Latest news with #PaulWiegert
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
There's a new comet in the sky, and it's already visible through binoculars
One of the great things about astronomy is that it's full of surprises, especially when it comes to comets — you just can't predict when a new one might pop up. But when one does appear, it gets both amateur and professional astronomers very excited. And that's why there's a lot of buzz around a recently discovered comet that is now visible through binoculars, if you know where to look. The comet is so new that it doesn't yet have an official designation, which is provided by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC). For now it goes by the name SWAN25F. It's named in part after the SWAN (Solar Wind Anisotropies) camera on board NASA and the European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. It should get an official name soon. The comet was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo, who used SWAN images available to the public. He previously used the same method to discover a comet in 2020. Right now, the SWAN25F can be found in the early morning sky low in the eastern horizon, in the constellation Pegasus. But over the next few weeks, as the comet moves through our solar system, it will rise a little higher in the morning sky. The comet is so new that the MPC is waiting for additional observations to get more information from it, such as its origin. However, Paul Wiegert, a professor at Western University's department of physics and astronomy in London, Ont., said that at the moment, its believed to come from the furthest reaches of our solar system, called the Oort cloud, where hundreds of millions — or even trillions — of icy objects reside. SWAN25F, seen here, was photographed by amateur astronomer Rolando Ligustri using a remote telescope in Utah. (Rolandro Ligustri) The Oort cloud is mind-blowingly far away. The distance from the sun to Earth is roughly 150 million kilometres, and that measurement is called one astronomical unit (AU). The distance from the sun to the Oort cloud is estimated to be anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 AU. When and how to see it If you'd like to see this ancient relic left over from the formation of our solar system, you need a few things. First, you need to get up early. SWAN25F is currently low on the eastern horizon and visible before sunrise. You can download astronomy apps on your phone that will allow you to search for particular constellations — in this case, Pegasus. Second, you need a pair of binoculars. At the moment, the comet isn't visible to the naked eye. It's currently at magnitude 8. Visually, the naked eye can only see magnitude 6 in dark-sky locations (in astronomy, brightness is on a scale where lower and negative numbers signify brighter objects). (CBC News) Third, you need a bit of luck. SWAN25F reached its closest point to the sun, called perihelion, some time in February. Now, it's heading toward us, which is in part why it's getting brighter. But whether or not that brightness will continue is unknown. Astronomers are hoping it will become visible to the naked eye by the end of the month. "We expect it to get brighter, not because it's necessarily getting more solar heating and being more active and producing more of the gasses that we see, but our geometry relative to it, we're going to get closer to it," Wiegert said. "And all of those details are going to work in its favour. So we're hoping that it's going to get quite a bit brighter over the next month or so." And that luck also extends to having clear skies. If the comet does continue to remain intact and not break apart as some do — though it's passed the most dangerous time for this to happen, when its closest to the sun — it should continue to both brighten in the sky and rise higher in the next three weeks. Amateur astronomer Dan Bartlett imaged SWAN25F from June Lake, Cali., (Dan Bartlett) But be warned: the comet won't look like the photos you see online, or even in this story. Those images are made by shooting multiple photographs through telescopes and combining them together. Instead, what you'll see through your binoculars will be a faint fuzzy patch of light. And while that may not seem very exciting, just think about how far that object has travelled. "A new comet is always exciting. They appear unexpectedly. They're quite beautiful. They do tell us a lot, too, about our solar system, and about how the planets formed," Wiegert said. "So, you know, it's a sort of a beautiful addition to our springtime skies."
CBC
09-04-2025
- Science
- CBC
There's a new comet in the sky, and it's already visible through binoculars
One of the great things about astronomy is that it's full of surprises, especially when it comes to comets — you just can't predict when a new one might pop up. But when one does appear, it gets both amateur and professional astronomers very excited. And that's why there's a lot of buzz around a recently discovered comet that is now visible through binoculars, if you know where to look. The comet is so new that it doesn't yet have an official designation, which is provided by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC). For now it goes by the name SWAN25F. It's named in part after the SWAN (Solar Wind Anisotropies) camera on board NASA and the European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. It should get an official name soon. The comet was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo, who used SWAN images available to the public. He previously used the same method to discover a comet in 2020. Right now, the SWAN25F can be found in the early morning sky low in the eastern horizon, in the constellation Pegasus. But over the next few weeks, as the comet moves through our solar system, it will rise a little higher in the morning sky. The comet is so new that the MPC is waiting for additional observations to get more information from it, such as its origin. However, Paul Wiegert, a professor at Western University's department of physics and astronomy in London, Ont., said that at the moment, its believed to come from the furthest reaches of our solar system, called the Oort cloud, where hundreds of millions — or even trillions — of icy objects reside. The Oort cloud is mind-blowingly far away. The distance from the sun to Earth is roughly 150 million kilometres, and that measurement is called one astronomical unit (AU). The distance from the sun to the Oort cloud is estimated to be anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 AU. When and how to see it If you'd like to see this ancient relic left over from the formation of our solar system, you need a few things. First, you need to get up early. SWAN25F is currently low on the eastern horizon and