Comet put on list of potential Earth impactors

New Scientist ^ | 1 June 2005 | David L Chandler

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:')

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2000 SG344
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2000sg344.html

99942 2004 MN4
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/a99942.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1307719/posts?q=1&&page=251

2004 VD17
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2004vd17.html

1994 WR12
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/1994wr12.html

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Upcoming Close Approaches To Earth
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

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Please note, just an old topic from last year.

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combined the keywords COMET and COMETS, put them in chrono order, and removed things (like lesbian basketball players) that aren't relevant:

Update on Underwater Megalithic
	Posted by callisto On News/Activism 11/21/2001 2:08:00 PM EST · 153 replies · 3,863+ views EarthFiles | 11.19.01 | Linda Moulton Howe In May 2001, engineer Paulina Zelitzky, President, ADC Corporation, Victoria, B. C., Canada and Havana, Cuba, announced the discovery of megalithic structures 2,200 feet down at the western tip of Cuba. November 19, 2001 Havana, Cuba - The story about a possible megalithic site half a mile down off the western tip of Cuba first broke this past May when a Reuters News Service reporter interviewed the deep ocean engineer who first reported unusual sidescan sonar of the discovery. Her name is Paulina Zelitsky. Ms. Zelitsky was born in Poland, studied engineering in the Soviet Union, was assigned to ...
Early Christians Hid The Origins Of The Bethlehem Star
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 12/21/2001 8:11:00 AM EST · 156 replies · 1,041+ views New Scientist | 12-21-2001 | Marcus Chown Early Christians hid the origins of the Bethlehem star 13:15 21 December 01 Marcus Chown A US astronomer claims he has found the first mention of the star of Bethlehem outside the Bible. The reference is in a 4th-century manuscript written by a Roman astrologer and Christian convert called Firmicus Maternus. Photo: Bridgeman Art Library Michael Molnar, formerly of Rutgers University in New Jersey, is the originator of the idea that the star of Bethlehem was not a spectacular astronomical event such as a supernova or a comet but an obscure astrological one. The event would nevertheless have been ...
Viewer's Guide to New Comet Ikeya-Zhang
	Posted by green team 1999 On News/Activism 03/10/2002 1:15:59 AM EST · 2 replies · 179+ views space.com | march-8-2002 | By Joe Rao Sun. Mar 10, 2002 News nbsp;Missions/Launches nbsp;Science/Astronomynbsp;nbsp;Astronom Systemnbsp;nbsp;Planet Earthnbsp;nbsp;General Sciencenbsp;nbsp;Hubble Space Telescopenbsp;nbsp;Spacewatchnbsp;nbsp;V Space Tour nbsp;Technology nbsp;Space News Business nbsp;Special Reports nbsp;The Space Library nbsp;SETI: Search for Life nbsp;Photos/Videos nbsp;SpaceTV nbsp;Entertainment nbsp;Message Boards nbsp;Starry Night nbsp;The Space Store Viewer's Guide to New Comet Ikeya-Zhang By Joe RaoSpecial to SPACE.composted: 07:00 am ET08 March 2002 A big question for skywatchers during the next couple of months is how bright the newly discovered comet, Ikeya-Zhang, will become. The answer can't be accurately predicted, but this much is nearly certain: The comet will provide an opportunity that comes along just once or twice...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-10-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 03/11/2002 2:48:26 AM EST · 116+ views NASA | 3-10-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 10 A Southern Sky View Credit amp; Copyright: Gordon Garradd Explanation: On 1996 March 22, a Galaxy and a comet shared the southern sky. They were captured together, from horizon to horizon, in the night sky above Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia by astronomer Gordon Garradd. Garradd used a home made all-sky camera with a fisheye lens, resulting in a circular 200 degree field of view....
Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-07-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 03/11/2002 11:24:59 AM EST · 2 replies · 142+ views NASA | 3-07-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 7 Comet Ikeya-Zhang Brightens Credit amp; Copyright: Gerald Rhemann Explanation: In the last week, Comet Ikeya-Zhang has become bright enough to be just visible to the unaided eye. Based on its present activity, observers are optimistic that Ikeya-Zhang will become substantially brighter. This composite color image from March 3rd, captured with a wide-field telescope, shows this active comet's bright, condensed coma and a delightful array of...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-18-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 03/18/2002 1:12:35 AM EST · 3 replies · 96+ views NASA | 3-18-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 18 Comet Ikeya Zhang's Busy Tail Credit & Copyright: Gilbert Jones Explanation: One of the brightest comets of the past five years will likely reach its peak brightness this week. Comet Ikeya-Zhang, officially known as C/2002 C1, can now be seen without aide from a dark location above the western horizon shortly after sunset. Recent luminosity estimates for Comet Ikeya-Zhang place it between magnitudes three and...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-26-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 03/26/2002 8:05:30 AM EST · 18 replies · 181+ views NASA | 3-26-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 26 Comet Ikeya-Zhang Over Tenerife Credit & Copyright: Francisco A. Rodriguez Ramirez (AstroEduca) Explanation: Comet Ikeya-Zhang has become bright enough to stand out in the night sky. Discovered February 1, the comet has now just rounded the Sun and has likely attained its peak brightness. The comet appears near the Sun and over the next week moves from the evening sky (just after sunset) to the...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 4-3-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/03/2002 11:21:39 PM EST · 8 replies · 121+ views NASA | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 April 4 Ikeya-Zhang: Comet Over Colorado Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake (Colorado Mountain College) Explanation: Comet Ikeya-Zhang ("ee-KAY-uh JONG") has become a most photogenic comet. This lovely early evening view of the comet in Rocky Mountain skies looks northwest over ridges and low clouds. The time exposure was recorded on March 31st from an 8,000 foot elevation near Yampa, Colorado, USA. Sporting a sweeping yellowish dust tail...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 4-12-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/12/2002 10:16:30 PM EDT · 6 replies · 127+ views NASA | 4-12-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 April 12 A Galaxy is not a Comet Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado Explanation: This gorgeous galaxy and comet portrait was recorded on April 5th in the skies over the Oriental Pyrenees near Figueres, Spain. From a site above 1,100 meters, astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado used a guided time exposure, fast film, and a telephoto lens to capture the predicted conjunction of the bright Comet Ikeya-Zhang...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 4-22-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/22/2002 12:16:35 AM EDT · 10 replies · 112+ views NASA | 4-22-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 April 22 Comet and Aurora Over Alaska Credit & Copyright: Dennis Mammana (Skyscapes) Explanation: Can you spot the comet? Flowing across the frozen Alaskan landscape is an easily visible, colorful aurora. Just to the lower left, however, well in the background, is something harder to spot: Comet Ikeya-Zhang, the brightest comet of recent years. Although the aurora faded in minutes, the comet is just now beginning to...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 4-26-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/26/2002 1:34:38 AM EDT · 5 replies · 185+ views NASA | 4-26-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 April 26 Comet Ikeya-Zhang Meets The ISS Credit & Copyright Carol Lakomiak Explanation: Still catching the Sun's rays, the International Space Station (ISS) cruises across the early evening sky above Tomahawk, Wisconsin, USA. Recorded on April 9 around 9 pm CDT in a 30 second exposure, the sunlit space station traced this bright streak moving east (right) through the constellation Cassiopeia. Below lies Comet Ikeya-Zhang sporting a...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 5-15-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 05/15/2002 1:51:39 AM EDT · 9 replies · 122+ views NASA | 5-15-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 May 15 Tail Wags of Comet Ikeya-Zhang Credit & Copyright: Michael Karrer Explanation: As Comet Ikeya-Zhang approached the Sun two months ago, it developed a complex blue ion tail. The tail was composed of ions that boiled off the nucleus and were pushed away from the Sun by the out-flowing fast-moving particles of the solar wind. Complexity in the tail is created by comet nucleus rotation, variability...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 5-25-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 05/25/2002 12:17:12 AM EDT · 7 replies · 189+ views NASA | 5-25-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 May 25 A String Of Pearls Credit: H. Weaver (JHU), T. Smith (STScI), NASA Explanation: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, named after its co-discoverers, was often referred to as the "string of pearls" comet. It is famous for its suggestive appearance as well as its collision with the planet Jupiter! The comet's original single nucleus was torn to pieces by Jupiter's strong gravity during a close encounter with the...
Asteroid detected in a close call with Earth
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 06/20/2002 8:17:36 PM EDT · 11 replies · 279+ views Yahoo News | Thu Jun 20, 4:22 PM ET | By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer Asteroid detected in a close call with Earth Thu Jun 20, 4:22 PM ETBy THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer LONDON - An asteroid the size of a soccer field narrowly missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (120,000 kms) last week, in the closest known approach by objects of this size in decades, scientists said Thursday. "In the unlikely event the asteroid had struck Earth in a populated area, it would have caused considerable loss of life," said Grant Stokes, the principal investigator for the Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research Project, whose New Mexico observatory spotted the object. "The energy...
Astronomers See Comet Break-up
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 07/26/2002 10:29:08 AM EDT · 15 replies · 121+ views BBC | 7-26-2002 Friday, 26 July, 2002, 13:08 GMT 14:08 UKAstronomers see comet break-up The fragments are strung out in space By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Astronomers in the Czech Republic and Hawaii have seen Comet 57P/du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte splinter into at least 19 fragments. Initial observation from the 1.2-metre (3.9-foot) telescope at Mount Palomar in California, US, on 11 July appeared to show a companion to the comet. Further work done the following day at the Klet Observatory in the Czech Republic then confirmed the comet had actually split apart. Pictures taken from Mauna Kea in Hawaii with the...
New Comet Hoenig (And how it was discovered)
	Posted by Joe Hadenuf On News/Activism 08/04/2002 4:33:15 PM EDT · 10 replies · 199+ views Sky and Telescope | 8/4/02 | By Roger W. Sinnott August 2, 2002 | A comet first seen by a German amateur astronomer in July, then lost for five days, is about to become an easy target for small telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere. The nearly tailless object looks like a fuzzy, 10th-magnitude star, slowly making its way from Andromeda into Cassiopeia. It should brighten to 9th magnitude by mid-August as it enters the north circumpolar sky, then remain this bright through September while turning south across Ursa Major. It was shortly after midnight on July 22nd that Sebastian Hoenig of Dossenheim, Germany, found himself unable to sleep. So he...
Comet's Debris Promises Celestial Light-Show
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/11/2002 2:35:09 PM EDT · 31 replies · 124+ views Ananova | 8-11-2002 Comet's debris promises celestial light-show Earth is about to plough through a thick cloud of comet dust giving sky watchers a celestial treat. The Perseid meteor shower, which puts on a display at this time every year, is now approaching its maximum intensity. It will peak tomorrow, sending shooting stars blazing trails across the sky at a rate which could reach two a minute. This year's Perseid show should be a good one because there will be virtually no moon, and the meteor numbers are expected to be higher than usual. The Perseids, which have mystified and terrified people for...
"Better, Faster, Cheaper" May Have Claimed Another Satellite (NASA)
	Posted by cogitator On News/Activism 08/19/2002 3:17:30 PM EDT · 14 replies · 201+ views Space.com | 08/19/2002 | Leonard David NASA/APL Hoping CONTOUR Will Send a Signal While efforts to locate the lost in space Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft continued through the weekend, speculation has begun on what may have thrown the mission awry. Over the last several days, a series of telescope, radar and radio checks were conducted in search of the probe. Hope now centers on CONTOUR's built-in smarts to cycle through and broadcast over a set of onboard antennas. That sequence -- lasting several hours -- was pre-programmed to start 96 hours after CONTOUR received its last command. That could mean ground controllers might hear...
Did Asteroids And Comets Turn The Tides Of Civilization?
