Asteroid Passes Near Earth -- with it's own Moon!

On Monday, January 26th, an asteroid passed by the earth at about 3x the distance between the moon and the earth.  The asteroid is about a third of a mile in size.

Interestingly, the asteroid had its own moon (about 240 feet in diameter) circling it.

The asteroid was named 2004 BL86, because it was first spotted back in 2004 (by an observatory in New Mexico).

CNN Reports:

It was far enough that it didn't pose a threat to Earth, but close enough to give scientists and amateurs a chance to observe a large asteroid up close.NASA asteroid 2004 BL86 was revealed to have its own small moon.
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It was the closest known asteroid this large to pass near Earth until 2027, when an asteroid called 1999 AN10 flies by.

Read more here:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/26/us/asteroid-flyby/index.html

The Earth's Core is as Hot as the Sun's Surface

This may be hard to believe but it is true.  This fact is helped because the surface of the sun is surprisingly cool.  Weirdly enough both the Earth's core and sun's surface are about 6,000 degrees Kelvin -- but the sun's atmosphere (also called the corona) is 1 to 2 million degrees Kelvin!

A new study in Science suggests that the temperature of our planet's core is much, much hotter than previously thought -- 6,000 degrees Kelvin, compared with earlier estimations that were closer to 5,000 degrees Kelvin. This temperature, blazing hot to a degree beyond comprehension, is the same as that of the surface of the sun. Yes, you read that right: the core of our temperate little atmospherically-protected home is as hot as *a star*.

Scientists in France were able to come to their remarkable conclusion in an experimental setting, using X-rays diffraction to watch how iron crystals held under unbelievable pressure form and melt.

Read more here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/the-earths-core-is-as-hot-as-the-surface-of-the-sun/275346/

Large Asteroid Passes near Earth

An asteroid as wide as two football fields passed relatively close to Earth.  The nearest it came to our planet was roughly eight times the distance from the earth to the moon (the Earth-moon distance averages 239,000 miles) -- so the asteroid passed about 2 million miles from the Earth!



Read more about other asteroids and this event here:
http://www.weather.com/news/science/space/large-asteroid-2014-cu13-pass-earth-20140309

Solar System -- Good Educational Website

Check out the cool animated GIF of the solar system at this site below.  Also, you can mouseover items in the GIF and learn more.


http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm

Solar System Theory

Here is a nice lecture from Arizona State University on the Nebula Theory of the creation of the solar system.

III. Formation of the planets

• The first solid particles were microscopic in size. They orbited the Sun in nearly circular orbits right next to each other, as the gas from which they condensed. Gently collisions allowed the flakes to stick together and make larger particles which, in turn, attracted more solid particles. This process is called accretion.
• The objects formed by accretion are called planetesimals (small planets): they act as seeds for planet formation. At first, planetesimals were closely packed. They coalesced into larger objects, forming clumps of up to a few kilometers across in a few million years, a small time compared to the age of the solar system (movie).
• Once planetesimals had grown to these sizes, collisions became destructive, making further growth more difficult (movie). Only the biggest planetesimals survived this fragmentation process and continued to slowly grow into protoplanets by accretion of planetesimals of similar composition.

Read more here:

http://atropos.as.arizona.edu/aiz/teaching/nats102/mario/solar_system.html

Harvest Moon Facts

This year's harvest moon is on September 22.  It represents the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox -- and represents the official start of autumn.

The moon starting now (Thursday) will be huge and bright!  In the old days, farmers were grateful for this harvest moon because it allowed farmers to work later into the night during harvest time.






6. The size of the moon in the sky is dependent on its orbit. When the moon is particularly close to Earth, a full moon will appear noticeably larger in the sky. This is what is known as a supermoon. The most recent supermoon was last June. 


Read here for more harvest moon facts:

http://www.weather.com/news/science/10-facts-about-weeks-harvest-moon-20130917

Valentine's Day +1 Surprise = Asteroid

NASA says that an asteroid half the size of a football field will pass by the earth very closely -- the day after Valentine's Day.  The asteroid is not expected to hit the earth, but will pass closer to our planet than the moon -- and some satellites!

The asteroid 2012 DA14 will fly by Earth on Feb. 15 and zip within 17,200 miles of the planet during the cosmic close encounter. The asteroid will approach much closer to Earth than the moon, and well inside the paths of navigation and communications satellites.

"This is a record-setting close approach," Don Yeomans, the head of NASA's asteroid-tracking program, said in a statement. "Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth."

Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered last year by an amateur team of stargazers at the La Sagra Sky Survey observatory in Spain. Yeomans  stressed that, while the asteroid's approach bring it closer than the geosynchronous satellites  orbiting 22,245 miles above Earth, 2012 DA14 poses no threat of a deadly collision with the planet.

Read more here:
http://www.weather.com/news/science/asteroid-close-to-earth-20130204

NASA lands on Mars Again!

Check out the videos of NASA's Rover named "Curiosity" -- successfully landing on Mars to start two years of research in search of ingredients for life, such as water, energy, and carbon.  Some good animated videos of the expected landing....







Here's the direct YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oLaC1VYoTM


Another good link:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/first-color-image-from-curiosity-in-descent-phase/?utm_source=roboticsnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=080712

Venus: "Transit of Venus"

In case you missed the "Transit of Venus" (which took about 18 minutes for Venus to pass the face of the sun) -- here are some great pictures (credit: Space.com and Yahoo News).  This won't happen again for more than 100 years!

Read more here:
http://news.yahoo.com/safely-watch-transit-venus-tuesday-121913419.html