... For a long time we've known that planets form and live around stars. ... When a star is born, any leftover gas and dust forms a disc around it, similar to Saturn's rings. Within this disc, small dust grains made of rock sometimes form. ... Now, for the first time ever astronomers have spotted solid grains in the gassy disc around a 'brown dwarf' an object that is neither a planet nor a star. ... Astronomers didn't expect to find these solid grains around brown dwarfs for a number of reasons. ...

M1 image More About M1 Nice Color Picture . ... M16 image More About M16 HST image . ... M31 image More About M31 Nice Color Picture . ... M42 image ; M43 image More About M42/43 Nice Color CCD Picture . M51 image More About M51 Color Image of M51 M51 Supernova . M57 image More About M57 Nice Color CCD Picture Very Deep M57 Image . ... M81 image More About M81 M81 Supernova Ultraviolet Image of M81 More about Ultraviolet Imaging . M82 image More About M82 M82 False Color M82 True Color . ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . ... Risks Comparable to NEOs . ... The Increasing Rate of Discovery of Asteroids . ... Comet and Asteroid Collision Probabilities . ... Extreme albedo comets and the impact hazard (PDF Format) . ... Asteroid Impact Animations . ... Workshop on Scientific Requirements for Mitigation of Hazardous Comets and Asteroids - 2002 . ... The Spaceguard Survey Report, 1992 (PDF) . Tsunami from Asteroid/Comet Impacts . ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Solar System . ... Moon . ... Comets and Asteroids . ... What changed our view of Chariklo is the discovery of a ring system around it, the first such feature found around a Solar System body smaller than a gas giant planet. ... Almost certainly the rings were born when a collision with a smaller asteroid blasted millions of tonnes of debris off CharikloтАЩs surface. ... A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo (Braga-Rigas et al.) ...

... 2008 February 2 . Venus and Jupiter in Morning Skies . ... The second and third brightest objects in the sky at Night after the Moon, Venus and Jupiter appeared separated by about 2 degrees when this picture was taken on January 30th, but closed to within nearly half a degree early yesterday morning. ... Over the next two days, early morning risers around the globe will be able to enjoy a close pairing of Venus and Jupiter with an old crescent Moon. ... About APOD | ...

... In 1610, Galileo turned his telescope to the heavens and discovered that the planet Jupiter had four bright moons. ... Jupiter's Rings . ... Unlike Saturn's bright rings which are composed of chunks of rock and ice, Jupiter's rings appear to consist of fine particles of dust. ... Exploring Saturn's Rings . ... Saturn's spectacular system of bright rings has been the subject of study and wonder since Galileo first turned his telescope on the ringed planet in 1610. ... M57: The Ring Nebula . ...

... Indeed, one alteration of orbits can be the outright ejection of a planet. When several big planets are orbiting a star under each other's influence, the system is inherently unstable. ... We know of no good reason why the smallest objects with fusion should have the same mass as the smallest objects that can form by themselves. ... 6) Mission Definition . ... I don't think this mission is impossible, and will suggest a definition in a future article in Mercury. ... Good luck! . ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... This page has images and links that George Noory and I discussed on the Coast to Coast AM radio show on Friday night, July 29, 2005. ... Two new objects were announced today, and both are big, maybe as big as Pluto. One is almost certainly bigger than Pluto! ... I've been saying for years that we will almost certainly find something bigger than Pluto out there in the dark, cold reaches of our solar system (I've said so on Coast to Coast several times, actually). ...

... The time taken to read through a quadrant on the array sets a fundamental limit on the fastest electron collection rate which can be achieved by resetting all the pixels. An inherent consequence of the methods of operating the NICMOS array detectors in the ACCUM, MULTIACCUM, and RAMP modes is therefore that there is a minimum possible exposure time, ~ 0.6 seconds (0.302 for MULTIACCUM), set by the time required to read the array. ... Figure 15.1 illustrates the operation of bright object mode. ...

... Tonight's Sky . ... The Magazine . ... Observing . ... The double star 54 Leonis, spiral galaxy NGC 3198, and emission nebula NGC 3199 . ... Astronomy for Kids . ... Observing springtime deep-sky objects with a large telescope . ... Bright planets meet at dusk . ... Astronomy magazine subscribers can read the full article for free. ... Get instant access to subscriber content on Astronomy.com! ... Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter....

