Space and astronomy news
The time to catch Comet T4 Lemmon is now, before it vanishes for another 36,000 years.
Often, icy interlopers creep up on the inner solar system, only to once again vanish into the abyss. Such is the case with long-period comet C/2021 T4 Lemmon, headed towards perihelion early next week.
Continue reading “A Fine Southern Apparition for Comet T4 Lemmon”
Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS skirts the northern pole for summer northern hemisphere observers.
When it comes to comets, even the best predictions may often betray reality. Bright comets may fizzle as they approach the Sun, and fainter comets that ordinarily wouldn’t warrant a second look many suddenly flare into view.
Thankfully, the former seems to be the case with comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS, which has been over-performing expectations as of late, and recently brightened up into the range of binocular visibility at magnitude +10.
Continue reading “Follow Comet E1 Atlas Through the July Sky”
PLD Space could launch its suborbital Miura-1 rocket this month.
Update: Game on… PLD Space has announced that they will attempt to launch Miura-1 tonight. The live webcast starts on June 17th (Saturday local time) at 1:00 AM Central European Time (11:00 PM Friday night on June 16th Universal Time, and 7:00 PM Eastern Daylight Saving Time), and the eight hour launch window begins at 2:00 AM CET/00:00UT/8:00 PM EDT.
A small space startup with big ambitions may be joining the private spaceflight club soon. This summer, Elche Spain-based PLD Space is set to carry out the first test launch of their single stage, suborbital Miura-1 rocket.
Continue reading “Startup PLD Space to Launch Europe’s First Reusable Rocket”
Enigmatic North Korea may attempt to put a satellite in orbit, as early as this week.
Update: May 31st – Alas, it was not meant to be. While North Korea’s latest satellite launched last night on the first day of the launch window at 21:29 Universal Time (UT), the rocket seems to have experienced an anomaly on the second stage, and the now posthumously named ‘Cheollima-1’ rocket with the ‘Malligyong-1’ (‘grand view’ (?) in Korean) satellite splashed down in the Sea of Korea. This trajectory would seem to indicate that the mission was indeed aiming for a sun-synchronous orbit.
Satellite spotters worldwide may have a new clandestine target to hunt for in orbit soon. The North Korean government announced possible plans this week to field another satellite into orbit by mid-June. This comes after a public visit by leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju-Ae to a DPRK National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) aerospace facility earlier this month. Kim “approved the future action plan of the preparatory committee,” according the Korean Central News Agency, and said that the satellite was “an urgent requirement of the prevailing security environment of the country.”
Continue reading “North Korea May Launch Spy Satellite Soon”
The European Space Agency’s latest third generation Meteosat-I 1 weather satellite shows its stuff, with more to come.
You’ve never seen the Earth and its complex weather systems like this. The European Space Agency (ESA) recently unveiled views from their latest weather satellite in geostationary (GEO) orbit, Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I 1).
Continue reading “Amazing Views From ESA’s New MeteoSat Weather Satellite”
Be sure to set your alarm for early Wednesday morning, as the Moon occults the King of Planets.
If you watch the sky long enough, even the most improbable events are bound to coincide. Just such a strange occurrence happens this Wednesday morning, when the Moon occults (passes in front of) Jupiter as seen from our Earthly vantage point… with a bizarre telescopic twist.
Continue reading “The Moon Occults Jupiter Wednesday Morning for North America”
A ‘barely there’ lunar eclipse will flirt with the shadow of the Earth Friday evening.
Out watching the Full Flower Moon Friday night? If you’re in the correct hemisphere, you might notice that the shade and hue of the Moon is a bit off its usual pearly white, especially along one edge.
It’s not your imagination: a subtle ‘penumbral lunar eclipse’ is indeed underway, as the Moon passes through the bright outer shadow edge of the Earth.
Continue reading “May 5th’s ‘Teaser’ Lunar Eclipse”
Amazing views from Earth and space of this week’s rare hybrid solar eclipse.
This week’s solar eclipse didn’t disappoint, as eclipse chasers flocked to the path Thursday on April 20th, for some amazing views. This was a rare hybrid solar eclipse, with an annular path along one part of the track, and totality along another. Only seven such eclipses occur this century.
Continue reading “Views of This Week’s Amazing Hybrid Solar Eclipse”
The first solar eclipse of 2023 will span Australia and southeast Asia into the Pacific Ocean region.
Mark your calendars. The first eclipse season of 2023 is about to begin on Thursday, April, 20th, with a rare hybrid annular-total solar eclipse.
Continue reading “Rare Hybrid Annular-Total Solar Eclipse Set for April 20th”
The brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen in 2022 still puzzles astronomers.
The more researchers look at a recent record-setting event, the stranger it gets.
The story begins on the evening of October 9th, 2022, when NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift orbiting observatory detected a strong X-ray outburst. The source was in the direction of the constellation of Sagitta the Arrow along the galactic plane, suggesting a source in our own Milky Way galaxy. Follow-up observations from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and the Earth-based European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope however, soon revealed that the source was much more distant, emanating from a gamma-ray burst lying beyond our galaxy. This outburst only appeared to have happened along our line of sight as seen through the plane own galaxy from our Earthbound perspective.
Continue reading “Brightest Gamma-ray Burst Shines Light on Milky Way Structure”