In Oct. 2017, the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawai’i picked up a faint point of light moving across the sky. At first it appeared to be an ordinary asteroid–but astronomers quickly realized it was something entirely different. The hurtling object, since named “‘Oumuamua,” came from interstellar space. At the time of its discovery, ‘Oumuamua had just swung around the sun. Telescopes
Solar radiation packs a punch capable of creating and destroying asteroid families. By Alison Klesman | Published: Wednesday, October 25, 2017 Trojan asteroids don’t orbit in the main belt. Instead, they are asteroids that share an orbit with a major planet, such as Jupiter, Earth, or Mars. Now, astronomers have determined that sunlight is responsible for creating and destroying Trojans around Mars,
On the evening of Nov. 16th, aurora tour guide Tony Bateman of northern Finland was indoors, warming up between auroras, when his surroundings began to vibrate. “There was a huge bang and the cottage shook violently,” he reports. “At first I thought it was an earthquake. Or maybe a tree fell on the cottage roof! I walked outside and inspected