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 07/11/2002 4:56:44 PM EDT · 81 replies · 3,308+ views Discovering Archaeology | July/August 1999 | Mike Baillie Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization? By Mike Baillie The heart of humanity seems at times to have lost its cadence, the rhythmic beat of history collapsing into impotent chaos. Wars raged. Pestilence spread. Famine reigned. Death came early and hard. Dynasties died, and civilization flickered. Such a time came in the sixth century A.D. The Dark Ages settled heavily over Europe. Rome had been beaten back from its empire. Art and science stagnated. Even the sun turned its back. "We marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon, to feel the mighty vigor of...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 7-24-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 07/24/2002 11:37:34 AM EDT · 23 replies · 218+ views NASA | 7-24-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 24 Our Busy Solar System Credit & Copyright: MPC, CBAT, Harvard CfA, IAU Explanation: Our Solar System is a busy place. Although the major planets get the most press, a swarm of rocks, comets, and asteroids also exist. The above plot shows the placement of known inner Solar System objects on 2002 July 20. The light blue lines indicate the orbits of planets. The green dots...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 8-02-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 08/02/2002 1:54:25 AM EDT · 8 replies · 250+ views NASA | 8-02-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 2 Comet 57P Falls to Pieces Credit: Y. Fern·ndez, S. Sheppard, D. Jewitt (University of Hawai`i) Explanation: Comet 57P has fallen to pieces, at least 19 of them. Orbiting the Sun every 5.9 years or so this faint comet - also christened Comet 57P/du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte for its three 1941 co-discoverers - is simply 57th on the list of comets known to be periodic, beginning with Comet...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 8-9-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 08/09/2002 4:24:30 PM EDT · 4 replies · 162+ views NASA | 8-09-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 9 Fireworks and Shooting Stars Credit & Copyright: Jim Steele Explanation: Experimenting with a new telescope and camera, photographer Jim Steele captured this surreal but festive image of fireworks in the night sky above Ashland, Oregon. The date was July 4th and the fiery streaks were part of the traditional annual celebration of independence day in the United States. Fiery streaks from another annual event will...
Comets,Meteors & Myth: New Evidence For Toppled Civilizations And Bibical Tales
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 08/11/2002 8:32:56 PM EDT · 18 replies · 1,287+ views Science Tuesday/Space.com | 11-13-2002 | Robert Roy Brit Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 13 November 2001 "...and the seven judges of hell ... raised their torches, lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight into darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup." -- An account of the Deluge from the Epic of Gilgamesh, circa 2200 B.C. If you are fortunate enough to see the storm of shooting stars predicted for the Nov. 18...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 11-05-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 11/05/2002 8:12:48 AM EST · 1 reply · 147+ views NASA | 11-05-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 5 Leonids Over Joshua Tree National Park Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics) & Tony Hallas (Astrophoto) Explanation: This year's Leonid Meteor Shower is predicted to have two peaks, like last year's. The first peak should come at about 04:00 hours Universal Time (UT) on November 19 and be primarily visible from Western Europe before sunrise. The second peak is predicted to occur at about 10:30...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 11-07-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 11/07/2002 8:05:13 AM EST · 4 replies · 131+ views NASA | 11-07-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 7 2001 Leonids: Meteors in Perspective Credit & Copyright: Christophe Marlot Explanation: The 2001 Leonid storm was so intense that the meteor shower's radiant, the point on the sky from which the fleeting trails seemed to diverge, was easy to spot. But the bits of debris that created the meteors really moved along parallel paths, following the orbit of their parent comet Tempel-Tuttle. Their apparent divergence...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 11-16-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 11/16/2002 3:09:12 AM EST · 3 replies · 177+ views NASA | 11-16-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 16 Tempel-Tuttle: The Leonid CometCredit & Copyright: T. Puckett (Puckett Observatory) Explanation: Star trails streak this composite time exposure of comet Tempel-Tuttle recorded by Tim Puckett on January 26, 1998. Then passing through the inner solar system on its 33 year orbit around the Sun, Tempel-Tuttle brightened unexpectedly, but binoculars or small telescopes were still required to visually observe it. Tempel-Tuttle is also called "the Leonid...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 11-17-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 11/17/2002 3:03:53 AM EST · 5 replies · 127+ views NASA | 11-17-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 17 Leonids from Leo Credit: Credit & Copyright: Chen Huang-Ming Explanation: Is Leo leaking? Leo, the famous sky constellation visible on the left of the above all-sky photograph, appears to be the source of all the meteors seen in last year's Leonids Meteor Shower. That Leonids point back to Leo is not a surprise - it is the reason that this November meteor shower is called...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 11-19-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 11/19/2002 12:59:14 AM EST · 8 replies · 155+ views NASA | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 19 Leonid Meteors in 2002 Credit: Night Sky Live Project, Wise Obs., TAU, Michigan Tech. Explanation: All during today, APOD will be posting the best images of the Leonid Meteor Shower as seen by the wide-angle digital cameras perched around the world as part of the Night Sky Live (NSL) Project. The main APOD site will be updated several times with topical information and new images....
Astronomy Picture of the Day 11-20-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 11/20/2002 3:11:08 AM EST · 11 replies · 144+ views NASA | 11-20-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 20 Leonids vs. The Moon Credit & Copyright: Frank Sapp Explanation: Beautiful and bright, the 2002 Leonid meteors battled against glaring moonlight. This winning example, from Tuesday morning skies above Laughlin, Nevada, USA, finds an undaunted Leonid streaking between the familiar constellation of Orion (left) and an overexposed full Moon. As anticipated, the Leonid shower packed a double punch on November 19 with planet Earth plunging...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 12-11-02
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 12/11/2002 6:55:34 AM EST · 9 replies · 134+ views NASA | 12-11-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 11 Meteors Between Stars and Clouds Credit & Copyright: Pierre Martin & Michael F. Vasseur (OAOG Explanation: Streaking high above diffuse clouds -- but well in front of distant stars -- are sand-sized bits of an ancient comet: meteors. These bits flaked off Comet Tempel-Tuttle during its pass through the inner Solar System about 150 years ago. Far in the background are stars toward the constellation...
Microorganism Isolated In Space
	Posted by forsnax5 On News/Activism 12/18/2002 9:27:43 AM EST · 42 replies · 194+ views ScienceDaily News | 12/18/2002 | Cardiff University's School of Biosciences, et al How far up into the sky does the biosphere extend? Do microorganisms exist at heights of 40 km and in what quantity? To answer these questions several research institutes in India collaborated on a path-breaking project to send balloon-borne sterile "cryosamplers" into the stratosphere. The programme was led by cosmologist Professor Jayant Narlikar, Director of the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, with scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Studies contributing their various expertise. Large volumes of air from the stratosphere at heights ranging from 20 to 41km were collected...
A Christmas Comet
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 12/27/2002 6:51:56 AM EST · 1 reply · 141+ views Sky and Telescope | Roger W. Sinnott A Christmas Comet By Roger W. Sinnott Early on the morning of December 14th, Japanese amateur Tetuo Kudo was searching the skies with his giant 20 x 120 binoculars. While scanning the constellation Hercules, he spotted something new ó a fuzzy 9th-magnitude glow moving slowly east-southeast. Follow-up observations by Ken-ichi Kadota (Saitama, Japan) confirmed the object and revealed a short tail about 1/3? in length, pointing away from the Sun. The comet (C/2002 X5) was announced on International Astronomical Union Circulars 8032 and 8033, and has been officially named Comet Kudo-Fujikawa. A preliminary orbit calculated by Brian G. Marsden of...
An Impact Event in 3114BC? The beginning of a Turbulent Millennium.
	Posted by ckilmer On News/Activism 01/03/2003 11:06:06 PM EST · 42 replies · 1,347+ views personal.eunet.fi An Impact Event in 3114BC? The Beginning of a Turbulent Millennium. Recurring Phenomenon: The Cosmic DisasterThe Mayan CalendarStonehengeA Possible Source for the 3100 BC Event Collected and commented by Timo Niroma, Helsinki, Finland Go to the Evidence of Astronomical Aspects of Mankind's Past and Recent Climate Homepage Recurring Phenomenon: The Cosmic Disaster Besides the most evident cosmic catastrophes ca. 2200 BC and 2345 BC there are other events during the Holocene that are so widely global and difficult to explain by only the Earth's own mechanisms that a cosmic explanation must evidently be taken into account. The first so-called...
Stealing a ride on a comet to the sun: spaceship's 10-year, 4bn mile odyssey
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 01/14/2003 9:50:26 PM EST · 1 reply · 228+ views Guardian Unlimited | 1-14-03 | Tim Radford, science editor Stealing a ride on a comet to the sun: spaceship's 10-year, 4bn mile odyssey European craft's audacious trip will give insight into our origins Tim Radford, science editorTuesday January 14, 2003The Guardian Some time in the next two weeks, European scientists hope to launch a spaceship the size of a delivery van and lob it across more than 4 billion miles of space to rendezvous 10 years from now with a dark lump of rock and ice the size of a city block. The spacecraft - called Rosetta after the stone that provided the key to the mystery of ancient...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 1-30-03
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 01/30/2003 6:51:47 AM EST · 7 replies · 121+ views NASA | 1-30-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 30 Comet Kudo-Fujikawa: Days in the Sun Credit: SOHO - LASCO Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: Cruising through the inner Solar System, new Comet Kudo-Fujikawa reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, yesterday, January 29. Passing within 28.4 million kilometers of the Sun, this comet came much closer than innermost planet Mercury basking only 57.9 million kilometers from our parent star. So close to the Sun,...
Where No Robot Has Gone Before
	Posted by NonZeroSum On News/Activism 02/03/2003 12:21:38 PM EST · 23 replies · 171+ views National Review Online | February 3, 2003 | Rand Simberg There's an old joke about the man who asks his neighbor to turn down the loud, raucous noise emitting from her stereo."What's the matter, are you a music hater?" "No," he replies, "I'm a music lover." I'm reminded of this by the calls of some over the years to end the space-shuttle program, even (perhaps especially) by people who are frustrated by our lack of progress in space. In the wake of the latest tragedy, the calls will undoubtedly grow louder, but in many cases, even if correct, they will be for the wrong reasons, and may not lead to...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 2-10-03
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 02/10/2003 1:48:47 AM EST · 20 replies · 253+ views NASA | 2-10-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 10 Comet NEAT Approaches the Sun Credit and Copyright: Anton Spenko (Rezmon Observatory) Explanation: A comet may likely become visible to the unaided eye over the next few days above the horizon where the Sun has just set. Comet NEAT (C/ 2002 V1), discovered last November, has brightened dramatically as it approached the Sun. Over the next few days, the quickly setting comet could appear as...
HOT COMET: Comet NEAT
	Posted by Lokibob On News/Activism 02/17/2003 8:46:11 PM EST · 19 replies · 158+ views spaceweather.com | 17 Feb 2003 | spaceweather.com †HOT COMET: Comet NEAT (C/2002 V1), which is perilously close to the Sun, has entered the field of view of SOHO coronagraphs. The comet has grown spectacularly bright in recent days and its tail is many times bigger than the Sun itself. (continued below)Above: A SOHO coronagraph image of Comet NEAT and the Sun on Feb. 17, 2003. The horizontal line near the head of the comet is a digital imaging artifact caused by saturation of camera pixels. [more]On Feb. 18th, the date of closest approach or "perihelion," Comet NEAT will lie just 0.1 AU from the Sun--well inside the...
Comet Returns After 37,000 Years
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/19/2003 6:32:43 PM EST · 65 replies · 180+ views BBC | 2-19-2003 Comet returns after 37,000 years The comet (right) approaches the Sun A recently-discovered comet makes its closest approach to the Sun. Moments later, it seems to be struck by a super-hot outburst of gas from the star.This spectacular image was spotted on Tuesday by a spacecraft, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (Soho). The joint European Space Agency/Nasa satellite is designed to give warnings of stormy space weather that might affect the Earth. Soho has photographed hundreds of comets around the Sun but this one, known as Neat, has only just been seen. It has been hovering in the evening sky...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 2-24-03
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 02/24/2003 12:55:52 AM EST · 7 replies · 113+ views NASA | 2-24-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 24 Comet Neat Passes an Erupting Sun Credit: SOHO Consortium, LASCO, ESA, NASA Explanation: As Comet NEAT flared last week, the Sun roared. Just as the comet swooped inside the orbit of Mercury and developed a long and flowing tail of gas and dust, the Sun emitted a huge Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Neither the fortuitous hot ball of solar gas nor the intense glare of...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-06-03
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 03/06/2003 1:44:26 AM EST · 7 replies · 158+ views NASA | 3-06-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured , along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 6 Comet NEAT in Southern Skies Credit & Copyright: Noel Munford (Palmerston North Astronomical Society, New Zealand) Explanation: After last month's dramatic swoop past the Sun, Comet NEAT (C/2002 V1) appeared as a naked-eye comet, emerging from the evening twilight in planet Earth's southern skies. On March 1st, New Zealand photographer Noel Munford captured this telephoto view of the outbound comet close to the southwestern...
