This Week in History: May 10-16
MAY 10, 1999: The LINEAR survey in New Mexico discovers the near-Earth asteroid now known as (162173) Ryugu. Ryugu was the destination of JAXA’s Hayabusa2 sample-return mission, which arrived there in mid-2018 and departed there late last year, and which is now en route back to Earth with its collected samples. The Hayabusa2 mission is …
Comet of the Week: IRAS-Araki-Alcock 1983d
Perihelion: 1983 May 21.25, q= 0.991 AU On January 25, 1983, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. For the next ten months, until its supply of superfluid liquid helium coolant ran out, IRAS surveyed the entire sky in near- to far-infrared wavelengths, and its findings completely …
Special Topic: Close Cometary Encounters
The “Comet of the Week” this week is Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock 1983d, which passed just 0.031 AU (4.68 million km, or 12.2 lunar distances) from Earth on May 11, 1983 – the closest confirmed cometary approach to Earth during the 20th Century, and the fifth-closest confirmed such approach in all of recorded history. Within this context, …
SpaceX Crew Demo-2 Launch Word Search
SpaceX will be launching two of its own astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station on May 27, 2020. It will mark the first time that astronauts have been launched into orbit from American soil since the final launch of NASA’s Space Shuttle in 2011. To help prepare you for this …
Trio of American companies to develop Artemis lunar landers
Marking a significant step forward in landing Americans on the Moon by 2024, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the selection of three U.S. companies – Blue Origin, SpaceX and Dynetics – to design and develop the critical human landing systems (HLS) under the agency’s Artemis lunar landing program. Blue Origin won by far the largest …
This Week in History: May 3-9
MAY 3, 1998: Solar scientist Shane Stezelberger discovers a bright comet traversing the northern field of view of the LASCO C3 coronagraph aboard the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Comet SOHO C/1998 J1, which passed through perihelion five days later at a heliocentric distance of 0.153 AU and then became a naked-eye object visible …