Special Topic: Close Asteroidal Encounters
In the Week 2 “Special Topics” presentation I discussed the history and recognition of near-Earth asteroids and described some of the early observed encounters by these objects. What could perhaps be considered the most remarkable of these asteroids was a 10th-magnitude fast-moving object discovered on October 28, 1937, by Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in …
Meet the Astronauts for the Crew-1 Mission
When SpaceX launches the Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft atop it from historic Launch Complex 39A, the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) will finally have reached fruition. Aboard Resilience will be three NASA astronauts and one JAXA astronaut, all heading to the International Space Station for a six-month stay at the orbiting …
This Week in History: November 15-21
NOVEMBER 15, 1927: Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Wachmann at Hamburg Observatory in Bergedorf, Germany, discover a very unusual comet, 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, that travels entirely between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn and that undergoes repeated outbursts at irregular intervals. It is this week’s “Comet of the Week.” NOVEMBER 15, 2016: Polish astronomers Filip Berski and …
Comet of the Week: 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 1927j
Perihelion: 1925 May 7.84, q = 5.475 AU One of the most unusual and remarkable comets that we know about was discovered just a little less than a century ago, when on November 15, 1927, the duo of Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Wachmann at Hamburg Observatory in Bergedorf, Germany, found it on photographs as it was …
Special Topic: Comets and Meteor Showers
I first began to show an interest in astronomy when I was 6 years old, although my interests shifted between astronomy and various other scientific fields over the next few years. My father was an early riser, and one morning when I was 8 he was engaged in his normal morning routine when he noticed that …
Crew Dragon and Falcon 9: The newest way to get to the ISS
It has been a long road from concept to flight for the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) culminating in the successful launch of the Demo 2 flight which launched May 30, 2020. SpaceX now begins fulfilling its contract with NASA taking astronauts to the International Space Station and returning them home safely with the launch of …
From cell phones to spacecraft – touchscreens are taking over UI
As SpaceX prepares to launch NASA’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station, the Crew Dragon spacecraft has already distinguished itself from prior generations of space capsules. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley set off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020, and reached the ISS with no complications while testing out new features …
What the ISS has taught us about living in space
November 2 marked 20 years since the first residents arrived on the International Space Station (ISS). The orbiting habitat has been continuously occupied ever since. Twenty straight years of life in space makes the ISS the ideal “natural laboratory” to understand how societies function beyond Earth. The ISS is a collaboration between 25 space agencies …
This Week in History: November 8-14
NOVEMBER 10, 2018: Astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo discover the distant object 2018 VG18 – nicknamed “Farout” – located at a present heliocentric distance of 124 AU, at that time the most distantly observed object in the solar system. 2018 VG18 and other distant objects in the solar system are the subject …
Comet of the Week: “Tycho Brahe’s Comet” C/1577 V1
Perihelion: 1577 October 27.45, q = 0.178 AU In all of astronomical history, one of the names that stand out is that of the 16th Century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Of noble birth, he showed an interest in astronomy at a young age, although his family tried to steer him into a career in statesmanship; however, …
Special Topic: The Far Outer Solar System
It essentially goes without saying that our knowledge of all regions of the solar system has grown enormously during the past few decades. What we might call the “outer solar system,” i.e., beyond Neptune, is a region where our knowledge has perhaps grown the most, since until quite recently we knew almost nothing about this …
International Space Station marks 20 years of continuous human presence
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and her crewmates are celebrating the 20th anniversary of continuous human habitation of the International Space Station (ISS) today. The ISS has been continuously occupied since November 2, 2000, when NASA astronaut and Expedition 1 commander William “Shep” Shepherd and flight engineers Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko became the first residents. …
This Week in History: November 1-7
NOVEMBER 1, 1577: Observers in Peru make the first sighting of the Great Comet of 1577. This comet, a brilliant object which is often referred to as “Tycho Brahe’s Comet” and which is one of the most important scientific comets in history, is next week’s “Comet of the Week.” NOVEMBER 1, 1948: Observers on the …
Comet of the Week: 17P/Holmes
Perihelion: 2007 May 4.50, q = 2.053 AU With the light pollution that is endemic to large metropolitan areas, it would seem difficult to believe that any significant astronomical observational activities could be conducted from cities like London these days. But things were different during the late 19th Century . . . On the evening of …
Special Topic: The Death of Comets
What happens to comets when they “die?” Our solar system has been around for 4.6 billion years, and, obviously, a large percentage of the comets that the solar system started off with are no longer with us. While many comets still remain in the reservoirs of the outer solar system, i.e., the Kuiper Belt and …
New NASA Posters Feature Cosmic Frights for Halloween
Depicting some of the Universe’s most mysterious astronomical phenomena with artistic flairs, NASA has released its latest Galaxy of Horrors posters just in time for Halloween. Presented in the style of vintage horror movie advertisements, the new posters feature a dead galaxy, an explosive gamma ray burst caused by colliding stellar corpses, and ever-elusive dark matter. …
Three reasons why black holes are the scariest things in the Universe
Halloween is a time to be haunted by ghosts, goblins and ghouls, but nothing in the Universe is scarier than a black hole. Black holes – regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape – are a hot topic in the news these days. Half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in …
Check out these experiments on the International Space Station
Think of the International Space Station as a floating science lab that’s constantly conducting experiments. In most cases, NASA, the U.S. space agency, provides logistical support to international partners as they prioritize experiments, schedule them, deliver necessary materials to the station and receive results on Earth. U.S. astronauts and those from international partner countries conduct …
This Week in History: October 25-31
OCTOBER 25, 2020: Comet ATLAS C/2020 M3, discovered this past June 27 by the ATLAS survey in Hawaii, will pass through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 1.268 AU. Comet ATLAS, which is a Halley-type object with an approximate orbital period of 139 years, has been unexpectedly bright (8th magnitude) lately, and may become even …
Comet of the Week: Ikeya-Seki 1965f
Perihelion: 1965 October 21.18, q = 0.008 AU What would prove to be the 20th Century’s brightest comet was discovered on the morning of September 18, 1965 – in a sky recently swept clean by a typhoon – by two Japanese amateur astronomers, Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomu Seki (both of whom were veteran comet discoverers), independently …