'Your name here' proposed for comet
	Posted by HAL9000 On News/Activism 05/09/2003 4:18:20 PM EDT · 37 replies · 95+ views San Jose Business Journal | May 9, 2003 If you've ever wanted your name on a comet, now's your chance. Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA plan to send a satellite to crash into a comet in 2005 and aboard the craft will be a CD with the names of perhaps thousands of Earthlings. The names will be carried on board NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, the first deep-space mission designed to collide with a comet. Mission scientists are confident an impact on the nucleus of a comet called Tempel 1 will answer basic questions about the nature and composition of these celestial wanderers. "This is an opportunity...
First Out Of This World Freep
	Posted by isthisnickcool On News/Activism 05/13/2003 6:27:05 PM EDT · 2 replies · 47+ views NASA Have you made a Deep Impact? And if you have - have you ever made one as wide as a football stadium and several stories deep? This is your chance. The Deep Impact project announces Send your name to a comet! offering you the opportunity to have your name put on the impactor spacecraft that crashes into Comet Tempel 1 July 4th 2005.......
The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/09/2003 1:31:29 AM EDT · 92 replies · 2,607+ views The Universe | 9-1999 | Greg Bryant The Dark Ages : Were They Darker Than We Imagined? By Greg Bryant Published in the September 1999 issue of Universe As we approach the end of the Second Millennium, a review of ancient history is not what you would normally expect to read in the pages of Universe. Indeed, except for reflecting on the AD 837 apparition of Halley's Comet (when it should have been as bright as Venus and would have moved through 60 degrees of sky in one day as it passed just 0.03 AU from Earth - three times closer than Hyakutake in 1996), you may...
SIBERIA METEORITE FLATTENS 40 SQ MILES
	Posted by Mike Darancette On News/Activism 06/09/2003 8:25:21 PM EDT · 69 replies · 688+ views The Times | 7 June 2003 | Robin Shepherd IF IT had hit Central London, Britain would no longer have a capital city. The force of the meteorite that hit eastern Siberia last September destroyed 40 square miles of forest and caused earth tremors felt 60 miles away. An expedition from Russia's Kosmopoisk institute has only recently reached the site in a remote area north of Lake Baikal because of bad weather and difficult terrain, the Interfax news agency said yesterday. Fragments of the meteorite had apparently exploded into shrapnel 18 miles above the Earth with the force of at least 200 tonnes of TNT. At the time, Russian...
Headless Comets Survive Plunge Through Sun's Atmosphere
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/18/2003 1:00:38 PM EDT · 25 replies · 179+ views Science Daily | 6-18-2003 | NASA Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Date: 2003-06-18 Headless Comets Survive Plunge Through Sun's Atmosphere A run through the jungle is too easy; for the ultimate reality show contest, try a race through the Sun's atmosphere, where two comets recently lost their heads. The tails from a pair of comets survived a close encounter with the Sun, even after the Sun's intense heat and radiation vaporized their heads (nuclei and coma), an extremely rare event photographed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. On May 24, 2003, a pair of comets arced in tandem towards the Sun, their paths taking...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 10-03-03
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 10/03/2003 1:13:38 AM EDT · 7 replies · 70+ views NASA | 10-03-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 October 3 Cold Comet Halley Credit: O. Hainaut (ESO-Chile) et al., VLT Project, European Southern Observatory Explanation: While this may not be the most esthetic image of Comet Halley that you have ever seen, it is likely the most unique. The tiny cluster of pixels circled is the famous comet along its orbit over 4 billion (4,000,000,000) kilometers or 28 AU from the Sun -- a record...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 12-23-03
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 12/23/2003 1:06:12 AM EST · 4 replies · 60+ views NASA | 12-23-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 December 23 Comet Encke Returns Credit & Copyright: Michael Holloway Explanation: It's back. Every 3.3 years, Comet Encke swoops back into our inner Solar System. First officially discovered in 1786, Comet Encke is on its 59 th documented return, making it one of the best-studied comets on the sky. Mysteriously, Comet Encke should have been discovered millennia earlier, since it likely became bright enough to see unaided...
'Stardust' Spacecraft Closes in on Comet
	Posted by rs79bm On News/Activism 12/30/2003 10:44:43 PM EST · 4 replies · 59+ views planetary.org 400 million kilometers from Earth, an epic five year-long voyage through space is approaching its climax, as Stardust speeds towards its fly-by of comet Wild-2. Having traveled over 3 billion miles to get there, the spacecraft is now less than million kilometers away from the comet. On Friday, January 2 2004, at 11:40:35 am Pacific Standard Time, Stardust will pass only 300 kilometers (190 miles) from the surface of Wild 2's nucleus. It will be traveling at a relative speed of 21,960 kilometers per hour (13,650 mph), more than six times the speed of a rifle shot. "In recent...
NASA Spacecraft Has Shields UP
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 01/02/2004 11:57:06 AM EST · 28 replies · 133+ views Science Daily | 1-2-2004 | NASA Source: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Date: 2004-01-02 NASA Spacecraft Has Shields Up T-minus 48 hours and counting to a historic rendezvous, NASA's Stardust spacecraft has officially entered a comet's coma, the cloud of dust and gas surrounding the nucleus. Stardust is scheduled to hurtle past comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004, at approximately 2:40 a.m. EST. "Just like in Star Trek we have our shields up," said Tom Duxbury, Stardust program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "The spacecraft has entered Wild 2's coma, which means at any time we could run into a cometary particle. At...
Stardust Space Probe Flies By Comet (takes picture of comet)
	Posted by Brett66 On News/Activism 01/02/2004 7:56:00 PM EST · 8 replies · 143+ views Scientific American | 1/2/03 | George Musser January 02, 2004 Stardust Space Probe Flies By Comet The Stardust space probe, the first mission to collect a sample from a body beyond the moon and return it to Earth, has successfully made its close approach to Comet Wild-2 (pictured at right). "We've flown through the worst of it, and we're still in contact with our spacecraft," says project manager Tom Duxbury of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Zipping through the comet's comaóits dusty atmosphereóthe probe passed about 230 kilometers from the solid body, or nucleus. The previous close-approach record-holder was the European Space Agency's Giotto spacecraft, which in...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 01-03-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 01/03/2004 7:07:12 AM EST · 10 replies · 71+ views NASA | 01-03-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 January 3 Comet Wild 2's Nucleus from Stardust Credit: STARDUST Team, JPL, NASA Explanation: What does a comet nucleus look like? Yesterday the robot spacecraft Stardust answered this question by returning the most detailed images yet of the center of a comet. The icy centers of comets are usually hidden from Earth-bound telescopes by opaque dust and gas that boils off during approach to the Sun. Twice...
Europe's 10-Year Mission To Catch A Comet
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 01/06/2004 6:59:01 PM EST · 9 replies · 60+ views Ananova | 1-6-2004 Europe's 10-year mission to catch a comet Europe's mission to land a spacecraft on a comet is set for take-off next month, a year after the project was delayed because of problems with a rocket launcher. The European Space Agency will propel the Rosetta craft into space on February 26 from a base in Kourou, French Guiana, said Jean-Yves Le Gall, director-general of Arianespace, which made the rocket that will launch the craft. If the Rosetta mission succeeds, it will break new ground by placing a lander on a swift, icy comet. Until now, spacecraft only carried out brief fly-bys...
Send Your Name to a Comet
	Posted by Lokibob On General/Chat 01/16/2004 9:49:31 PM EST · 2 replies · 66+ views JPL | JPL †Send Your Name to a Comet What is the Send Your Name to a Comet campaign?Glad you asked! The Deep Impact mission will dig deep beneath the surface of a comet to get a first-ever look at the frozen collection of ice and dust left over from the formation of the solar system. Why are we doing it? We learn about comets by studying the ice and dust that flows naturally from a comet as it is warmed by the Sun. But we will learn additional information by getting down inside where the more pristine material is hidden. Scientists expect...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 01-19-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 01/19/2004 12:41:08 AM EST · 5 replies · 113+ views NASA | 01-19-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 January 19 STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild 2 Credit: STARDUST Team, JPL, NASA Explanation: Flying past a comet nucleus is dangerous. On January 2, the robot spacecraft STARDUST became one of the first to plow through the surrounding cloud of dust and grit to photograph the very heart of a comet. Pictured above is a short movie of the encounter showing unprecedented surface details of the icy...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 01-31-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 01/31/2004 8:00:05 AM EST · 3 replies · 75+ views NASA | 01-31-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 January 31 A Galaxy is not a Comet Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado Explanation: This gorgeous galaxy and comet portrait was recorded on April 5th, 2002, in the skies over the Oriental Pyrenees near Figueres, Spain. From a site above 1,100 meters, astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado used a guided time exposure, fast film, and a telephoto lens to capture the predicted conjunction of the bright Comet...
Astronomers unravel a mystery of the Dark Ages
	Posted by ckilmer On News/Activism 02/03/2004 5:54:24 PM EST · 64 replies · 1,208+ views EurekAlert | 3-Feb-2004 | Dr Derek Ward-Thompson Public release date: 3-Feb-2004 Contact: Dr Derek Ward-Thompson derek.ward-thompson@astro.cf.ac.uk 029-2087-5314 Cardiff University Astronomers unravel a mystery of the Dark Ages Undergraduates' work blames comet for 6th-century "nuclear winter" Scientists at Cardiff University, UK, believe they have discovered the cause of crop failures and summer frosts some 1,500 years ago ñ a comet colliding with Earth. The team has been studying evidence from tree rings, which suggests that the Earth underwent a series of very cold summers around 536-540 AD, indicating an effect rather like a nuclear winter. The scientists in the School of Physics and Astronomy believe this was caused...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 02-09-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 02/09/2004 2:32:30 AM EST · 5 replies · 61+ views NASA | 02-09-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 February 9 Announcing Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) Credit & Copyright: Mike Holloway Explanation: A newly discovered comet may outshine most stars in the sky by May. Designated Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), the comet was discovered in 2002 October by project LINEAR. Many reports already place the comet as brighter than magnitude 7, meaning that it can now be seen with binoculars. Reports also indicate the comet already...
Mesopotamian Climate Change (8,000 Years Ago)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/15/2004 2:18:28 PM EST · 69 replies · 1,494+ views Geo Times | 2-15-2004 Mesopotamian climate change Geoscientists are increasingly exploring an interesting trend: Climate change has been affecting human society for thousands of years. At the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in December, one archaeologist presented research that suggests that climate change affected the way cultures developed and collapsed in the cradle of civilization ó ancient Mesopotamia ó more than 8,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found evidence for a mass migration from the more temperate northern Mesopotamia to the arid southern region around 6400 B.C. For the previous 1,000 years, people had been cultivating the arable land in northern Mesopotamia, using natural rainwater...
Did Comet Trigger The Great Chicago Fire?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 03/06/2004 5:15:32 PM EST · 36 replies · 677+ views Discovery | 3-6-2004 | Irene Mona Klotz Did a Comet Trigger The Great Chicago Fire? By Irene Mona Klotz, Discovery News The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 March 5, 2004 ó Perhaps it was not Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern that sparked the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed the downtown area and claimed 300 lives. New research lends credence to an alternative explanation: The fire, along with less-publicized and even more deadly blazes the same night in upstate Wisconsin and Michigan, was the result of a comet fragment crashing into Earth's atmosphere. The comet theory has been around ó and most often discarded...
So, where did the water on Mars come from?
	Posted by LibWhacker On News/Activism 03/07/2004 5:21:58 AM EST · 82 replies · 415+ views The Toronto Star | 3/7/04 | Terence Dickinson The Mars rover Opportunity's examination of Martian rocks last week provided the first convincing evidence that our neighbour world was once "awash" in water, as one NASA scientist described it. But where did the water come from? And why does Mars have no liquid water now, while Earth apparently has been covered with the stuff for 4 billion years? Scientists are just beginning to piece the story together, and it goes right back to the beginning. Mars, like Earth, was formed from dusty and rocky debris left over after the sun was born 4.57 billion years ago. Initially, there were...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 03-14-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 03/14/2004 6:18:04 AM EST · 5 replies · 80+ views NASA | 03-14-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 March 14 Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola PassIllustration Credit: A. Dimai, (Col Druscie Obs.), AAC Explanation: Comet Hale-Bopp became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Out away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp's blue ion...
