Travelers In The Night

The object which the 2.3 mile diameter Gault hit is likely to have been a third of a mile diameter space rock. This celestial crash left Gault with a 250,000 long straight tail.

The Earth is our home. It provides us with air, food, and water. The Sun powers all life. The role of Jupiter is less clear. Jupiter puts some objects on a collision course with our planet but not so frequently enough to prevent life on Earth from recovering and adapting. Perhaps an asteroid impact is why we are here.

Asteroid 2013 TV135 is a potentially hazardous asteroid which at first appeared to be on a collision course with planet Earth. Subsequent observations refined its orbit and reduced its chances of striking us.

The extremely remote chance that a dangerous mountain sized space rock has our number on it is what keeps my team going to our four telescopes in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona.

Many stars, galaxies, and other objects seem to be the same year after year giving us the idea that things are static out there. Every once in a while a new object bursts into view producing a, WOW, "what is that" feeling.

For the first time in history, an asteroid hunting team, the Catalina Sky Survey, has discovered more than 1,000 Earth approaching asteroids in a single year. They are an interesting part of our environment.

The Centaur type asteroid, 2013 JD4, is an interesting object. It takes 41.5 years to orbit the Sun on a path that takes it as close to Earth as we are to the Sun.When its orbit is changed as it passes Jupiter and Saturn it may start making closer approaches to the Sun, release gases, and become a comet.

During Comet C/2018 V4 Africano's last visit to the inner solar system humans were erecting the outer ring at Stonehenge. At the rate human's are changing the Earth's climate who can guess what will be happening on Earth when this comet returns in about 6,000 AD.

2008 TC3 is the first of the two of small asteroids which astronomers have been able to find and track into our atmosphere. Samples of these impacting asteroids provide new insights into our solar system.

Recently, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Growler discovered an Earth approaching asteroid which has a speed consistent with it being ejected from the Moon by the impact of an asteroid or comet long ago. 69 hours after Hannes discovered it, this small space rock passed closer than the communication satellites are from us.

An object is discovered that first appeared to be a huge near Earth asteroid. Subsequent observations show it to be a comet making a single trip through our solar system.

An interstellar traveler visits our neighborhood on its tour of the Milky Way.

Have you ever wondered how a comet is discovered and named?

The discovery of a Jupiter family comet whose fate is to become a garden variety main belt asteroid.

Over geologic times, the impacts of objects from space have produced significant changes to our planet's biosphere. Earth threatening asteroids present a complicated challenge due to the wide range of compositions, sizes, orbital paths, and warning times that we can encounter.

On Halloween night while observing with the Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona I discovered 21 space rocks streaking through the night sky. The most interesting one could be the destination of asteroid miners.

The Tunguska [ Tun·gu·ska] event occurred on June 30, 1908. It appears to have been caused by a small asteroid or comet which exploded 3-6 miles above the Earth's surface. It is the largest impact event in recorded history.

As asteroid hunters equipment and skills continue to improve we will be able to find and track some of these tiny impactors and perhaps be able to suggest where to find pieces of one of them on the ground.

Scientific evidence suggests that it was a bad day for non-avian dinosaurs when a large asteroid or a comet crashed into the Earth about 66 million years ago. Some species, including mammals, flourished under the changed conditions after the Chicxulub event. It is interesting to speculate that the rise of the human race may have been enabled by an asteroid impact.

Space is not all that far away. If a powerful solar eruption in 2012 had happened a week earlier, the blast of radiation would have caused wide spread power blackouts disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket as well as the water and sewer systems which rely on electric pumps.