Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is en route to intercept a comet– and to make history. In 2014, Rosetta will enter orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenkoand land a probe on it, two firsts. Rosetta’s goal is to learn the primordial story a comet tells as it gloriously falls to pieces. Comets are primitive leftovers from our solar system’s… [Read more…]
December 22, 2011
Space Station Commander Captures Unprecedented View of Comet Ιnternational Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy as seen from about 240 miles above the Earth’s horizon on Wednesday, Dec. 21. Today Burbank described seeing the comet two nights ago as “the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space,” in… [Read more…]
October 26, 2011
Comet Elenin is no more. Latest indications are this relatively small comet has broken into even smaller, even less significant, chunks of dust and ice. This trail of piffling particles will remain on the same path as the original comet, completing its unexceptional swing through the inner solar system this fall. “Elenin did as new… [Read more…]
October 19, 2011
NASA’s Spitzer Detects Comet Storm In Nearby Solar System This artist’s conception illustrates a storm of comets around a star near our own, called Eta Corvi. Evidence for this barrage comes from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, whose infrared detectors picked up indications that one or more comets was recently torn to shreds after colliding with… [Read more…]
October 17, 2011
A re-analysis of historical observations suggest Earth narrowly avoided an extinction event just over a hundred years ago On 12th and 13th August 1883, an astronomer at a small observatory in Zacatecas in Mexico made an extraordinary observation. José Bonilla counted some 450 objects, each surrounded by a kind of mist, passing across the face… [Read more…]
August 9, 2011
NASA-funded researchers have evidence that some building blocks of DNA, the molecule that carries the genetic instructions for life, found in meteorites were likely created in space. The research gives support to the theory that a “kit” of ready-made parts created in space and delivered to Earth by meteorite and comet impacts assisted the origin… [Read more…]
July 28, 2011
On Nov. 4, 2010, NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft came within 450 miles of Comet Hartley 2, a small comet not even a mile in diameter, which takes about six and a half years to orbit the sun. Designated officially as 103P/Hartley 2, the comet thus became the fifth for which scientists have collected close-up images. But… [Read more…]
June 18, 2011
A newfound comet discovered by a telescope designed to hunt for dangerous asteroids will make its closest pass by Earth in 2013 and should be visible to the naked eye when it draws near, astronomers say. Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS 1 telescope detected the comet, which is called C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS), on the night of June 5 and 6,… [Read more…]
June 9, 2011
….and won’t wake up until it reaches ice ball in 2014 A pioneering spacecraft that will land on a comet almost 600 million miles from Earth, has entered the loneliest leg of its mission. Scientists at the European Space Agency have shut down most of the Rosetta probe’s systems placing the comet-hunter in to a long, dark hibernation.… [Read more…]
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February 3, 2012
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