comet

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Orionid Meteor Shower Headed This Way

Moon likely to obscure comet dust

(Newser) - The annual Orionid meteor shower will peak just before dawn on Friday and Saturday this week —although the sight won't be as amazing in years past, astronomers say. The meteor shower—caused by Earth passing through a cloud of dust left behind by Halley's comet—will be...

'Doomsday' Comet Passing by Earth

Online theorists saw armageddon

(Newser) - A comet touted as the bringer of Armageddon will fly past Earth tomorrow night in a knot of icy fragments, Space.com reports. At least one astronomer, however, does not foresee earthquakes and tsunamis. The so-called "doomsday comet," Elenin, "was a second-rate, wimpy little comet that never...

Earth-like Water Spotted on Comet

Oceans may have been formed by collisions with comets

(Newser) - Most of the water that fills the world's oceans—and makes up more than half of the human body—may have started out as comets, not asteroids as current theories hold, according to new research. Scientists using the Herschel telescope found that unlike other comets studied, the comet Hartley...

NASA Retires 'Stardust' Comet Hunter
 NASA Retires Comet Hunter 
Mar 25, 2011 1:57 AM CDT

NASA Retires Comet Hunter

Stardust spacecraft will burn out, then fade away

(Newser) - NASA's comet-hunting Stardust spacecraft ended its 12-year career with a final experiment. The probe, which has traveled billions of miles since its launch in 1999, was ordered to burn the remaining fuel in its tanks, allowing engineers to calculate how much was left and improve fuel consumption models, Popular Science...

NASA Spacecraft Set to Rendezvous With Comet

It'll be within 125 miles of Manhattan-sized rock

(Newser) - A NASA spacecraft is about to make a massive comet its valentine. If all goes as planned, the Stardust spacecraft will get up close and personal today with a comet half the size of Manhattan that’s hurtling through space at 24,000 miles per hour, the Washington Post reports....

NASA Probe Passes 'Snow Globe' Comet

Hartley covered with golf ball-size 'snowballs'

(Newser) - NASA's Deep Impact probe soared past a comet earlier this month, revealing the mass to be peppered with "snowballs," the BBC reports. Comet Hartley, encountered some 14 million miles from Earth, "looks like a 'snow globe' that you've just simply shaken,” said a scientist. Another noted...

NASA Probe Sweeps Past 'Space Peanut'

Hartley 2 comet is spewing out cyanide gas

(Newser) - NASA's Deep Impact probe is sending back amazing images from the comet Hartley 2, say team scientists. The probe, after a journey of 2.9 billion miles, came to within 435 miles for a fly-by of the intriguing peanut-shaped comet, the BBC reports. The comet is roughly 1.4 miles...

NASA Finds Bizarre X-Shaped Comet

Debris from extremely recent collision

(Newser) - The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a bizarre X-shaped object with a comet-like streak of dust behind it, NASA announced yesterday. Scientists believe the images represent an extremely recent asteroid collision, with a small rock, perhaps 10-15 feet wide, colliding with a larger, roughly 400-foot-wide one. When...

NASA Launches Telescope to Detect Space Threats

WISE infrared telescope will scan whole sky for hazardous objects

(Newser) - NASA today launched the first orbiting telescope since 1983 designed to search the entire sky for objects and phenomena invisible to conventional optics. Over the next nine months, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer will scan the whole sky one and a half times over looking for asteroids and comets that...

Key Component of Earth Life Found in Comet

(Newser) - An amino acid necessary to the construction of proteins, and therefore life on Earth, has been found in a comet that passes through our solar system, Space.com reports. Glycine was found in samples picked up by a NASA spacecraft in 2004. The discovery suggests that life’s building blocks...

Hubble Snaps Photos of Jupiter Impact

(Newser) - NASA pulled the recently upgraded Hubble space telescope out of testing yesterday to take a photo of the Earth-sized impact scar on Jupiter, CNN reports. “Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble,” a NASA scientist says. “...

Jupiter Slammed by Mystery Object

(Newser) - A massive mysterious object scientists believe may be a comet slammed into Jupiter yesterday, AP reports. The Earth-size impact "scar" left by the object was caught on NASA's powerful infrared telescope in Hawaii. The agency was alerted to the new mark on the planet by an amateur astronomer in...

Comet Might Not Have Killed Mammoths After All: Study

Peat bog analysis contradicts cometary impact theory

(Newser) - New evidence undermines the theory that the impact from a comet killed off the woolly mammoth and enough humans to end the prehistoric Clovis culture, the BBC reports. Supporters of the impact theory point to a planet-wide rash of wildfires, but while a new analysis of sediment under North American...

Odds of Cataclysmic Space-Rock Crash: 1 in 10

Despite danger, NASA doing little to protect planet

(Newser) - Chicken Little may have been smarter than we thought. A growing body of evidence reveals that the sky is falling, or at least gigantic space rocks are—and the Earth is at far greater risk of a catastrophic strike than previously thought, reports Atlantic. Despite the danger—an impact could...

Get Ready for a Light Show
Get Ready for a Light Show
Dec 11, 2007 12:39 PM CST

Get Ready for a Light Show

Geminids will benefit from a moonless night

(Newser) - This week's incarnation of the annual Geminid meteor shower should be particularly awe-inspiring, reports National Geographic, because it coincides with dark, moonless sky for the first time since 1996. Skywatchers can expect at least 110 meteors per minute, with the best viewing on Thursday and Friday. The peak will be...

Comet Dust Will Light Sky
Comet Dust Will Light Sky
Aug 11, 2007 1:46 PM CDT

Comet Dust Will Light Sky

(Newser) - Comet debris will light up the sky tomorrow night and Monday morning with shooting stars as Earth passes through the Perseid meteor shower. For the best view, pick a dark spot away from city lights and look east, says the Discovery Channel. "It's going to be a great show,...

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