OH UFO!

By Andrea Thompson Senior Writer posted: 28 October 2009 02:01 pm ET Light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago has been detected, becoming the most distant object in the universe ever observed. The light from the distant explosion, called a gamma-ray burst, first reached Earth on April 23 and was detected by NASA's Swift satellite . Gamma-ray bursts are thought to be associated with the formation of star-sized black holes as massive stars collapse. Within hours, telescopes around the world were turned on the burst — the most violent explosions in the universe — observing its fading afterglow to glean clues about its source and location. Two teams, one using the European Southern Observatory's 8.2-meter Very Large Telescope, located in La Silla, Chile, and the other using the 3.6-meter Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in Spain, pinpointed the distance to the blast, dubbed GRB 090423, at more than 13 billion light-years from Earth. (The previous record holder , GR

Oct 21, 2009, Paris The International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone project, Galilean Nights, begins tomorrow. Hundreds of thousands of people all around the world will experience their own “Galileo moment” when they look up at the sky through a telescope for the first time. Galilean Nights will be a global experience, with more than 1000 public observing events in over 70 countries, and this number is still increasing each day. Click to Enlarge The Galilean Nights is a Cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) and takes place from 22-24 October 2009. From stargazing in the deserts of Iran to the culinary delights of food and star parties in rural Australia, and from large observing parties in the busy capital city of Uruguay to neighbours in China studying craters on the Moon, Galilean Nights is an event for people from all walks of life, all around the globe. Visit the website for information on all activities and to find an event near you: www.ga

A significant shower is expected this year when Earth crosses the 1466-dust and 1533-dust ejecta of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. According to J. Vaubaillon, the narrow (about 1-hr) shower is expected to peak on November 17, 2009, at 21:43 (1466) and 21:50 (1533) UT, perhaps 0.5 to 1.0 hour later based on a mis-match in 2008, with rates peaking at about ZHR = 115 + 80 = 195/hr (scaled to rates observed in 2008). E. Lyytinen, M. Maslov, D. Moser, and M. Sato all predict similar activity from both trails, combining to about ZHR = 150 - 300 /hr. P. Jenniskens notes that if the calculated trail pattern is slightly shifted in the same manner as observed before, then the 1533-dust trail would move in Earth's path and its rates would be higher (the 1466-dust trail would move away). However, the 1533-dust trail is distorted in the models, and because of that it is not clear how much higher that would be. This remains a rare opportunity to study old dust trails from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. I

PASADENA--A small asteroid buzzed the Earth over the weekend flying just inside the orbit of the moon. It passed safely by our home planet, according to a crack team of NASA space rock trackers. The space rock, named 2009 TM8, was just discovered Thursday by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. It will got within 216,000 miles of Earth when it zooms by at a speed of about 18,163 mph. "That's slightly closer than the orbit of our moon," NASA's Asteroid Watch team said. The asteroid hunters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., stands on constant watch for rogue space rocks that could pose an impact risk to Earth. It was the same team which, last week, scaled back the risk of another asteroid, a large space rock called Apophis, hitting the Earth in 2036. Compared to Apophis, which is as large as two football fields, 2009 TM8 is tiny. It is about 30 feet (7 meters) across and was discovered Thursday by skywatchers, JPL officials told SPACE.com. Such

Victoria Jaggard National Geographic News October 20, 2009 Earth is currently plowing through space debris left behind by a visitor that last swung by during the Reagan Administration. Spawned by Halley's comet , which last buzzed the planet in 1986, the tiny space rocks are the seeds of the annual Orionid meteor shower. At its peak before sunrise Wednesday morning, the Orionids shower should produce 20 to 25 meteors an hour—a "relatively decent show," according to astronomer Anita Cochran, of the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory. And don't worry if you miss the Wednesday peak: The Orionids are currently being created by a broad stream of debris, which means the best views should be available several nights around the peak, experts say. Orionids' "Very Recognizable" Region The Orionids are so named because the meteors appear to radiate from near the constellation Orion, aka the Hunter. This easily spotted constellation "kind

Two modules of the International Space Station were launched and assembled in 1998 by the United States and Russia. Image credit: NASA The International Space Station is a large, inhabited Earth satellite that more than 15 nations are building in space. The first part of the station was launched in 1998, and the first full-time crew -- one American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts -- occupied the station in 2000. The International Space Station orbits Earth at an altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers). The orbit extends from 52 degrees north latitude to 52 degrees south latitude. The station will include about eight large cylindrical sections called modules. Each module is being launched from Earth separately, and astronauts and cosmonauts are connecting the sections in space. Eight solar panels will supply more than 100 kilowatts of electric power to the station. The panels are being mounted on a metal framework 360 feet (109 meters) long. The International Space Station wi