Space Travel News  
IRON AND ICE
Ikeya-Murakami: The New Comet On The Cosmic Block

Comet Ikeya-Murakami, seen on Nov. 13, 2010. (NASA/MSFC/R. Suggs)
by Bill Cooke
Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 18, 2010
The animation below shows the motion of Comet Ikeya-Murakami on Nov. 13, 2010, captured with a New Mexico-based telescope operated remotely by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

The images were taken near dawn and show the comet's movement over a period of 45 minutes.

Each exposure was three minutes in length, and the faint angled streak around 0:10 in the animation is a satellite trail. At the time of these images, the comet was some 229 million miles away from Earth.

Comet Ikeya-Murakami was discovered very recently on Nov. 3, 2010, by Japanese amateur astronomers Kaoru Ikeya and Shigeki Murakami. Their discovery is unusual because they both used manual observations through optical telescopes to identify the comet.

Such observation is rare in recent times when astronomers use cutting-edge digital imaging to study the skies.

Ikeya-Murakami is classified as a long-period comet, or those comets having eccentric orbits ranging from 200 years millions of years to make one circuit around the sun.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Marshall Space Flight Center
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


IRON AND ICE
Primordial Dry Ice Fuels Comet Jets
College Park MD (SPX) Nov 11, 2010
One of the biggest comet findings coming out of the amazing images and data taken by the University of Maryland-led EPOXI mission as it zipped past Comet Hartley 2 last week is that dry ice is the 'jet' fuel for this comet and perhaps many others. Images from the flyby show spectacular jets of gas and particles bursting from many distinct spots on the surface of the comet. This is the firs ... read more







IRON AND ICE
Ukraine Delivers Taurus II Launch Vehicle's First Stage To US

Ball Aerospace's First Standard Interface Vehicle Set To Launch

ILS Proton Launches Lightsquared Satellite

Russia Launches Advanced US Telecom Satellite

IRON AND ICE
Leicester Scientists Involved In Development Of New Breed Of Space Vehicle

IceBite Blog: Setting Up An IceBreaker

Camera On Curiosity's Arm Will Magnify Clues In Rocks

Breaking The Ice In Antarctica

IRON AND ICE
Mining On The Moon Is A Not-So-Distant Possibility

A Softer Landing on the Moon

New Analysis Explains Formation Of Lunar Farside Bulge

New type of moon rock identified

IRON AND ICE
Kuiper Belt Of Many Colors

Reaching The Mid-Mission Milestone On The Way To Pluto

New Horizons Student Dust Counter Instrument Breaks Distance Record

Nitrogen Methane Dominate Icy Surface Of Eris

IRON AND ICE
First glimpse of a planet from another galaxy

Planet From Another Galaxy Discovered

Eartly Dust Tails Point To Alien Worlds

U.K. astronomers see 'snooker' star system

IRON AND ICE
NASA Test Fires New Rocket Engine for Commercial Space Vehicle

Rocketdyne To Perform Risk-Reduction Tests On 3GRB Engine

SpaceShipTwo designer Rutan retiring

Acceptance Testing On Second R-4D Development Engine Completed

IRON AND ICE
Two Telescopes For Tiangong

Chinese Female Taikonaut Identified

Tiangong Space Lab Spurs China Space PR Blitz

China Announces Success Of Chang'e-2 Lunar Probe Mission

IRON AND ICE
Hayabusa Spacecraft Returns Asteroid Artifacts From Space

Ikeya-Murakami: The New Comet On The Cosmic Block

Comet Snowstorm Engulfs Hartley 2

Japan confirms space probe brought home asteroid dust


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement