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.
At 9:03 pm on Friday night September 25, 2009 (01:03 UT Sept 26) seven all-sky cameras of Western's Southern Ontario Meteor Network (SOMN) recorded a brilliant fireball in the evening sky over the west end of Lake Ontario.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.