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Recent Outburst of Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

04 February, 2010

This comet appears to have undergone another massive outburst, this time on 2010 February 2 increasing in brightness by a factor of 30-40.  The object is one of the largest active comets known.  It follows a near-circular path about 6.2 AU from the Sun, i.e. well beyond the orbit of Jupiter.  This is its fourth outburst of a similar magnitude in the past 8 years.  The nucleus of the comet is probably about 50 km in size and its behaviour may be a consequence of its very slow rotation along with the fact that it appears to be rich in carbon monoxide, a very volatile gas.  The outburst was discovered only a few hours after it had begun by amateur astronomer, Faustino Garcia of Asturias, Spain on February 2nd at 23:58 UT during the course of routine monitoring of several comets.  read more »

Activities

Impact Craters on the Moon

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
19 November, 2009
The aim of this activity is to look at the impact craters on the Moon and compare them with other impact craters we can see in the Solar System.

Impact Craters on Mars

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
18 November, 2009
In this activity, you will use Google Mars to look at impact craters, and compare them to the craters which we see on Earth. 

Measuring impact craters on Earth

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
18 November, 2009
In this activity, Google Earth will be used to observe and measure some real impact craters on the surface of the Earth. These craters vary in size from small ( a few hundred  metres) to very large (over 100km).

Toilet Roll Solar System

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
18 November, 2009
This activity illustrates the relative distances between objects in the Solar System and the Sun and shows just how immense space really is!

Craters in the classroom

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
18 November, 2009

The aim of this activity is to investigate the factors which affect the size of an impact crater on Earth.

Students must plan the experiment, including what variables to change and investigate, before carrying out the experiment in a controlled and scientific manner.

Solar System Taboo

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
17 November, 2009
This is a fun way of making the students really think about the different types of objects in the Solar System.

Asteroids, Comets and NEOs - student worksheet

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
16 November, 2009

This worksheet is based around the topic of asteroids, comets, NEOs and impacts and aims to help you learn about these objects in the Solar System. The worksheet can be downloaded and printed out for use in the classroom or at home.

Articles

A Background in Asteroids, Comets and NEOs

Group: Planets, asteroids and comets
13 November, 2009

Asteroids

Asteroids are rocky objects which orbit the Sun in our Solar System, but are too small to be considered planets. They are in fact, commonly known as Minor Planets due to their size. The majority of the asteroids in our Solar System orbit the Sun in what we call the ‘Asteroid Belt’. This is located between Mars and Jupiter as can be seen in the diagram below.   read more »

How to find asteroids and comets to observe

Group: Asteroid and Comet Observing • Asteroid rotation
25 July, 2008

Asteroids are awkward; they don’t stay in one place!  Not only that, as the Earth rotates, different asteroids are visible from the Earth at different times.  You might therefore think that finding the position of an asteroid in the sky might be a difficult task.  Fortunately, much of the difficult work has already been done by various groups of people, and it is not as difficult as you might imagine finding the co-ordinates of an asteroid in the sky.  You will need to follow these instructions on the same day as your observing session.  read more »