comet

Comet ISON is doing just fine!

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Isoncampaign.org- 10/9/13, Karl

Comet ISON is doing just fine! It continues to behave like a fairly typical, if somewhat smaller-than-average, Oort Cloud comet. It has given no indication that it has fragmented and while such an event can never be ruled out, we see no evidence or hint that the comet is in any imminent danger of doing so. Any reports to the contrary are just speculation.

How can we be so sure? Because we can see the comet! Opposite is just one more recent example of an extremely high-quality image of ISON taken by Nick Howes, Ernesto Guido and Martino Nicolini as part of a series of daily imaging sequences they have been recording to help study the morphology (shape, size, etc) of comet ISON.

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Meteor strikes, punches hole 2 meters deep - China

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The Watchers, 8/1/13, Adonai

A meteor has reportedly crashed at a dump site in a village of northwest China around 02:00 local time on Thursday, August 1, 2013. Meteorite impact left a 3 meter wide and 2 meter deep crater. 

Authorities reported no casualties. Search for meteorite fragments is ongoing.

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Snow in an Infant Solar System: A Frosty Landmark for Planet and Comet Formation

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Science News, 7/18/13

July 18, 2013 — A snow line has been imaged in a far-off infant solar system for the very first time. The snow line, located in the disc around the Sun-like star TW Hydrae, promises to tell us more about the formation of planets and comets, the factors that decide their composition, and the history of the Solar System.

The results are published today in Science Express.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have taken the first ever image of the snow line in an infant solar system. On Earth, snow lines form at high altitudes where falling temperatures turn the moisture in the air into snow. This line is clearly visible on a mountain, where the snow-capped summit ends and the rocky face begins.

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Comet Lovejoy survives boiling brush with Sun, does victory dance

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Csmonitor.com, 6/7/13

 

This was not a tale that should have had a happy ending. When Comet Lovejoy sped into the Sun’s corona in 2011, scientists did not expect the daredevil to survive. Astronomers had already tracked 2,000 similar comets making the same inadvisable trip. None had made it, all melting into the sun’s super-hot glow.

But Lovejoy did live – and it is now telling scientists new tales about our sun.

"It's absolutely astounding," says Karl Battams, of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC, in a press release. "I did not think the comet's icy core was big enough to survive plunging through the several million degree solar corona for close to an hour, but Comet Lovejoy is still with us."

For more on this story please see Csmonitor.com

New comet discovered - C/2013 L2 (Catalina)

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The Watchers, 6/12/13, Chiffre

 

New discovery of an apparently asteroidal object with cometary features was announced on June 9, 2013 (CBET 3548). New comet (discovery magnitude ~19.6) was found by R. A. Kowalski on CCD images obtained with the Catalina Sky Survey 0.68-m Schmidt telescope on June 02, 2013. New discovery was confirmed by Minor Planet Center and the new comet has been officially named C/2013 L2 (CATALINA).
 
For more information please see TheWatchers.com

 

 

Did comet impacts jump-start life on Earth?

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EarthSky.org - 6/5/13

 

comet

 

Icy comets that crashed into Earth millions of years ago could have produced life building organic compounds.

Early Earth was not very hospitable when it came to jump starting life. In fact, new research shows that life on Earth may have come from out of this world.

Lawrence Livermore scientist Nir Goldman and University of Ontario Institute of Technology colleague Isaac Tamblyn (a former LLNL postdoc) found that icy comets that crashed into Earth billions of years ago could have produced life building organic compounds, including the building blocks of proteins and nucleobases pairs of DNA and RNA.

 

For more information on this story please see EarthSky.org

Mars vs. Comet in 2014: Preparing for Red Planet Sky Show

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Wunderground.com-4/1/13, Leonard Davis

 

 

 

A close encounter between Mars and Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) in 2014 is creating both opportunity and anxiety in scientific circles. Scientists are in the early stages of assembling a comet-watching campaign that uses a spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet, as well as rovers on the Martian surface.

Scientists are also investigating what techniques could be used to prevent cometary debris from hitting Mars-orbiting spacecraft as the comet and planet converge.

The Mars-bound comet was discovered by Rob McNaught on Jan. 3 at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Scientists estimate that this comet arrived from our solar system’s distant Oort cloud and has been on a more than 1-million-year journey. The comet could contain volatile gases that short-period comets often lack due to their frequent returns to the sun’s neighborhood.

 

Keeping up with Comet PANSTARRS throughout the end of March

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Universe Today-3/20/13, Bob King

 

Multiple exposures of Comet PANSTARRS taken on March 19 were stacked to create this amazing image. The field of view is about 6 by 4 degrees. Details: Leica-Apo180mm lens at f/4. Click to enlarge. Credit: Michael Jaeger

 

Wow – what an image! Michael Jaeger’s photo of Comet C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS on March 19 resembles those taken by the orbiting Stereo-B spacecraft. Most  observers using binoculars and telescopes are seeing the comet’s head, bright false nucleus and a single plume-like tail.

Careful photography like Jaeger’s reveals so much more – two bright, broad dust tails and three shorter spikes. One of the dust tails peels off to the left of the comet’s head, the other extends upward feather-like before splitting into two separate streamers. There are also several narrow, spike-like tails due to various excited elements and gas emissions from the comet’s icy nucleus.

Large fireball streaks across eastern U.S. – seen in 7 states

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TheExtinctionProtocol-3/18/13

 

 

 

March 18, 2013HIGH POINT, NCThere are several reports from Saturday night of a meteor gliding across the Carolina skies. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a large bolide meteor that split into several pieces. First Warn Storm Spotter Stuart McDaniel caught it all on his sky camera. McDaniel lives in Northern Cleveland County.  In his video, the fast moving meteor moved rapidly across the sky growing bigger and bigger then fading away. McDaniel isn’t the only one who saw the meteor; the American Meteorologist Society received 55 reports about this fireball seen over Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Nearly half of the reports were from Ohio. –WCNC

 

 

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