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The Hubble Space Telescope captured a view of Comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), called K2 for short, as it came in from out beyond Saturn's orbit, 1.5 billion miles from the sun. As it approaches the sun and the temperature rises from minus 440 degrees Fahrenheit, the comet is developing a fluffy cloud of dust, called a coma, which surrounds its frozen body. While the comet's nucleus appears to be just 12 miles across, the coma stretches 10 times Earth's diameter. According to a statement from NASA, K2 likely began its journey in the spherical Oort Cloud surrounding the solar system,...

Every object in our Solar System that takes the plunge from out beyond Neptune to our inner reaches, where the rocky planets lie, will become a comet. As it nears the Sun, its ices melt, creating the tails we associate with them, and also creating a debris path that can create meteor showers if they cross Earth's orbit. For thousands of years, the most consistent, spectacular meteor shower has been the Perseids, created by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. At its incredibly large size (26 kilometers across) and speed, it contains nearly 30 times the energy of the asteroid strike that wiped out...

When it was discovered on July 19th, 2017 by the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) system, Comet O1 ASAS-SN was at a faint magnitude +15.3 in the constellation Cetus. In just a few short days, however, the comet jumped up a hundred-fold in brightness to magnitude +10, and should be in range of binoculars now. Hopes are up that the comet will top out around magnitude +8 or so in October, as it transitions from the southern to northern hemisphere. Never heard of ASAS-SN? It’s an automated sky survey hunting for supernovae in both hemispheres, with instruments based...

Yet another Jovian fireball? On May 26th, amateur astronomers recorded a rare impact flash in Jupiter's north polar region. Jupiter just got beaned for the sixth time (that we know about)! On the evening of May 26th, between 19:24.6 and 19:26.2 Universal Time, Sauveur Pedranghelu, a French amateur from Corsica, detected an impact flash live on video in Jupiter's north polar region. The flash was very brief, lasting only about 0.7 second, and displayed two brightness peaks. A bright dot — about the size of Europa when seen in transit — marked the site of impact at latitude 51° north...

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The American space agency says that one object is a massive comet, but has so far been unable to identify the other NASA recently spotted two massive space objects hurtling towards Earth. While the American space agency has pinpointed one as a comet, the other has left it slightly more baffled. The comet is set to fly close to Earth this week, but the mystery object isn't expected to make an appearance until February. The object, dubbed "2016 WF9", was detected by NASA's asteroid- and comet-hunting NEOWISE project on 27 November 2016. It is roughly 0.3 to 0.6 miles (0.5...

Seeing Comet C/2016 U1 NEOWISE fly by would be a rare opportunity for skygazers because the celestial body won't likely pass by Earth for the next thousands of years. Unlike short period comets such as Halley's, a comet which passes by our planet every 75 to 80 years, it would take C/2016 U1 NEOWISE far longer time before it gets to visit this region of the solar system again. ... Paul Chodas, from NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies, said that there is a good chance that the object will be visible from Earth using a good pair of...

Among the many eye-catching astronomical shows coming up, 2017 may be best remembered for the much anticipated total eclipse of the sun that will cross the continental United States in August. In addition to that spectacular sight, sky-watchers will have a plethora of treats to look forward to in the coming months. To kick things off, an icy comet will swing by Earth in February, hopefully offering picturesque views. Elusive Mercury and giant Jupiter will both put their best faces forward as they appear their biggest and brightest early in the year. And in December, the annual Geminid meteor shower...

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted a video about Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková, which has been growing more prominent in the sky since Dec. 15. On New Year's Eve, the comet will be visible through a telescope or binoculars near the crescent moon, sporting a blueish-green head and thin, fan-shaped tail, NASA researchers said.

Some Hindus are calling the New Years Eve Comet, known officially as Comet Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková, that will be just next to the crescent moon this New Years Eve, the "Trump Comet". This amazing greenish comet with fan tail which, with a good eye or better yet a pair of binoculars, will be seen near the crescent moon on this coming New Years Eve on the Western horizon after the sun sets. And it will be visible again even brighter in February 2017 to Welcome Donald J Trump the New President!

Comet Ping Pong–the Chevy Chase pizzeria tormented by a gunman who was “self-investigating” an internet hoax last Sunday–will host a neighborhood support event this weekend. Billed “Stand With Comet” on Facebook, the event was originally just planned for Friday. But with thousands saying they’re interested in attending, the organizers of the event decided to extend the event, pushing it through the end of Sunday. “We have been overwhelmed by the amount of support and solidarity you have all shown,” the announcement, posted on Facebook, says. “It is a stirring reminder of how many good people there are out there,...

