Comet 46P/Wirtanen is due to closely sweep passed the sun on December 12, 2018 and then pass the Earth on December 16. 46P/Wirtanen is a small short-period comet that was discovered photographically on January 17, 1948, by the American astronomer Carl A. Wirtanen at the Lick Observatory.The comet has a current orbital period of 5.4 years. On December 16, 2018 the comet will pass Earth at…
It’s December and it’s time for another Geminid Meteor Shower. Caused by the object 3200 Phaethon, the Geminids are thought to be a Palladian asteroid with a “rock comet” orbit. This would make the Geminids, together with the Quadrantids, the only major meteor showers not originating from a comet. This shower favors the Northern Hemisphere, but will be visible from the Southern Hemisphere as well….
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SETI wanted to address the mystery surrounding “Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor that we’ve detected moving through our solar system keep getting deeper and deeper… What is it? An asteroid, a comet… a derelict alien spacecraft? Using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), scientist at SETI decided to observe ‘Oumuamua when it was about 170 million miles away to see if…
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Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have completed the final adjustments for landing NASA’s InSight spacecraft on Mars. Atmospheric entry is expected around 11:47 a.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) and touchdown, about seven minutes later. Watch live commentary at https://www.nasa.gov/live Rod WashingtonRod is a blogger, writer, filmmaker, photographer, daydreamer who likes to cook. Rod produces…
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On November 16, 2018, NASA released a trailer on YouTube titled “We Are NASA. The video gives us a preview of their future plans through a voiceover from Mike Rowe. NASA lays out their desire to return to the Moon to establish a permanent presence and go beyond to Mars. “and after 60 years, we’re just getting started,” says Rowe….
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It’s mid-November and it is that time of year again, time for the Leonid Meteor shower that happens around November 17 or 18. The shower occurs when the Earth crosses paths with the commentary debris of Comet 55P/Temple-Tuttle. When the debris vaporizes when it hits the atmosphere causing what we call the Leonid meteor shower. This year, 2018, the shower…
Read More NASA has apparently picked the perfect site for the upcoming landing of Mars InSight, a mission managed by NASA and JPL. On November 26, 2018, after a 205 day journey, Insight will touch down on the Elysium Planitia, in the high plains near the Martin Equator just before 3pm EST. It is the Goldie Locks of landing sites, not too…
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First it was an asteroid, then it was a comet, now it’s something else. Remember that interstellar object, Oumuamua, the oblong shaped mas that tumbled through our solar system at incredible speed? Now some scientists at the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics are saying that it is possibly something else entirely. Oumuamua might be artificial and could also possibly be…
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On October 7, 2018, Asteroid 2018 EB passed the Earth at 15 lunar distances. Back on April 4, 2018, after astronomer spotted it using the NEOWISE spacecraft, before it had passed at 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. 2018 EB is considered a potentially hazardous object because of the asteroids approach brings it within a close…
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It’s been 41 years since NASA launched the Voyager 2 probe into space. Fast-forward from 1977 to today and the little probe has travelled nearly 11 billion miles from Earth, and is now passing through the heliosphere. Voyager 2 is rapidly approaching the outer boundary. Scientist are watching as the probe moves closer to exiting the heliosphere. Voyager will become…
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