QuizMe: SpaceX
If all goes according to plan, at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27, Space X will launch the first humans into orbit from American soil since the STS-135 mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis in July 2011. The upcoming launch will occur from the same LC-39A pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida that was used …
This Week in History: May 24-30
MAY 24, 1981: American astronomer Harold Reitsema and his colleagues, observing from Arizona, detect a possible moon of Neptune during an apparent occultation of a background star. This object was confirmed by Voyager 2 during its flyby of Neptune in August 1989 and is now known as Larissa and designated as Neptune VII. MAY 24, …
Comet of the Week: “Caesar’s Comet” C/42 K1
Perihelion: 44 B.C. May 25.0, q = 0.22 AU The appearance of a bright comet is certainly a stimulus of important scientific investigations, and, under the right circumstances, in today’s society can also be a focus for popular culture, at least for a while. In more ancient times, however, when comets were still widely considered …
Special Topic: Large Ground Meteorites
The general topic of meteorites was discussed as a “Special Topics” presentation four weeks ago. The large majority of meteorites that are known are not especially large, being of the order of a few kg in mass; with only a handful of exceptions, even the larger ones tend to have a mass of no more …
Space Shuttle Atlantis Word Search
As the workhorse of NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet, Atlantis flew 33 missions between 1985 and 2011. The orbiter visited Russia’s Mir space station seven times and the International Space Station 12 times. Astronauts launched interplanetary probes from the payload bay, and conducted the final servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope. We’ve hidden 36 words related …
This Week in History: May 17-23
MAY 17, 1882: Observers in the path of a total solar eclipse that crossed central Egypt see and photograph a bright comet during totality. Comet Tewfik X/1882 K1, which was never seen again, was an apparent Kreutz sungrazer, and is this week’s “Comet of the Week.” Solar eclipse comets, in general, are the subject of …
Comet of the Week: Tewfik X/1882 K1
Perihelion: 1882 May 17.5, q < 0.01 AU On May 17, 1882, the path of a total solar eclipse crossed northern Africa, the Middle East, and southern Asia. As total eclipses go, it was a relatively short one, with the maximum duration of totality – which occurred in present-day Turkmenistan – being only 1 minute …
Special Topic: Solar Eclipse Comets
One of the most spectacular and awe-inspiring celestial sights is that of a bright, long-tailed comet – a “Great Comet,” the subject of a previous “Special Topics” presentation. On average, these appear about once a decade, and I have been privileged to have witnessed four of them during the half-century I have been observing comets …
This Week in History: May 10-16
MAY 10, 1999: The LINEAR survey in New Mexico discovers the near-Earth asteroid now known as (162173) Ryugu. Ryugu was the destination of JAXA’s Hayabusa2 sample-return mission, which arrived there in mid-2018 and departed there late last year, and which is now en route back to Earth with its collected samples. The Hayabusa2 mission is …
Comet of the Week: IRAS-Araki-Alcock 1983d
Perihelion: 1983 May 21.25, q= 0.991 AU On January 25, 1983, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. For the next ten months, until its supply of superfluid liquid helium coolant ran out, IRAS surveyed the entire sky in near- to far-infrared wavelengths, and its findings completely …