Skywatch

[Palehorse]

No words can describe ...

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/gallery/assets/movies/March_prom.mpg





http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2013/04/graceful-eruption?et_cid=3176655&et_rid=41373174&location=top

Astoundingly awesome! 

[Locutus]

What a burp! 

[Palehorse]

What a burp! 

Yeah. That one is chunky! 

[libby]

Astoundingly awesome! 

[libby]

That is a beautiful avatar, Palehorse

[Palehorse]

That is a beautiful avatar, Palehorse

Thank you! 

[Bo D]

I get these emails from Scientific Computing every day. However, the subject line on today's email made me stop and look twice .....

"Hubble Sees Space Invader; Cloud of Atoms as Optical Memory Device; $100M for Brain Mapping"

They left out one tiny word from the story ... 

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2013/04/hubble-sees-space-invader-image?et_cid=3183564&et_rid=41373174&location=top

[Locutus]

That's pretty funny.

[Bo D]

Yippee-Ki-Yay

NASA to Lasso Asteroid

NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator said April 5, 2013. The ship would capture the 500-ton, 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2013/04/nasa-lasso-asteroid-bring-it-closer?et_cid=3185769&et_rid=41373174&location=top

[Henry Hawk]

Yippee-Ki-Yay

NASA to Lasso Asteroid

NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator said April 5, 2013. The ship would capture the 500-ton, 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2013/04/nasa-lasso-asteroid-bring-it-closer?et_cid=3185769&et_rid=41373174&location=top

That is very cool........

[Locutus]

An update on ISON:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A recently discovered comet, dazzlingly bright even though it is still almost as far away as Jupiter, is racing toward a November rendezvous with the sun, officials said on Tuesday.

If it survives the encounter - and that's a big if - the comet may be visible even in daylight in Earth's skies at the end of the year.

Discovered by amateur astronomers in September 2012, Comet ISON is about to reach the outer edge of the asteroid belt, located some 280 million miles (451 million km) from Earth, said William Cooke, lead scientist at NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The comet is shedding dust from its nucleus at a rate of more than 112,000 pounds (50,802 kg) per minute, the result of heating by the sun, observations from NASA's Swift telescope show.

That level of activity is unusual for a comet still so far away from the sun. It could spell its doom.

Preliminary measurements made with the Hubble Space Telescope, which captured an image of the comet that was released on Tuesday, indicate Comet ISON's body is no more than 4 miles in diameter.

The comet's nucleus will continue to shrink as it flies closer toward the sun and heats up. The rock-and-ice object could break up completely before it gets as close as 700,000 miles (1.1 million km) from the sun's surface on November 28.

A comet in the 1970s passed 10 times farther away than that and partly disintegrated, Cooke said.

"I doubt this thing is going to survive. I guess we won't know for sure until we look for it to come out from behind the sun," he said.

The comet was named for the International Scientific Optical Network, or ISON, telescope that made its discovery.

http://news.yahoo.com/hubble-telescope-spies-incoming-comet-ison-221940848.html

[Locutus]

[Locutus]

PLANETARY ALIGNMENT PEAKS WITH CELESTIAL SHOW THIS WEEKEND

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets in the sky this month, will be joined by tiny Mercury for a rare celestial show this weekend.

Typically, Venus, the second-closest planet to the sun, and Jupiter, which orbits beyond Mars, are tens of millions of miles apart. But they have been cycling together while moving ever closer to each other this month, joined by the innermost planet Mercury.

The celestial show peaks on Sunday when the trio will appear as a bright triangle of light in the western sky beginning about 30 minutes after sunset.

Triple conjunctions are relatively rare, according to NASA. The last one was in May 2011 and the next one will not occur until October 2015.

"This triple is especially good because it involves the three brightest planets in May's night sky," the U.S. space agency said on its website.

The formation should be visible even in places with bright city lights, though a clear view of the western horizon is a must.

Astronomers suggest sky-watchers let Venus and Jupiter be their guide. As the sky darkens the planets will be visible to the naked eye.

"They really do shine so brightly that you might mistake them for one or two approaching airplanes with their landing lights turned on," the University of Texas' StarDate magazine wrote on its website.

On Sunday, Mercury forms the top of the triangle. By Monday, Venus and Jupiter will be side by side, less than 1 degree apart.

"After that, Venus and Mercury will continue to climb higher into the evening sky, while Jupiter drops toward the sun," said StarDate.

Link

[libby]

   I have no view of the western sky now that all the deciduous trees behind and up the little hill in back of my house totally cover the western sky. I'm trying to think of some place I could go, not too far away. Hmmm ... maybe in the Giant Food parking lot, just a few miles away ... I hate to go there in the evening because of the sun.

[libby]

Locutus, did you see it? I didn't.