Universe Today » Comets

New Results from Stardust Mission Paint Chaotic Picture of Early Solar System

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:44:10 +0000

Secondary electron image of the Coki section analyzed in this study showing mineral shards surrounded by compressed aerogel. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

One of the most surprising results from the Stardust mission – which returned comet dust samples to Earth in 2006 – is that comets don't just consist of particles from the icy parts of the outer solar system, which was the common assumption, but also includes sooty dust from the hot, inner region close to the Sun. A new study confirms this finding, and also provides the first chronological information from the Wild 2 comet (pronounced like Vilt 2). The find paints a chaotic picture of the early solar system.
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Post tags: Comet Wild 2, Comets, Stardust

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WISE Spies Its First Comet

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:02:23 +0000

The red smudge at the center of this picture is the first comet discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE is living up to expectations, as it now has discovered its first comet, shortly after finding its first asteroid. The spacecraft, just launched on Dec. 14, 2009 and first spotted the comet on January 22, 2010. WISE is expected to find millions of other objects during its ongoing survey of the whole sky in infrared light. Officially named "P/2010 B2 (WISE)," the comet is a dusty mass of ice more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter.
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Hubble Takes A Look at Possible Asteroid Collision

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:18:29 +0000

Hubble Views of Comet-like Asteroid P/2010 A2. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)

We reported earlier that on January 6, 2010, ground-based observatories may have spotted evidence that two asteroids had collided in the asteroid belt. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken a look at the mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust. With Hubble's sharp vision, astronomers believe a head-on collision between two asteroids has actually occured. Astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before.
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Asteroid Detection, Deflection Needs More Money, Report Says

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:08:43 +0000

Are we ready to act if an asteroid or comet were to pose a threat to our planet? No, says a new report from the National Research Council. Plus, we don't have the resources in place to detect all the possible dangerous objects out there. The report lays out options NASA could follow to detect more near-Earth objects (NEOs) that could potentially cross Earth's orbit, and says the $4 million the U.S. spends annually to search for NEOs is insufficient to meet a congressionally mandated requirement to detect NEOs that could threaten Earth. "To do what Congress mandated NASA to do is going to take new technology, bigger telescopes with wider fields," said Don Yeomans, Manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office, speaking at the American Geophysical Union conference last month.
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Asteroid Collision May Have Created Comet-like Object

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:19:52 +0000

P/2010 A imaged by Dr. Robert McMillan at Kitt Peak, Arizona. Credit: Spacewatch/U of Arizona

A strange comet-like object discovered on January 6, 2010 may actually be the result of a collision between two asteroids. Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey in New Mexico spotted an object in the asteroid belt, called P/2010 A that looked "fuzzy," with a tail like a comet rather than a speck of light like a normal asteroid. But comets don't normally reside in the asteroid belt, and the object's orbit is all wrong for a comet. While the asteroid belt is made up of debris from the "leftovers" of our solar system, and like the remains of early crashes between giant rocks, astronomers haven't witnessed a collision before.
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Comets Posing as Asteroids (or is the the other way around?)

Jon Voisey — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:47:54 +0000

Images of known MBCs from UH 2.2-meter telescope data. Credit: Henry Hsieh

Asteroids are rocky bodies which belong between Mars and Jupiter. Comets are icy bodies that belong way out beyond Pluto. So what are comet-like objects doing in the asteroid belt?

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Post tags: Asteroids, Comets, Solar System

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Jupiter – Our Silent Guardian?

Jon Voisey — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:15:34 +0000

Jupiter photo. Image credit: NASA/SSI

We live in a cosmic shooting gallery. In Phil Plait's Death From the Skies, he lays out the dangers of a massive impact: destructive shockwaves, tsunamis, flash fires, atmospheric darkening…. The scenario isn't pretty should a big one come our way. Fortunately, we may have a silent guardian: Jupiter.

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© jvois for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: abiogenesis, Earth impact, Jupiter, Solar System

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Crescent Earth as Seen by Comet Chasing Spacecraft

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:34:34 +0000

Title this one "Rich Blue Crescent" (as opposed to Pale Blue Dot.) This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA's Rosetta comet chaser today (November 12) at 12:28 GMT from about 633,000 km as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final swingby. Closest approach is due at 07:45 GMT, on November 13. You can follow Rosetta's progress at ESA's Rosetta site and the Rosetta Blog.

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Comets, Earth Observation, rosetta

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Rosetta to Make Final Earth Flyby Nov. 13th

Nicholos Wethington — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:44:33 +0000

The comet chasing spacecraft Rosetta will make its third and final swing by the Earth on November 13th to pick up more speed for the last part of a 10-year journey that lies ahead. Its mission is to place a lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and chase the comet for an entire year on its orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft will be visible to observers from the ground in certain locations on the Earth. This last flyby will increase the spacecraft's speed by 3.6 km/s (2.2 miles/s) with respect to the Sun, giving Rosetta the energy it needs to boost it to the outer regions of the Solar System.(...)
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Mini Comets Ejected from Comet Holmes Caused Outburst

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:05:00 +0000

(Left) Image of comet Holmes from the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea showing the large expanding dust coma. On the left, a 'raw' image is shown, in which the brightness reflects the distribution of dust in the coma of the comet (the nucleus is in the bright, point-like region to the upper left of center). On the right is shown the same image after application of the Laplacian spatial filter, to emphasize fine structures. The white/black circular objects are background stars enhanced by the Laplacian filter.

