Comet chaser Rosetta’s Earth swingby right on schedule

November 5th, 2009 PARIS - ESA's (European Space Agency) comet chaser Rosetta will swing by Earth for the last time on November 13 to pick up energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This will be the third Earth swing by, the last of Rosetta's four planetary gravity assists.

November 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, samples of comet dust collected by high-flying aircraft in the upper atmosphere have yielded an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos. The stratospheric dust includes minute grains that likely formed inside stars that lived and died long before the birth of our sun, as well as material from molecular clouds in interstellar space.

October 21st, 2009 PARIS - Reports indicate that the European Sapce Agency's (ESA's) Rosetta comet chaser will swing by Earth on November 13 to pick up orbital energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to the outer Solar System. Several observations of the Earth-Moon system are planned before the spacecraft heads out to study comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

October 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Sky gazers will witness fireworks in the night sky as Orionid meteor showers peak Wednesday. Look at the night sky past midnight and you will be able see dozens of meteors per hour.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In high-resolution images of comet Holmes, which erupted in 2007, astronomers have detected multiple "mini comets" bursting out at 451 kilometers an hour, which is the largest known cometary outburst in history. According to National Geographic News, the fragments were recently revealed in high-resolution images of comet Holmes, a relatively small body discovered in 1892 that mysteriously erupted in 2007.

September 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of astronomers has discovered that Jupiter had captured the comet 147P/Kushida-Muramatsu as its temporary moon in the mid-20th century, in an irregular orbit for about twelve years. There are only a handful of known comets where this phenomenon of temporary satellite capture has occurred and the capture duration in the case of Kushida-Muramatsu, which orbited Jupiter between 1949 and 1961, is the third longest.

August 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft. "Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet," said Dr.

July 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new University of Washington research indicates it is highly unlikely that comets have caused any of Earth's mass extinctions or have been responsible for more than one minor extinction event. The work also shows that many long-period comets that end up in Earth-crossing orbits likely originate from a region astronomers have long believed could not produce observable comets.

July 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers have found rare diamonds buried on an island near southern California, which strengthens the controversial idea that comet impacts wiped out huge beasts and an early human culture in North America about 12,900 years ago. Similar "nanodiamonds" found in sediments across North America were presented earlier this year as proof that space rocks colliding with Earth led to the ancient mass extinction.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Jupiter appears to have again been hit by a speeding celestial object that left a giant dark scar in the giant gaseous planet's atmosphere, NASA astronomers said. The US space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received a tip early Monday from Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley who had spied the spot near the planet's south pole.

July 21st, 2009 Aussie stargazer spots scar from Jupiter collisionLOS ANGELES — An amateur stargazer in Australia spotted an Earth-sized gash on Jupiter, possibly caused by a collision with a comet, NASA scientists say. Using an infrared telescope on Hawaii, NASA scientists found evidence that Jupiter was apparently struck in recent days near its south pole.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A University of Missouri professor has identified new features in the material that is being ejected from the dying star Helix Nebula, as previously unseen comet-shaped knots. The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula, and also is one of the closest nebulae to Earth.

July 21st, 2009 NASA images show Jupiter apparently hit by objectPASADENA, Calif. — Astronomers say Jupiter has apparently been struck by an object, possibly a comet.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has confirmed that the mysterious 1908 Tunguska explosion that leveled 830 square miles of Siberian forest was almost certainly caused by a comet entering the Earth's atmosphere. The research connects the two events by what followed each about a day later: brilliant, night-visible clouds, or noctilucent clouds, that are made up of ice particles and only form at very high altitudes and in extremely cold temperatures.

June 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, successfully completed its most significant early mission milestone on June 23 with a lunar swingby and calibration of its science instruments. The satellite will search for water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon's south pole.