Catchthe big meteor show while you still can Aug 9, 2008
Comet bitsWe know today that these are actually the dross of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Discovered back in 1862, this comet takes approximately 130 years to circle the sun ... And in much the same way that the Tempel-Tuttle comet leaves a trail of debris along its orbit to produce the Leonid meteors of November, Comet Swift-Tuttle produces a similar debris trail along its orbit to cause the Perseids. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Meteor gazers invited to park for over-nighter Aug 8, 2008
The Perseid (pronounced "per-see-ed") Meteor Shower is the trail of debris from the Comet Swift-Tuttle, according to NASA's Web site. The meteors will be visible in the northeastern part of the sky beginning about 9 p.m. as the constellation Perseus ("per-see-us") rises. (Daily Triplicate)
Clay deposits on Mars signature of water, life? Aug 8, 2008
Organic carbon, perhaps from an impacting comet, could have reduced the iron or some change in water chemistry could also have done the job. Alternatively, the iron could have been deposited and dried too quickly to oxidize. (Xinhuanet, China)
Space May Be Filled With Germs Aug 7, 2008
08 Bacteria, known to be capable of thriving in extremely harsh environments, could have traveled through space on comets ... This once-controversial notion holds that the universe is filled with the ingredients of microbial life, and that earthly life first came from the skies as comet dust or meteorites salted with hardy bacteria ... Meanwhile, astronomers seem to find wherever they train their telescopes; comets have proven unexpectedly rich in organic material. (Newsmax)
X-ray Diffraction Looks Inside Aerogels In 3-D Aug 5, 2008
Many porous materials are extraordinary for their properties as insulators, filters, and catalysts; they are used to produce clean fuels, to insulate windows and even clothing, to study the percolation of oil through rock, as drug-delivery systems, and even to cushion the capture of high-velocity comet fragments in outer space. "The smallest pore size is the key to the strength of porous materials and what they can do," says Stefano Marchesini, an ALS scientist at Berkeley Lab, who led the... (Science Daily)
All eyes on Mars Aug 4, 2008
In 2005, NASA scientists slammed a probe into a comet, to learn about comets' innards. Imperial College London announced this spring a new Institute for Shock Physics, with the aim of elucidating questions about how tsunamis form or what's happening at a planet's core. (Boston Globe)
Tycho Brahe's Astronomy Jul 30, 2008
Accurate Observations, Planetary Positions, Supernova, and Comet ... A Comet and a Supernova ... Both comets and supernovae appear as transient objects. (Suite101.com)
New solar system guide: The latest lingo Jul 29, 2008
Pluto, while round and orbiting the sun, is one of a swarm of so-called trans-Neptunian objects, small icy bodies in the comet reservoir of the Kuiper Belt that extends out from Neptune's orbit, leading to its IAU demotion. But critics have said that asteroids can be found accompanying established planets like Earth, Mars and Jupiter, throwing a wrench in that requirement. (USA Today -- Tech)
New Explanation For Monsoon Development Proposed Jul 26, 2008
The traditional idea of monsoon formation was developed in 1686 by English astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley, namesake of Halley's Comet. In Halley's model, monsoons are viewed as giant sea-breeze circulations, driven by the differences in heat capacities between land and ocean surfaces that, upon heating by sunlight, lead to temperature differences between warmer land and cooler ocean surfaces--for example, between the Indian subcontinent and the oceans surrounding it. (Science Daily)
Did A Significant Climate Change Event, Known As Younger Dryas, Impact Climate Around The Globe? Jul 23, 2008
Did A Significant Climate Change Event, Known As Younger Dryas, Impact Climate Around The Globe. Did A Significant Climate Change Event, Known As Younger Dryas, Impact Climate Around The Globe. (Science Daily)
NASA's Deep Impact Films Earth As An Alien World Jul 21, 2008
Deep Impact made history when the mission team directed an impactor from the spacecraft into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. NASA recently extended the mission, redirecting the spacecraft for a flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010 ... EPOXI is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: a search for alien (extrasolar) planets during the cruise to Hartley 2, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the... (Science Daily)
NASA Video Captures Moon Passing in Front of Earth Jul 19, 2008
NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, on its way from one comet rendezvous to another, was instructed to snap stills of our home planet in 15-minute intervals on May 29. The colors are not exactly what we're used to seeing in images of the Earth and Moon for example, the Moon is more brown than white. (Fox News)
An alien's eye view of the Earth Jul 19, 2008
