If you step outside before dawn during the next week or so, you might try to catch a view of some “cosmic litter” that has been left behind in space by Halley’s Comet: the Orionid meteor shower.The Orionids can best be described as a junior version of the famous
A deliberate decision was made to change the course of the container ship Rena to head it smack on to the Astrolabe Reef an hour before it grounded, a marine expert says.An internationally recognised marine risk expert has plotted the fateful final hours of the
Comet Elenin, the supposed “doomsday comet” that has inspired so much confusion and controversy since its discovery in December 2010, may have broken apart completely during its recent pass around the Sun.Discoverer Leonid Elenin posted the image
The devastating earthquake that struck Japan this year may have rattled the highest layer of the atmosphere even before it shook the Earth, a discovery that one day could be used to provide warnings of giant quakes, scientists find.The magnitude 9.0 quake that struck
New Zealand said it was preparing for an environmental disaster Friday as a container ship stranded off the North Island threatened to break up and spill oil into the pristine Bay of Plenty. The 47,000 tonne container vessel “Rena”, which hit a reef off the coast
On October 8th Earth is going to plow through a stream of dust from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, and the result could be an outburst of Draconid meteors.”We’re predicting as many as 750 meteors per hour,” says William Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office at
Yesterday, October 4th, something exploded on the far side of the sun and propelled a spectacular CME into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the cloud as it emerged from behind the sun’s limb:Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab have
A deadly tornado hit the township of Duduza in South Africa on Sunday. An 8-year-old child died and more than 160 people were injured when the twister struck Duduza, about 40 miles east of Johannesburg, destroying dozens of houses, many of them tin shacks, according…
A comet discovered by amateur astronomers on Friday, Sept. 30th, disintegrated in spectacular fashion the very next day when it plunged into the sun. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the comet’s last hours. The end was punctuated by an unexpected
On the evening of 28 September 2011, the New Southeast Crater of Etna has produced its 15th paroxysmal eruptive episode since the beginning of this year. The culminating phase of this episode lasted less than a half hour but was more violent than those of the preceding
