First, there was Comet ATLAS in April which disappointed sky watchers as it broke apart into pieces. Then there was Comet SWAN in May which also disintegrated. And now we have a third comet named NEOWISE and this one is coming through. In recent days, this comet has been visible shortly before sunrise, but now, it has become an evening object as well and will actually be visible at both ends of the day for the rest of this week.
Dr. Roy Spencer writes on Facebook: We finally got some dry air in N. Alabama, so I captured ~900 photos of comet NEOWISE starting about 3:45 this morning from the Monte Sano east overlook, using 2 cameras, one wide angle (30mm) for landscape shots and one telephoto (200 mm) for time lapse. Time lapse video…
Guest post by Rud Istvan This guest post was inspired by a long delayed lunch (by Covid-19, with our first two traditional restaurants found still closed for lunch by Wuhan virus fears despite now open South Florida) between CtM and myself. We discussed much, including WUWT. I complemented Charles on the recent months more eclectic…
Observational results inconsistent with theory National Radio Astronomy ObservatoryShare Print E-Mail A new set of precision distance measurements made with an international collection of radio telescopes have greatly increased the likelihood that theorists need to revise the “standard model” that describes the fundamental nature of the Universe. The new distance measurements allowed astronomers to refine their calculation…
A supernova at least twice as bright and energetic, and likely much more massive than any yet recorded has been identified by an international team of astronomers, led by the University of Birmingham. The team, which included experts from Harvard, Northwestern University and Ohio University, believe the supernova, dubbed SN2016aps, could be an example of an extremely rare ‘pulsational…
Call off the supernova watch. The red supergiant star known as Betelgeuse isn’t going to explode in a supernova after all. (Though it will at sometime in the future up to 100,000 years from now.) A couple of weeks ago we reported: For months, astronomers have been keeping a wary eye on Betelgeuse, the bright red…
Feb 21st is the day we’ll know if the puzzling dimming of Betelgeuse is just an alignment of dimming cycles in a highly variable star, or a prelude to a supernova we’ll be able to witness with our bare eyes. If it happens, the dying star will be visible in the daytime and shine as…
How the sun pumps out water from Mars into space Russian and German physicists have offered an explanation for the new data obtained by Martian satellites, capturing the “escape” of hydrogen atoms from the upper Martian atmosphere into outer space. The developed model fits well with the observations and explains a number of puzzling phenomena…
NASA, FEMA, International Partners Plan Asteroid Impact Exercise While headlines routinely report on “close shaves” and “near-misses” when near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids or comets pass relatively close to Earth, the real work of preparing for the possibility of a NEO impact with Earth goes on mostly out of the public eye. For more…
The trick is spotting the near-Earth objects first, according to NASA researchers presenting at the 2019 American Physical Society April meeting in Denver WASHINGTON, D.C., April 16, 2019 — A mere 17-20 meters across, the Chelyabinsk meteor caused extensive ground damage and numerous injuries when it exploded on impact with Earth’s atmosphere in February 2013.…