Deep Impact made history in 200 when it fired a rocket into the comet Tempel 1 and has now being redirected for a fly-by of another comet Harley 2 in 2010. Sara Seager, a planet theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, added: The video will help us connect a varying point of planetary light with underlying oceans, continents, and clouds. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Probe sends aliens-eye view of Earth Jul 18, 2008
A NASA spacecraft sent on a mission to inspect comets has filmed Earth and its moon from 31 million miles away, creating an aliens-eye view of our world ... Deep Impact made a splash in 2005 when it fired a high-tech impactor into Comet Tempel 1 during a flyby and studied the resulting debris ... The other mission involves a flyby of Comet Hartley 2 and is called the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation, or DIXI. The double-dip mission has been dubbed EPOXI.. (MSNBC -- Technology)
NASA Hunts "Civilization Killers" Jul 13, 2008
The Earth is pockmarked with the evidence of ancient collisions - huge craters blasted into its surface by asteroids or comets ... And he said there was still no significant effort to devise an international agreement, let alone a deflection technique, for dealing with the inevitable earthbound asteroid or comet, large or small, when it is identified. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Solar Spin Put On Asteroid Moon Formation Jul 13, 2008
"Thus a mission to collect and return a sample from the primary body of such a binary asteroid could give us information about the older, more pristine material inside an asteroid, just as the University of Maryland-led Deep Impact gave us information about the more pristine material inside a comet," Richardson said. Michel added, "Bringing back pristine material is the goal of our proposed Marco Polo mission, which is currently under study by the European Space Agency, in partnership with JAXA... (Science Daily)
Evidence of moon water found Jul 13, 2008
The discovery of hydrogen alongside the other elements suggests that the water came from inside the moon and not from an external source, such as a comet ... Ice may have been deposited by external sources such as comets, Hauri said. (Los Angeles Times)
Keeping an eye on the skies for the next big (or small) meteor Jul 8, 2008
The Earth is pockmarked with the evidence of ancient collisions - huge craters blasted into its surface by asteroids or comets ... " NASA estimates that there are about 940 or so near-Earth space rocks a kilometer in diameter or larger. So far, according to Yeomans, NASA has identified 743. (Over all, NASA has pinpointed more than 5,500 near-Earth objects.) Budget constraints have slowed NASA's efforts to meet its goal of identifying 90 percent of those big objects by next year. As for rocks... (International Herald Tribune)
This Week's Sky at a Glance Jul 5, 2008
Comet Boattini is beginning to emerge low in the dawn ... The comet should be visible through mid-July. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
* [SCIENCE]: A century on, mystery shrouds cosmic impact Jul 5, 2008
If a rock was the culprit, the choices lie between an asteroid X the rubble that can be jostled out of its orbital belt between Mars and Jupiter and set on collision course with Earth X and a comet, one of the icy dirtballs of frozen, primeval material that loop around the Solar System ... Comets move at far greater speeds than asteroids, which means they release more kinetic energy kilogram-for-kilogram upon impact ... A small comet would deliver the same punch as a larger asteroid. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World)
SOHO Tallies Its 1500th Comet Jul 4, 2008
SOHOs 1500th comet was discovered on June 25th in images captured by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronograph (LASCO), one of 12 instruments on board. Click on the image to see an animation of the comet in motion ... It turns out that a profusion of small comets swarms near the Sun, undetectable from Earth, as part of what's called the Kreutz group fragments from a large body that veered too near the Sun centuries ago and broke apart. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Life Altered 12,900 Year Ago By Giant Comet? Jul 3, 2008
ScienceDaily (July 3, 2008) Geological evidence found in Ohio and Indiana in recent weeks is strengthening the case to attribute what happened 12,900 years ago in North America -- when the end of the last Ice Age unexpectedly turned into a phase of extinction for animals and humans to a cataclysmic comet or asteroid explosion over top of Canada ... A comet/asteroid theory advanced by Arizona-based geophysicist Allen West in the past two years says that an object from space exploded just above... (Science Daily)
Tunguska: 100 Years and Counting Jul 2, 2008
Over the years, all kinds of extraordinary causes have been invoked to explain the Tunguska event: a titanic explosion of subterranean methane, nuclear fusion from the deuterium in a comet's ices, collisions of Earth with a small black hole or antimatter and, of course, the crash of an alien spacecraft ... Whatever the particulars, impact specialists now realize that Tunguska was a wake-up call to the scale of devastation that even a small asteroid or comet could wreak. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Fire in the sky Jul 1, 2008
