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
The moment long feared by conspiracy theorists is nearly upon us: The "doomsday comet" Elenin will make its closest approach to Earth Sunday (Oct. 16). Or what's left of it will, anyway. Comet Elenin started breaking up in August after being blasted by…
2010 X1 (Elenin) is apparently disintegrating. It faded dramatically after a solar flare on August 20. Images at the end of August revealed a spreading, more diffuse coma. It will likely continue to fade and become more diffuse in the opening days of the month. It
NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) team has commenced testing communication scenarios for near-Earth asteroids. The RATS team also evaluates technology, human-robotic systems and extravehicular equipment in the high desert near Flagstaff,…
There are plenty of near-Earth asteroids out there, but this latest one studied by two researchers at Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland is extremely rare in that it has a weird, horseshoe-shaped orbit. Not that Asteroid 2010 SO16 does an about-face and turns
Near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass within 0.85 lunar distances from the Earth on November 8, 2011. The upcoming close approach by this relatively large 400 meter-sized, C-type asteroid presents an excellent opportunity for synergistic ground-based observations
A tiny asteroid that zipped by Earth this month made the closest-ever approach to our planet without hitting it, an encounter that changed its place in our solar system forever, NASA scientists say. The asteroid, called 2011 CQ1, came within 3,400 miles (5,471
