The “Vera Rubin Observatory” is hiring… a Brit. As part of the UK’s contribution to the effort, one more Community Scientist (CS) job has been identified. The position (half-time so far, better have other projects) entails serving the needs of… Read More »Oi, Vera Rubin Hiring
Just discovered November (while we were feasting): a new Main-Belt comet. A typical comet comes out of the outer Solar System, then warms and activates when it reaches the inner Solar System. Not Main-Belters. These “comets” reside in the asteroid… Read More »*NEW* : Main-Belt Comet 2025 W3 (Kresken)
The mass-market title Astronomy fell off my radar, sorry, but this time we get a COVER STORY (and more)! In the Dec 2025 issue (vol. 53, #12) is: Hyman, Randall p. 16 How we track near-Earth asteroidsChaple, Glenn p. 36… Read More »Astronomy Asteroids (…again)
Starting roughly, oh… now, but peaking the night of Dec. 13-14 is the Geminid meteor shower. You know, the Geminids- fragments of, not a comet, but asteroid (3200) Phaethon? This asteroidal shower has an interesting origin story- or would that… Read More »Geminid Meteor Shower This Month
Courtesy of AstroBites– https://astrobites.org/2025/12/01/book-review-space-hazards-asteroids-solar-flares-and-cosmic-threats/ Dr. Ryan French, formerly writing on the Sun alone, now expands to other flareups that may affect Earth: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/space-hazards-asteroids-solar-flares-and-cosmic-threats-facing-earth-dr-ryan-french?variant=43731356090402 Admittedly, NEOs have to share time with X-class solar flares, gamma-ray bursts, etc. So the 240 pages… Read More »“Space Hazards” (Ryan French) Review
New in Space Science Reviews (2025, vol. 221): Tortora, P. Granmiga, E. Lasagni Manghi, R et al. The Radio Science Experiment on Hera, Juventus and Milani Art 124 s11214-025-01253-8 The Hera mission contains the CubeSats Juventus and Milani. The two… Read More »Space Science Reviews: Radio Three Europe
Hit the jackpot… or would that be Natpoj? In the “latest issue” of Nature Astronomy (not even November… early web postings): Nguyen, A.N. Seifert, L.B. Shimizu, K. et al. Abundant supernova dust and heterogeneous aqueous alteration revealed by stardust in… Read More »Note, Paper: Sugar, Prespice, and Everything Ni(tro-)
At this moment in time (and space): www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=17515Jehin, E. Hmiddouch, S. Aravind,K. et al. TRAPPIST first post-perihelion production rates of the Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS ATel #17515, 1 Dec 2025; 09:00 UT The comet has passed perihelion, is still in the inner Solar System,… Read More »ATLAS Gas Snapshot
The Vera Rubin Observatory is organizing a themed meeting this week: https://sites.google.com/view/lsstlatam2025/home This meeting is to coordinate and promote data users in Latin America, and I don’t mean just Chile. https://sites.google.com/view/lsstlatam2025/program Opening Remarks9:30 – 10:00 Rubin Plenary: Robert Blum (Rubin,… Read More »LSST@LATAM Meeting
The journal Aerospace Science and Technology covers everything from little ‘copters to starships. But now and then, given its breadth, something is asteroid-relevant. In the Dec issue (vol. 167): Yang, H. Zhu, S. Ge, D. et al. Impulsive maneuver optimization… Read More »Note, Paper: Landing Commanding Understanding