Comet of the Week: Bennett 1969i
Perihelion: 1970 March 20.04, q = 0.538 AU One of the underlying foundations of “Ice and Stone 2020” is the fact that it marks the anniversary of my observations of my very first comet, Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka 1969g – also, incidentally, the first comet ever observed from space. (I discuss this comet, including my observations of …
Special Topic: Ancient Ideas about Comets
To our ancestors of several centuries to a few millennia ago, the nighttime sky was, to some extent anyway, a generally predictable place. The stars remained “fixed” relative to each other in the patterns that we call constellations, each culture “seeing” whatever constellations that they considered relevant. While these shifted east-to-west over the course of …
QuizMe: Russian Space Program
The Russian space program is the third featured topic in our new QuizMe series of educational content. Put your knowledge to the test with these 10 questions about the country’s space program which accomplished a number of international firsts. Russia has continued to launch crewed spaceflights since the early 1960s and is a major partner …
Mercury Explained: Facts, Questions, and History
Mercury is the first planet in our Solar System and one of the closest planets to Earth. Thanks to this, we have known about its existence since ancient times and we have studied and learned a lot about it. It is one of the most interesting planets because it has helped us understand a lot …
Ice and Stone 2020 Companion Glossary
We hope you are enjoying reading the weekly Ice and Stone 2020 content from astronomer Alan Hale. For those who might not be as versed in astronomy terms, he’s put together this glossary of technical terms, many of which are regularly used within the weekly educational content. A Absolute magnitude: for a comet or asteroid, …
This Week in History: March 22-28
MARCH 22, 2016: The tiny Comet PANSTARRS P/2016 BA14 passes just 0.024 AU from Earth, the closest known cometary approach to Earth thus far in the 21st Century and the third-closest known cometary approach to Earth in history. Despite its closeness, it was never brighter than 13th magnitude. This and other close comet approaches to …