Comet Empire

Comet Holmes (left) from the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea showing the coma at 869,900 miles (1.4 million kilometers) in diameter. The white ''star'' near the center of the coma is in fact the dust-shrouded nucleus of the comet.The sun and the planet Saturn are shown at the same scale for comparison. Credit: University of Hawaii/CFHT (comet); NASA/Voyager (Saturn); NASA/ESA/SOHO (sun)

Still visible on clear night. Look northwest towards the constellation Cassiopeia, the one that looks like a "W".

Answering Your Letters

Anne Altman writes,

they say they found evidence of another earth in the making.

can we go there?

please research, nerd.

thank you.

Dear Anne,

Thank you for your inquisitive question!!

Why yes, they do say they found evidence of another earth in the making.

Earth-like Planet Forming In Nearby Star System, Astronomers Believe

The dust belt, which they suspect is clumping together into planets, is
located in the middle of the system's terrestrial habitable zone. This is the
region around a star where liquid water could exist on any rocky planets that
might form. Earth is located in the middle of our sun's terrestrial habitable
zone.

At approximately 10 million years old, the star is also at just the right age
for forming rocky planets.

So to answer your question Anne, no, we can't go there yet! But let's check back in about 14 million years. Then you'll have your answer!

Thanks for asking!

Love,

Nerdbluebaby

The Void

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

The universe has a huge hole in it that dwarfs anything else of its kind. The discovery caught astronomers by surprise.

The hole is nearly a billion light-years across. It is not a black hole, which
is a small sphere of densely packed matter. Rather, this one is mostly devoid of
stars, gas and other normal matter, and it's also strangely empty of the
mysterious "dark matter" that permeates the cosmos. Other space voids have been found before, but nothing on this scale.

Forget the alien creatures found at the bottom of the ocean - THIS is scary.

A billion light years across... of nothing. Nothing! Well, logically there should be something... but what? It's like the Nothing that destroyed Fantasia.

Waste Time In Space

You want to cruise through the known universe on your computer?

Then get Celestia. Don't worry, it's free.

Pardon my french, but this program is friggin' awesome.

It's a 3D tour to any spacecraft, asteroid, comet, moon, planet, star and galaxy that we know about. And you can get there in warp speed. And waste a lot of time when I ... uh.. YOU, should be working!

Nuke It, Smack It, Lean On It

A recent study showed that the U.S. and China are the nations most vulnerable to a devastating meteorite strike. With funding uncertain, astronomers are struggling to contain the threat of a civilization-ending galactic visitor.

How many people are watching?

About a dozen.

Great.