[FONT=arial,helvetica][SIZE=+1]What's Up in Space -- 3 May 2006
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]http://spaceweather.com/ccount.php?linkURL=http://spaceweatherphone.com[/FONT][/FONT]Roses. Candy. Spatulas? Make that the stars: Spaceweather PHONE for Mother's Day.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]METEOR SHOWER:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Earth is about to pass through a stream of dust from Halley's Comet, and this will produce the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. It peaks on Saturday morning, May 6th: full story.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PHOTO-OP:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] On May 8th at approximately 0320 UT (11:20 pm EDT on May 7th), fragment C of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 will pass very close to the Ring Nebula in Lyra, a.k.a. M57. The view through backyard telescopes should be wonderful. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Imagine a comet passing in front of this....[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The encounter is best seen from Eurasia and eastern parts of North America; elsewhere the comet will be close to or below the horizon. Telescopes trained on the nebula will show fragment C gliding by the ring only a few arcminutes away. The comet's tail could eclipse the nebula. Start watching 30 minutes before closest approach. Sky maps: overview, detail. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]NOT A RAINBOW: [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sometimes, on a sunny day with no rain clouds in sight, a rainbow strangely encircles the sun. Weimin Zhu of YangZhou, China, photographed this one on April 8th:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Only this is not a rainbow. Rainbows are formed by raindrops, heavy droplets of water falling to the ground, catching sunbeams en route and spreading them in an arc of vivid color. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This is a sun halo. Sun haloes are formed by ice crystals floating in thin, almost transparent cirrus clouds 5 to 10 km above the ground. Like raindrops, these crystals catch sunbeams, but the results are different: a circle rather than an arc, colors muted rather than vivid. [/FONT]
[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]Subscribe to Space Weather News[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]http://spaceweather.com/ccount.php?linkURL=http://spaceweatherphone.com[/FONT][/FONT]Roses. Candy. Spatulas? Make that the stars: Spaceweather PHONE for Mother's Day.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]METEOR SHOWER:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Earth is about to pass through a stream of dust from Halley's Comet, and this will produce the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. It peaks on Saturday morning, May 6th: full story.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PHOTO-OP:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] On May 8th at approximately 0320 UT (11:20 pm EDT on May 7th), fragment C of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 will pass very close to the Ring Nebula in Lyra, a.k.a. M57. The view through backyard telescopes should be wonderful. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Imagine a comet passing in front of this....[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The encounter is best seen from Eurasia and eastern parts of North America; elsewhere the comet will be close to or below the horizon. Telescopes trained on the nebula will show fragment C gliding by the ring only a few arcminutes away. The comet's tail could eclipse the nebula. Start watching 30 minutes before closest approach. Sky maps: overview, detail. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]NOT A RAINBOW: [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sometimes, on a sunny day with no rain clouds in sight, a rainbow strangely encircles the sun. Weimin Zhu of YangZhou, China, photographed this one on April 8th:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Only this is not a rainbow. Rainbows are formed by raindrops, heavy droplets of water falling to the ground, catching sunbeams en route and spreading them in an arc of vivid color. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This is a sun halo. Sun haloes are formed by ice crystals floating in thin, almost transparent cirrus clouds 5 to 10 km above the ground. Like raindrops, these crystals catch sunbeams, but the results are different: a circle rather than an arc, colors muted rather than vivid. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It's all beautiful, s[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]o keep looking up.[/FONT]
[SIZE=-1]Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]On 3 May 2006 there were [/SIZE]785[SIZE=-1] known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids[/SIZE] May 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters [SIZE=-1]ASTEROID[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]DATE
(UT)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]MISS DISTANCE[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]MAG.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]SIZE
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]2006 HU50[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]May 4[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]3.8 LD[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]17[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]~50 m[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]2006 HX57[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]May 6[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]3.0 LD[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]16[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]~45 m[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]Comet 73P-C[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]May 12[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]31 LD[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]4[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]~1 km [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]2006 GY2[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]May 16[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]6.7 LD[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]13+[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]~0.8 km [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Notes: LD is a "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km[/SIZE], [SIZE=-1]the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach[/SIZE] http://spaceweather.com/