Scientists Find Another PLANET in our solar system!
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 03/16/2004 9:57:47 PM EST · 41 replies · 3,560+ views Space DOT com - Breaking News | posted: 03:51 pm ET 15 March 2004 | By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer Scientists Find Another Huge Mini-World in Outer Solar System The most distant object ever seen orbiting the Sun is nearly as large as Pluto, expanding astronomers notions of how the solar system formed and what resides in its outskirts. The round world is currently three times farther away than Pluto from the Sun, a distance that expands even further on its 10,000-year orbit. It sits in a part of the solar system that some astronomers had thought empty. It is redder and brighter than anything astronomers have seen in the outer solar system, and scientists don't know why. The object...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 03-19-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 03/19/2004 12:32:49 AM EST · 8 replies · 118+ views NASA | 03-19-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 March 19 Going Wild Credit: STARDUST Team, JPL, NASA Explanation: Dynamic jets of gas and dust surround one of the most active planetary surfaces in the solar system in this wild-looking picture of a comet nucleus. The comet's designation is 81P/Wild 2 of course (sounds like "vilt 2"), and the picture is a composite of two images recorded by the Stardust spacecraft's navigation camera during its January...
Big comet plunging toward our Sun
	Posted by Orlando On News/Activism 04/16/2004 4:17:04 PM EDT · 293 replies · 910+ views Spaceweather.com | 4-16-04 | Orlando Comet Bradfield is plunging toward the sun; at closest approach on April 17th it will be well inside the orbit of Mercury. Sun-approaching comets sometimes break-apart. Will Comet Bradfield survive? No one knows.
Astronomy Picture of the Day 04-20-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/20/2004 8:15:22 AM EDT · 4 replies · 76+ views NASA | 04-20-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 April 20 Comet Hale-Bopp Over Indian Cover Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics) Wally Pacholka Explanation: Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, was quite a sight. No comets of comparable brightness have graced the skies of Earth since then. During this next month, however, even besides the fleeting Comet Bradfield, two comets have a slight chance of rivaling Hale-Bopp and a good chance of putting on...
Comets To Put On Morning Sky Show
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/20/2004 9:42:32 PM EDT · 6 replies · 109+ views BBC | 4-20-2004 | David Whitehouse Comets to put on morning sky show By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Comet Bradfield passes the Sun Astronomers say there could be three comets visible to the unaided eye in the night sky in a few weeks' time. Comet Bradfield has just rounded the Sun and is heading for the dawn sky. It will be visible around 24 April. Comet Linear, too, is promising and should be seen at northern latitudes in the morning sky on about the same date. Finally, Comet Neat may be visible though experienced observers say it will be a week or...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 04-22-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/22/2004 8:06:47 AM EDT · 4 replies · 86+ views NASA | 04-22-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 April 22 Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) Credit: Svend and Carl Freytag, Adam Block (KPNO Visitor Program), NOAO, AURA, NSF Explanation: Discovered by the the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project in October of 2002, comet C/2002 T7 is now visiting the inner solar system, making its closest approach (see animation by L. Koehn) to the Sun tomorrow, April 23rd. Emerging from the solar glare, the comet...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 04-23-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/23/2004 10:46:17 AM EDT · 4 replies · 78+ views NASA | 04-23-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 April 23 Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) Credit & Copyright: Loke Kun Tan (StarryScapes) Explanation: Inbound from the distant solar system, comet C/2001 Q4 will soon pass just inside planet Earth's orbit and should be one of two bright, naked-eye comets visible in southern skies in May. First picked up nearly three years ago by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) project Q4 appears in both of these...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 04-27-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 04/27/2004 12:16:31 AM EDT · 4 replies · 71+ views NASA | 04-27-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 April 27 Comet Bradfield Rising Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake (Colorado Mountain College) Explanation: Comet Bradfield has become quite a sight just before sunrise -- for those with binoculars or cameras. Although fading noticeably each day, a sky chart, a northern location, and some persistence will allow curious sky gazers to locate the cosmic snowball and its spectacular tail. One might call Bradfield a "camera" comet as...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 05-03-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 05/03/2004 1:49:45 AM EDT · 3 replies · 69+ views NASA | 05-03-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 May 3 Comets Bradfield and LINEAR Rising Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics) Explanation: Comet Bradfield is easy to see on the left, but can you find Comet LINEAR on the right? Last week, just before sunrise from the northern hemisphere, two bright comets were visible in the same part of the sky at the same time. The above long-exposure image was taken on the morning of...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 05-07-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 05/07/2004 6:24:17 AM EDT · 7 replies · 111+ views NASA | 05-07-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 May 7 Look West for a NEAT Comet Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake (Colorado Mountain College) Explanation: On May 5th, while scanning western skies after sunset, astronomer Jimmy Westlake was glad to spot a visitor from the outer solar system, Comet NEAT, with his own eyes. Taken with a normal lens, the picture records his memorable view of comet, clouds, and Colorado Rocky Mountains against a backdrop...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 05-12-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 05/12/2004 8:21:12 AM EDT · 9 replies · 79+ views NASA | 05-12-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 May 11 The Tails of Comet NEAT (Q4) Credit & Copyright: Chris Schur Explanation: Comet NEAT (Q4) is showing its tails. As the large snowball officially dubbed Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) falls toward the inner Solar System, it has already passed the Earth and will reach its closest approach to the Sun this coming Saturday. Reports place the comet at third magnitude, making it easily visible to...
New clues to 2bn-year-old murder
	Posted by ckilmer On News/Activism 05/14/2004 11:45:55 AM EDT · 20 replies · 139+ views The Guardian | Friday May 14, 2004 | Tim Radford New clues to 2bn-year-old murder Tim Radford, science editor Friday May 14, 2004 The Guardian Scientists believe they are on the track of the biggest mass murderer in the two-billion year history of life. A buried crater off Australia could be the first direct evidence of a celestial assassin that wiped out more than 80% of life on Earth 250m years ago. Luann Becker, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, reports in Science online today on extensive evidence for a 125-mile wide crater called Bedout off the northwestern coast of Australia. The clues match the date of an event...
Two comets lighting up skywatchers' interest
	Posted by SwinneySwitch On News/Activism 05/14/2004 8:05:13 PM EDT · 21 replies · 174+ views Sacramento Bee/Caller.com | May 14, 2004 | Edie Lau Hale-Bopp they're not, but two comets headed toward Earth are lighting up skywatchers' interest nonetheless. The comets, which were discovered only recently, probably never will come in viewing range again. And they're big enough and close enough to see with bare eyes or just binoculars, a fairly rare event. One, known by the cute name NEAT, already is visible in the evening sky and will make its closest approach to the sun, reaching peak brightness, on Saturday. The second, known as LINEAR, appears in late May. Both will be visible right after sunset during the first part of June. The...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 05-18-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 05/18/2004 12:12:24 AM EDT · 3 replies · 93+ views NASA | 05-18-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 May 18 Comet NEAT (Q4) Over Indian Cove Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics) Explanation: Comet NEAT (Q4) was quite photogenic earlier this month. Although the head and part of the tails of Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) were visible to the unaided eye, the best views of the colorful tail were revealed only later by cameras able to expose for long periods. A human eye can accumulate...
Halley's Comet Portrayed On Ancient Coin
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/19/2004 5:14:39 PM EDT · 23 replies · 371+ views ABC.net | 5-19-2004 | Heather Catchpole Halley's comet portrayed on ancient coin Heather Catchpole ABC Science Online Wednesday, 19 May 2004 Could the star shape on the king's crown be Halley's comet? A rare ancient coin may feature an early record of Halley's comet, researchers say. The coin features the head of the Armenian king Tigranes II the Great, who reigned from 95 to 55 BC. A symbol on his crown that features a star with a curved tail may represent the passage of Halley's comet in 87 BC, say the Armenian and Italian researchers. Their research will be published in Astronomy & Geophysics, a journal...
Did comets flood Earth's oceans?
	Posted by ckilmer On News/Activism 06/16/2004 5:30:59 PM EDT · 39 replies · 250+ views EurekaAlert | 16 June 2004 Did comets flood Earth's oceans? Did comets flood Earth's oceans? 16 June 2004 Did the Earth form with water locked into its rocks, which then gradually leaked out over millions of years? Or did the occasional impacting comet provide the Earth's oceans? The Ptolemy experiment on Rosetta may just find outÖ The Earth needed a supply of water for its oceans, and the comets are large celestial icebergs - frozen reservoirs of water orbiting the Sun. Did the impact of a number of comets, thousands of millions of years ago, provide the Earth with its supply of water? Finding hard...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 06-17-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 06/17/2004 6:24:04 AM EDT · 9 replies · 227+ views NASA | 06-17-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 June 17 Comet NEAT and the Beehive Cluster Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake (Colorado Mountain College) Explanation: To the unaided eye, they appeared as similar fuzzy patches. But when a bright comet passed in front of a bright star cluster last month, binoculars and cameras were able to show off their marked differences in dramatic fashion. Pictured above, the bright comet, C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) shows many details...
NASA Comet Chaser Finds 'Footprints' 2BN Miles Away (Stardust Mission)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/17/2004 9:09:59 PM EDT · 18 replies · 182+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 6-18-2004 | Roger Highfield Nasa comet chaser finds 'footprints' 2bn miles away By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 18/06/2004) Giant "footprints" measuring about a mile from heel to toe have been found on a comet. The Stardust spacecraft reached comet Wild 2 in January after a six-year journey of two billion miles. Scientists expected to see a big chunk of rock and ice around three miles across, liberally coated with dark dust, obscuring any interesting features. Stardust flew less than 150 miles from the comet's heart and the first detailed analysis of the rendezvous, published today, describes the "feet" along with broad mesas, craters,...
Strange comet unlike anything known
	Posted by traumer On News/Activism 06/18/2004 9:41:11 AM EDT · 30 replies · 248+ views MSNBC | June 17, 2004 A detailed analysis of the comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt 2") has left astronomers astounded at an object that has no known peers in the solar system. The comet, examined in a close flyby in January by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, has towering protrusions and steep-walled craters that seem to defy gravity. More than a dozen jets of material shoot out from its insides. Dust swirls around the comet in unexpectedly dense pockets. Among the bizarre features are two depressions with flat floors and nearly vertical walls that resemble giant footprints. They aren't structured like typical impact craters. The features have...
TP: THREAT POTENTIALS [UNCONVENTIONAL, IMPROBABLE OR NOT]
	Posted by Quix On General/Chat 06/21/2004 7:31:10 PM EDT · 430 replies · 3,429+ views USGS QUAKE EMAIL | 21 JUN 2004 | Quix, USGS GREETINGS, FOLLOWING is a note re todays Alaskan quake. First a comment about this thread. SOME FREEPERS are fascinated with fringe areas of reality. Some of us even think the fringe areas of knowledge, research, anecdotal stories and the like will have very impactful effects on the WAR ON TERROR, WWIII, Biblical end time events etc. WE ALSO FIND FREEPERS FULL OF GREAT CREATIVITY OF THOUGHT, INSIGHT, WORK RELATED EXPERIENCES AND SKILLS ETC. useful in collecting diverse puzzle pieces and in analyzing them. This diversity is priceless and virtually unavailable on any other site. While we are seriously interested in...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 06-22-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 06/22/2004 6:19:27 AM EDT · 4 replies · 248+ views NASA | 06-22-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 June 22 Unusual Spires Found on Comet Wild 2 Credit: Stardust Team, JPL, NASA Explanation: How did unusual spires form on comet Wild 2? Close inspection of images taken of Comet Wild 2 by the passing Stardust spacecraft in January show numerous strange pinnacles as long as 100 meters long jutting off the surface. The pinnacles were unexpected - close-ups of other comets and asteroids show no...
The Jets of Comet Wild 2
	Posted by Swordmaker On News/Activism 06/30/2004 12:21:41 AM EDT · 15 replies · 180+ views Thunderbolts Picture of the Day | 7/1/2004 NASA's Stardust spacecraft snapped these photos of Comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004. On the left is the comet nucleus and on the right a composite of the nucleus and a longer exposure highlighting the comet's jets. According to a recent press release, project scientists expected "a dirty, black, fluffy snowball" with a couple of jets that would be "dispersed into a halo". Instead they found more than two dozen jets that "remained intact"-they did not disperse in the fashion of a gas in a vacuum. Some of the jets emanated from the dark unheated side of the comet-an...
