NASA’s Deep Impact (EPOXI) probe is closing in on Comet Hartley 2 for a daring flyby today (Nov. 4th).
The small but active comet is full of surprises, with spinning jets, geysers of cyanide gas, and a strangely pickle-shaped core. Mission scientists expect to reveal first images from the flyby during a press conference on Thursday afternoon, around 4 pm … Read the rest of this article
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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Asteroid 2003 UV11 will fly past Earth on Oct. 29th and 30th (2010) at a distance of only 1.2 million miles. Its minimum (closest) approach to Earth happens at 02:24:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on October 30th.
Experienced amateur astronomers should have little trouble photographing the 600-meter wide space rock as it glides through the constellation Pegasus on Friday night, … Read the rest of this article
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
[Update: October 13: Asteroid 2010 TD54 flew within the orbit of the moon on Oct. 11 while astronomers watched to see if the encounter caused any quakes on the space rock. It was flying over Southeast Asia, near Singapore, at the time. Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston used a remote link with a NASA Infrared … Read the rest of this article
Solar storms don’t always travel in a straight line. But once they start heading in our direction, they can accelerate rapidly, gathering steam for a harder hit on Earth’s magnetic field.
So say researchers who have been using data from NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft to unravel the 3D structure of solar storms. Their findings are presented in today’s issue of … Read the rest of this article
Amateur astronomers using backyard telescopes were the first to detect two small objects that burned up in Jupiter’s atmosphere on June 3 and Aug. 20.
Professional astronomers at NASA and other institutions followed up on the discovery and gathered detailed information on the objects, which produced bright spots on Jupiter. The object that caused the June 3 fireball was estimated … Read the rest of this article
The Space Store is the #1 online NASA and space souvenir retailer in the world. With a wide selection of products ranging from party supplies and back to school items to memorabilia and authentic flown-in-space collectibles, it’s the one stop shopping location for space and NASA related merchandise.
And now, they are featuring their End of Summer Clearance Event, … Read the rest of this article
During the early hours of August 1st, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a complex global disturbance on the Earth-facing side of the sun.
Most of the sun’s northern hemisphere was involved in the event, which included a long-duration C3-class solar flare, a “solar tsunami, ” and a massive filament eruption.
As a result of these blasts, a coronal mass … Read the rest of this article
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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