Comets

 The year's best meteor shower, the Geminids, peaks this week. Skygazers may see as many as one or even two a minute streaking across dark skies.The meteors will reach their frenzy Thursday. But Wednesday night should provide a cosmic spectacle as well. The moon is waning so that will make for prime viewing anywhere in the world where skies are clear and in spots without light pollution. NASA urged observers to look everywhere in the sky since meteors don't come from any particular direction. Between 60 and 120 meteors…

Three New Brunswickers are enjoying an astronomical surprise: an asteroid has been named after them.It's called Mipach — using the first two letters from the names of Saint Johners Mike Powell, Paul Owen and Chris Curwin."I saw the email and the other two guys hadn't seen it yet. So I was frantically on the phone and messaging them back and forth, getting them to take a look. So it was just overwhelming," Curwin said.The asteroid is 6.37 kilometres in diameter and resides in the main belt, between the orbit of Mars and…

University of Cambridge researchers have demonstrated how comets could deliver life’s molecular building blocks to planets in the galaxy, particularly in ‘peas in a pod’ systems where planets orbit closely together.Cambridge researchers propose that comets could transport life’s building blocks to other planets, especially in ‘peas in a pod’ systems. Their findings suggest that these molecules can survive on planets with closely orbiting neighbors, offering new insights into the search for extraterrestrial life.How did…

Somebody hit the warp speed button, judging from the icy wings astronomers have spotted surrounding an approaching comet. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which has been likened to the Millennium Falcon of Star Wars fame by one astronomy website for its new look, is now inbound on a fast pass by the sun. It’s one of the brightest known Halley–like comets, which are icy rocks that take 20 to 200 years to orbit the sun and do so along a steeply inclined path relative to the rest of the solar system. On July 20 astronomers worldwide…

If you're a budding astronomer and asteroid hunter, then you can help NASA discover and track asteroids in space! NASA's new Daily Minor Planet Project allows astronomers and skywatchers to help discover new asteroids and track them in data sets. To capture asteroids, the Daily Minor Project uses the NASA-funded, University of Arizona-based Catalina Sky Survey which captures nearly 1000 images every night. Due to this volume, NASA scientists fall short of personnel to study these images.NASA says, “You'll decide if the…

Avi Loeb, a physicist from Harvard University in the US, has recovered 50 tiny spherical iron fragments from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that he claims may be material from an interstellar alien spaceship.Loeb is linking his finding with the passage of a fireball in January 2014. The meteor was observed by sensors of the US Department of Defense that track all objects entering the Earth's atmosphere. It was recorded as travelling faster than most meteors and eventually broke up over the South Pacific Ocean near Papua…

Recent findings have shed light on the mysterious origins of the annual Geminid meteor shower. In a NASA blog post on June 14, 2023, Desiree Apodaca from the Goddard Space Flight Center revealed intriguing insights suggesting that a high-speed collision or a gaseous explosion could be responsible for creating the Geminid meteor stream.Unlike other meteor showers such as the Delta Aquariids or the Perseids, which are caused by debris from icy comets orbiting the sun, the Geminid meteors have a different source.For several…

The Geminids meteor shower is one of the most spectacular meteor showers that occurs annually. For the unaware, meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from asteroids. While asteroids can be found in space in their own orbits, they leave behind debris trails consisting of meteors. As Earth revolves around the Sun, it passes through these clouds which allows the rocky bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky. Although it has been known that the…

Over the past few months, we have witnessed several breathtaking but peculiarly-shaped nebulae, as part of NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day which is published on a daily basis. Although most nebulae belong to just three types - spherical, elliptical, and bipolar, some of them might be irregularly shaped, so much so that they resemble objects on Earth. Some of the most peculiar shapes include the Headphone Nebula, the Heart and Soul Nebula, and the Flying Ghost Nebula. For the unaware, a nebula is a star-forming region…

For most of its…