Astronomy Picture of the Day 07-24-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 07/24/2004 8:02:42 AM EDT · 3 replies · 613+ views NASA | 07-24-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 July 24 A String Of Pearls Credit H. Weaver (JHU), T. Smith (STScI), NASA Explanation: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, named after its co-discoverers, was often referred to as the "string of pearls" comet. It is famous for its suggestive appearance as well as its collision with the planet Jupiter! The comet's original single nucleus was torn to pieces by Jupiter's strong gravity during a close encounter with the...
Probe To 'Look Inside' Asteroids
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 07/28/2004 11:22:08 AM EDT · 27 replies · 593+ views BBC | 7-28-2004 | Paul Rincon Probe to 'look inside' asteroids By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff in Paris, France Studies of asteroids would aid Earth-protection strategies A new space mission concept unveiled at a Paris conference aims to look inside asteroids to reveal how they are made. Deep Interior would use radar to probe the origin and evolution of two near-Earth objects less than 1km across. The mission, which could launch some time later this decade, would also give clues to how the planets evolved. The perceived threat of asteroids colliding with our planet has renewed interest in space missions to understand these...
Russian Researchers Say Debris of Alien Spaceship found in Siberia
	Posted by null and void On News/Activism 08/11/2004 1:28:07 AM EDT · 30 replies · 1,240+ views MosNews (consider the source!) | 10.08.2004 11:30 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:37 MSK, Members of a special expedition researching the site of the famous Tunguska meteorite fall have claimed they had discovered parts of an extraterrestrial device. The expedition, organized by the Siberian Public State Foundation ìTunguska Space Phenomenonî completed its work on the scene of Tunguska meteorite fall on August 9. It was the first expedition to the region since 2000. Guided by the space photos, the researchers scanned a wider territory in the vicinity of the Poligusa village for parts of the space object that crashed into Earth in 1908 and was later called the Tunguska meteorite. The scientists claim that...
Grains Found in Ga. Traced to Asteroid
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 08/24/2004 2:32:23 PM EDT · 8 replies · 341+ views Yahoo / AP | August 24 2004 | editors Microscopic analysis, reported in the current issue of the journal Geology, revealed a 3-inch-thick layer of "shocked quartz" ó a form of the mineral produced only under intense pressure like that of an impact ó that dated to 35.5 million years ago, when a space rock slammed into the Earth about 120 miles southeast of present-day Washington.
Astronomy Picture of the Day 08-30-04
	Posted by petuniasevan On General/Chat 08/30/2004 9:28:23 PM EDT · 6 replies · 828+ views NASA | 08-30-04 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 August 30 Announcing Comet C/2003 K4 (LINEAR) Credit & Copyright: Mike Holloway Explanation: A comet discovered last year has brightened unexpectedly and now may become visible to the unaided eye within the next month. Designated Comet C/2003 K4 (LINEAR), the comet was discovered in 2003 May by project LINEAR. Many reports already place the comet as brighter than magnitude 7, meaning that it can now be seen...
Comet Research Pioneer Whipple Dies
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 08/31/2004 8:19:39 PM EDT · 9 replies · 353+ views AP on Yahoo | 8/31/04 | AP CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Fred L. Whipple, a pioneer in astronomy who proposed the "dirty snowball" theory for the substance of comets, has died. He was 97. Whipple died Monday at a Cambridge hospital, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said Tuesday. Whipple proposed the theory in 1950, saying that comets consisted of ice with some rock mixed in, rather than sand held together by gravity, as was widely believed. Whipple's theory was an attempt to explain why some comets seemed to arrive at destinations earlier or later than predicted. Whipple believed that as a comet approached the sun, its light vaporized...
An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/06/2004 11:16:38 AM EDT · 70 replies · 545+ views American Scientist | September-October 2001 | Armand H. Delsemme Abstract: The young Earth appear to have been bombarded by comets for several hundred million years shortly after it was formed. This onslaught, perhaps involving hundreds of millions of comet impacts, is currently the best explantion for the origin of the Earth's oceans, atmosphere and organic molecules. Although historically a controversial idea, there is now a considerable amount of physical and chemical evidence supporting the theory. Comet scientist Armand Delsemme reviews the evidence and argues that comets from the vicinity of Jupiter contributed the bulk of the constituents found in Earth's biosphere.
A Celestial Collision
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/15/2004 12:04:28 PM EDT · 15 replies · 540+ views Alaska Science Forum | February 10, 1983 | Larry Gedney Early in the evening of June 18, 1178, a group of men near Canterbury, England, stood admiring the sliver of a new moon hanging low in the west. In terms they later described to a monk who recorded their sighting, "Suddenly a flaming torch sprang from the moon, spewing fire, hot coals and sparks." In continuing their description of the event, they reported that "The moon writhed like a wounded snake and finally took on a blackish appearance"... [P]lanetary scientist Jack Hartung of the State University of New York... gathered enough clues to suggest that a large asteroid... might have...
Threat of Cometary Impacts may be Underestimated
	Posted by cogitator On News/Activism 10/27/2004 10:54:44 AM EDT · 22 replies · 654+ views SpaceDaily | 10/27/2004 Chance Of A Cometary Impact Re-assessedThe chances of the Earth suffering a collision with a cometary body may be higher than previously thought, according to new research by astronomers Bill Napier and Chandra Wickramasinghe. If so, international programmes designed to detect a large class of potentially threatening objects, namely near-Earth asteroids, as well as strategies to mitigate the worst effects of collisions, may be in need of urgent review. This is the disturbing conclusion reached by the astronomers in a paper which is to be published shortly in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Their argument is based...
'Deep Impact' Spacecraft to Travel to Comet
	Posted by ChristianDefender On News/Activism 11/26/2004 3:01:30 AM EST · 17 replies · 653+ views FoxNews | 11-26-04 | Fox News BOULDER, Colo. ó Where the movie "Deep Impact" depicted a comet hurtling to Earth, a real-world namesake is set to go the opposite direction to eventually slam into a comet. Deep Impact ó as the spacecraft is called ó will travel six months to reach a comet, named Comet Temple 1. It will then release an 825-pound impactor to search out and collide with the 5-mile long, 2-mile wide comet. The minds at Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation (search) have been working on the spacecraft since 1996.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: A Strange Streak Imaged in Australia
	Posted by ckilmer On News/Activism 12/07/2004 9:42:41 PM EST · 19 replies · 1,566+ views NASA Picture of the Day | 2004 December 7 | Wayne Pryde Astronomy Picture of the Day 2004 December 7 A Strange Streak Imaged in Australia Credit & Copyright: Wayne Pryde Explanation: Meteor experts don't think it's a meteor. Atmospheric scientists don't think it's lightning. The photographer insists that the streak and flash on the above image has not been created digitally. So what is it? Nobody is sure. APOD's editors do not claim to know - one purpose of posting this image is to mine the eclectic brain trust of APOD's readers to help see if some unusual phenomenon was caught serendipitously. The strange features were captured on a series of...
New Comet Now Visible to Naked Eye
	Posted by Right Wing Professor On News/Activism 12/08/2004 11:40:35 PM EST · 84 replies · 2,747+ views Yahoo | December 8, 2004 | Robert Roy Rritt A comet discovered earlier this year has now moved close enough to be visible without binoculars or telescopes by experienced observers under dark skies. It is expected to put on a modest show this month and into January. Comet Machholz will be at its closest to Earth Jan. 5-6, 2005, when it will be 32 million miles (51 million kilometers) away. People with dark rural skies and a good map should be able to find it on Moon-free nights now into January. Backyard astronomers have been watching Machholz for months through telescopes. It was spotted by naked-eye observers for the...
Small Asteroid Passes Between Satellites and Earth
	Posted by ckilmer On News/Activism 12/23/2004 9:32:27 AM EST · 60 replies · 1,266+ views science | 22 December 2004 | Robert Roy Britt Small Asteroid Passes Between Satellites and Earth By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 22 December 2004 10:24 am ET Astronomers spotted an asteroid this week after it had flown past Earth on a course that took it so close to the planet it was below the orbits of some satellites. The space rock was relatively small, however, and would not have posed any danger had it plunged into the atmosphere. The object, named 2004 YD5, was about 16 feet (5 meters) wide, though that's a rough estimate based on its distance and assumed reflectivity. Had it entered the...
Small Asteroid Passes Between Satellites and Earth
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 12/23/2004 10:36:30 AM EST · 9 replies · 296+ views Space dot com | 22 December 2004 | Robert Roy Britt The object, named 2004 YD5, was about 16 feet (5 meters) wide, though that's a rough estimate based on its distance and assumed reflectivity. Had it entered the atmosphere, it would have exploded high up, experts figure. The asteroid passed just under the orbits of geostationary satellites, which at 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) altitude are the highest manmade objects circling Earth. Most other satellites, along with the International Space Station, circle the planet at just a few hundred miles up... the second closest pass of an asteroid ever observed by telescope, according to the Asteroid/Comet Connection, a web site that...
NASA to send celestial hammer to break open comet
	Posted by Diamond On News/Activism 12/23/2004 12:20:12 PM EST · 48 replies · 977+ views EARTHTimes.org | 2004-12-20 | I. A. Harry Space News | Home NASA to send celestial hammer to break open comet Posted on : 2004-12-20| Author : I. A. Harry| News Category : Space Scientific curiosity is going to cause a minor collision in space. On January 12, 2004, NASA is scheduled to launch a spacecraft named Deep Impact. This spacecraft will fire an 800-pound impactor right into the path of the 4-mile wide comet Tempel 1. The collision is scheduled to take place on July 4, 2005. The mission is stated to cost approximately $ 330 million. Scientists at NASA are very eager to know what...
Comet comes to wish us a Happy New Year
	Posted by FairOpinion On News/Activism 01/01/2005 1:45:55 PM EST · 14 replies · 719+ views EarthTimes | Jan. 1, 2005 | Dan. Y. A Go out in the open tonight after your dinner and look to the south east of the dark sky. See whether you can spot a celestial body with blue gas tail and the edge of an orange-yellowish dust tail emerging at very different angles from the coma. That's comet Machholz. The comet also code named as C/2004 Q2 is the 10th comet discovered by Don Machholz of Colfax, California, on August 27th. The comet will be closest to earth on Sunday and Monday, when it will be 32 million miles away. This is close in astronomical terms. It will be...
Comet or Meteorite Impact Events in 1178AD?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 01/03/2005 6:59:02 PM EST · 63 replies · 2,427+ views SIS Conference | 1-26-2003 | Emilio Spedicato 1. Introduction As related by Clube and Napier in their monograph The Cosmic Winter, see [1], in the year 1178 A.D. four wise men of Canterbury were sitting outside on a clear and calm 18th June night, a half Moon standing placidly in the starry sky. Suddenly they noticed a flame jutting out of a horn of the Moon. Then they saw the Moon tremble and its colour change slowly from light brilliant to a darker reddish tone. Such a colour remained for all the time the Moon was visible during that phase. This story is found in a manuscript...
Corkscrew Meteor Mystery
	Posted by sonofatpatcher2 On General/Chat 01/07/2005 4:27:02 PM EST · 24 replies · 749+ views Space Com | 1-7-05 | Robert Roy Britt Corkscrew Meteor Mystery While photographing the recently discovered comet Machholz the other night, Jimmy Westlake's mind wandered back to a mystery that'd been bugging him for years. On Jan. 1, 1986, he was photographing another comet, Halley's, through his homemade 8-inch reflecting telescope. "About one minute into the exposure, I watched a meteor zip through the field of the telescope," said Westlake, a professor of physical sciences at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, CO. "I stopped the exposure at two minutes." That night, when he developed the roll of slide film, he was astounded at what he saw: "Crossing...
'Deep Impact' Probe to Try to Puncture a Comet
	Posted by crushelits On News/Activism 01/09/2005 11:03:12 PM EST · 9 replies · 454+ views washingtonpost.com | Monday, January 10, 2005 | Guy Gugliotta When it comes to space exploration, where scientists often measure their needs in milli-this and micro-that, Deep Impact, as its name suggests, has all the subtlety of a punch in the mouth. Barring unforeseen delays, NASA will launch on Wednesday a 1,325-pound spacecraft on a one-way trip to the comet Tempel 1. On July 3, the spacecraft will jettison an 820-pound copper projectile in the comet's path and get out of the way as comet and projectile meet at a relative speed of 23,000 mph. This, perhaps not surprisingly, will happen on July 4, and if you are somewhere in...