Comet 17P/Holmes caused a sensation in October and November 2007 when overnight, it brightened enough to be visible with the naked eye and became the largest cometary outburst ever witnessed. Using a special filter on the Canada- France- Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, astronomers were able to peer inside Comet Holmes to determine why the comet became so bright. Images and animations show multiple fragments were ejected and rapidly flew away from the nucleus of comet Holmes.
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Amino Acid Found in Stardust Comet Sample

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:38:30 +0000

Artists concept of the stardust spacecraft flying throug the gas and dust from comet Wild 2. Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA scientists studying the comet samples returned by the Stardust spacecraft have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life. Stardust captured the samples from comet Wild 2 in 2004 and returned them to Earth in 2006. "Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Our discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts."
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Half Comet-Half Asteroid a Fluke? Nope

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:14:18 +0000

Images of known MBCs from UH 2.2-meter telescope data. Credit: Henry Hsieh

Back in 1996, astronomers discovered a strange object in the asteroid belt. They decided it was either a "lost" comet or an icy asteroid, as it ejected dust like a comet but had an orbit like an asteroid. No one had ever seen anything like the object, called 133P. Ever since it was found, astronomers have wondered if it was just an oddity — one of a kind. We now know it is not, and the discovery of more of these half asteroids/half comets means there is a new class of objects in our solar system.
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Newly Discovered Cometary Route Sneaks Past Jupiter, but Decreases Risk of Earth Impacts

Anne Minard — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:01:26 +0000

Astronomers have used the comet record — including 2001 RX14 (Linear) at left, captured in 2002 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey — to model a new route for incoming comets that sneaks past Jupiter's gravity.

The pathway might even be the dominant one that delivers Oort Could comets on an Earth-bound trajectory, say the authors of a new study in Science this week — but if that's true, comets only rarely cause extinctions on Earth.

(Image credit: Mike Solontoi/University of Washington)

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Sub-surface Oceans In Early Comets Suggest Possible Origin of Life

Brian Ventrudo — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:48:41 +0000

A view of NASA's Deep Impact probe colliding with comet Tempel 1, captured by the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft's high-resolution instrument.

A new study claims early comets contained vast interior oceans of liquid water that may have provided the ideal conditions for early life to form.

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1908 Tunguska Event Caused by Comet, New Research Reveals

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:46:36 +0000

Fallen trees from the Tunguska Event in 1908.

The 1908 Tunguska event has always been mysterious and intriguing because no one has been able to fully explain the explosion that leveled 830 square miles of Siberian forest. But the latest research has concluded that the Tunguska explosion was almost certainly caused by a comet entering the Earth’s atmosphere. And how researcher Michael Kelly from Cornell University came to that conclusion is quite interesting: He analyzed the space shuttle's exhaust plume and noctilucent clouds.
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Ice on the Moon? NASA, ISRO May Collaborate to Find Out

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:44:07 +0000

Maps of the lunar poles from the Clementine mission. Credit: NASA

The debate has endured since the early 1960's: could there be water ice hiding in deep, dark craters near the Moon’s poles, left untouched by sunlight? Several spacecraft orbiting the moon have tried to peer into these craters to find out, but so far no definitive data has been obtained either way. But now NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are looking to team up two spacecraft to try and answer the question once and for all. “When it happens, it is going to be a unique experiment and will be the first of its kind,” said Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai, project director for the Chandrayaan-I orbiter.
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Catching Up With Comet Yi-SWAN

Tammy Plotner — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:05:06 +0000

Comet Yi-SWAN Rough Locator Chart - April 14/16

Now that the Moon is out of the early evening sky, far northern observers are out in force hunting down Comet C/2009 Yi-SWAN… and it's there! In 10X50 binoculars it appears like a very faint, small globular cluster, but definitely has the signature of a comet in a 4.5" telescope. Surprisingly enough, it's not very hard to find. Would you like a hand? (...)
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New Comet Yi-SWAN

Tammy Plotner — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:58:32 +0000

Are you ready for the new kid on the block? Its name is Comet Yi-SWAN and it's not going to be very long before it's easily within range of small telescopes and larger binoculars. So where is it at? Head out to the early morning skies for your best look, because it's rockin' with the Queen – Cassiopeia. (...)
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Was the Tunguska Fireball a Comet Chemical Bomb?

Ian O'Neill — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:23:34 +0000

It was an energetic event that occurred over Tunguska, but what caused it? (Don Davis)

Over a century ago, on June 30th, 1908 a huge explosion detonated over an unpopulated region of Russia called Tunguska. It is probably one of the most enduring mysteries of this planet. What could cause such a huge explosion in the atmosphere, with the energy of a thousand Hiroshima atomic bombs, flattening a forest the area of Luxembourg and yet leaving no crater? It is little wonder that the Tunguska event has become great material for science fiction writers; how could such a huge blast, that shook the Earth's magnetic field and lit up the Northern Hemisphere skies for three days leave no crater and just a bunch of flattened, scorched trees?

