People using telescopes to stare at the night sky on December 20 or 26 might see a distant light traversing the heavens, but proclaiming it as a harbinger of a New Testament rerun would be unwise.
The European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre advises that on neither night will the Star of Bethlehem be visible, but an asteroid very likely will be.
On December 20 a 300-metre-wide rock known as (216258) 2006 WH1 will whizz by. Six days later, (310442) 2000 CH59 – a bit bigger, at 400 metres – will do the same.
Not to change the topic here:
Asteroid Bennu is shooting out rocks – and NASA isn't sure why | Fox News
Asteroid Bennu, which could provide answers to questions about the origins of our solar system, is mysteriously launching particles into space and NASA isn't sure why.
Since reaching the massive space rock in December 2018 , NASA has observed multiple particle-ejection events, including three major ones on Jan. 6, Jan. 19 and Feb. 11. The researchers found that the particles either orbited Bennu and fell back to its surface or escaped its orbit and went into space. The largest event, which took place on Jan. 6, saw "approximately 200 particles" get ejected from the asteroid, NASA wrote in a blog post .
Pyramid-shaped 427-foot asteroid set to whiz past Earth | Fox News
The space rock will fly harmlessly past our planet. Asteroid VH5 2019 will make its flyby at about 17.9 lunar distances on Dec. 8, according to the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The asteroid has dimensions of 57 meters (187 feet) by 130 meters (426.5 feet), NASA says.
The average distance between Earth and the Moon is 238,855 miles , so the asteroid will be around 4.27 million miles from our planet when it makes its flyby. VH5 2019 will be traveling at 6.1 miles per second.
Giant pyramid-shaped asteroid to shoot past earth in hours | The Independent
At 187ft by 426.5ft, the asteroid is "pyramid-shaped" and almost as large as the Great Pyramid of Giza.
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In 2017, an asteroid the size of a skyscraper called 2010 NY65 flew past around eight times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
A recent study suggests that over the last 290 million years, asteroids have been crashing into Earth at triple their previous rate.
When it hit the surface it had an explosive impact 10 billion times bigger than the bomb that dropped on Hiroshima.
Not to change the topic here:
UA takes lead on new NASA mission to detect asteroids, comets that could hit Earth | Local news |
In 2017, the University of Arizona, along with NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, led an international team of astronomers to successfully complete the first campaign to test the global response to an asteroid threat.
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Jasmine joined the Star in 2019. With a master's degree in journalism, Jasmine served in a variety of leadership roles, including The Daily Wildcat's editor-in-chief. She was also named Outstanding Newsperson of the Year by the UA School of Journalism.
NASA solar probe snaps elusive asteroid trails for the first time - CNET
Parker Solar Probe's WISPR camera suite captured the elusive dust trail, pictured here (dotted line).
Parker is equipped with the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR), a suite of cameras built specifically for taking photos around the sun. Usually, light from the trail is obscured by the brightness of the sun, but the WISPR cameras are specially designed to filter out all that light, giving astronomers a chance to see the faint dust cloud trailing asteroid 3200 Phaethon.
Engineers pull off daring rescue of OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission
The OSIRIS-REx team identified Osprey as one of the most promising sites on Bennu's rugged surface, based on its relatively smooth terrain and lack of large, potentially hazardous boulders. Osprey is set inside an approximately 66-foot- (20-meter-) wide crater near Bennu's equator.
On Oct. 12, engineers were planning to collect critical images of the surface in order to assess Osprey's population of rocks that might be small enough to be ingested into OSIRIS-REx's sample collection head when the spacecraft ultimately touches Bennu next year. This assessment was the key piece of information the team needed to choose the top sample collection site from the final four.
Our Only Known 'Asteroid Shower' Peaks This Weekend Under A Near-Full Moon. Here's How To Watch
A view of the sky over Russky Island off Vladivostok lit up by the Geminid meteor shower. Yuri ... [+] Smityuk/TASS (Photo by Yuri Smityuk\TASS via Getty Images)
This year's Geminid meteor shower—easily the year's finest—will probably pass unnoticed in the northern hemisphere. It's too cold. No-one goes out stargazing, and fewer still want to spend a significant amount of time outside, least of all lying down on a blanket.
Perhaps that's just as well in 2019 because this week's full moon is in the sky shortly after dark, and shining all night thereafter. The chances of seeing shooting stars from the Geminids is therefore less than normal, though it still should be possible to see some of the 150 per hour some are predicting.
Happening on Twitter
There it is folks! The first visible detection of a dust trail following the orbit of near-Sun/near-Earth active as… https://t.co/JuMoiralAB SungrazerComets (from Washington, D.C.) Wed Dec 11 19:04:15 +0000 2019
Down in the red earth. @AFP photographer Abdulaziz Ketaz zooms in on a camp for displaced Syrians near the village… https://t.co/BhDVoKbulm AFP (from France) Thu Dec 12 06:53:45 +0000 2019
The Cusp Heating Investigation sounding rocket launched from the island of Svalbard in Norway early on Dec. 10! Thi… https://t.co/oz54raCFXi NASASun (from NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, MD) Wed Dec 11 21:39:00 +0000 2019
NASA identifies near-collision asteroid to fly past Earth on Friday the 13th @NASA https://t.co/Ku1FbIBf8V SputnikInt Thu Dec 12 03:50:00 +0000 2019
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