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NASA's Hubble Detects First-Ever Spin Reversal of Tiny Comet

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March 26, 2026 10:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2026-012
Illustration, close up of rocky, potato-shaped body of a comet with detailed, cratered surface at the bottom right. A glowing ray emanates from the rocky surface like sunlight through clouds. It extends from the comet’s surface across the image to the left. This represents water ice being vaporized by the heat of the Sun. There are small bright dots within the ray, representing fragments of the comet. The words Artist's Concept appear at the bottom left.

Summary

Outgassing jets slowed the comet’s spin and restarted it in the opposite direction

To skywatchers, comets often appear as soft, glowing smudges drifting across the night sky – cosmic cotton balls with faint tails. But behind that fuzzy appearance are surprisingly active worlds. Scientists studying the comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresak with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that jets of gas erupting from its surface may have slowed the comet’s spin to a stop and then restarted it in the opposite direction.

Full Article

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that the spinning of a small comet slowed and then reversed its direction of rotation, offering a dramatic example of how volatile activity can affect the spin and physical evolution of small bodies in the solar system. This is the first time researchers have observed evidence of a comet reversing its spin.  The object, comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák, or 41P for short, likely originated in the Kuiper Belt, and was flung into its current trajectory by Jupiter’s gravity, now visiting the inner solar ...

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