Latest Comet Stories
PALO ALTO, Calif., June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 15-16, 2011, a Sun-grazing comet, designated Lovejoy (C/2011 W3), passed deep within the hot solar atmosphere - the corona - effectively probing a region that could never be visited by spacecraft because of the intense heat radiating from the nearby solar surface. In a paper published today in the journal Science, researchers from several institutions - including the Solar & Astrophysics Lab at the Lockheed Martin...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The intrepid comet Lovejoy flew right into the Sun's violent atmosphere and lived to tell scientists the story and help them understand more about our local star. In December 2011, comet Lovejoy plowed into the Sun's atmosphere, withstanding temperatures that would have obliterated any man-made object. Telescope images taken of the comet's miraculous feat showed how the comet's tail was pulled about by an intense magnetic field. This...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers writing in the journal Science say they have captured an image of a comet factory around a young star. The team found a region around a young star where dust particles can grow by clumping together, giving the scientists the first clear observation of a long-standing mystery of how dust particles in disc grow to larger sizes that eventually form comets, planets and other rocky bodies. Scientists do not fully...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online When it came to jump-starting life, the early Earth was not a very hospitable place. New research from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) reveals that life on Earth may indeed have come from outer space. LLNL scientist Nir Goldman and UOIT’s Isaac Tamblyn – a former LLNL postdoctoral researcher – found that billions of years ago icy comets crashed into...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) is racing toward an uncomfortably close rendezvous with the Sun, according to a new series of images from the Gemini Earth Observatory. Comet ISON might present a stunning sight in the twilight sky of late November that will remain easily visible, even brilliant, into early December. Gemini’s time-sequence images span from early February through May 2013, showing the comet’s remarkable activity despite its...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using the orbiting Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), NASA scientists have been able to identify and categorize 28 new asteroid families found in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, the space agency announced. Infrared snapshots from the asteroid-hunting section of the survey, called NEOWISE, allowed scientists to spot and sort thousands of previously hidden and uncategorized asteroids into families. "NEOWISE has given...
WASHINGTON, May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to a new and improved family tree for asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Astronomers used millions of infrared snapshots from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE all-sky survey, called NEOWISE, to identify 28 new asteroid families. The snapshots also helped place thousands of...
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online As comets tumble into the inner solar system from their home, far beyond the orbit of Pluto, they make their way across Earth’s orbit. Along their path they leave behind a trail of tiny dust particles, stripped from the comet by the Sun’s radiation. When the Earth passes through the trail of dust, the particles enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up from the friction in the air. On the ground we witness the glowing...
Major Utilities are rapidly preparing for the EPA MATS rule and are successfully utilizing the significant Mercury Oxidation potential (> 90%) of COMET(TM) SCR, in their current catalyst management plans. DURHAM, N.C., May 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Multiple utilities have applied Cormetech's COMET(TM) SCR catalyst technology in consideration of the EPA MATS rule which requires a decrease in the amount of mercury emissions. Over the past two years, Cormetech has designed and...
[ Watch the Video: ScienceCasts: Comet ISON Meteor Shower ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers have been given the clearest view yet of a comet that is supposed to light up the skies later this year. Comet ISON is expected to create a spectacular show in the night sky in November, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided scientists with a great preview, months before its premier debut. Comet ISON is a "dirty snowball," meaning it is a clump of...
Latest Comet Reference Libraries
A Shubunkin is a type of single-tailed goldfish with calico coloration, a combination of orange, white, black, red, and blue markings, blue being the most desired. They are similar to the common goldfish and the comet goldfish. Also called speckled goldfish, harlequin goldfish, calico goldfish, and coronation fish, they were developed in Japan about a hundred years ago by crossing calico fantails with single-tailed goldfish to produce a hardy, able swimmer with bright colors. There are...
A Fantail goldfish is a standard "fancy" type of goldfish. It has a dual-lobed tail, unlike its cousin the common or comet. Its fins can be different sizes, ranging from 1-3 in or more in length. A typical fantail has paired fins, including anal fins, a single dorsal fin, and a round, pointed body shape. It can range in color, from bronze (known as chocolate), orange, red, calico, and mixes of the colors. It is the third hardiest of the fancy goldfish with Comet first and Shubunkin second,...
The Comet is a commonly kept form of goldfish, the only type to have originated in the United States. They first appeared in the ponds of the Fish Commission in Washington in the early 1880s. Hugo Mullertt was the first person to bring the Comet goldfish to the market in a large quantity. Characterized by a long, tall, flowing tailfin they can be differentiated from the common goldfish, although otherwise they are very similar. Both of these varieties are quite hardy and will do well in...
Comet -- A comet is a small body from the outer reaches of the solar system similar to an asteroid but composed of ice. Often described as "dirty snowballs," they are composed largely of carbon dioxide ice, methane ice, and water ice with a mixture of dust and small stony aggregates mixed in. Comets are thought to be small pieces of debris left over from the formation of the solar system, representing a sample of the original composition of the nebula that condensed to form the Sun and all...
The Solar System refers to the area in space that is dominated by our own Sun. It is comprised of the Sun and its associated astronomical objects that are held in its gravitational orbit. The Solar System was formed as a result of the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The mass of this system is located almost entirely in the Sun. Apart from the Sun, a high percentage of the remainder of the system’s mass is located in the eight solitary planets that...
![An Astronomer\](/media/gallery/spitzer-space-telescope-sirtf/thumbs/thumbs_746643main_pia17008_full.jpg "An Astronomer\")
