Roses.
Candy. Spatulas? Make that the stars: Spaceweather
PHONE for Mother's Day.
COMET
OUTBURST:
According to observers in Italy, fragment
B of comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 has suddenly
brightened to 5th magnitude. The outburst probably signals
another breakup of the furiously
decaying comet-fragment. Confirming observations are
requested: sky
map.
HERE
THEY COME:
More than 60
fragments of comet 73P are racing toward Earth. Top
speed: 11,000 mph. There's no danger of a collision; at
closest approach on May 12th - 14th, the mini-comets
will be 6 million miles away. That's close enough, however,
for a marvelous
view through backyard telescopes.
Sky
maps: May
9, 10,
11,
12,
13,
14
On
May 7th, fragment C raced by the Ring Nebula (M57).
"The comet was moving so fast that I could see movement
in only 5 seconds," says John
Chumack of Yellow Springs, Ohio, who took this picture:
"As
the comet's dust tail crossed over M57, it actually caused
the nebula's central star to flicker--that was really
neat!" he says.
more
images: from
Stefan Seip of Stuttgart, Germany; from
Mike Holloway of Van Buren, Arkansas; from
Boeckel Thorsten of Fuerstenfeldbruck, Bavaria.
SUNSET
MIRAGE:
"Who says the sun is round? Not here in San Francisco,"
reports Mila Zinkova
who photographed this extraordinary sunset yesterday:
The
strange shape of the setting sun was caused by a temperature
inversion layer above the water, producing a mock-mirage.
"The sun was changing shape every second," she
says. "This is the kind of sunset that often displays
green
flashes, but tonight there was too much fog to see
the green."