An excellent choice for entry-level astronomers the Celestron SkyMaster 12x60 binos are great for long-range terrestrial observing.
Space News & Blog Articles
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NASA's Geotail spacecraft ends 30-year mission studying Earth's magnetosphere
After 31 years in orbit, NASA's magnetosphere-studying mission Geotail has come to end after the spacecraft's final data recorder failed.
Celestron NexStar 4SE telescope review
The NexStar 4SE is a good scope for beginner astronomers — quick to set up and easy to use, automatically finding night sky objects for that instant wow factor.
Optical illusion gives rare green comet an 'anti-tail' that seemingly defies physics
C/2022 E3 (ZTF), a comet that has recently made headlines as it flies closer to Earth, briefly developed an ethereal third tail thanks to a weird optical illusion.
Truck-Sized Asteroid Flew Past Earth Yesterday, Coming Within 3,600 km
On January 26, a truck-sized asteroid flew past Earth, coming extremely close – within 3,600 km (2,200 miles) above the planet’s surface. This is well within the orbit of geosynchronous satellites and NASA says this flyby is one of the closest approaches by a near-Earth object ever recorded.
The asteroid, named 2023 BU’s has an estimated size of 3.5m to 8.5m across (11.5ft to 28ft). Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, who leads the Virtual Telescope Project, captured images and video of the flyby and said a huge audience joined in for the live feed. At its closest approached, it zoomed over the southern tip of South America at about 4:27 p.m. PST (7:27 p.m. EST.)
This asteroid was only discovered a few days ago, on January 21, 2023, by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov. His name is likely familiar as he discovered the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov.
NASA said based on the size of the asteroid, if it did enter Earth’s atmosphere, it likely would have disintegrated high in the atmosphere, producing a spectacular fireball. A few meteorites may have harmlessly reached the ground.
Chelyabinsk fireball in 2013, recorded by a dashcam from Kamensk-Uralsky north of Chelyabinsk.For comparison, the Chelyabinsk meteor that entered Earth’s atmosphere over southern Russia in 2013 was about 20m (66ft) across. It produced a shockwave that shattered windows, causing injuries from breaking glass. But that event alerted the world that unknown space rocks are out there.
NASA to launch Psyche asteroid probe in October 2023 after delays
NASA's Psyche asteroid mission is targeting an October 2023 launch, after a one-year delay due to software issues.
Iceberg larger than London breaks off Brunt
Video: 00:04:25
An iceberg around the size of Greater London broke off Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf due to a natural process called ‘calving’. The iceberg, measuring 1550 sq km, detached from the 150 m-thick ice shelf a decade after scientists first spotted massive cracks in the shelf.
For more information on the newly-birthed A81 iceberg, click here.
See the moon eclipse Mars on Jan. 30 in free telescope webcast
The moon will eclipse Mars on Monday (Jan. 30), and you can watch the event from the comfort of your own home thanks to a livestream from the Griffith Observatory.
'Juno: New Origins' indie game lets you launch rockets and build planets
The gaming sandbox includes rockets, airplanes, cars and anything else that you want to subject to realistic physics.
James Webb Space Telescope discovers water ice at ringed asteroid Chariklo 'by remarkable luck'
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers observe a stellar occultation and discover the first clear evidence for water ice in the Chariklo system.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, January 27 – February 5
Comet ZTF is at its best this week — but every night moonlight encroaches on the scene until a later and later hour. Along the way, the Moon occults Mars for the southern U.S. and again forms isosceles triangles with naked-eyestars.
The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, January 27 – February 5 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
ESA branded merchandise made easy
We’ve just made it easier to use the ESA brand to create merchandise or materials for events. If you are interested in producing and selling merchandising that shows the ESA logo, the ESA flags patch or ESA’s mission patches, there is now a simple way to request the use of ESA emblems.
Tempestuous young stars in Orion
Image: Tempestuous young stars in Orion
Webb NIRISS Instrument has Gone Offline
The JWST is having a problem. One of its instruments, the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS,) has gone offline. The NIRISS performs spectroscopy on exoplanet atmospheres, among other things.
It’s been offline since Sunday. January 15th due to a communications error.
The internal communications error led to the software timing out. There’s no indication that the instrument is damaged in any way, and the rest of the spacecraft is operating normally.
NIRISS complements the other instruments on the JWST by providing “unique observational capabilities between 0.6 and 5 ?m,” according to the Space Telescope Science Institute. It’s used to investigate exoplanet atmospheres, to detect first light, aka the Era of Recombination, and to detect exoplanets. It can also capture wide-field instruments to study populations of objects and has multiple filters that increase its versatility. It can also resolve the light from objects that are very close together.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) built the NIRISS as part of its contribution to the JWST mission. It also built the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS), which is physically combined with the NIRISS but is a separate instrument.
NASA funds nuclear probes for icy moons, huge new space telescopes and other far-out tech ideas
NASA has funded a new set of visionary concepts for space exploration that could one day prove useful — and perhaps even transformative.
Lucy Adds Another Asteroid to its Flyby List
In October 2021, NASA launched its ambitious Lucy mission. Its targets are asteroids, two in the main belt and eight Jupiter trojans, which orbit the Sun in the same path as Jupiter. The mission is named after early hominin fossils (Australopithecus afarensis,) and the name pays homage to the idea that asteroids are fossils from the Solar System’s early days of planet formation.
Visiting ten asteroids in one mission is the definition of ambitious, and now NASA is adding an eleventh.
Astronomers sometimes refer to asteroids as fossils because they’re remnants from the Solar System’s early days when the planets were forming. Their status makes them important objects in piecing together the history of the Solar System. One type of asteroid, called Rubble-pile asteroids, can be over four billion years old.
Astronomers are eager to learn more about asteroids, and while chunks that fall to Earth are helpful, they have limitations. In recent years, two separate missions have visited asteroids and gathered samples: Japan’s Hayabusa 2 returned samples from asteroid Ryugu in December 2020, and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission will return samples from asteroid Bennu in September 2023.
Lucy won’t be bringing any samples home, but it’ll be observing 10 different asteroids in detail during separate flybys. The spacecraft has one of the most complicated paths of any mission. A detailed itinerary is necessary for the spacecraft to visit two groups of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.
NASA's Lucy asteroid mission adds 10th space rock target
NASA's Jupiter Trojan asteroid-scouting mission has been given an additional space rock to visit, bringing the journey's total to 10 asteroids.
Blue Origin plans to fly all-female crew to suborbital space: report
Blue Origin plans to fly an all-female crew — led by Lauren Sanchez, the girlfriend of company founder Jeff Bezos — to suborbital space in the next year or so.
China working on new moon rover for 2026 mission to lunar south pole
China is working on a new lunar rover that will begin to explore the south pole of the moon around 2026.
Dark matter particle that may finally shed light on cosmic mystery the 'best of both worlds,' scientists say
A new model for dark matter suggests an early universe phase transition and candidate particles known as HYPERs could finally shed light on this mysterious matter.
