Comets & Asteroids

Frozen water leaves its signature over the entire surface of the asteroid 24 Themis

Two teams have found evidence of water ice on the asteroid 24 Themis; the find suggests asteroids could have delivered some water to the early Earth

During a presentation on Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Puerto Rico, Knight and colleague, David Schleicher, Lowell Observatory astronomer, described their research, Narrowband Observations of Comet Lulin (2007 N3).

Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid. The refined path indicates a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036.

Lowell astronomer David Schleicher led a team that made the best measurement of the comet's rotation period, showing that the rotation period of Tempel 2's nucleus has lengthened, or the comet has slowed down, by about 10 seconds every five years.

The asteroid impact that ended the age of dinosaurs 65 million years ago didn't incinerate life on our planet's surface - it just broiled it, a new study suggests. The work resolves nagging questions about a theory that the impact triggered deadly wildfires around the world, but it also raises new questions about just what led to the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period.

After the Utah Fireball on Nov. 18, another bright fireball has been seen over South Africa aroud 11pm local time of Nov. 21, 2009. The meteor was spotted by dozens people as it passed over Johannesburg and Pretoria in Kauteng province on Saturday.

This weekend, Earth passed through a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon. In 1983 Whipple identified Phaethon like the parent of Geminid meteor stream. But it has never displayed unambiguous cometary activity. The Geminids provide the most impressive meteor display of any of the annual showers.

In the next few hours, precisely on February 14 at 20:48 PST (February 15 at 04:48 UTC), the Stardust spacecraft will have a flyby with the comet 9P/Tempel (also known as comet Tempel 1).

The newly discovered object, officially designated 2011 CQ1, will make a close Earth approach today February 04, 2011 around 19:40UT at ~0.03(LD)/0.00008(AU) or 11855 km.

In the past few days a number of faint objects discovered by Pan-STARRS (PS1 System - Haleakala - mpc code F51) have been added to the Neo Confirmation Page on the MPC website.

Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson discovered on December 30, 2009 images a bright sungrazing comet in the images taken by STEREO-A spacecraft.

The comet is now around magnitude 7.5 and it will be a nice binocular object. Throughout this apparition it will be low in the east or northeast when dawn begins to brighten.

IAU circular No. 9134, issued on 2010, April 11, announces the discovery by R. E. Hill of a new comet on Apr. 10, 2010, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey.

A newly discovered asteroid designated 2009 VA, which is only about 7 meters in size, passed about 2 Earth radii (14,000 km) from the Earth's surface Nov. 6 at around 16:30 EST. This is the third-closest known (non-impacting) Earth approach on record for a cataloged asteroid.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of the solar system just beyond Neptune.

MPEC 2010-A59 announces the discovery by Linear survey of a new object designated 2010 AL30. According to the preliminary orbit, 2010 AL30 will approach Earth at about 0.34 lunar-distance at 1248 UTC on 13 Jan. 2010 at magnitude 14 and it will be moving at about 10 arcsec/sec.

AU circular No. 9107, issued on 2010, Jan. 14, announces the discovery by G. J. Garradd of an apparently asteroidal object, on CCD images taken with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope in the course of the Siding Spring Survey.

After the bright sungrazing comet discovered on January 02, 2010 on images taken by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft, a new comet is plunging toward the sun. On first looking this comet is ~1-1.5 mag fainter than the previous one from early January.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought that the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before.