Astronomers monitoring Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) spotted a powerful outburst from the comet on May 5. Such outbursts usually indicate a fragmentation, but scientists are hopeful that this could just be a volatile comet. The comet is approaching Earth and the Sun– its…
NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) has successfully descended down to just 75 m (246 feet) above the surface asteroid Bennu in a risky rehearsal to prepare the spacecraft before it collects…
Russia's first satellite for monitoring the Arctic climate called Arktika-M is set to be launched by the end of 2020, as announced by the General Director of the Lavochkin aerospace company, Vladimir Kolmykov. The launch was initially scheduled in 2019 but was…
A high-resolution satellite has captured detailed images of a rocky cliff on Mars, revealing the first evidence of ancient rivers that existed for more than 100 000 years on the surface of the planet, 3.7 billion years ago. The international team of scientists used…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 JJ flew past Earth at a very close distance of 0.03 LD / 0.0000896 AU (13 403 km / 8 328 miles) at 12:05 UTC on May 4, 2020. This is the 40th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 JA will flyby Earth at a safe distance of 0.62 LD / 0.00160 AU (239 356 km / 148 729 miles) at 20:01 UTC on May 3, 2020. This is the 38th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year,…
A bright fireball exploded over the French Antilles at 00:40 UTC on April 27, 2020 (20:40 LT on April 26), lighting up the night skies between Martinique to as far north as Anguilla and as far west as Puerto Rico. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received seven…
Approaching Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) has become bright enough that it is already visible to the naked eye. As of 14:30 UTC on April 30, 2020, the comet is 115 million km (71 million miles) away from Earth, with a magnitude of 6.0. The comet appears like a bright fuzz…
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the sharpest view of Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS disintegrating into pieces. About 30 fragments were identified on April 20, but just three days later on April 23, the telescope spotted only 25. "Their appearance…
A study by researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) suggests that the laws of nature are not as constant as previously assumed– it may break down at the edge of the universe, making it possible to slightly bend the laws of the universe. In the…
