Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy, Space Science

Video: Radar shows asteroid 2012 DA14 tumbling

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Below is a radar view of asteroid 2021 DA14 as it receded from the earth after its flyby on Feb.15th.

Radar observations of asteroid 2012 DA14 generated from data obtained by NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar on Feb. 15-16, 2013. During the observations, the space rock’s distance increased from 74,000 to 195,000 miles (120,000 to 314,000 km) from Earth.

The movie is comprised of 73 radar “images” looped nine times.
Resolution is 4 meters per pixel.
Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

Update: More videos of the flyby at Out-of-control spaceship? Nope: It’s asteroid 2012 DA14, seen on radar – Cosmic Log

Astronomy, Space participation

Amateur videos used to retrace Russian meteoroid + Video of asteroid flyby

Triangulating the path of the meteoroid that produced the giant fireball over Russia last Friday: How Amateur Videos Will Help Astronomers Reconstruct Meteorite’s Life History: Astronomers can retrace space rocks’ paths to find their birthplace. – Popular Science.

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This is the best video I’ve seen so far of asteroid 2012 DA14 as it passed by earth last Friday:  Here’s A Video Of Last Week’s Asteroid Fly-By –  Popular Science

Astronomy, Education, Space Science

Virtual Space TV 3D – February 2013

We have posted the February episode of the Virtual SpaceTV 3D series. These are created by BINARY SPACE with story content from HobbySpace.com.

In this new show, Amanda Bush and James C. Birk talk about asteroids, asteroids and asteroids…
00:00 – 02:26 Asteroid 2012 DA14
02:27 – 03:25 Meteor Shower in Chelyabinsk
03:26 – 05:10 Deep Space Industries
05:11 – 07:05 Bigelow Aerospace
07:06 – 07:57 Curiosity Update

Other Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows are available on the  HobbySpace Youtube Channel.

These videos are intended as educational programs and as demonstrations of an experimental technique for generating animated presentations. The show was generated autonomously by software according to a text script. The project is described in the Virtual Producer whitepaper (pdf). For further information contact info@binary-space.com.

Astronomy, Space Science

More on Asteroid 2014 DA14 and the Chelyabinsk meteor

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NASA’s Asteroids and Comets web site has a lot of good info about both the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 and the meteor fireball over central Russian.

* NASA – Asteroid 2012 DA14 as Seen from Siding Spring, Australia:

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* Near-Earth Asteroid Makes Preview Appearance –  a report and another GIF of the flyby
* Asteroid 2012 DA14 – Earth Flyby Reality Check – videos, trajectory diagrams and Q&A

 

A NASA report on the Chelyabinsk meteor event: NASA – Russia Meteor Not Linked to Asteroid Flyby

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This non-NASA site posts a nice infographic comparing asteroids that flew near or into earth: Comparing the Russian Meteor to Tunguska and Yesterdays Near Miss Asteroid – NextBigFuture.com.

Astronomy, Education

Astrobites – making leading edge astrophysics readable

The astrobites (astro-ph reader’s digest) project seeks to present the latest reports on leading edge astrophysics research in a way that is understandable at an undergraduate level.

 Astrobites is a daily literature journal summarizing new astrophysical research posted to astroph. Astrobites is written by graduate students for undergraduates. Read more about our goals.

For example, much of this description of a paper on exoplanets around M dwarf stars should be comprehensible by even non-science undergrads: The Frequency of (Habitable?) Planets Around M dwarfs – astrobites.