The cause was an asteroid or comet just a few tens of metres across which detonated 5-10km above the ground, 100 years ago today ... Some researchers think a comet would have been too fragile to have caused the Tunguska event, and that an asteroid is therefore the most likely candidate ... But Mark Bailey thinks some comets could contain chunks of tough material that could survive the plunge through Earth's atmosphere. (BBC News -- Science)
Pitting human will against the whims of the cosmos Jun 30, 2008
The consensus of scientific opinion is that a comet, or ;dirty snowball; from space, perhaps the size of a five-storey block of flats, had detonated from friction on hitting earth;s atmosphere ... The dangers posed by wandering asteroids and comets range from ;zero; (a fly-by, of which there have been several in recent years) to ;certain; (from a large body that may cause global climatic collapse and threaten the future of civilisation as we know it). (Business Day)
Asteroid anniversary recalls Earth's rocky history Jun 30, 2008
Asteroids and comets are still out there, of course. SOHO, the international solar astronomy satellite, reported its 1,500th comet discovery on Friday. (USA Today -- Tech)
A Canadian gadget that may save the world Jun 28, 2008
In 2005, scientists managed to fire a probe from a spacecraft named Deep Impact - so-dubbed for the 1998 doomsday film - into the belly of a comet, creating a celestial fireworks display and leaving a crater to study. "Armageddon was a good movie," added Prof. (Globe and Mail)
SOHO spacecraft finds 1,500th comet Jun 28, 2008
Discovery makes observatory the most successful comet detector ... The SOHO spacecraft discovered its 1,500th comet this week, making the observatory the most successful comet detector ... That puts SOHO's count ahead of all other discoverers of comets throughout history combined. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Ancient impact may explain Mars mystery Jun 26, 2008
Researchers believe an asteroid or comet hit Mars some 4 billion years ago ... According to the researchers, an asteroid or comet whacked a young about 4 billion years ago, blasting away much of its northern crust and creating a giant hole over 40 percent of the surface. (CNN)
Scientists Question Two-Faced Mars Jun 26, 2008
According to the researchers, an asteroid or comet whacked a young Mars some 4 billion years ago, blasting away much of its northern crust and creating a giant hole over 40 percent of the surface. New calculations reveal the crater known as the Borealis basin measures 5,300 miles across and 6,600 miles long - the size of Asia, Europe and Australia combined. (New York Post)
Huge impact may have divided Mars surface Jun 26, 2008
Astronomers from UC Santa Cruz, Caltech and MIT are proposing in three separate reports in the journal Nature today that a giant meteorite more than 1,200 miles in diameter - or perhaps a comet that size - sped toward Mars at up to 21,600 miles an hour, crashed at a steep slant into the planet about 3. 9 billion years ago, and blasted out the huge elliptical scar that now forms all of the planet's northern lowlands, while leaving the southern highlands relatively undamaged. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Science)
Largest crater in solar system revealed Jun 26, 2008
The giant crater made by an asteroid or comet explains why Mars is so lopsided, with a basin on one hemisphere and high terrain on the other, three separate teams of scientists said on June 25, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo). (Xinhuanet, China)
Life's Raw Materials May Have Come From The Stars, Scientists Confirm Jun 14, 2008
14, 2006) Scientists analyzing recent samples of comet dust have discovered minerals that formed near the sun or other stars. That means materials from the innermost part of the solar system could have. (Science Daily)
No peace over Pluto Jun 14, 2008
Captain Kirk and Spock could look at it and they could say, "That's a star, that's a planet, that's a comet." They could tell the difference. They don't need a Ph. (MSNBC)
The Lighter Side Jun 14, 2008
"I mean, if Earth is going to obliterated by a comet in the next day or two, what do you do? Do you go on the Noeleen show? And if you do, how do you even begin to explain to Noeleen what a comet is?". However, he said, thanks to Eskom's groundbreaking "unplanned power cuts could occur at very short notice", the country's astronomers would prepare a statement to the effect that "unplanned extinction of life could occur at very short notice". (iAfrica.com)
New Type Of Comet Dust Mineral Found Jun 13, 2008
NASA Finds New Type Of Comet Dust Mineral ... NASA Finds New Type Of Comet Dust Mineral ... 12, 2008) NASA researchers and scientists from the United States, Germany and Japan have found a new mineral in material that likely came from a comet. (Science Daily)
Pluto Finally Gets Some Respect. Sort Of. Jun 13, 2008
Pluto is a large comet, not a planet, with a stable orbit, and too far from the Sun to develop a tail. . (Newsweek)
Guest Column Jun 12, 2008
There are all kinds of theories, such as some giant asteroid or comet having hit the earth and blocking out the sun for a thousand years and so on. We certainly don t have any written records left over from that time frame to research and talk about, do we. (Rio Rancho Observer, NM)
