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25 June 2010
Spacecraft to Make Final Flyby of Earth
The re-purposed Deep Impact spacecraft will make one final flyby of Earth on Sunday June 27, 2010, getting a gravity assist to help propel the spacecraft towards a meetup with comet Hartley 2 this fall. The spacecraft bus that brought the Deep Impact "impactor" to comet Tempel 1 in July of 2005 has been put [...]
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16 June 2010
Fully Functional Pan-STARRS is now Panning for Stars, Asteroids and Comets
There's a new eye on the skies on the lookout for 'killer' asteroids and comets. The first Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System) telescope, PS1, is fully operational, ready to map large portions of the sky nightly, making it an efficient sleuth for not just potential incoming space rocks, but also supernovae [...]
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10 June 2010
Many Famous Comets May be Visitors from Other Solar Systems
Most comets are thought to have originated great distances away, traveling to the inner solar system from the Oort Cloud. But new computer simulations show that many comets – including some famous ones – came from even farther: they may have been born in other solar systems. Many of the most well [...]
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09 June 2010
A New Comet McNaught Could Be Seen with Naked Eye
A new comet with the familiar name of McNaught has just begun to grace the morning skies in the Northern Hemisphere, and it may provide observers a chance to see a naked-eye comet with a distinct tail. First images of McNaught C/2009 R1 show the tail shooting straight up into the sky, and this [...]
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24 May 2010
Comet Takes Death-Dive Into the Sun
Was this comet infested with the neural parasites that caused mass insanity on the planet Deneva in the original Star Trek TV series (Operation Annihilate)? Probably not, but this is a very cool video. Solar physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, have captured for the first time the collision of a comet [...]
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13 April 2010
Does McNaught Take Title for Biggest Comet Ever?
There are different ways to measure a comet. Comet Hale-Bopp, for example has a nucleus of more than 60 miles in diameter, which is thought to be the biggest ever encountered, so far. And Comet Hyakutake's tail stretched out at a distance of more than 500 million km from the nucleus, the largest [...]
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26 February 2010
New Results from Stardust Mission Paint Chaotic Picture of Early Solar System
One of the most surprising results from the Stardust mission – which returned comet dust samples to Earth in 2006 – is that comets don't just consist of particles from the icy parts of the outer solar system, which was the common assumption, but also includes sooty dust from the hot, inner region close to [...]
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11 February 2010
WISE Spies Its First Comet
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE is living up to expectations, as it now has discovered its first comet, shortly after finding its first asteroid. The spacecraft, just launched on Dec. 14, 2009 and first spotted the comet on January 22, 2010. WISE is expected to find millions of other objects during [...]
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02 February 2010
Hubble Takes A Look at Possible Asteroid Collision
We reported earlier that on January 6, 2010, ground-based observatories may have spotted evidence that two asteroids had collided in the asteroid belt. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken a look at the mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust. With Hubble's sharp vision, astronomers believe a head-on collision [...]
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22 January 2010
Asteroid Detection, Deflection Needs More Money, Report Says
Are we ready to act if an asteroid or comet were to pose a threat to our planet? No, says a new report from the National Research Council. Plus, we don't have the resources in place to detect all the possible dangerous objects out there. The report lays out options NASA could [...]
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26 November 2009
Comets Posing as Asteroids (or is the the other way around?)
Asteroids are rocky bodies which belong between Mars and Jupiter. Comets are icy bodies that belong way out beyond Pluto. So what are comet-like objects doing in the asteroid belt? (...)Read the rest of Comets Posing as Asteroids (or is the the other way around?) (679 words) © jvois for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add [...]
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25 November 2009
Jupiter – Our Silent Guardian?
We live in a cosmic shooting gallery. In Phil Plait's Death From the Skies, he lays out the dangers of a massive impact: destructive shockwaves, tsunamis, flash fires, atmospheric darkening…. The scenario isn't pretty should a big one come our way. Fortunately, we may have a silent guardian: Jupiter. (...)Read the rest of Jupiter – Our [...]
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12 November 2009
Crescent Earth as Seen by Comet Chasing Spacecraft
Title this one "Rich Blue Crescent" (as opposed to Pale Blue Dot.) This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA's Rosetta comet chaser today (November 12) at 12:28 GMT from about 633,000 km as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final swingby. Closest approach is [...]
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04 November 2009
Rosetta to Make Final Earth Flyby Nov. 13th
The comet chasing spacecraft Rosetta will make its third and final swing by the Earth on November 13th to pick up more speed for the last part of a 10-year journey that lies ahead. Its mission is to place a lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and chase the comet for an entire year on its orbit [...]
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15 September 2009
Mini Comets Ejected from Comet Holmes Caused Outburst
Comet 17P/Holmes caused a sensation in October and November 2007 when overnight, it brightened enough to be visible with the naked eye and became the largest cometary outburst ever witnessed. Using a special filter on the Canada- France- Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, astronomers were able to peer inside Comet Holmes to determine why the comet [...]
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