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  • Blog Post: Watch an asteroid move through space

    [caption image="http://cs.astronomy.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-51-Solar+system+objects/6011.Asteroid_2D00_4179_2D00_Toutatis.jpg" position="right" targeturl="http://cs.astronomy.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles...
  • Blog Post: Watch online as an asteroid passes Earth

    On August 26, the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona discovered a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) that now has the designation 2012 QG 42 . This space rock measures approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters) across. Astronomers classify any asteroid as a PHA if it has a diameter greater than 100 meters and...
  • Blog Post: You can own a piece of the sky

    [caption image="http://cs.astronomy.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-51-People/7282.Chloe-Haag-atop-meteorite.jpg" position="right" targeturl="http://cs.astronomy.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-51-People...
  • Blog Post: Citizen scientists: Target an asteroid!

    Last week, NASA announced a new outreach program that I’m sure some of you citizen scientists will want to take part in: Target Asteroids! The space agency is asking amateur astronomers to study various near-Earth objects (NEOs) from an initial list of some 74 that are at least 656 feet (200 meters...
  • Blog Post: Asteroid Vesta in 3-D

    It seems like everyone is getting on the 3-D bandwagon these days, including scientists. Last week, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) released a new 3-D video of the giant asteroid Vesta created by Ralf Jaumann of the German Aerospace Center using data from the Dawn spacecraft’s first...
  • Blog Post: Long story short re: Asteroid 2005 YU55

    Have you ever noticed how by the time most people use the phrase “Well, to make a long story short,” it’s usually too late? You know what I mean ... You’re standing there listening patiently to someone for like five minutes, hearing all about their Aunt Gertrude and the locusts...
  • Blog Post: Look to the skies

    These are exciting times for skywatchers. First, we’ll have a celestial guest in the form of asteroid 2005 YU55 , which will slip in between Earth and the Moon tomorrow but presents no danger to us at all . It’ll be some 200,000 miles (320,000 kilometers) away at its closest approach, so...
  • Blog Post: U.S. of Asteroid

    When I read the headline, “ Why is it America’s job to save the world from asteroids? ” on Passport, Foreign Policy ’s main blog, I’ll admit my initial reaction was something akin to “duh.” Surely the United States is in the best position to save the world from...
  • Blog Post: Division of Planetary Sciences meeting, Thursday recap

    Thursday was a short day at the conference. I had to check out of the hotel in the late morning, so I had time only to jump between two sessions (another exoplanet one, and one about near-Earth asteroids [NEAs]). E ditor's note: Liz is posting updates regularly from DPS09 to Twitter.com/AstronomyMag...
  • Blog Post: More images of 2008 TC3

    Thanks to Ron Dantowitz and Marek Kozubal at the Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts, for sending us these two images of 2008 TC3 . Related: First images of asteroid 2008 TC3
  • Blog Post: First images of asteroid 2008 TC3

    STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES This morning, the husband and wife observing team of Imelda Joson and Edwin Aguirre forwarded to Astronomy an image and an animation of the asteroid 2008 TC3 they received from amateur astronomer friends in Italy. Imelda runs an image service company and is a contributor to...