Blasting Into the Core of a Comet to Learn Its Secrets
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 01/11/2005 8:13:06 PM EST · 9 replies · 696+ views NY Times | January 11, 2005 | WARREN E. LEARY WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - Since the earliest days of the solar system, comets have periodically smashed into Earth, blasting holes in the surface and scattering cosmic debris. Now it is our turn to strike back. On Wednesday, NASA is to launch a spacecraft called Deep Impact toward the comet Tempel 1. In six months, if all goes well, the craft will release an 820-pound copper-core "impactor" that will smash into the comet's nucleus at 23,000 miles per hour, excavating a crater that scientists say could be as large as a sports coliseum. Launching of the spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral...
Heads Up North America...Comet Machholz Visible Tonight
	Posted by My Favorite Headache On News/Activism 01/11/2005 10:22:02 PM EST · 42 replies · 2,660+ views Comet Machholz Comet Machholz (Comet 2004 Q2) Page Comet Machholz is current overhead in the early evening. Comet hunter (and SJAA club member) Don Machholz discovered it last August. How he discovered the comet was described in his article in the SJAA Ephemeris. The comet is now nearly overhead at California latitudes. In a dark sky it should be visible as a non distinct patch of light. As of January 4, 2005 it was even visible within the San Jose city limits. Unfortunately the weather there has not been cooperating. The comet is easily visible in telescope finder or binoculars
NASA Launches Comet-Busting Spaceship
	Posted by paudio On News/Activism 01/12/2005 3:48:01 PM EST · 11 replies · 494+ views Fox News | 1/12/05 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ó A NASA (search) spacecraft with a Hollywood name ó Deep Impact (search) ó blasted off Wednesday on a mission to smash a hole in a comet and give scientists a glimpse of the frozen primordial ingredients of the solar system. With a launch window only one second long, Deep Impact rocketed away at the designated moment on a six-month, 268-million-mile journey to Comet Tempel 1 (search). It will be a one-way trip that NASA hopes will reach a cataclysmic end on the Fourth of July.
Spacecraft launched on mission to smash comet
	Posted by bayourod On News/Activism 01/12/2005 10:52:25 PM EST · 16 replies · 424+ views The Houstoin Chronicle via AP via NASA Deep Impact Web site | Jan. 12, 2005 | NASA staff CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ó A NASA spacecraft with a Hollywood name ó Deep Impact ó blasted off today on a mission to smash a hole in a comet and give scientists a glimpse of the frozen primordial ingredients of the solar system. With a launch window only one second long, Deep Impact rocketed away at the designated moment on a six-month, 268-million-mile journey to Comet Tempel 1. It will be a one-way trip that NASA hopes will reach a cataclysmic end on the Fourth of July. "We are on our way," an excited Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland,...
Clearing skies make comet more visible
	Posted by BenLurkin On News/Activism 01/13/2005 2:20:23 PM EST · 12 replies · 627+ views Valley Press on Thursday, | January 13, 2005. | DON HALEY Clearing skies over the high desert will finally give stargazers a chance to peer at Comet Machholz, the noticeably green comet that has been transiting constellations above the southeastern horizon for several months. The comet, a faint glowing "fuzzball" detectable with the unaided eye, is now arcing upward through the lower portion of the constellation Perseus and can easily be seen with binoculars. To find Comet Machholz, look toward the southeast after complete darkness, preferably in an area that is distant from street lights. Find the lowest recognizable constellation, Orion. It appears as a long box of four bright stars,...
Russian Astrologist Sues NASA
	Posted by doc30 On News/Activism 04/20/2005 11:24:14 AM EDT · 24 replies · 784+ views Space.com | 4/20/05 | SPACE.com Staff Russian Astrologist Sues NASA NASA has been taken to court in Russia over its plans to crack open a comet. Marina Bai, a Russian astrologist, filed a lawsuit last month with the Presnensky district court in Moscow, demanding that the U.S. space agency call off its $311 million Deep Impact mission. As reported in MosNews.com, Bai is also asking for 8.7 billion rubles ($311 million) in compensation for moral damages. ìThe actions of NASA infringe upon my system of spiritual and life values, in particular on the values of every element of creation, upon the unacceptability of barbarically interfering with...
Comet put on list of potential Earth impactors
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 06/02/2005 12:04:31 PM EDT · 43 replies · 2,057+ views New Scientist | 1 June 2005 | David L Chandler On 26 May, JPL's unique orbital calculation software determined that Comet Catalina was on what could possibly be a collision course with Earth, though the odds of such an impact were small: just 1 chance in 300,000 of a strike on June 11, 2085. Based on the 980-metre size estimate, that would produce a 6-gigaton impact - equivalent to 6 billion tonnes of TNT. Astronomers expected the addition of further observations to the calculations to rule out any possibility of a collision, as happens with most newly-seen objects. But that did not quite happen. The comet's predicted pathway actually drew...
NASA space probe to slam into comet July 4
	Posted by Redcitizen On News/Activism 06/10/2005 1:05:27 PM EDT · 58 replies · 1,717+ views WASHINGTON (Reuters) via Yahoo news | Thu Jun 9, 5:00 PM ET | By Deborah Zabarenko NASA space probe to slam into comet July 4 By Deborah Zabarenko Thu Jun 9, 5:00 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA's Deep Impact probe is scheduled to lob a big copper "bullet" into a comet on July 4 to look into the heart of this remnant from the formation of our solar system, scientists said on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Impact is expected at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT) on U.S. Independence Day. About a day before the collision, the Deep Impact craft will send a 317-pound (144 kg) copper-fortified impactor toward comet Tempel 1, which will be about 83 million...
What just happened in sky over Los Angeles?
	Posted by Finny On News/Activism 06/19/2005 11:27:21 PM EDT · 418 replies · 12,406+ views finny About ten minutes ago, Husband in hills behind Brea, between Brea and Chino Hills, spotted in the northwest what looked like something entering the atmosphere. We grabbed binoculars, and it was extremely high altitude, coming in, not going out. Anybody see it? Can probably still spot it further north, as in Pasadena, etc. Grab binocs and look.
A long shot: NASA tries to hit, photograph comet
	Posted by Cincinatus' Wife On News/Activism 06/26/2005 3:27:21 AM EDT · 22 replies · 569+ views Houston Chronicle | June 26, 2005 | MARK CARREAU The game plan for a first-of-its-kind space mission called Deep Impact unfolds like a cosmic billiards match. Early July 4, the NASA spacecraft will attempt to smack into the heart of a distant comet, Tempel 1. Scientists think the blow could open a crater as large as a football stadium and as deep as a 14-story building. With the observations by a companion spacecraft of the crater and the debris that is tossed out, astronomers expect to learn more about how the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago. About half the size of New York City's Manhattan Island, Tempel...
Xinhua and AlJazeera most qualified to report on NASA?
	Posted by billybudd On Bloggers & Personal 06/26/2005 11:21:42 PM EDT · 148+ views Google News | 06/26/2005 | Google News I don't get it. Why are Xinhua and AlJazeera listed as the first news sources that comment on NASA's Deep Impact mission? Followed closely by The Standard (Hong Kong), Globe and Mail (Canada), Australian (Australia), AME Info (United Arab Emirates). Google News confounds me.
Fireworks Likely When NASA Blows Up Comet (Deep Impact)
	Posted by Righty_McRight On News/Activism 06/27/2005 4:09:51 AM EDT · 14 replies · 947+ views AP | June 26, 2005 | Alicia Chang LOS ANGELES (AP) - Not all dazzling fireworks displays will be on Earth this Independence Day. NASA hopes to shoot off its own celestial sparks in an audacious mission that will blast a stadium-sized hole in a comet half the size of Manhattan. It would give astronomers their first peek at the inside of one of these heavenly bodies. If all goes as planned, the Deep Impact spacecraft will release a wine barrel-sized probe on a suicide journey, hurtling toward the comet Tempel 1 - about 80 million miles away from Earth at the time of impact. "It's a bullet...
Spacecraft Is on a Collision Course With a Comet, Intentionally (Happy 4th of July!)
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 06/28/2005 7:43:23 PM EDT · 24 replies · 819+ views NY Times | June 28, 2005 | WARREN E. LEARY WASHINGTON, June 27 - A two-stage spacecraft called Deep Impact is about to make an ambitious attempt to dissect a comet by slamming into it and blowing some of its innards into space for all to see. Launched from Florida on Jan. 12, NASA's Deep Impact is nearing the end of a finely calibrated 268-million-mile journey that puts comet Tempel 1 within its sights. An 820-pound copper-core "impactor" is to smash into the comet's nucleus at 23,000 miles an hour in the early hours of July 4, an unprecedented event that will, if all goes well, be witnessed by its...
Cosmic Crash Won't Destroy Comet or Earth
	Posted by ElkGroveDan On News/Activism 06/28/2005 8:32:44 PM EDT · 36 replies · 693+ views Space.com | 28 June 2005 | Leonard David BOULDER, Colorado ñ Late Sunday and early Monday, skywatchers might be treated to celestial fireworks unlike anything witnessed before. Like some Space Age equivalent of WrestleMania, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is double-billed to tangle with Comet Tempel 1 on July 4. The mission is a two-part project: A ìFlybyî vehicle will unleash an ìImpactorî probe that will slam into the fast-moving comet. The comet and Impactor will collide at about 23,000 mph. Deep Impact is the first mission to make contact with a comet's surface. The hope is to produce a crater in the large comet and reveal what is...
Queen's Brian May Comes Out For The Protection of Comets from Vandalism
	Posted by lainie On Bloggers & Personal 06/30/2005 1:14:55 AM EDT · 6 replies · 368+ views Brian May of Queen's blog | 6/28/2005 | B.M. [Body of thread held due to copyright notice: NOT TO BE COPIED OR REPUBLISHED. YOU'RE WELCOME.] Please see http://www.brianmay.com
It Takes a Cosmic Village to View a Comet [Comet Impact]
	Posted by Zuben Elgenubi On News/Activism 07/01/2005 10:10:20 AM EDT · 13 replies · 679+ views NASA | June 29, 2005 | Gay Hill, JPL It Takes a Cosmic Village to View a Comet -- 06.29.05 Like people gazing skyward to watch Independence Day fireworks, an international array of telescopes will train expert eyes on a dramatic encounter between NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft and a passing comet. The explosive event will happen 133.6 million kilometers (83 million miles) from Earth in the early hours of July 4 Eastern Daylight Time (late July 3 Pacific Daylight Time). Telescopes on the ground and others orbiting in space will document the mission's crucial moments using different wavelengths of light. Image right: Artist's concept showing Deep Impact just before impact...
Deep Impact Spacecraft Ready for Mission
	Posted by Righty_McRight On News/Activism 07/01/2005 9:12:43 PM EDT · 32 replies · 450+ views AP | July 1, 2005 | Alicia Chang PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - A NASA spacecraft was speedily closing in on its target Friday, a comet scientists hope to smash open this weekend, producing celestial fireworks for the Independence Day weekend. But the real purpose is to study the comet's primordial core. Mission scientists said the Deep Impact spacecraft was 1 1/2 million miles away from Tempel 1, a pickle-shaped comet half the size of Manhattan. "We're closing in very rapidly, but we're still very far away," said Michael A'Hearn, an astronomer at the University of Maryland and principal investigator of the $333 million project. The cosmic fireworks will...
Solar Activity and Deep Impact
	Posted by NRA2BFree On News/Activism 07/02/2005 5:37:32 PM EDT · 7 replies · 463+ views Space Weather News | July 2, 2005 | Staff SUNSPOTS GALORE: Only a few days ago the sun was completely blank, but now it is peppered with fast-growing sunspots. So far these active regions have produced no strong solar flares, but this could change if their dynamic growth continues. Visit spaceweather.com for movies of the growing 'spots and safe solar observing tips. REMINDER: Far from Earth, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is about to poke a hole through the crust of Comet Tempel 1. When? July 3rd at 10:52 p.m. PDT (July 4th at 0552 UT). A plume of gas and dust emerging from the hole could cause the comet...