It appears that a man, who is described as being in his late 20s, entered Comet Ping Pong (another pizza place in DC which is owned by James Achilles Alefantis – owner of Comet Pizza in DC) today with a rifle or a gun of some type.... Other reports are indicating that the man was later identified as Edgar Maddison Welch, 28 years of age, from Salisbury, North Carolina....

Say you have a great meal at Comet Ping Pong and want to leave the Upper Northwest restaurant a four- or five-star review. That's impossible right now because Yelp has activated its "Active Cleanup Alert" placeholder that prevents Yelp users from leaving reviews when an establishment is battling a controversial news story. "The most sickening part of this vicious attack has been the stealing of Instagram images, Facebook images of children, minors, aged 5, 7, and 8 years old that are then slapped across their chat boards as nothing but pawns," Alefantis says. "Yes, it’s scary to be attacked, it’s...

After a journey of billions of miles and a historic cosmic rendezvous, the Rosetta spacecraft met its end after a “controlled impact” with the comet it had been studying. The European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed a loss of signal from the probe on Friday at 1:19 pm, Central European Summer Time. The maneuver to slowly crash the craft was deliberate— a way to study the comet up close at the tail end of the mission. “Thanks to a huge international, decades-long endeavour, we have achieved our mission to take a world-class science laboratory to a comet to study its evolution...

Rosetta fell silent moments after 6:19 a.m. Eastern Time (12:19 UT) this morning, when it gently crashed into 67P/C-G 446 million miles (718 million km) from Earth. As the probe descended to the comet’s bouldery surface of the comet in free fall, it snapped a series of ever-more-detailed photographs while gathering the last bits data on the density and composition of cometary gases, surface temperature and gravity field before the final curtain was drawn.

As it reaches the end of its life Philae, the first robot to land on a comet, has reached the end of its life and is bidding a final farewell to Earth through a series of sad tweets. “It’s time for me to say goodbye,” Philae tweeted on Tuesday. “Tomorrow, the unit on @ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever…” After launching from a Rosetta probe, Philae landed on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014, becoming the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet. However, landing trouble led Philae to bounce across the landscape of the comet, finally...

Most known comets come from the Oort cloud -- a cold, giant shell surrounding the solar system like a giant, thick soap bubble. Scientists estimate that the Oort cloud is made of trillions of icy bodies that lie as far as 100,000 times Earth's distance from the sun. Astronomers focused on a comet named C/2014 S3 using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. The comet, discovered in 2014, is a little more than twice as far away from the sun as Earth is. The 860-year-long orbit of the comet, known as S3 for short, suggested it came from the distant Oort...

Explanation: Comet C/2014 S2 (PanSTARRS) poses for a Messier moment in this telescopic snapshot from April 18. In fact it shares the 1.5 degree wide field-of-view with two well-known entries in the 18th century comet-hunting astronomer's famous catalog. Outward bound and sweeping through northern skies just below the Big Dipper, the fading visitor to the inner Solar System was about 18 light-minutes from our fair planet. Dusty, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 108 (upper right) is more like 45 million light-years away. A planetary nebula with an aging but intensely hot central star, the owlish Messier 97 is only about 12...

Explanation: Image Credit & Copyright: Comet Linear has become unexpectedly bright. The comet, discovered in 2000, underwent a 100-fold outburst just a week before it passed a mere 14 lunar distances from Earth late last month. The comet was captured here last week at about magnitude 6 -- just bright enough to be seen by the unaided eye -- passing in front of the distant globular star cluster M14. Comet 252/P LINEAR is one of a rare group of comets that vacillate between the Earth and Jupiter every 5 years. How the comet will evolve from here is unknown, but...

On March 22, Comet P/2016 BA14 (Pan-STARRS) flew just 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) from Earth, making it the third closest comet ever recorded. The last time a comet appeared on our doorstep was in 1770, when Lexell’s Comet breezed by at about half that distance. Through a telescope, comet BA14 looked (and still looks) like a faint star, though time exposures reveal a short, weak tail. With an excellent map and large amateur telescope you might still find it making a bead across the Big Dipper and constellation Bootes tonight through the weekend.