Related topics: earth · nasa · comet · jupiter

Asteroid making its closest approach to Earth this week

On 4 February, asteroid 2011 MD will make its closest approach to the Earth. Though it will not be visible with the naked eye, the asteroid will pass 15,000,000 km away from Earth—much closer than those in the asteroid ...

Hubble images NGC 941, a spiral galaxy with an explosive past

This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy NGC 941, which lies about 55 million light-years from Earth. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) collected the data that created this image. ...

Hubble images galaxy IC 1776

The swirls of the galaxy IC 1776 stand in splendid isolation in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy lies over 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces.

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Amateur astronomy

Amateur astronomy, also called backyard astronomy, is a hobby whose participants enjoy watching the night sky (and the day sky too, for sunspots, eclipses, etc.), and the plethora of objects found in it, mainly with portable telescopes and binoculars. Even though scientific research is not their main goal, many amateur astronomers make a contribution to astronomy by monitoring variable stars, tracking asteroids and discovering transient objects, such as comets. Such efforts are one of the relatively few ways interested amateurs can still make useful contributions to scientific knowledge.

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