Deep Impact spacecraft releases probe to collide with comet
	Posted by HAL9000 On News/Activism 07/03/2005 2:38:02 AM EDT · 52 replies · 878+ views Associated Press | July 3, 2005 A NASA spacecraft with a Hollywood name released a probe late Saturday on a collision course with a speeding comet, an ambitious mission that scientists hope will offer the first peek inside one of these icy bodies. Deep Impact released its barrel-sized "impactor" at 11:07 p.m. PDT on a suicide journey that is expected to climax 24 hours later when the comet Tempel 1 smashes into it. The high-speed crash should produce an Independence Day weekend explosion that should be visible from parts of the Western Hemisphere. Comets contain the frozen primordial ingredients of the solar system and studying...
*Live Thread* -- 7/3/05 NASA "Deep Impact" Comet
	Posted by FreedomNeocon On News/Activism 07/03/2005 9:32:52 AM EDT · 1,201 replies · 22,876+ views NASA / Space.com | 7-3-05 | Buzz Aldrin All times are Eastern U.S. time July 3, Sunday 7 a.m. ñ 10 a.m. - Deep Impact Pre-Impact Live Interviews - JPL (One-Way Media Interviews) 2 p.m. ñ 3 p.m. ñ Deep Impact Pre-Impact Update - JPL(Update on separation and navigation) 4 p.m. ñ Deep Impact Pre-Impact Update - HQ (Replay) 7 p.m. ñ Deep Impact Pre-Impact Update - HQ (Replay) 11:30 p.m. ñ 3:30 a.m. (July 4) ñ Deep Impact Commentary (Expected time of impact: 1:52 a.m.) July 4, Monday 4 a.m. ñ 5 a.m. ñ Deep Impact Post-Impact Press Conference - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing) 7 a.m. ñ...
Predictions on Deep Impact
	Posted by Swordmaker On News/Activism 07/03/2005 10:06:44 PM EDT · 69 replies · 1,568+ views Thunderbolts Picture of the Day | 7/3/2005 THUNDERBOLTS PICTURE OF THE DAYExploring the electric universe From ancient mythology to cosmic plasma discharge Credit: NASA/JPL/UMD Artwork by Pat Rawlings the book quotes picture of the day picture archive subject index the film(video clips) products Contact usElectric Universe: Holoscience Electric Cosmos The Universe Dragon Science Plasma Cosmology Society for Interdisciplinary Studies † † Jul 04, 2005Predictions on "Deep Impact"With the imminent arrival of the "Deep Impact" spacecraft at the comet Tempel 1, it is time to test competing theories on the nature of comets. The predictions and lines of reasoning offered here will set the stage for future...
NASA's Deep Impact Probe Slams Into Tempel 1 Comet
	Posted by msjhall On News/Activism 07/04/2005 2:10:41 AM EDT · 81 replies · 2,125+ views Foxnews | Monday, July 04, 2005 | Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. ó A NASA space probe was bearing down on its comet target Sunday in a suicide mission scientists hoped would provide new insight into the origins of the solar system.
Mission Accomplished: Probe Hits Comet
	Posted by Man50D On News/Activism 07/04/2005 7:30:19 AM EDT · 31 replies · 1,225+ views Yahoo news | 7/3/05 | By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer PASADENA, Calif. - A space probe hit its comet target late Sunday in a NASA-directed, Hollywood-style mission that scientists hope will reveal clues to how the solar system formed. It was the first time a spacecraft had ever touched the surface of a comet, igniting brief Independence Day weekend fireworks in space. The successful strike 83 million miles away from Earth occurred at 10:52 p.m. PDT, according to mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Scientists on the mission ó called Deep Impact, like the movie ó erupted in applause and exchanged hugs. "A lot of people said...
On Target: NASA Rocket Slams Into Comet
	Posted by KevinDavis On News/Activism 07/04/2005 11:49:59 AM EDT · 48 replies · 1,018+ views Ap | 07/04/05 | ALICIA CHANG PASADENA, Calif. - It sounded like science fiction ó NASA scientists used a space probe to chase down a speeding comet 83 million miles away and slammed it into the frozen ball of dirty ice and debris in a mission to learn how the solar system was formed. The unmanned probe of the Deep Impact mission collided with Tempel 1, a pickle-shaped comet half the size of Manhattan, late Sunday as thousands of people across the country fixed their eyes to the southwestern sky for a glimpse. The impact at 10:52 p.m. PDT was cause for celebration not only to...
Astrologist Sues NASA Over Crash
	Posted by West Coast Conservative On News/Activism 07/04/2005 1:47:37 PM EDT · 78 replies · 1,306+ views Reuters | July 4, 2005 A Russian astrologist who says NASA has altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is suing the U.S. space agency for damages of $300 million, local media has reported. NASA deliberately crashed its probe, named Deep Impact, into the Tempel 1 comet to unleash a spray of material formed billions of years ago which scientists hope will shed new light on the composition of the solar system. "It is obvious that elements of the comet's orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion, which interferes with my astrology work and distorts my horoscope," Izvestia daily...
For the First Time a Spacecraft Impacts With Comet
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 07/04/2005 2:03:46 PM EDT · 36 replies · 943+ views NY Times | July 4, 2005 | WARREN E. LEARY WASHINGTON, July 4 -- NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft lived up to its name early Monday when it slammed into a comet with such force that the resulting blast of icy debris stunned scientists with its size and brightness. With the flyby stage of the two-part spacecraft watching from a safe distance, an 820-pound, copper-core "impactor" craft smashed into the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 at 23,000 miles per hour, sending a huge, bright spray of debris into space. "The impact was spectacular," said Dr. Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, the projects principal scientist. "It was much brighter than...
Deep Impact, post impact video
	Posted by hophead On News/Activism 07/04/2005 7:17:26 PM EDT · 37 replies · 1,862+ views 7-4-2005 NASA's film of the impact are incredible. One from the impactor and one from the fly-by craft. Look here: http://www.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov Watch the one from the impactor. Early in the film, the camera seems to aquire a target, as it was probably supposed to do by design. Keep watching frame by frame. You will see two large craters come into clear view at the center section of the frame. As it gets closer, it seems to target a spot just below the upper crater. Just south south west of the craters looks like a frozen lake. It is very much...
Russian Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet Russian Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet
	Posted by patriot_wes On News/Activism 07/05/2005 8:54:42 AM EDT · 20 replies · 381+ views Washington Times | July 5, 2005 | AP Russian Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet MOSCOW (AP) -- NASA's mission that sent a space probe smashing into a comet raised more than cosmic dust - it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer. Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. A Moscow court has postponed hearings on the case until late July, the paper said. The probe's comet crash sent up a cloud of debris that scientists...
Russian Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet
	Posted by Brainhose On News/Activism 07/05/2005 8:58:36 AM EDT · 17 replies · 657+ views MyWay.com | Today | Brainhose MOSCOW (AP) - NASA's mission that sent a space probe smashing into a comet raised more than cosmic dust - it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer. Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. A Moscow court has postponed hearings on the case until late July, the paper said. The probe's comet crash sent up a cloud of debris that scientists hope to examine to learn how...
COMET HIT BY 'RODS FROM GOD' DEATH FROM SPACE PROGRAM
	Posted by orionblamblam On News/Activism 07/06/2005 12:22:13 AM EDT · 62 replies · 1,346+ views Islamic Community Net | Mon Jul 4, 2005 | Islamic Community Net The arrogantly named "Rods from God" weapons from space weapons of mass destruction "WMD" program (see the second article below) is well underway and has received a substantial boost from the successful trial attack on comet Tempel-1. Capping a series of other recent planetary death weapons tests such as the failed space mirror test conducted by the Planetary Society, the NASA probe "Deep Impact" provided military observers with significant data and analysis concerning the proper design for kinetic energy weapons configured to slam into an Earth ground target, releasing an explosion similar to an atomic weapon but without the radiation....
Deep Impact - First Impressions - Electric Universe Theorists response
	Posted by Swordmaker On News/Activism 07/06/2005 5:32:43 AM EDT · 10 replies · 702+ views Thunderbolts Picture of the Day | 47/5/2005 THUNDERBOLTS PICTURE OF THE DAYExploring the electric universe From ancient mythology to cosmic plasma discharge † homethe book quotes picture of the day picture archive subject index the film(video clips) products Contact usElectric Universe: Holoscience Electric Cosmos The Universe Dragon Science Plasma Cosmology Society for Interdisciplinary Studies † † Jul 05, 2005Deep Impact?First ImpressionsThe Deep Impact was an amazing show, and there will be much more information to come.In advance of the event we set forth our expectations as explicitly as possible. Therefore, we urge readers of this page to refer to our previous Picture of the Day.We also...
Deep Impact tells a tale of the powder-coated comet
	Posted by Excuse_My_Bellicosity On News/Activism 07/10/2005 10:46:54 AM EDT · 22 replies · 797+ views NASA via Spaceflight Now | 7/8/2005 | NASA NEWS RELEASE Data from Deep Impact's instruments indicate an immense cloud of fine powdery material was released when the probe slammed into the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 at 6.3 miles per second. The cloud indicated the comet is covered in the powdery stuff. The Deep Impact science team continues to wade through gigabytes of data collected during the July 4 encounter with the 3-mile-wide by 7-mile-long comet. "The major surprise was the opacity of the plume the impactor created and the light it gave off," said Deep Impact Principal Investigator Dr. Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, College Park. "That...
History's Greatest Comet Hunter Discovers 1,000th Comet
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/01/2005 1:15:28 AM EDT · 7 replies · 192+ views NASA | August 17 2005 | Bill Steigerwald "Before SOHO was launched, 16 sungrazing comets had been discovered by space observatories. Based on that experience, who could have predicted that SOHO would discover more than sixty times that number, and in only nine years? This is truly a remarkable achievement!" said Dr. Chris St. Cyr, Senior Project Scientist for NASA's Living With a Star program at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Composition of a Comet Poses a Puzzle for Scientists
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 09/07/2005 3:10:01 PM EDT · 45 replies · 1,011+ views NY Times | September 7, 2005 | KENNETH CHANG Although comets form at the frigid edges of the solar system, they appear somehow to contain minerals that form only in the presence of liquid water, and at much warmer temperatures, scientists are reporting today. On July 4, as planned, part of the Deep Impact spacecraft - essentially an 820-pound, washing machine-size bullet - slammed into the comet Tempel 1 at 23,000 miles an hour. The collision tossed up thousands of tons of ice and dust from the comet that were observed by telescopes on Earth as well as small flotilla of spacecraft. One of the observers was the Spitzer...
Moses' Comet
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 10/09/2005 7:25:36 PM EDT · 35 replies · 1,337+ views Troubled Times/Discovering Archaeology | 8-1999 | Mike Baillie Moses' Comet Moses' Comet, by Mike Baillie Discovering Archeology, July/August 1999 Moses called down a host of calamities upon Egypt until the pharaoh finally freed the Israelites. Perhaps he had the help of a comet impact coupled with a volcano. A volcano destroyed the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea (between today's Greece and Turkey) around the middle of the second millennium B.C. Researchers Val LaMarche and Kathy Hirschboeck suggest the volcano might be associated with tree-ring evidence for several years of intense cold beginning in 1627 B.C. Could that form the basis for strange meteorological phenomena recorded in...
Scientist: Comets Blasted Early Americans
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 10/28/2005 9:33:11 PM EDT · 40 replies · 1,113+ views ap on Yahoo | 10/28/05 | Meg Kinnard - ap COLUMBIA, S.C. - A supernova could be the "quick and dirty" explanation for what may have happened to an early North American culture, a nuclear scientist here said Thursday. Richard Firestone said at the "Clovis in the Southeast" conference that he thinks "impact regions" on mammoth tusks found in Gainey, Mich., were caused by magnetic particles rich in elements like titanium and uranium. This composition, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist said, resembles rocks that were discovered on the moon and have also been found in lunar meteorites that fell to Earth about 10,000 years ago. Firestone said that, based...
It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time [Asteroid]
	Posted by aculeus On News/Activism 12/06/2005 9:59:40 PM EST · 164 replies · 3,319+ views The Guardian (UK) | December 7, 2005 | by Alok Jha In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness. A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace now hurtling towards Earth from outerspace. Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.
Tenafly to Tempel
	Posted by Coleus On General/Chat 12/31/2005 9:39:42 PM EST · 125+ views NorthJersey.com | 07.03.05 | SONI SANGHA It's a match made in heaven: Jessica Sunshine and comet Tempel 1. The geologist, a Tenafly native with an asteroid named after her, never expected to meet this kind of celestial body. But talent and dumb luck landed her on NASA's Deep Impact mission that might reveal the building blocks of the universe. The $333 million project involves an impactor, fired from a mother ship, hurtling at 23,000 mph and crashing smack dab into the comet a little before 2 a.m. on Monday, creating a massive crater up to 14 stories deep. Through a telescope, the cosmic union won't look...
