Posts Tagged ‘earth’

Rosetta

Posted: 14 November 2007 in Uncategorized
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The second fantastic photo of Earth from space I’ve come across in as many days was taken by the Rosetta comet probe sent up by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Rosetta craft made big news recently when it was mistaken for an asteroid that was going to make a near-Earth pass. The Minor Planet Center failed to cross check the object against known probes and so sent out an alarm before realizing their mistake. Rosetta is using the Earth as a slingshot to propel it into the outer solar system (4.4 billion miles) to the Comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After that it will return to Earth for another gravitational slingshot.

Earth as seen by the Rosetta probe.

Add one more killer asteroid

Posted: 5 October 2007 in Uncategorized
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Another potential killer asteroid was rediscovered after being lost since the 60′s.  Revolving around the sun once every 4.7 years, this asteroid isn’t a threat for the foreseeable future, but if the orbit shifts, that could change.  It’s just one more to keep an eye on, joining a family of 886 objects larger than 500 feet across that pass within 4.6 million miles of Earth, according to Space.com.  Good times.