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Category Archives: Small SS Objects
Halley’s Comet
Halley’s Comet is the most well known comet because it is the only short-term comet that is visible from Earth with the naked eye. Halley’s Comet was seen multiple times throughout history. The first known observation of Halley’s Comet was in 239 B.C. by Chinese astronomers. When it returned in 164 B.C. and 87 B.C. […] Continue reading
Is Pluto a Planet?
I can recall sitting and listening to an astronomy presentation during my eighth grade year. The man who presented told us that Pluto was no longer a planet. For some reason this bothered me because all my life I had been told that Pluto was in fact a planet. I can also recall taking […] Continue reading
Impacts on Saturn and the Drake equation
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft recently observed meteors colliding with Saturn’s thin rings. This marked the first direct evidence of small meteoroids breaking into streams of rubble and crashing into Saturn’s rings, although astronomers already expected this to be occurring regularly. However, specific details of such impacts were merely speculation, much of which is cleared up via […] Continue reading
Posted in Observables, Small SS Objects, Stars
Tagged astro201, blog9, cassini, drake equation, saturn, technology
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A Changing Vision
In the news recently (back at the end of March), astronomers began to hypothesize (running simulations and doing extensive calculations) about what would happen if Comet 2013 A1 were to hit mars. Right now, this 1 to 3 km in diameter (the nucleus size) comet has a roughly 1 in 2000 chance of impacting Mars. […] Continue reading
Posted in Small SS Objects
Tagged astro201, blog10, comet, marscollision, Solar System
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New Way to Study Asteroids
NASA and the White House just announced the space agency’s budget for the 2014 fiscal year. Included in that budget is a $100 million dollar project to retrieve and research […] Continue reading
Posted in Small SS Objects
Tagged asteroid, astro201, blog7, NASA
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A Comet Heads For Mars
NASA has discovered that there is “small but non-negligible” chance that Comet 2013 A1 will strike Mars in October of 2014. The comet is between 1 to 3 kilometers in […] Continue reading
Posted in Small SS Objects
Tagged astro201, blog8, Comets, impacts, Mars, Solar System
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By Chance…
I set out without a real direction for this blog post. (I suppose that makes sense since some of the more interesting discoveries you can come across on the web pop up when you jump from page-to-page.) During my search for a new and interesting article on some aspect of astronomy, I came across a […] Continue reading
Posted in Small SS Objects
Tagged astro201, blog6, comet, technology, unlikelyobservation
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Near-Earth Objects: Experiences and Implications
Meteor trail over Eastern Russia. On February 15, 2013, two very significant astronomical events occurred unusually close to us; the highly publicized meteor explosion over a Russian city overshadowed the close approach of a much larger asteroid orbiting Earth. The contrast between these two events is what struck me as most interesting and informative about […] Continue reading
Posted in Small SS Objects
Tagged asteroid, astro201, blog4, meteor, near-earth objects, Solar System, technology
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Using Paintballs to Deflect Asteroids
As you probably know on Friday February 15th there were two meteors heading Earth’s way. One of which crashed in Russia injuring over 1,000 people and the other missed Earth by 17,000 miles. The one that hit Russia was only 1.5 the size of a school bus while the other was 3 times that. Obviously […] Continue reading
Posted in Small SS Objects
Tagged astro201, blog4, russian meteor
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The whole asteroid thing!
There have been some pretty amazing things going on with asteroids the past couple of days, namely the passing of Asteroid 2012 DA14 and the Russian Meteor Event. But they were completely unrelated! Here is an excellent infographic for you (click to make bigger): We weren’t going to be seeing that little 50-foot asteroid […] Continue reading
Posted in Observables, Small SS Objects
Tagged asteroid, badastronomy, impact, infographic
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