Tag Archives: asteroid

Comet Brightness – Not Related to Test Scores

Posted on April 5, 2015 by dillonkoval

A comet is an icy Solar System body with very elliptical orbit that takes it close to the Sun on one end and far from the Sun on the other. When it gets close to the Sun it begins to outgas, forming a visible atmosphere called a coma and often also a tail. One noticeable […] Continue reading →

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When Will The Next Impact Be?

Posted on April 2, 2015 by lukegchapman

The Chelyabinsk Meteor as seen by person driving a car right during explosion I watched another video and decided to watch one on the extinction of the dinosaurs. The video is very short and not absolutely thrilling but as I was watching the beginning of the video I thought to myself what if that was… Continue reading →

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The K-T Extinction: Asteroids and Atmospheres

Posted on March 15, 2015 by dillonkoval

Let’s talk about the dinosaurs. Everyone has heard the story: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth ages ago until an asteroid hit and caused all of them to go extinct. There was a huge amount of dust thrown up into the atmosphere which blocked out the Sun and caused plants to die. This set off a chain […] Continue reading →

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The Tunguska Asteroid

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Leigh

On June 30, 1908 an asteroid about 120 feet across entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded above the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia. At an elevation of about 28,000 feet, the combination of pressure and heat made the space rock explode … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Asteroid With Rings Found

Posted on April 6, 2014 by waldentb

Last month an asteroid in orbiting between Saturn and Uranus was discovered to hang a ring system. This asteroid is …

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A terrifying gravitational encounter!

Posted on February 18, 2014 by forestcsharp

image via Wired This is a video of astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson discussing our impending gravitational encounters with Apophis, an asteroid roughly the size of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. In this video, Neil DeGrasse Tyson explains that Apophis … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Asteroids in Orbit?

Posted on April 12, 2013 by theskyisbeautifultonight

It looks like we’ll be bringing an asteroid home sometime soon.  NASA wants to identify an asteroid in deep space, figure out a way to capture it, and bring it into our own planetary region, ultimately setting it in orbit around our moon, all by the year 2025.  This proposal was included as a part […] Continue reading →

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New Way to Study Asteroids

Posted on April 11, 2013 by jacksonlangham

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 →

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Near-Earth Objects: Experiences and Implications

Posted on February 20, 2013 by werdercj

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 →

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The whole asteroid thing!

Posted on February 16, 2013 by drgrundstrom

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 →

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