保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2023年9月9日 Comet Nishimura Grows Credit & Copyright: Peter Kennett Explanation: Comet Nishimura is growing. More precisely, the tails C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) are growing as it nears the Sun. Discovered only last month, the comet is already near naked eye brightness as it now moves inside the Earth’s orbit. The comet will be nearest the Earth next wee...
2023年8月9日 Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava Explanation: This is a good week to see meteors. Comet dust will rain down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies during peak nights of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The featured composite image was taken during the 2018 Perseids fr...
2021年12月13日 Meteors and Auroras over Iceland Image Credit & Copyright: James Boardman-Woodend; Annotation: Judy Schmidt Explanation: What’s going on behind that mountain? Quite a bit. First of all, the mountain itself, named Kirkjufell, is quite old and located in western Iceland near the town of Grundarfjörður. In front of the steeply-sloped stru...
2021年11月16日 Geminids from Gemini Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Jin Explanation: Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Gemini. That is why the major meteor shower in December is known as the Geminids — because shower meteors all appear to come from a radiant toward G...
2021年8月9日 Perseus and the Lost Meteors Image Credit & Copyright: Tomas Slovinsky (Slovakia) & Petr Horalek (Czech Republic; Institute of Physics in Opava) Explanation: What’s the best way to watch a meteor shower? This question might come up later this week when the annual Perseid Meteor Shower peaks. One thing that is helpful is a dark sky, ...
2021年03月15日 Meteor Fireballs in Light and Sound Image Credit & Copyright: Thomas Ashcraft (Radio Fireball Observatory) Explanation: Yes, but have you ever heard a meteor? Usually, meteors are too far away to make any audible sound. However, a meteor will briefly create an ionization trail that can reflect a distant radio signal. If the geometry is right...
2021年01月31日 Asteroids in the Distance Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; R. Evans & K. Stapelfeldt (JPL) Explanation: Rocks from space hit Earth every day. The larger the rock, though, the less often Earth is struck. Many kilograms of space dust pitter to Earth daily. Larger bits appear initially as a bright meteor. Baseball-sized rocks and ice-balls stre...