visible before sunrise. You can download astronomy apps on your phone that will allow you to search for particular constellations — in this case, Pegasus. Second, you need a pair of binoculars. At the moment, the comet isn't visible to the naked eye. It's currently at magnitude 8. Visually, the naked eye can only see magnitude 6 in dark-sky locations (in astronomy, brightness is on a scale where lower and negative numbers signify brighter objects). Third, you need a bit of luck. SWAN25F reached its closest point to the sun, called perihelion, some time in February. Now, it's heading toward us, which is in part why it's getting brighter. But whether or not that brightness will continue is unknown. Astronomers are hoping it will become visible to the naked eye by the end of the month. "We expect it to get brighter, not because it's necessarily getting more solar heating and being more active and producing more of the gasses that we see, but our geometry relative to it, we're going to get closer to it," Wiegert said. "And all of those details are going to work in its favour. So we're hoping that it's going to get quite a bit brighter over the next month or so." And that luck also extends to having clear skies. If the comet does continue to remain intact and not break apart as some do — though it's passed the most dangerous time for this to happen, when its closest to the sun — it should continue to both brighten in the sky and rise higher in the next three weeks. But be warned: the comet won't look like the photos you see online, or even in this story. Those images are made by shooting multiple photographs through telescopes and combining them together. Instead, what you'll see through your binoculars will be a faint fuzzy patch of light. And while that may not seem very exciting, just think about how far that object has travelled. "A new comet is always exciting. They appear unexpectedly. They're quite beautiful. They do tell us a lot, too, about our solar system, and about how the planets formed," Wiegert said. "So, you know, it's a sort of a beautiful addition to our springtime skies."
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Think Visitors From Another Star System May Have Infiltrated Our Galactic Neighborhood
Alpha Centauri is the star system closest to our Solar System, and it is likely that particles from it could be making their way over to or already be in our stellar neighborhood. To know what to expect, researchers used existing models to predict how many particles of different sizes may already exist in the Solar System and are possibly coming in from Alpha Centauri every year. Studying the ejection and transfer of particles from Alpha Centauri could tell us more about how material is exchanged between star systems. While interstellar objects ('Oumuamua, anyone?) have passed through our Solar System before, the origins of many of these objects remain unknown. Did they originate in a nearby star system? A distant one? A completely different galaxy? Unfortunately, it's not currently possible to track 'Oumuamua down for further study. Its highly eccentric orbit will take it too far for any spacecraft to reach or any telescope to observe. But that doesn't mean we have no interstellar subjects available for study—in fact, it turns out we have plenty of particles from another star system already here. The closest stellar system to us is the triple system Alpha Centauri. It's currently creeping closer to our Solar System at 79,000 km per hour (about 49,709 mph), and should be at its closest around 27,700 years from now. With that in mind, researchers Cole Gregg and Paul Wiegert from the University of Western Ontario decided to see how many Alpha Centauri objects might have made it to us already, and how many could eventually make it here in the future. 'A small number [less than 10 meteors] may currently be entering Earth's atmosphere every year,' Gregg and Wiegert said in a study soon to be published in the Planetary Science Journal, '[and] is expected to increase as Alpha Centauri approaches.' Alpha Centauri is a mature star system, at 5 billion years old. This means that most of the material in this system's protoplanetary disk has likely already dissipated, so it is not expected to release much debris out into space (though there might be material from the system in our asteroid belt and our distant Oort cloud). That said, the gravitational forces of more stars and planets make it more likely for material to scatter, and there may be planets orbiting its three stars (though, none have yet been confirmed). To find out if Alpha Centauri could be currently ejecting material, the researchers turned to existing models of how star systems usually eject debris. The models predicted that, despite the small number of objects from Alpha Centauri that are expected to make it all the way to Earth every year, there could be as many as a million over-one-hundred-meter-in-diameter-sized objects from the system already lurking in our Oort cloud (many smaller object and particles may also be among them). The problem is that the Oort cloud is on the outer edge of the Solar System. This would make potential Alpha Centauri objects—if they really are somewhere in there—difficult to observe. Though, it wouldn't be impossible. NASA's New Horizons Mission has a dust detector actively picking up on particles in the Kuiper belt that might have been leftovers from the formation of our Solar System. The Oort cloud is even further out, but despite a dwindling fuel supply, New Horizons may be able to hold on long enough to get out there and scan for the presence of something from Alpha Centauri. That said, the presence of these objects is not certain. There is also the issue of smaller particles from Alpha Centauri potentially not surviving the journey to the Solar System. They could be deflected by magnetic fields, slow down significantly due to drag in the interstellar medium, or end up decimated by extremely fast gas atoms or collisions with each other. For any particles that do survive and manage to enter the inner Solar System, the Sun's gravity will increase their velocity significantly. Even more particles could come from hypothetical comets—at least, they could if Alpha Centauri ejects as many as our Solar System—but these are unlikely to be observed. Whether these potential particles are actually detectable remains to be seen. 'A thorough understanding of the mechanisms by which material could be transferred from Alpha Centauri to the Solar System not only deepens our knowledge of interstellar transport,' the researchers said in the same study, 'but also opens new pathways for exploring the interconnectedness of stellar systems and the potential for material exchange across the galaxy.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
