In this PBS News Hour segment, Miles O’Brien reports on efforts to find and track asteroids and comets that could impact earth:
Category Archives: Asteroids & Comets
Comet Siding Spring passing close by Mars
The comet Siding Spring is just about to reach its closest approach to Mars. Below are links to various sites with info and imagery:
* Latest NASA news and images:
- Comets: Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) – NASA JPL – Mars Exploration Program
- Comet Siding Spring | NASA –
On Sunday, Oct. 19, Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet — less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth. Siding Spring’s nucleus will come closest to Mars around 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second).
* ESA live webcast: European Space Agency – live streaming video powered by Livestream
* Live webcast from the SLOOH online observatory: live.slooh.com – Comet Siding Spring Swings by on a Close Approach to Mars
* Display of the current position of the comet in the sky: Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) Live Position and Finder Chart – TheSkyLive
* An animation of NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter maneuvering to image Comet Siding Spring:
Path of the comet:
Brought to you by the Near-Earth Object (NEO) office
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video: Xploration episode 5 – “Asteroids”
The latest episode of Xploration Outer Space Online is about asteroids, including how to mine them:
Video: A preview of Comet Siding Spring’s fly-by of Mars
Astronomer Bruce Betts of the Planetary Society lays out all the basics about Comet Siding Spring, which on October 19, 2014 will make a close fly-by of Mars.
Stories of asteroid adventures by Richard Penn
Richard Penn points me to his “hard” science fiction book series under the title of the Asteroid Belt Police:
The adventures of a young policewoman begin at a space station at the asteroid Terpsichore in the year 2060, and follow her and her team as they track down a secret colony where women and children are kept as slaves. This is “hard” science fiction, with no magic forces or time-warps, where space travel is hard and takes many months. Colonists invent and build their own equipment from local materials. While truly isolated, they are part of a movement aiming to create thousands of independent communities throughout the Belt.
* Freedom at Feronia – Volume 2
Lisa and her team of asteroid police have captured a nuclear rocket, and rescued a dozen kidnapped children. They aim to return the children to Mars, but first they need to build a ship. The rebel colony of Feronia is on the way, taken over by Christian fundamentalists. Can they return it to civilization, and what kind of government will lead to a long-term peace? This is hard science-fiction, with no laser swords or time-warps, where space travel is difficult and takes many months, and the people who live in space must use engineering innovation to build what they need from local materials.