Awesome powerNasa telescope sets its sights on the high energy Universe Jun 11, 2008
"If you look up at the night sky, once a decade or so you might see a comet. You might notice that things are moving incredibly slowly. But it looks fairly placid and unchanging," Dr Ritz told BBC News. WHAT GLAST WILL STUDY. (BBC News -- Science)
Solar Curveballs: Sun Puts a Twist on Its Pitches Jun 8, 2008
(A German scientist had previously inferred the presence of the solar wind indirectly from its effect on comet tails. . (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Collisions Of Moonlets On Saturn's Ring Jun 6, 2008
25, 2007) A narrow belt harboring moonlets as large as football stadiums discovered in Saturn's outermost ring probably resulted when a larger moon was shattered by a wayward asteroid or comet eons ago. (Mar. (Science Daily)
Intense meteor shower could illuminate Bay Area skies early Jan. 4 Jun 6, 2008
A little-known meteor shower, caused by fragments from a comet that exploded more than 500 years ago, will soon flash across the predawn skies over California, a comet expert predicts ... The meteor shower is the subject of an upcoming paper by Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer who calculates the orbits of comets and studies the behavior of meteors for NASA's Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute, the Mountain View organization that leads the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ...... (Yahoo News -- Meteors and Asteroids)
Hunt For Superearth Planets Underway Jun 5, 2008
The investigations consist of the Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI) which is lead by Dr. Michael A hearn at the University of Maryland ... The duo will make new observations of comets and characterize extrasolar planets ... 16, 2007) The Deep Impact spacecraft is heading to Comet Hartley 2 on a two-part extended mission known as EPOXI. The spacecraft will fly by Earth on New Year's... (Science Daily)
Deep Sky Observing May 29, 2008
The classic Messier catalog of deep sky objects first started simply as a list of non-comet items ... In doing so, he revealed a treasure trove of nebulae, galaxies, comets and other deep sky gems never before seen ... Some deep sky objects appeared to move, named comets, while others remained stationary, generally called nebulae. (Suite101.com)
Engineering Researcher Seeks Answers To Asteroid Deflection May 29, 2008
Just 100 years ago, June 30, 1908, an asteroid or comet estimated at 100 200 feet in diameter exploded in the skies above Tunguska, Siberia. Known as the Tunguska Event, the explosion flattened trees and killed other vegetation over a 500,000-acre area. (Science Daily)
Comet Boattini: Barely Visible Now, Bright in July? May 25, 2008
com - Observing Highlights - Comet Boattini: Barely Visible Now, Bright in July ... Comet Boattini: Barely Visible Now, Bright in July ... Serious comet chasers people who track faint comets with telescopes and binoculars have been aware of Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) for quite a while. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
103 meteoroid impacts on Moon in 2.5 years May 22, 2008
" [NASA: ] (Although the title indicates "100" explosions, since the NASA article was written, another three were recorded.) A video of meteoroid impact number 86 near crater Gauss appears on the before-mentioned NASA website. It occurred on January 4, 2008 being a small piece of comet from the Quadrantid meteor shower (which we see on Earth every January). To view the video, click on the image of the Moon and, then, look in the upper-left hand corner of the short video. Team leader of the MEO... (iTWire)
That's flashy: 100 explosions recorded on the Moon May 22, 2008
The impactor was a tiny fragment of extinct comet 2003 EH1. Every year in early January, the Earth-Moon system passes through a stream of debris from that comet, producing the well-known Quadrantid meteor shower ... That first detection "I'll never forget it," he says came on Nov. 7, 2005, when a piece of Comet Encke about the size of a baseball hit Mare Imbrium. (USA Today -- Tech)
Cosmic Quest May 21, 2008
The appearance in the sky of a broom star (comet), or guest star (supernova) meant only one thing: insurrection in the provinces. The Emperor had to be told at once. (FirstScience.com)
Polluted by light May 18, 2008
"It would be nice to discover a comet," he said. "You just have to be at the right place at the right time. You never know.". (iAfrica.com)
> read more May 16, 2008
The sky right after nightfall is again moonless, so tropical and Southern Hemisphere observers have a window of darkness to try for Comet Boattini. It has brightened more than expected to about 6th magnitude. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Spot the spacecraft May 14, 2008
has asked the public to look for interstellar dust grains from the Stardust spacecraft missions encounter with a comet in 2004. And is a project that asked members of the public to classify a million galaxies, attracting more than 125,000 participants. (Nature News Service)
Health/Science calendar May 12, 2008
