As NASA’s Deep Impact (EPOXI) probe approaches Comet Hartley 2 for a close encounter on Nov. 4th, mission scientists are certain of only one thing:
“We’re about to be surprised,” says principal investigator Mike A’Hearn of the University of Maryland. “This comet is unlike any we’ve visited before, and we don’t know what we’re going to find.”
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This month, Comet Hartley 2 has put on a good show for backyard astronomers. The comet’s vivid green atmosphere and auburn tail of dust look great through small telescopes, and NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI probe is about to return even more dramatic pictures when it flies past the comet’s nucleus on Nov. 4th.
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For backyard stargazers, the next few nights are the best time to see green Comet 103P/Hartley 2 as it approaches Earth for an 11-million-mile close encounter on Oct. 20th.
The dark hours before dawn are the best so set your alarm clock, go outside, and look straight up. Comet Hartley 2 is not far from the bright star Capella in … Read the rest of this article
A new comet is swinging through the inner solar system, and it is brightening rapidly as it approaches Earth for a 100 million mile close encounter in mid-June.
Comet McNaught (C/2009 R1) has a vivid green head and a long wispy tail that looks great through small telescopes.
By the end of the month it could be visible to the … Read the rest of this article
In 1996, a 7-year-old boy in China bent over the eyepiece of a small telescope and saw something that would change his life – a comet of flamboyant beauty, bright and puffy with an active tail. At first he thought he himself had discovered it, but no, he learned, two men named “Hale” and “Bopp” had beat him to it. … Read the rest of this article
In 1996, a 7-year-old boy in China bent over the eyepiece of a small telescope and saw something that would change his life – a comet of flamboyant beauty, bright and puffy with an active tail. At first he thought he himself had discovered it, but no, he learned, two men named “Hale” and “Bopp” had beat him to it. … Read the rest of this article
Comets are small Solar System bodies that orbit the Sun and, when close enough to the Sun, exhibit a visible coma (atmosphere) or a tail — both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the comet’s nucleus. Comet nuclei are themselves loose collections of ice, dust and small rocky particles, measuring a few kilometers or tens of kilometers across.… Read the rest of this article
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
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