Tag: comet

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A Rare Sight: Comet Last Seen in the Stone Age to Fly By Earth Tonight

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photo courtesy of NASA

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood Nj, get ready for a cosmic treat that happens only once in a lifetime—well, more like once in 80,000 lifetimes! A comet discovered just last year is set to make its closest approach to Earth on Saturday, October 12th. Known as Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), this ancient celestial body last flew past our planet during the Stone Age and won’t return for another 80,000 years. So, if you’re a stargazer, this is one show you don’t want to miss.

Continue reading A Rare Sight: Comet Last Seen in the Stone Age to Fly By Earth Tonight

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April Fools’ Day comet will make closest pass to Earth on record

day the earth stood still

Doyle Rice , USA TODAYPublished 2:39 p.m. ET March 30, 2017 | Updated 6 hours ago

It might be streaming by on April Fools’ Day, but this comet is no holiday prank.

On Saturday, the inelegantly named comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák will make its closest flyby of Earth since its discovery in 1858.

There’s no need to worry about it hitting Earth: The comet will zoom past at a safe distance of around 13.2 million miles, about 50 times the moon’s distance, EarthSky.org reports.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2017/03/30/april-fools-day-comet-make-closest-pass-earth-record/99828158/

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We just landed a spacecraft on a comet for the first time. Here’s why it matters.

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Doctor Who landed on a comment in the 1960’s

We just landed a spacecraft on a comet for the first time. Here’s why it matters.

Updated by Joseph Stromberg on November 12, 2014, 11:04 a.m. ET @josephstromberg joseph@vox.com

The 220-pound, box-shaped lander was carried to the comet, called 67P/C-G, by a larger probe named Rosetta, launched and operated by the European Space Agency. In August, Rosetta became the first spacecraft to ever be put into orbit around a comet, and at 3:35 am EST on Wednesday morning, it released Philae.

After a seven hour journey down from Rosetta, the lander successfully made contact with the comet, sinking down an estimated four centimeters into its dusty surface. However, the lander’s harpoons did not correctly fire, and it’s possible that Philae may have slowly bounced off the comet, then landed again. Scientists still aren’t sure exactly what happened, but they believe the lander isn’t firmly anchored to the comet.

Regardless, it does seem to be stable and upright at the moment, and has already begun transmittingscientific data, as well as photos of the descent:

 

https://www.vox.com/2014/11/12/7203081/philae-comet-rosetta