... ESO, the European Southern Observatory . ... ESO Acronyms . ... TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope . ... This artistтАЩs impression shows an event in the early history of the Solar System that may explain how the unusual asteroid Lutetia came to now be located in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. Lutetia is seen passing close to one of the very young rocky planets about four billion years ago and having its orbit drastically altered. ... Asteroid (21) Lutetia . ...

Astronomy Picture of the Day . Venus: Earth's Sister Planet . ... 15.08.1995 . ... Venus is very similar to Earth in size and mass - and so is sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet - but Venus has a quite different climate. Venus' thick clouds and closeness to the Sun (only Mercury is closer) make it the hottest planet - much hotter than the Earth. ... Publications with keywords: Earth - Venus . Publications with words: Earth - Venus . ... Hurricane Paths on Planet Earth . ...

Asteroid 2004 MN4 was discovered on the 19th of June 2004 by Roy Tucker, David Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi of the University of Hawaii Asteroid Survey from Kitt Peak Arizona. ... After a few days it was recognized that it would make several close approaches to Earth in the 21st century. ... These distances were calculated by the Near Earth Object Dynamic Site using data available up to 2005 February, to check for updates go to Near Earth Object Dynamic Site . ... PHA Close Approaches To The Earth . ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Earth Satellites . ... According to Velikovsky, about 4000 years ago a giant volcano on Jupiter erupted and spewed a vast glob of debris into space, leaving the Great Red Spot behind as a permanent scar. The red hot lump ejected from Jupiter (referred to as a comet by Velikovsky) wandered into the inner Solar System, repeatedly crossing the Earth?s orbit and in fact often passing close to our helpless planet in the following millennia. ...

Today's APOD | ... APOD: 2004 May 16 - Venus: Earth's Cloudy Twin . Explanation: This picture by the Galileo spacecraft shows just how cloudy Venus is. ... Venus ' thick clouds and closeness to the Sun (only Mercury is closer) make it the hottest planet - much hotter than the Earth . ... More than 20 spacecraft have visited Venus including Venera 9 , which landed on the surface, and Magellan , which used radar to peer through the clouds and make a map of the surface . ... Index | ... About APOD | ...

... SUN MOON MERCURY VENUS MARS, JUPITER SATURN . ... Mars . ... An artificial comet holds secrets to Earths life . ... Comet to make close flyby of Red Planet in October 2014 . ... COMETS | ... Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will make a close approach to Mars in October 2014. ... During the close Mars approach, the comet likely will achieve a total visual magnitude of 0 or brighter, as seen from Mars-based assets. ... Only registered members of Astronomy.com are allowed to comment on this article. ...

... Haumea Makemake (KBOs) 24h movement . After finding Pluto for the first time by imaging on consecutive days, I targeted two Kuiper belt dwarf planets (KBOs), March 17 18 about 5am EDT (0900 UTC). Equipment C11 EdgeHD with 0.7x reducer on G11 mount, ST-8300M ccd. ... Haumea (136108) in Bootes, 50 au from Earth (for comparison, Pluto is 32 au from Earth). Makemake (136472) in Coma Berenices, 51 au from Earth. ... Copyright (c) Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Inc. ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... The Nine Planets . ... It isn't the first extrasolar planetary system to be discovered; the first planet outside our own solar system orbiting a normal Sunlike star was discovered in 1995. ... Still, this is the first solar system ever found besides our own to definitely have more than one planet. This is an important discovery: most people all along have been assuming that multiple planet systems exist, but we had never actually seen one. ...

3) Planets and Brown Dwarfs . ... By its nature, this method is most sensitive to massive planets orbiting close to their stars. ... That means that some of the more massive extrasolar planets could actually be brown dwarfs (although the statistics of the finds suggest that most of them are not). ... Another possible difference between brown dwarfs and massive planets is how they are born. ... They would base the fundamental definition on the mode of formation: a planet is built from planetesimals. ...

... Please accept our apologies and stay tuned for updates. This workshop is intended as a forum to discuss exploration of the post-recombination era and the early stages of galaxy formation. It is aimed at helping researchers, leaders of ground-based and space astronomy, and policy makers share and understand the latest results in observational cosmology, and identify the most promising strategies for the future. ... Aim and Scope of the Workshop . Tentative Agenda . ... Hotel Information . ...

... One possible application of a solar sail is a spacecraft to warn Earth of approaching interplanetary disturbances and shocks. ... Spacecraft that can provide such a warning are currently stationed at (or near) the Lagrangian L1 point , between the Earth and the Sun--at about 4 times the distance of the moon and 1/100 times that of the Sun. ... Because of the greater distance from Earth, the Earth's pull there is weaker, not enough to make the spacecraft match the Earth's motion around the Sun. ...