The December 2018 close approach by the large, near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 has provided astronomers an outstanding opportunity to obtain detailed radar images of the surface and shape of the object and to improve the understanding of its orbit. The asteroid will fly safely past Earth on Saturday, Dec. 22, at a distance of about […]
As the brilliant comet 46P/Wirtanen streaked across the sky, NASA telescopes caught it on camera from multiple angles. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed comet 46P/Wirtanen on Dec. 13, when the comet was 7.4 million miles (12 million kilometers) from Earth. In this visible-light image, the comet’s nucleus is hidden in the center of a fuzzy […]
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n a one-page memorandum, President Trump signed an authorization for the Department of Defense to launch the new Space Command on Tuesday. the new “Space Command will transfer approximately 600 staff from existing military space operations and add an additional 1,000 personnel that will take place over the coming years. The new command comes […]
This spectacular image — the second instalment in ESO’s R Aquarii Week — shows intimate details of the dramatic stellar duo making up the binary star R Aquarii. Though most binary stars are bound in a graceful waltz by gravity, the relationship between the stars of R Aquarii is far less serene. Despite its diminutive size, the smaller of […]