Bus-sized asteroid shaves by Earth

Seeded on Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:35 PM EST (National Nine News)

Seeded by Abby.

An asteroid about the size of a bus shaved by Earth on Friday in what spacewatchers described as a "near-miss," though experts were not concerned about the possibility of an impact. The asteroid, named 2012 BX34, measured between six and 19m in diameter, said Gareth Williams, as …

world-news

Kepler telescope team finds 11 new solar systems|

Seeded on Thu Jan 26, 2012 6:07 PM EST (Reuters)

Seeded by J. Lemert Whitmer (Clipped by Pacific Northwest Blogger)

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found 11 new planetary systems, including one with five planets all orbiting closer to their parent star than Mercury circles the Sun, scientists said on Thursday.

science, planets, discoveries, kepler, solar-systems

Powerful Solar Storm Sets Off Amazing Northern Lights Show

Seeded on Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:45 AM EST (Space.com)

Seeded by rottlady

Lights Over Lapland photographer Chad Blakley captured this amazing view of the aurora borealis in Sweden on January 24th, 2012. The January 23rd solar flare and ensuing coronal mass ejection are the 'lighting engineers' of this incredible display.

science, northern-lights, aurora-borealis, good-news-wednesday, the-sky, amazing-sky

Flights rerouted as solar storm slams Earth

Seeded on Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:01 AM EST (National Nine News)

Seeded by Abby.

Solar radiation from a massive sun storm -- the largest in nearly a decade -- collided with the Earth's atmosphere on Tuesday, prompting an airline to reroute flights and skywatchers to seek out spectacular light displays. US carrier Delta Air Lines said it had adjusted flight …

Comet Seen Vaporizing in Sun's Atmosphere—A First

Seeded on Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:58 AM EST (National Geographic)

Seeded by Ivan Pavlov

For the first time, a death-diving comet has been observed as it vaporized in the sun's atmosphere, thanks to new data from a NASA satellite. More than a thousand known comets are so-called Kreutz sungrazers, a family of icy bodies that pass very near to the sun's surface on t …

science, astronomy, comets, solar-system, sun

Life on Mars (and elsewhere) | Chart

Seeded on Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:34 AM EST (The Economist)

Seeded by calculi

No doubt Earth is the most habitable of all, but it does not hold the perfect score. Luckily, it's not human which is making Earth less than perfectly habitable, but rather it is due to "tidal flexing".

science, astronomy, earth, planet, economist, astrophysics, habitable, exoplanet, planet-search, habitability

The Compositions of Kuiper Belt Objects

Seeded on Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:31 AM EST (astro-ph updates on arXiv.org)

Seeded by Ivan Pavlov

Objects in the Kuiper belt are small and far away thus difficult to study in detail even with the best telescopes available at earth.

science, astronomy, solar-system, asteroids, kupier-belt

Planetary Rings

Seeded on Thu Dec 22, 2011 3:34 AM EST (astro-ph updates on arXiv.org)

Seeded by Ivan Pavlov

Matthew Tiscareno from Cornell University has published an extensive review article on planetary rings. It covers briefly all recent research and is very readable.

science, astronomy, solar-system, planets

New evidence for complex molecules on Pluto's surface

Seeded on Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:30 AM EST (PhysOrg.com)

Seeded by Ivan Pavlov

The new and highly sensitive Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a strong ultraviolet-wavelength absorber on Pluto's surface, providing new evidence that points to the possibility of complex hydrocarbon and/or nitrile molecules lying on …

science, astronomy, solar-system, pluto