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Astronomers are making a surprising breakthrough in the study of Venus, as new simulations suggest there may be a hidden family of asteroids quietly orbiting the Sun alongside the planet. This discovery, detailed in a recent study by Valerio Carruba and his team at São Paulo State University, is like uncovering an entire continent that was previously unknown. The research, published on the preprint server arXiv, uncovers important insights about the dynamics of Venus’ orbit and could have significant implications for our understanding of the solar system. Venus has long been one of the most mysterious planets in our solar...

A newly discovered comet, SWAN25F, is racing across April’s morning sky—catch it now with binoculars before it makes its closest approach to Earth and the sun in early May. Newly Discovered Comet SWAN25F Now Visible—Here’s How to See It Before It Disappears | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel =========================================================================== A new comet, officially designated SWAN25F, has entered the morning skies of the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s already visible with binoculars. The comet was first spotted on April 1, 2025, by Australian amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazo, who identified it in images from SWAN, an instrument aboard the ESA’s SOHO spacecraft....

An artistic representation of Chiron’s nucleus surrounded by debris and a coma of dust and gas. Credit: William Gonzalez Sierra UCF researchers utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover unique characteristics of (2060) Chiron, a distant “centaur” that exhibits traits of both a comet and an asteroid. These findings provide valuable insights into the origins of our Solar System. Although our Solar System is billions of years old, we’ve only recently gained deeper insight into one of its most dynamic and intriguing members: (2060) Chiron. Chiron belongs to a group of celestial objects known as “Centaurs.” These objects orbit...

COMET 2024 G3 LEFT THE WOLF HEAD and it's races toward the Sun (Watch date Jan 13th 2025 ) It could be a great object for astronomical observers in the southern hemisphere. Its perihelion, the closest point to the Sun, will occur on 13th January 2025, when it will be only 14 million kilometres from our star.

Explanation: It was a night of 100,000 meteors. The Great Meteor Storm of 1833 was perhaps the most impressive meteor event in recent history. Best visible over eastern North America during the pre-dawn hours of November 13, many people -- including a young Abraham Lincoln -- were woken up to see the sky erupt in streaks and flashes. Hundreds of thousands of meteors blazed across the sky, seemingly pouring out of the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The featured image is a digitization of a wood engraving which itself was based on a painting from a first-person account. We know...

A piece of the famous Halley's comet likely slammed into Earth in A.D. 536, blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that the planet cooled considerably, a new study suggests. This dramatic climate shift is linked to drought and famine around the world, which may have made humanity more susceptible to "Justinian's plague" in A.D. 541-542 — the first recorded emergence of the Black Death in Europe. The new results come from an analysis of Greenland ice that was laid down between A.D. 533 and 540. The ice cores record large amounts of atmospheric dust during this seven-year period, not...

Double impact may have caused tsunami, global cooling Pieces of a giant asteroid or comet that broke apart over Earth may have crashed off Australia about 1,500 years ago, says a scientist who has found evidence of the possible impact craters. Satellite measurements of the Gulf of Carpentaria (see map) revealed tiny changes in sea level that are signs of impact craters on the seabed below, according to new research by marine geophysicist Dallas Abbott. Based on the satellite data, one crater should be about 11 miles (18 kilometers) wide, while the other should be 7.4 miles (12 kilometers) wide....

Multiple comet impacts around 1500 years ago triggered a "dry fog" that plunged half the world into famine. Historical records tell us that from the beginning of March 536 AD, a fog of dust blanketed the atmosphere for 18 months. During this time, "the sun gave no more light than the moon", global temperatures plummeted and crops failed, says Dallas Abbott of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York... Now Abbott and her team have found the first direct evidence that multiple impacts caused the haze. They found tiny balls of condensed rock vapour or "spherules" in debris inside...

Explanation: On October 14 it was hard to capture a full view of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Taken after the comet's closest approach to our fair planet, this evening skyview almost does though. With two telephoto frames combined, the image stretches about 26 degrees across the sky from top to bottom, looking west from Gates Pass, Tucson, Arizona. Comet watchers that night could even identify globular star cluster M5 and the faint apparition of periodic comet 13P Olbers near the long the path of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's whitish dust tail above the bright comet's coma. Due to perspective as the Earth is...

Okay, this is starting to get really weird. At the same time that the Middle East is erupting in flames, the U.S. is being pummeled by major natural disasters and we are preparing for the most pivotal election in modern history, extremely unusual things are happening in the heavens. The “Comet of the Century” is making a spectacular run past our planet, the Sun has unleashed an extremely powerful coronal mass ejection, a “second Moon” is now orbiting our world, and it is being suggested that we are witnessing an “intriguing alignment of constellations and stars” that appears to relate...