Y ou don't need your own Voyager to see the solar system. ... Refer to Sky Telescope or a similar magazine for up to date positions or check one of the several Web sites that show planetary positions. ... You can see 99.99% of the mass of the solar system with no instruments whatsoever. ... Jupiter . ... Mars . ... For $200 you can get a far better optical instrument than Galileo or Newton had. ... Date . ... William Herschel . ... O f course, the solar system has more than just planets and moons. ...

... Search . ATNF Home . About ATNF . ... About ATNF overview . ... Australia Telescope Steering Committee . ... Parkes radio telescope . ... Parkes | ... A Search for Bright Kuiper Belt Objects . ... Since 1992, 60 large Kuiper belt objects have been detected by ground-based telescopes. ... The detection of brighter objects would improve our ability to determine the Kuiper belt objects' surface composition and provide constraints on the population statistics of different formation mechanisms. ...

The elements of the numbered minor planets are given with respect to the ecliptic and equinox J2000.0. ... In the Table these values are given to 0.01. ... A dash indicates that there is no opposition in 2015. 1 a.u., 1.017 a.u. 1 a.u., q <= 1.017 a.u.), At stands for Aten type ( a . ... It should be noted that all objects included into the Tables of NEAs, Centaurs and transneptunian objects, and some unusual planets can be also found in the Table of elements and opposition dates of all minor planets. ...

Hubble Finds Oxygen Atmosphere On Jupiter's Moon Europa . Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have identified the presence of an extremely tenuous atmosphere of molecular oxygen around Jupiter's second moon, Europa . ... Europa's oxygen atmosphere is so tenuous that its surface pressure is barely one hundred billionth that of the Earth," said Principal Investigator Doyle Hall, of Johns Hopkins. ... The oxygen gas slowly leaks into space and must be replenished continuously. ...

... Up: Data Analysis and Processing Techniques . ... Also, a method for quality control of CCD observations is suggested. ... Everyone who observes a celestial object using a CCD detects moving celestial objects as a ``by product''. ... We hope that our investigations may be useful for near-Earth space control and also for searches of the moving celestial objects through analysis of old and new CCD frames obtained at any amateur or professional astronomical observatory. ...

Summer Triangle . Articles | ... As dusk deepens into night in early June, look a bit north of east, not real high in the sky, for a sparkling blue-white star, whose name is Vega . ... Since the stars rise some four minutes earlier with each passing day, expect the stars of the Summer Triangle to light up the twilight dusk around middle to late June -- a sure harbinger of the change of seasons, of spring giving way to summer. ... Re-published on Astronomy Net with permission of the author. ...

... AstroCC is a coordinate conversion utility for astronomy. It accepts an object designation or the coordinates of an object and calculates coordinates in alternative systems, and at different dates, times, and locations. It also provides lunar and bright planet coordinates to aid in planning observations. ... BJD values may also be retrieved from http://astroutils.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/time/utc2bjd.html which is based on Eastman et al. ... Coordinate data are obtained from SIMBAD. ...

... SATELLITE: An object that revolves around a planet. ... SIDEREAL DAY: The length of a planet's rotation period relative to the stars. SOLAR SYSTEM: The sun and all the objects that are held in its gravitational field and move around it. ... SUPERIOR CONJUNCTION: The position of a planet when it is on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth (thus making in invisible). ... TRANSIT: The movement of an object between the Earth and the Sun and showing on the surface of the sun as a black dot. ...

T he Siding Spring Survey (SSS) is a Near-Earth Object search program that utilises the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, N.S.W., Australia. ... The mission of the Siding Spring Survey is to contribute to the inventory of near-earth objects (NEOs), or more specifically, the potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) and comets (PHOs) that may pose a threat of impact and thus harm to civilization. ... Based on the CSS Mission page . ... Siding Spring Survey Main Page . ...

... For moving objects such as asteroids, comets, or planets, it is useful to include ephemeris information, both to provide predicted coordinates for planning observations, and to allow accurate airmass calculations in the reductions. ... These times can be given either as Modified Julian Dates ( ), or as ordinary date strings like 1995 Jan 23.0 . To allow good interpolation, include two ephemeris entries before and two after the interval of observations. ... UT date --- column label: DATE . ...