On June 25, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) discovered its 1,500th comet. This tally tops all other comet discoverers throughout history combined. From ESA: When it comes to comet catching, the SOHO has one big advantage over everybody else: its location. Situated between the Sun and Earth, it has a privileged view of a region of space that can rarely be seen from Earth. From the surface, we can see regions close to the Sun clearly only...

Back in March, I wrote about Astrocast , a non-profit web channel that produces videos on astronomy. The show is designed to reach anybody with an interest in the sky, who may have seen astronomy information on television or the web and wants to learn more. This is an exciting time for the hobby. Before, interested people had to rely on magazines, books, newsletters, or group meetings as their resources. Now, we also can tap into video and audio files...

People love to jump on NASA when things aren’t going so hot for the space agency. Do you remember the reaction of some when the Hubble Space Telescope had its early hiccups? This is the same crowd that ignores NASA’s amazing successes, such as the twin rovers on Mars , Stardust catching a comet, Cassini revealing the saturnian system, and years of amazing images from Hubble . Recently, the media picked up a story about a 13-year-old German student...

Before the International Astronomical Union ’s (IAU) 2006 demotion of Pluto, many schoolchildren remembered the solar system’s planetary progression with mnemonics, including “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” Following the IAU’s solar system tweaks, kids need a new memory aid. Recently, National Geographic Children’s Books held a contest asking children to submit their new mnemonic. This inclusive contest asked kids to list dwarf...

In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured the famous footage of what many cryptozooligists and kooks believe is Bigfoot. Perhaps sick of urban sprawl, the Patterson-Gimin Sasquatch relocated to the Red Planet. In a panoramic image captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in November 2007, a Bigfoot-like figure appears among the surface formations. The Internet grabbed hold of this photo around the beginning of 2008, and bloggers have...

Update from January 9: Since our last update, we have received numerous tracking measurements of asteroid 2007 WD5 from four different observatories. These new data have led to a significant reduction in the position uncertainties during the asteroid's close approach to Mars on Jan. 30, 2008. As a result, the impact probability has dropped dramatically, to approximately 0.01% or 1 in 10,000 odds, effectively ruling out the possible collision with...

George Takei , Star Trek 's Hikaru Sulu and Heroes ' Kaito Nakamura, has the honor of having a star named for him, albeit on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Now the actor and civil rights activist has a real celestial object named for him: 7307 Takei. Discovered by two Japanese astronomers in 1994, the asteroid is located between Mars and Jupiter. Many noteworthy people have asteroids named for them, from physicist Isaac Newton to painter Jackson...

When asked about the importance of beating the Soviet Union to the Moon, then Vice President Lyndon Johnson replied, "What American wants to go to bed by the light of a Communist Moon?" Of course, unless you are a conspiracy nut, you know the United States landed a dozen men on the Moon, including the first ever. No other nation has stepped foot on our satellite. Winning this race must have placed a Texas-sized smile on Johnson's face...