THURSDAY, MAY 15 Comet talk Observatory night at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will focus on how comets are discovered and named. Doors open at 7 p.m.; program at 7:30 p.m. 60 Garden St., Cambridge. (Boston Globe)
Celebrate Astronomy Day! May 9, 2008
" But showing that astronomy is fun is really what it's all about. Doug Berger, former president of the Astronomical Association of Northern California, founded this annual event in 1973 as a high-profile way of drawing public attention to the science and the hobby through exhibits and activities at urban centers. Since then the celebration has mushroomed in size and scope. Hundreds of astronomy clubs, observatories, museums, colleges, and planetariums worldwide now host special family-oriented... (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Free satellite TV service begins May 9, 2008
Emma Scott from Freesat told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It's only homes that really don't have a clear line of sight to the satellite that can't get it, or certain listed buildings. "But unlike Freeview, you can receive Freesat across the country, which means that in those areas that at the moment can't get access to free digital television this is the first time that you can get free digital TV." The service will be available in shops including Argos and Comet The BBC's media correspondent Torin... (BBC News -- Technology)
Heron Lake State Park Observatory May 6, 2008
Eta Aquarid Meteor shower: Look for these remnants of Halley's comet in the night sky. The shower peaks in the pre-dawn around 4 a.m. on May 5. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Asteroid Impact 65 Million Years Ago Triggered A Global Hail Of Carbon Beads May 6, 2008
(May 20, 2002) New abilities to detect layers of "space dust" in the earth's crust are building geological evidence that comets or asteroids colliding with earth not only helped wipe out the dinosaurs ... 23, 2001) Earth's most severe mass extinction - an event 250 million years ago that wiped out 90 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of land vertebrates - was triggered by a collision with a comet. (Science Daily)
Solar Images Show Green And Blue Flashes May 6, 2008
Each of the small particles of dust, left over from comets and asteroids, acts as a small Moon reflecting the light coming from our host star ... 26, 2007) Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, has been delighting those who have seen it with the unaided eye as a spectacular display in the evening sky. (Science Daily)
Piece of Halley's Comet to be visible May 5, 2008
MUMBAI: Sky gazers can see a meteor flit across the sky and it could be a piece of Halley's Comet, say space scientists ... Comet Halley was most recently visible in 1986 and will be next be visible as it approaches the Sun in 2061 ... Comet Halley, named in honour of the 17th century English astronomer Edmond Halley, is important because it was the first periodic comet to be recognised and its one circuit of the Sun takes 76 years to complete. (India Times)
Geochemists Challenge Key Theory Regarding Earth's Formation May 4, 2008
The paper provides a direct challenge to the popular "late veneer hypothesis," a theory which suggests that all of our water, as well as several so-called "iron-loving" elements, were added to the Earth late in its formation by impacts with icy comets, meteorites and other passing objects ... 14, 2007) New evidence about the interiors of comets suggests it is overwhelmingly likely that life began in space, according to scientists at Cardiff ... Or did the occasional impacting comet provide the... (Science Daily)
Sun's Movement Through Milky Way Regularly Sends Comets Hurtling, Coinciding With Mass Life Extinctions May 3, 2008
ScienceDaily (May 2, 2008) The sun's movement through the Milky Way regularly sends comets hurtling into the inner solar system -- coinciding with mass life extinctions on earth, a new study claims. The study suggests a link between comet bombardment and the movement through the galaxy ... As we pass through the densest part of the plane, gravitational forces from the surrounding giant gas and dust clouds dislodge comets from their paths. (Science Daily)
Bad Weather Makes for a Long Day Apr 23, 2008
In 1695 English astronomer Sir Edmund Halley (who also discovered the eponymous periodic comet) hypothesized that the moon was accelerating in its orbit. In reality, Earth's rotation was slowing down, making it appear that the moon was gathering speed. (Scientific American)
Comet Enke A Threat To Earth? Apr 22, 2008
Comet Enke A Threat To Earth. History of Short Period Comet and Chance it Will Strike Earth Again ... Comet Enke A Threat To Earth. (Suite101.com)
Is There Life On Saturn's Moon Enceladus? Apr 21, 2008
Another theory is that the right soup mix ingredients arrived as incoming comet material and interplanetary dust. Organic chemicals were part of the raw material from which Enceladus and Saturn's other moons formed. (Science Daily)
Lack of space in Earth's orbit Apr 16, 2008
Meanwhile, two of NASA's satellites have captured amazing images of the Sun "belching" out debris and ripping the tail of a comet, reports ... But a comet was not so lucky, a scientific conference in Vienna was told yesterday, with the Sun's gases apparently shearing the tail clean off. (NEWS.com.au)
