Today, in Space Science Reviews (vol. 221):
Bannister, M., Pfalzner, S., Pearce, T. et al. The Origins & Reservoirs of Exocomets 90 s11214-025-01219-w
Coming on the heels of the Solar System in Context meeting (noirlab.edu/science/events/websites/solar-system-in-context-2025), we have a ‘comets in context’ paper in Space Science Reviews. And befitting a journal with “Reviews” in the title, it’s quite extensive and comprehensive. One can’t speak of comets around other star systems without first understanding comets around this system- the only comets we can understand. And one can’t really understand comets without the edge cases- active asteroids and other asteroid-comet transition objects. Bannister et al. include all these in their review. The one thing we directly observe about comets in other systems is their demise- their death flameout, as they collide with their host star. That, too, has a Solar System analog: Sungrazing comets (including ‘comets’- ultraheated asteroids). Have a read- the field of small-body science is both deep and wide.