Perhaps you live in a part of the world where you regularly experience snow storms or even dust storms. But for many of us, the weather forms a natural part of everyday conversation – more so when it is somewhat extreme, ...
Space Exploration
Jan 22, 2018
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Observations by NASA's Swift spacecraft, now renamed the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory after the mission's late principal investigator, have captured an unprecedented change in the rotation of a comet. Images taken in May ...
Space Exploration
Jan 10, 2018
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146
For many years some astronomers, working under the assumption that the Star of Bethlehem was in fact an actual celestial object, have suggested possible astrophysical explanations.
Space Exploration
Dec 19, 2017
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The dust that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko emits into space consists to about one half of organic molecules. The dust belongs to the most pristine and carbon-rich material known in our solar system and has hardly changed ...
Space Exploration
Dec 1, 2017
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When comet 45P zipped past Earth early in 2017, researchers observing from NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, or IRTF, in Hawai'i gave the long-time trekker a thorough astronomical checkup. The results help fill in crucial ...
Space Exploration
Nov 22, 2017
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It came from outer space … and went back there two weeks later, having astonished and excited astronomers and planetary scientists. A cigar-shaped object, less than half a kilometre long and barely bright enough to be detected ...
Space Exploration
Nov 22, 2017
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114
It has happened to most of us: walking home late at night under clear skies you catch a glimpse of something bright moving, often from the corner of your eye. You turn to see what it is but it's gone without a trace. And ...
Space Exploration
Nov 20, 2017
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A strange visitor, either asteroid or comet, zipping through our solar system at a high speed is giving astronomers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to examine up close an object from somewhere else in our galaxy.
Space Exploration
Nov 16, 2017
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Comets are our most direct link to the earliest stages of the formation and evolution of the solar system. Only every few years is a new comet discovered that is making its first trip to the inner solar system from the Oort ...
Space Exploration
Nov 10, 2017
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The ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA mission SOHO—short for Solar and Heliospheric Observatory—got a visit from an old friend this week when comet 96P entered its field of view on Oct. 25, 2017. The comet entered ...
Space Exploration
Nov 3, 2017
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