A newly discovered asteroid designated 2017 SU17 flew past Earth at 0.72 LD (~ 276 480 km / 171 796 miles) at 08:12 UTC on September 24, 2017. This is now the second known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 LD on September 24, and the 34th since the start of the year,…
A new, bright Kreutz 'sungrazing' comet was discovered on September 26, 2017. The comet appeared in SOHO LASCO C3 imagery around 03:06 UTC on September 26 and finished its journey around 09:00 UTC on September 27. It was recorded by both LASCO C3 and C2…
Hubble Space Telescope has photographed the farthest active inbound comet ever seen, at a whopping distance of 2.4 billion km (1.5 billion miles) from the Sun (beyond Saturn's orbit). The comet is record-breaking because it is already becoming active under the…
The spectacular planetary nebula NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, emerges from the darkness like a series of oddly-shaped bubbles, lit up in glorious pinks and blues. This colorful image was captured by the powerful MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope…
A brilliant fireball streaked through the night sky over southern Arizona, US around 03:32 UTC on September 24, 2017 (20:32 MDT, September 23). The event lasted about 12 seconds and produced a sonic boom picked up by a seismometer near Tucson. The American Meteor…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2017 SS12 flew past Earth at 0.67 LD (~ 257 280 km / 159 866 miles) at 15:33 UTC on September 24, 2017, one day before it was discovered. This is the 33rd known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of…
OSIRIS-REx, NASA’s asteroid sample return spacecraft successfully used Earth’s gravity on Friday, September 22, 2017 to slingshot itself on a path toward the Asteroid Bennu, for a rendezvous next August. The spacecraft came within 17 237 km (10 711…
A bright fireball was observed and filmed over Amsterdam, Netherlands at 19:00 UTC (21:00 CET) on September 21, 2017. The event lasted more than 5 seconds, flaring several times before disappearing. While the fireball was primarily seen from Amsterdam, users…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2017 SR2 will flyby Earth at a very close distance of 0.24 LD (~92 160 km / 57 265 miles) at 20:29 UTC on September 20, 2017. This is the second known near-Earth asteroid to flyby Earth at a distance of 1 LD today, the third…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2017 SM2 flew past Earth at 0.81 LD (~311 040 km / 193 271 miles) on September 20, 2017. This is the 30th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 LD since the start of the year and the second within the past 7 days, according to…