Although there are many theories as to how the Tunguska event may have unfolded, scientists are still divided over what kind of object could have hit the Earth from space. Now a Russian scientist believes he has uncovered the best answer yet. The Earth was glanced by a large comet, that skipped off the upper atmosphere, dropping a chunk of comet material as it did so. As the comet chunk heated up as it dropped through the atmosphere, the material, packed with volatile chemicals, exploded as the biggest chemical explosion mankind had ever seen…
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Comet Lulin Approaches M44 and Eskimo Nebula

Tammy Plotner — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:46:12 +0000

Comet Lulin and Saturn in Parallel Vision by Jukka Metsavainio

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to step into space and have a look at solar system objects in aspect? While we can view interesting and inspiring events like Comet Lulin's recent conjunction with Saturn, what we can't quite get our brains to wrap around it how it would appear in dimension. Thanks to some "magic" by Jukka Metsavainio and some of his own outstanding astrophotography – now we can… (...)
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Comet Lulin Video – Watch the Outgassing Process

Tammy Plotner — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:06:55 +0000

Roughly 38 million miles from Earth and traveling at a relative velocity of 140,000 miles per hour, the speedy Comet C/2007 N3 Lulin has caught our imaginations in a big way during the beginning months of the International Year of Astronomy. Right now, Comet Lulin has already sped past the Sun, slipped by stately Saturn from our point of view and is on a parabolic trajectory heading out from our solar system. This means it will never come back… (...)
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How To See Comet Lulin

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:38:07 +0000

Comet Lulin on Feb. 22, taken by John Nassr, Baguio, Philippines, via Spaceweather.com

We've received a few emails asking for more information about how to attempt to observe Comet Lulin. And Sky and Telescope has put out a great primer for seeing this green smudgeball in North America. Right now is the optimum time to try and see it. Sky and Telescope editor-in-chief Robert Naeye says Lulin should be at its best from Feb. 23 through the 28th. "In a very dark, unpolluted, natural night sky — such as few people see any more — the comet is dimly visible to the unaided eye," writes Naeye. "Even in a more light-polluted suburban sky, however, a good pair of binoculars will do the trick. But you have to know exactly where to look."

Start looking for Lulin after 9:00 pm (your local time) but the view will be better after 10:00 pm.
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Swift Spacecraft Keeping an Eye on Comet Lulin

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:15:47 +0000

This image of Comet Lulin taken Jan. 28 merges data acquired by Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (blue and green) and X-Ray Telescope (red). At the time of the observation, the comet was 99.5 million miles from Earth and 115.3 million miles from the sun. Credit: NASA/Swift/Univ. of Leicester/Bodewits et al.

The Swift spacecraft is doing double duty these days. Normally, the Gamma-ray Explorer satellite is on the lookout for high-energy outbursts and cosmic explosions. But now Swift is also monitoring Comet Lulin as it comes closer to Earth. For the first time, astronomers are seeing simultaneous ultraviolet and X-ray images of a comet. "The comet is releasing a great amount of gas, which makes it an ideal target for X-ray observations," said Andrew Read, also at Leicester. And the ultraviolet data shows that Lulin is also shedding a huge amount of water, about 800 gallons of water each second!
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Last Summer's Fireball in Pieces on the Ground?

Anne Minard — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:49:11 +0000

: The Bejar bolide photographed from Torrelodones, Madrid, Spain. The incoming fireball is the streak to the right of the floodlit house. The bright light at the top is the overexposed Moon. Credit: J. Perez Vallejo/SPMN.

Astronomers have analyzed the cometary fireball that blazed across the sky over Europe last year and concluded it was a dense object, about a meter (3.2 feet) across and with a mass of nearly two tons – large enough that some fragments probably survived intact and fell to the ground as meteorites.

Last July, people in Spain, Portugal and France watched the brilliant fireball produced by a boulder crashing down through the Earth’s atmosphere. In a paper to be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomer Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez, of the Institute of Space Sciences in Spain, and his co-authors present dramatic images of the event. The scientists also explain how the boulder may originate from a comet which broke up nearly 90 years ago, and suggest that chunks of the boulder (and hence pieces of the comet) are waiting to be found on the ground.

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Comet C/2007 N3 Lulin – A Twist In The Tail

Tammy Plotner — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:24:29 +0000

Comet C/2007 N3 Lulin - J. Brimacombe

When Chi-Sheng Lin of Taiwan's Institute of Astronomy captured three images on July 11, 2007 with something strange in them, it was first believed he'd picked up just another asteroid. But, by July 17 astronomers in Table Mountain Observatory, California were noticing a coma 2-3" across, with a bright central core. That's not an asteroid… That's a comet! And now it's a comet that's doing something very strange… (...)
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