact binaries like Arrokoth can form directly during the gravitational collapse of a dense ...