Items tagged with Earth
The “devil comet” will be showing off its horns this weekend to those in the Northern Hemisphere. Anyone wanting to catch a peak at this rare celestial event will want to do so this go round, as it will not be close enough for viewing with a pair of binoculars again for another 71 years.
While there is a chance...
Read more...
The upcoming total solar eclipse has been making plenty of headlines as of late, leaving some to wonder how agencies such as NASA devise the maps predicting the path of totality. Well, it all comes down to knowing the precise shape and position of the Moon, and a few other key features and environmental aspects...
Read more...
A new study from a survey of 91 pairs of twin stars named C3PO sheds new light on the so-called “three-body problem” that has befuddled scientists for centuries. At least 8%, or 1 in 12, of twin stars in the study show chemical anomalies that indicate one star had gobbled up planetary material that once orbited it...
Read more...
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), a 2.9-ton battery pallet was released from the International Space Station (ISS) on January 11, 2021. While most of the pallet, which comprises nine batteries in total, will burn up upon reentry, the ESA reports some parts will survive the trip and come crashing into the...
Read more...
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No! It’s a satellite falling from space! A 2.5-ton European Space Agency (ESA) satellite that launched in 1995 is about to make a grand return to Earth today. During its service life, the ERS-2 satellite collected data on Earth’s land surfaces, oceans, and polar caps and monitored natural...
Read more...
Heads up! A potentially hazardous asteroid the size of a large skyscraper is about to have a close encounter with Earth, and everyone can watch live. No, asteroid 2008 OS7 does not pose a risk to anyone, but it will come within about 2.8 million kilometers, or 7.4 times the average lunar distance.
Asteroid 2008 OS7...
Read more...
This year’s total solar eclipse will not only last longer than the one in 2017, but will also be viewable in its totality by more people. 2024’s total solar eclipse will be viewable by an estimated 31.6 million people, while the one in 2017 was seen in its totality by about 12 million. And in terms of length of time...
Read more...
A small asteroid impacted Earth’s atmosphere over Berlin, Germany, with videos of the fireball lighting up social media. The 3 foot (1 meter) asteroid was detected shortly ahead of it entering Earth’s atmosphere.
A couple of days ago, NASA posted a tweet, remarking, “A tiny asteroid will disintegrate as a harmless...
Read more...
NASA plans on getting a bird's-eye view of asteroid Apophis, also known as the “God of Chaos,” as it makes an exceptionally close approach to Earth in 2029. The spacecraft that will have a front-row view is the same one that delivered a sample of asteroid Bennu back to Earth earlier this year.
OSIRIS-REx (Origins...
Read more...
NASA delivered a teaspoon size sample of the asteroid Bennu to be studied in the labs at the Natural History Museum in London. NASA describes the 500-meter (0.3 miles) wide asteroid as being the most dangerous rock in the solar system because it has a chance of hitting Earth within the next 300 years.
Scientists at...
Read more...
Astronomers were recently amazed to find an aurora-like display some 40,000 kilometers above a sunspot. Researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR) detailed radio observations of the event that share characteristics with the auroral radio emissions...
Read more...
In true Halloween fashion, a comet twice the size of Mount Everest and that earned the nickname the “Devil Comet” is heading toward Earth. The comet, which has a far less intimidating scientific name, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, has a short-period orbit around the Sun of about once every 71 years.
Comet Pons-Brooks’...
Read more...
Jupiter will accompany this weekend's Hunter's Moon as the duo parade across the night sky together. The Hunter's Moon gets its name from the Algonquin Native American tribe and was used to remind native American cultures that it was time to hunt and store up meat for the winter.
The October Hunter's Moon might...
Read more...
NASA shared a scintillating view of the annular eclipse from 1 million miles in space. The image was produced by a 10-channel spectroradiometer onboard NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft.
Onlookers gazed upward this weekend as the Moon moved between the Sun and Earth and created what is known...
Read more...
NASA has sent a request for proposal for an estimated $1B US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), a spacecraft aimed at deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS) and ultimately safely crashing back to Earth. The United States, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency (ESA) have all committed to operating the station...
Read more...
NASA is currently tracking five bus and airplane-sized asteroids that are expected to make close approaches to Earth this week. The near-Earth events come just ahead of the space agency's Psyche mission, which will launch next month and explore the metal-rich asteroid Bennu.
The five asteroids hurtling through...
Read more...
An international collaboration of scientists has discovered the highest-energy light ever observed from the sun. These gamma rays also much brighter than scientists previously thought.
Humankind has been trying to figure out the bright orb in the sky since the beginning of time. In more recent years, scientists...
Read more...
A relatively new algorithm designed to discover asteroids has spotted its first space rock—a 600-foot-long asteroid classified as potentially hazardous (don't worry, it's not going to smash into Earth). The algorithm was designed to be used with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which will scan the night sky in...
Read more...
A duo of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is projected to combine into one "cannibal" CME before impacting Earth later today. The combo could potentially cause a very strong geomagnetic storm here on Earth.
NASA describes a CME as a magnetically generated solar phenomenon that can hurl billions of tons of solar...
Read more...
A lady from a village in Alsace in east France shared her story about being rudely interrupted as she sipped on her coffee when something hit her on the chest, what she believes was a small meteorite fragment.. The lady says the small space rock first hit her roof before bouncing off and smacking into her...
Read more...
The aurora borealis, typically only seen by those in far north locations like Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia, is projected to be viewable in up to 17 US states, including New York and others along the East Coast on July 13, 2023.
The aurora borealis, better known as the Northern Lights, enamor and amaze everyone...
Read more...
An asteroid roughly the size of a house will be making a nearby flyby of Earth tonight. Asteroid 2023 MU2 will be able to be viewed zipping by our home planet via a live feed later today.
2023 MU2 was actually only discovered on June 21, 2023, and announced the next day. The near-Earth asteroid is estimated to be...
Read more...