Stardust- Comet capsule to produce light show over Western U.S. - Sunday, 1/15 at 157PT
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 01/08/2006 10:31:40 PM EST · 63 replies · 1,453+ views AP on Yahoo | 1/8/06 | Alicia Chang - ap LOS ANGELES - When a NASA capsule hauling comet and interstellar dust plummets through the Earth's atmosphere this weekend, residents in large sweeps of the West will witness a cosmic spectacle. During the Stardust capsule's blazing re-entry at 1:57 a.m. PST Sunday, it will travel at 29,000 mph, making it the fastest man-made object to return to Earth. The 100-pound cargo will arc over Northern California toward Utah's Dugway Proving Ground, a remote Army base southwest of Salt Lake City. Residents in parts of Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Utah should see the Stardust capsule as it streaks...
Public to look for dust grains in Stardust detectors
	Posted by cogitator On General/Chat 01/13/2006 4:48:14 PM EST · 102+ views SpaceRef | 1/12/2006 | Robert Sanders BERKELEY -- Astronomy buffs who jumped at the chance to use their home computers in the SETI@home search for intelligent life in the universe will soon be able to join an Internet-based search for dust grains originating from stars millions of light years away. In a new project called Stardust@home, University of California, Berkeley, researchers will invite Internet users to help them search for a few dozen submicroscopic grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA's Stardust spacecraft and due to return to Earth in January 2006. Though Stardust's main mission was to capture dust from the tail of comet Wild...
Capsule to Bring Comet Samples to Earth
	Posted by BenLurkin On News/Activism 01/14/2006 10:24:42 PM EST · 34 replies · 571+ views AP | 1 hour, 41 minutes ago | ALICIA CHANG, TOOELE, Utah - The last time NASA scientists hunkered down at a Utah Army base, they stared wide-eyed as a space probe carrying solar wind atoms crashed into the salt flats and split open like a giant clamshell. Flash forward two years. Nerves are on edge as scientists anxiously await the return of another space probe ó this one named Stardust and bearing the first comet samples ever carried to Earth. It is scheduled to make a pre-dawn landing at the Army's remote Dugway Proving Ground on Sunday. Memories of the ill-fated 2004 Genesis landing, in which the space probe's...
Capsule Carrying Comet Dust Lands in Utah
	Posted by BenLurkin On News/Activism 01/15/2006 9:26:48 AM EST · 39 replies · 868+ views AP | 45 minutes ago | ALICIA CHANG, DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah - A space capsule ferrying the first comet dust samples to Earth parachuted onto a remote stretch of desert before dawn Sunday, drawing cheers from elated scientists. The touchdown capped a seven-year journey by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which zipped past a comet in 2004 to capture minute dust particles and store them in the capsule. "It's an absolutely fantastic end to the mission," said Carlton Allen, a scientist with NASA's Johnson Space Center. A helicopter recovery team located the capsule Sunday and was transferring it to a clean room at the nearby Michael Army Air Field....
Stardust mission returned 'cosmic treasure,' scientist says
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 01/19/2006 4:45:23 PM EST · 24 replies · 595+ views ap on Bakersfield Californian | 1/19/06 | Pam Easton - ap SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - A honeycomb cluster of cells on NASA's Stardust spacecraft captured thousands of samples of interstellar and comet dust that scientists said Thursday could give them the first definitive evidence about how the solar system formed. "Its cargo was an ancient, cosmic treasure from the very edge of the solar system - a treasure that formed when the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago," said Donald Brownlee, a University of Washington scientist who worked on the Stardust mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Some of the samples collected during the seven-year,...
Elated Scientists Say Space-Dust Mission Exceeded Expectations
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 01/20/2006 1:36:07 AM EST · 39 replies · 662+ views NY Times | January 20, 2006 | WARREN E. LEARY The Stardust mission to bring back samples of comet and interstellar dust was more successful than they had hoped, scientists said yesterday. The 100-pound sample container from the seven-year mission, which landed on the salt flats of Utah on Sunday, captured thousands of particles, perhaps even a million, that originated at the edge of the solar system or from distant stars, they said. While they had expected mostly microscopic samples, the researchers said, a surprising number of the particles were large enough to be seen with the naked eye. "It exceeded all of our grandest expectations," Donald Brownlee of the...
See it Now: New Comet Brightens Rapidly
	Posted by annie laurie On General/Chat 02/24/2006 10:53:29 PM EST · 26 replies · 492+ views SPACE.COM (Imaginova Corp.) | 24 February 2006 | Joe Rao During the next couple of weeks skywatchers will be turning their attention to a newly discovered comet that has just swept past the Sun and will soon cruise past Earth on its way back out toward the depths of the outer solar system. Astronomers, who attempt to forecast the future characteristics and behavior of these cosmic vagabonds, have found this new object to be a better-than-average performer. The comet is now visible with a simple pair of binoculars, and it's also dimly visible to the naked eye if you know precisely where to look ...
Red rain could prove that aliens have landed
	Posted by Hadean On News/Activism 03/05/2006 11:26:40 AM EST · 78 replies · 1,865+ views Guardian Unlimited | Mar 5, 2006 Amelia Gentleman and Robin McKie Sunday March 5, 2006 The Observer There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers. Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it...
Comet dust sample contains surprises - evidence for outersolar origin
	Posted by S0122017 On News/Activism 03/14/2006 6:55:06 AM EST · 18 replies · 588+ views sciencdaily | March 13 Comet dust sample contains surprises LEAGUE CITY, Texas, March 13 (UPI) -- Scientists analyzing recent samples of comet dust say they have discovered minerals that formed near the sun or other stars. That means materials from the innermost part of the solar system could have traveled to the outer reaches, where comets formed. "The interesting thing is we are finding these high-temperature minerals in materials from the coldest place in the solar system," said Donald Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer and the lead scientist for NASA's Stardust mission. Among the finds in material brought back by Stardust is olivine,...
Sizzling Comets Circle a Dying Star
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 03/15/2006 10:51:58 AM EST · 9 replies · 159+ views NASA press release | July 11, 2001 | Dr. Tony Phillips IRC+10216, also known as CW Leonis, was once a well-behaved main-sequence star as our own Sun is now... When astronomers turned the satellite toward IRC+10216 they discovered a substantial cloud of water vapor about 100 AU across. ("AU" --short for Astronomical Unit-- is a unit of length used by astronomers. One AU equals the mean distance between Earth and the Sun.) "There must be about four Earth-masses of frozen water around IRC+10216 to produce the vapor cloud we see," says Melnick. The water vapor probably does not come from the vaporization of oceans on an Earth-like planet, because there wouldn't...
Clandestine comets found in main asteroid belt - Earth oceans origin
	Posted by S0122017 On News/Activism 03/24/2006 5:26:05 AM EST · 5 replies · 323+ views newscientist space | 23 March 2006 Clandestine comets found in main asteroid belt 19:00 23 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kimm Groshong You do not have to look to the outer edges of the solar system, or even out beyond Neptune to observe a reservoir of comets. A bevy of the ice-containing bodies lies disguised as main-belt asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, claim astronomers from the University of Hawaii, US. David Jewitt and Henry Hsieh have dubbed the new population "main belt comets". They describe three objects with near circular, flat orbits in the asteroid belt that stream volatile materials, producing an observable tail for weeks...
Hybrid Comet-Asteroid In Mysterious Break-Up
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/11/2006 6:06:42 PM EDT · 33 replies · 993+ views New Scientist | 4-11-2006 | Jeff Hecht Hybrid comet-asteroid in mysterious break-up 09:30 11 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Jeff HechtThe large, diffuse breakaway object is centred at the 2 o'clock position relative to the nucleus. The image is a negative, with the darkest areas representing the brightest objects. Something substantial has broken off an icy 50-kilometre object beyond the orbit of Saturn, leaving puzzled astronomers trying to figure out why. Comets have been seen breaking up before, but only after heating when passing close to the Sun or a gravitational disturbance following a close encounter with a planet. However, at 1.9 billion kilometres, this object is...
Tale Of (King) Arthur Points To Comet Catastrophe
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/21/2006 7:39:40 PM EDT · 80 replies · 1,564+ views The Times | 9-9-2000 | Nick Nuttall TALE OF ARTHUR POINTS TO COMET CATASTROPHE From The Times, 9 September 2000 http://www.the-times.co.uk BY NICK NUTTALL Arthur: myth links him to fire from the sky THE story of the death of King Arthur and its references to a wasteland may have been inspired by the apocalyptic effects of a giant comet bombarding the Earth in AD540, leading to the Dark Ages, a British scientist said yesterday. The impacts filled the atmosphere with dust and debris; a long winter began. Crops failed, and there was famine, Dr Mike Baillie of Queen's University, Belfast, told the British Association for the Advancement...
Former Military Air Traffic Controller Claims Comet Collision with Earth on May 25, 2006
	Posted by george76 On News/Activism 04/21/2006 10:54:42 PM EDT · 297 replies · 5,556+ views Eric Julien, a former French military air traffic controller and senior airport manager, has completed a study of the comet 73P Schwassmann- Wachmann and declared that a fragment is highly likely to impact the Earth on or around May 25, 2006. Comet Schwassman-Wachmann follows a five-year orbit that crosses the solar system's ecliptic plane. It has followed its five year orbit intact for centuries; but, in 1995, mysteriously fragmented. According to Julien, this is the same year that a crop circle appeared showing the inner solar system with the Earth missing from its orbit. He argues the "Missing Earth" crop...
Self-Destructing Comet To Flash Close By
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/25/2006 5:17:04 PM EDT · 45 replies · 984+ views New Scientist | 4-24-2006 | Kimm Groshong Self-destructing comet to flash close by 10:30 24 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kimm Groshong Astronomers will soon be treated to a close-up celestial show, with a fragmenting comet streaming across the sky in more than 30 chunks. Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has been breaking up since 1995, but between 12 and 14 May will come closer to the Earth than any comet since 1983. Fortunately no threat is posed to Earth since, even at its closest, the nearest of the pieces will be twenty times more distant than the Moon. But astronomers around the world will take advantage of the...
NASA Says Comet Fragments Won't Hit Earth (WHEW!!!)
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 04/27/2006 7:32:53 PM EDT · 46 replies · 814+ views Space.com on Yahoo | 4/27/06 | Tariq Malik Chunks of a comet currently splitting into pieces in the night sky will not strike the Earth next month, nor will it spawn killer tsunamis and mass extinctions, NASA officials said Thursday. The announcement, NASA hopes, will squash rumors that a fragment of the crumbling Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW 3) will slam into Earth just before Memorial Day. "There are some Internet stories going around that there's going to be an impact on May 25," NASA spokesperson Grey Hautaluoma, told SPACE.com. "We just want to get the facts out." Astronomers have been observing 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, a comet that circles the...
Comet Break-Up Pictured By Hubble
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 04/28/2006 9:06:26 PM EDT · 28 replies · 442+ views BBC | 4-28-2006 Comet break-up pictured by Hubble The image shows the break-up of one fragment into smaller pieces The break-up of a comet has been shown in extraordinary detail by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The images reveal the comet has crumbled into over three dozen fragments; many more than had been shown from ground-based observations. Astronomers say the Hubble images will provide an unprecedented opportunity to study a comet's demise. The disintegrating comet will pass Earth on 6 May at a distance of 11.7 million km (7.3 million miles). Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, discovered in 1930 by German astronomers, orbits the Sun...
Big Breakup: That's The Way The Comet Crumbles
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/07/2006 12:14:17 PM EDT · 32 replies · 670+ views Science News | 5-7-2006 | Ron Cowen Big Breakup: That's the way the comet crumbles Ron Cowen Scores of telescopes are watching a comet fall apart, and the main show may be only beginning. The comet has already fragmented into at least 59 pieces and may continue to break up as it reaches its position closest to the sun on June 6. In mid-May, the chunks will venture within 11.7 million kilometers of Earthóthe closest any comet has come to our planet in 20 yearsóand the largest fragments should be visible with binoculars. Called Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, this body passes near the sun every 5.4 years and...

[SunkenCiv]

Just a ping message update, and one more bump to RightWhale.

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