Tag Archives: asteroids and comets

Space ‘Firsts:’ New Horizons, Chang’e-4

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Brian H. Gill

It’s been a month for space exploration ‘firsts,’ and a ‘farthest.’ Ultima Thule became the most distant object visited by a probe on January 1, with the New Horizons flyby. A few days later, China’s Chang’e-4 mission landed in the … Continue reading →

Posted in discursive detours, science news | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

ʻOumuamua: Data, Questions

Posted on November 10, 2018 by Brian H. Gill

ʻOumuamua, the first interstellar object observed passing through the Solar System, is in the news again. Scientists have been studying what little we know about the object. Quite a few have published their results. Two Harvard scientists looked at the … Continue reading →

Posted in discursive detours, science news | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Firestorm Comet?

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Brian H. Gill

Scientists figure a comet started breaking up about 12,800 years back. Nothing unusual there. Many comets break up while they’re this close to our sun. This time Earth got in the way before the fragments spread out much. Fire rained … Continue reading →

Posted in science news | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Visitor from the Stars

Posted on November 24, 2017 by Brian H. Gill

Scientists thought ‘Oumuamua was a comet when they spotted it last month. Follow-up observations showed it was more like an asteroid: and going too fast to be from the solar system. ‘Oumuamua is from interstellar space. It’s the first object … Continue reading →

Posted in science news | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments