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Comet Hale-Bopp

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Comet Hale-Bopp (designated C/1995 O1) was discovered on July 23, 1995 and was perhaps the most widely observed comet of the 20th century.

Hale Bopp - NASA
Comet Hale Bopp photographed by Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope‘s Wide Field planetary camera tool these series of pictures of the comet between 1995 and 1996. They chronicle changes in the evolution of the nucleus of Comet Hale-Bopp as it moved closer to the sun and was hence warmed by it. Hale-Bopp passed perihelion on April 1, 1997 and was dubbed the Great Comet of 1997. Its lengthy period of visibility and extensive coverage in the media made Hale-Bopp one of the most-observed and talked about comets in history. This lead to all sorts of claims about it, including those associating it with UFOs and people who believed that Comet Hale-Bopp was actually Nibiru or Planet X.

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What are falling stars?

Over human history, our ancestors have looked up in the sky wondered about “falling stars” – fiery, bright bolts of light streaking through the sky. What were these strange lights in the sky and where did these “falling stars” come from?

Meteors - NASA
2004 picture of a Geminid meteor shower from Texas

We now know that these are not “stars” at all but are instead small bodies of solid materials travelling through space, called meteors. When meteors pass through the Earth’s atmosphere they generate heat because of the friction between air and the meteor’s surface and end up, burning up in a bright fiery train of light.  Most meteors are destroyed/burned up entirely as they enter our atmosphere with some very small particles surviving down to the Earth’s surface. Large meteors surviving the journey through the atmosphere are very rare.

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Minos Linea region on Europa

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Minos Linea on Jupiter’s moon Europa, is named after “Minos” in Greek mythology. Minos was a king of Crete and was the son of Europa and Zeus.

Minos Linea - NASA
Minos Linea region on Jupiter’s moon Europa

This false colour picture of Minos Linea on Europa was taken by the Galileo spacecraft on 28 June, 1996 and shows its triple bands, lineae and mottled terrains, which appear in brown and reddish tones. They appear to be red and brown due to the likely presence of contaminants in the ice. The icy plains can be seen behind them in bluish hues. This  composite image was produced using images with effective wavelengths at 989, 757, and 559 nanometers.

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Streaking comet Siding Spring

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Streaking Comet - NASA
Streaking comet Siding Spring C/2007 Q3

NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) took this picture of a comet during its ongoing infrared survey of the whole sky. The Siding Spring comet, also known as C/2007 Q3 was an Aussie discovery and is comprised of a snowball-like mass of ice and dust.  It is believed that this comet spent billions of years orbiting in the very cold Oort Cloud but was then knocked out of its old orbit and moved closer to the sun. The heat then warmed the comet and lead to it shedding the ice and dust in a long tail, which trails behind it. The comet appears red because it is still more than ten times colder than the stars around it.

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What are the planets in our solar system?

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Our solar system has eight planets that revolve in orbit around the Sun. These planets, in the order from the Sun are:

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

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Planets of our solar system

In addition to these eight planets, our solar system also has three “Dwarf Planets” or “Minor Planets”. These smaller planets are Ceres, Pluto and Eris. Pluto was classified as a regular planet until 2006 when it was demoted after a formal definition of what was a planet was established by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are composed of solid rock and are classified by the IAU as “terrestrials”. The next four planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – are composed of various gases and are classified as “gas giants”.

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