We have posted a new update to our comet update page.
January 28, 2012
Comet 500 has now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly. This brings completion to "Countdown," and we expect to transition to a new program within the next two to three months. During the interim we will continue to update the update page just as we have throughout "Countdown;" new tally additions will be included as they are added, however this will normally be done without announcement or fanfare.
The first-known and second-largest of the near-Earth asteroids, (433) Eros, passes 0.179 AU (16.6 million miles, or 26.7 million km) from Earth on January 31. Eros was the destination of the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker mission, which orbited Eros from February 2000 to February 2001 and then successfully soft-landed upon the asteroid's surface. One of Earthrise's partner organizations, Astronomers Without Borders, is utilizing this week's Eros encounter to conduct a re-enactment of a classic research effort, the Eros Parallax Project.
January 14, 2012
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program.
January 8, 2012
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update reflects the fact that Comet Hill C/2010 G2 has recently undergone a relatively distinct outburst.
January 1, 2012
We wish a Happy New Year and a successful and prosperous 2012 to all our friends and colleagues all over the planet! We envision a number of changes taking place at Earthrise over the course of this new year, including some new projects and other efforts, and we invite our friends and colleagues to check in on us often.
Comets 498 and 499 have now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly.
The "In Our Skies" e-book available through our Earthrise Store now has columns up through the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, including those written since the resumption of the column in November. Among the recent columns are: "The Lakes of Europa" (November 25), "Kepler's Newest Worlds" (December 16), and "The Comet That Survived" (December 23).
The annual Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak on this coming Wednesday morning, January 4. The maximum, which is usually very brief, is expected between 7:00 and 8:00 Universal Time (Midnight to 1:00 A.M. MST), which means the prime viewing locations will be in eastern North America. (There is a waxing gibbous moon that will set around 3:00 A.M. local time.) The peak rates could exceed 100 meteors per hour.
December 24, 2011
We wish a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy Kwanzaa to our friends and colleagues around the planet who celebrate these holidays!
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. The Kreutz sungrazer Comet Lovejoy C/2011 W3 has now become a spectacular naked-eye object as seen from the southern hemisphere and from the International Space Station.
December 18, 2011
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update includes the latest news of the Kreutz sungrazer Comet Lovejoy C/2011 W3 which, in addition to putting on a spectacular show in the LASCO coronagraphs aboard SOHO, survived its perihelion passage and is now emerging into the southern hemisphere's morning sky as a bright object; we are thus listing it as a red print comet.
December 10, 2011
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update includes the latest news of the recently-discovered Kreutz sungrazer Comet Lovejoy C/2011 W3, which passes perihelion on December 15.
December 9, 2011
A total eclipse of the moon takes place on this coming Saturday, December 10. The eclipse is best viewed from the Pacific Ocean region, including Australia and eastern and central Asia; western North America will see the beginning stages before the moon sets, while eastern Europe and eastern Africa will see the final stages after the moon rises. (From the Earthrise location, the moon will set while still in partial eclipse.) Mid-eclipse is at 14:32 UT (7:32 A.M. MST), and the duration of totality is 51 minutes.
December 2, 2011
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update includes the recently-discovered Comet Lovejoy C/2011 W3 which apppears to be a Kreutz sungrazer and which is visible only from the southern hemisphere, and also reflects the fact that Comet SWAN C/2011 Q4 has emerged into the morning sky and is still visually detectable. Furthermore, Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 has just gone through aphelion and has been removed from the update page, until such time as it experiences another outburst and is again visually detectable; at that point it will receive a new tally number.
November 27, 2011
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update reflects the fact that Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 is now again accessible in the morning sky (although it currently appears to be inactive).
November 17, 2011
Comet 497 has now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly.
November 6, 2011
The near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 will be making an unusually close approach to Earth -- 0.0022 AU (198,000 miles, or 319,000 km) on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, November 8-9; this is slightly within the orbit of the moon. The asteroid should reach 11th magnitude during this flyby. Ephemerides can be computed via the Minor Planet Center's ephemeris service.
We are pleased to announce that the weekly "In Our Skies" column has now resumed. The e-book available through our Earthrise Store contains all the columns that were published up through the time of its suspension this past July, and we will be issuing a new edition at the end of this year.
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program.