The comet Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is expected to brighten rapidly in August as it passes to the south of the Earth. It will be observable from the southern hemisphere for about 2 weeks before getting too close to the Sun.At its closest the comet will be 0.060 AU from
Earth is entering a stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. International observers are now reporting more than a dozen Perseids per hour, a number that will increase as the shower reaches its peak on August 12-13. Full
An exploding meteor is believed to be responsible for a huge bang that reverberated around the Pacific island nation of Niue last week.Niue police chief Mark Chenery said the loud bang on Wednesday night woke the island’s 1200 residents and he initially thought a
A surprise meteor shower spotted in February was likely caused by cosmic “bread crumbs” dropped by an undiscovered comet that could potentially pose a threat to Earth.The tiny meteoroids that streaked through Earth’s atmosphere for a few hours on Feb. 4 represent a
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has found the very first asteroid that (more or less) shares an orbit with Earth! Called 2010 TK7, this asteroid is about 300 meters (roughly 1000 feet) across, and is the first in an up-to-now theoretical class of
Many people have now heard about the upcoming entry to the inner solar system of the comet Elenin (http://elenin.org) and there is a whole range of ideas and speculations about what this might entail. Comets have always been seen as harbingers of auspicious or (more
The six-member crew of the International Space Station took shelter in two Russian Soyuz spacecraft early Tuesday because of a predicted close approach by an unknown piece of space debris.Safety procedures are put into effect when radar tracking indicates debris
Newly-discovered asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above Earth’s surface on Monday June 27 at about 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 UT).
Newly-discovered asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above Earth’s surface on Monday June 27 at about 9:30 a.m. EDT. NASA analysts say there is no chance the space rock will strike Earth. Nevertheless, the encounter is so close that Earth’s
Small asteroid 2009 BD is flying through the Earth-moon system today about 215,000 miles from Earth. The 10m wide space rock poses no threat to our planet, but it is of acute scientific interest.”It’s notable because it remains close to Earth for months at a time and