Bright Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Becomes Visible in Evening Sky by Clarence Oxford Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 10, 2024 Starting October 11th, Northern Hemisphere observers will have the chance to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in the evening sky for the first time in years. The comet will make its first evening appearance on Friday, visible low in the west during twilight. It will rise higher and become more easily visible throughout the weekend, reaching its peak visibility early next week. Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3), discovered in early 2023, is now nearing Earth after swinging around the Sun on September 27th. On October...

Explanation: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is growing brighter in planet Earth's sky. Fondly known as comet A3, this new visitor to the inner Solar System is traveling from the distant Oort cloud. The comet reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on September 27 and will reach perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on October 12, by then becoming an evening sky apparition. But comet A3 was an early morning riser on September 30 when this image was made. Its bright coma and already long tail share a pre-dawn skyscape from Praia Grande, Santa Catarina in southern Brazil...

Explanation: What will happen as this already bright comet approaches? Optimistic predictions have Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) briefly becoming easily visible to the unaided eye -- although the future brightness of comets are notoriously hard to predict, and this comet may even break up in warming sunlight. What is certain is that the comet is now unexpectedly bright and is on track to pass its closest to the Sun (0.39 AU) later this week and closest to the Earth (0.47 AU) early next month. The featured image was taken in late May as Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, discovered only last year, passed...

Could Comet A3 become another Great Comet, or even simply reach naked-eye brightness? We'll find out in autumn 2024... Have you heard about Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) yet? Comet observers are all hoping for big things from comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) in autumn 2024. When it was discovered, it was hailed as a potential ‘comet of the century’ and calculations suggested it might become as bright as mag. -4! It’s now thought that at best A3 will reach mag. +0.4, a lot fainter but still much brighter than the last really bright comet, C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), which delighted sky-watchers in...

The Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet, also named C/2023 A3, will reach its closest approach to the Sun, or perihelion, on Friday, September 27, 2024, at a distance of 59 million kilometers. As the comet journeys through the inner solar system, it offers an impressive display.... In the United States... From September 27 to September 30, the comet will be best observed in the southeastern sky, about an hour before dawn.... ...the comet will be visible again in mid-October. On October 13, it will be at its closest to Earth, around 71 million kilometers away, and will be observable after sunset, looking west....

Explanation: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is now visible in the early morning sky. Diving into the inner Solar System at an odd angle, this large dirty iceberg will pass its closest to the Sun -- between the orbits of Mercury and Venus -- in just two days. Long camera exposures are now capturing C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), sometimes abbreviated as just A3, and its dust tail before and during sunrise. The featured image composite was taken four days ago and captured the comet as it rose above Lake George, NSW, Australia. Vertical bands further left are images of the comet as the rising...

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) has the potential to put on a stellar showThere's a new comet in the sky that has gained a lot of attention lately over its potential to become visible to the naked eye. Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) was discovered by observatories in China and South Africa in early 2023. Believed to have originated from the Oort Cloud — a giant spherical shell that surrounds our solar system and contains billions of icy objects — this little comet has been slowly making its way into our solar system. At the moment, Comet C/2023 A3 is roughly 175...

New measurements of Neptune's atmosphere by a European space telescope suggest that a comet may have crashed into the gas giant about 200 years ago.Scientists analyzed the composition of Neptune's atmosphere using data from the Herschel space observatory. They found a peculiar distribution of carbon monoxide in the gas giant's atmosphere, which could be an indication of an earlier comet impact...Other similar collisions between comets (or asteroids) and planets helped the astronomers detect the telltale signs of cometary impacts.When pieces of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter in 1994, scientists were able to examine the trajectory and debris to...

Explanation: Why does Comet Pons-Brooks now have tails pointing in opposite directions? The most spectacular tail is the blue-glowing ion tail that is visible flowing down the image. The ion tail is pushed directly out from the Sun by the solar wind. On the upper right is the glowing central coma of Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks. Fanning out from the coma, mostly to the left, is the comet's dust tail. Pushed out and slowed down by the pressure of sunlight, the dust tail tends to trail the comet along its orbit and, from some viewing angles, can appear opposite to the ion...

Explanation: How does a comet tail change? It depends on the comet. The ion tail of Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks has been changing markedly, as detailed in the featured image sequenced over nine days from March 6 to 14 (top to bottom). On some days, the comet's ion tail was relatively long and complex, but not every day. Reasons for tail changes include the rate of ejection of material from the comet's nucleus, the strength and complexity of the passing solar wind, and the rotation rate of the comet. Over the course of a week, apparent changes even include a change of...