Friday, September 19, 2014

Where Will Philae Land on Comet 67P?


On November 11th, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will dispatch the heavily instrumented Philae lander to an area called "Site J" on one end of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

For details see the article in Sky and Telescope.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Comet Jacques - Coma

It turns out that there was just a bit too much noise in the high ISO images I took of comet Jacques back on August 26th. Stacking and processing them in PixInsight revealed a slightly better view of the nucleus/coma of the comet, but the improvement was marginal at best. If there is a tail in there I didn't capture it.

Comet 3I/ATLAS now leaving the Solar System

When Comet 3I/ATLAS streaked into our solar system in 2025, it became only the third confirmed interstellar visitor ever observed. Discovere...