Latest news with #VirtualTelescopeProject
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
Perseid meteor shower 2025: When, where, and how to watch?
Skywatchers will be treated to a visual feast this weekend. The Perseid meteor shower, one of the most well-known celestial events, occurs annually around this time. It will be visible on August 12 and 13, best viewed around dawn on August 13. This year, however, there will be one significant exception: moonlight. Last year, there was no visible moon. The brightest meteors will be washed out by the 80 per cent lit waning gibbous moon, which will rise just before midnight on August 12 and stay high above the southern horizon until morning. Despite the moonlight, the Perseids could still put on a splendid display. They will appear to emanate from a point of origin — known as a radiant — situated near the star Eta Persei in the constellation Perseus, which climbs high in the summer sky in the hours leading up to dawn at this time of year. Those new to stargazing can find the constellation with the help of a smartphone astronomy app, many of which use augmented reality technology to help pinpoint the exact locations of specific stars. The Perseid meteors can be seen from anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. To enjoy this celestial spectacle, find a location far from city lights, as light pollution can obstruct the view. If you are struggling to find a suitable spot, you may try an interactive light pollution map using or The Virtual Telescope Project's astrophysicist Gianluca Masi provides a live feed of this eagerly awaited meteor shower. Similar circumstances allow for the observation of the Perseid meteor shower in India. To get the most out of the show, go to a dim area away from the lights of the city. And Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of the channel Virtual Telescope Project offers a live stream of the much-awaited meteor shower. The name Perseid is believed to derive from the Perseus constellation. It peaks annually in mid-August and is considered one of the best meteor showers. Perseids, usually swift and bright, leave trails of light and colour behind them as they traverse through the night sky. It is also one of the most prolific showers, with nearly 100 meteors seen per hour. These occur during warm summer nights, providing skywatchers with the most comfortable viewing conditions. Since they originate from larger particles made of cometary debris, Perseids are especially well-known for their fireballs, which are larger blasts of colour and light that last longer than typical meteor streaks. These fireballs provide a clearer perspective since they are brighter.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers spot an interstellar object zipping through our solar system
A newly discovered object speeding through our solar system is sparking excitement among astronomers because it's not from around here. Believed to be a comet, the object is only the third celestial body from beyond our solar system ever to be observed in our corner of the universe. This interstellar visitor, now officially named 3I/ATLAS, became known when the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescope in Chile reported spotting it on Tuesday. Since then, astronomers reviewing archival observations from multiple telescopes have tracked the object's movements as far back as June 14 and found that the comet arrived from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. The comet's speed and path through the solar system are two strong indicators that it originated beyond our solar system, said Gianluca Masi, astronomer and astrophysicist at the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy and founder and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project. Masi has been making observations of the comet and will stream a live view of the object on the Virtual Telescope Project's website beginning at 6 p.m. ET Thursday. The comet is moving at nearly 37 miles per second (60 kilometers per second) — or 133,200 miles per hour (about 214,364 kilometers per hour) — too fast to be a 'local' object in our solar system, said Teddy Kareta, an assistant professor at Villanova University near Philadelphia. 'Objects bound to the sun — denizens of our solar system — take paths around it that return to the same point,' Kareta wrote in an email. 'The Earth's orbit is mostly circular, Pluto's orbit is a stretched oval, and many comets are very highly 'eccentric' — their orbits are very long and narrow ellipses. This object's path through the solar system is very nearly a straight line.' Tracking the object's orbit also reveals the path it has taken to reach our solar system, said Dr. Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center of Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. 'When we extrapolate its motion backwards in time we see that it clearly originated from outside our Solar System,' Chodas wrote in an email. 'It must have originated from another Solar System and probably has been travelling through interstellar space for millions of years until it happened to encounter our Solar System.' Since the initial sighting of the comet, located 420 million miles (675 million kilometers) from Earth, astronomers have rushed to observe the object with telescopes around the world. One of those astronomers is Kareta, who observed the comet, using the Lowell Observatory's Lowell Discovery Telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona, as soon as he heard about it on the night of its discovery. He said he believes it will only be a couple of weeks before just about every large telescope on Earth and in space has made time to spot and track the comet. 'People are excited. Almost every planetary astronomer I know immediately ran to a telescope or sent emails requesting telescope (observing) time in the next few days,' said Kareta, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at the Lowell Observatory. 'While we might have several months to study this fascinating object, the earlier we can figure out how it works — how it is evolving, what strange or unexpected properties it might have — the quicker we can plan for the rest of its passage through the solar system.' Comet 3I/ATLAS follows two other intriguing interstellar objects, called ISOs, that once passed through our solar system: 'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. Both objects, also thought to be interstellar comets, stirred intense interest. The accelerated movements of cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua even ignited claims that it could be an alien probe. Little is known so far about comet 3I/ATLAS. Astronomers estimate its diameter to be 12 miles (20 kilometers), with significant uncertainty due to the object's brightness, Masi said. However, the comet seems to be the brightest and fastest of the three interstellar objects discovered so far, Kareta noted. 3I/ATLAS is approaching our solar system from the Milky Way's galactic center, a different direction than the previous objects, Chodas said. The object has shown signs of cometary activity, including that it appears to be losing mass like a comet. Comets are made of ice, frozen gases and rock, and as they near stars such as the sun, heat causes them to release gas and dust, which creates their signature tails. But it's not yet clear what kind of material is releasing from 3I/ATLAS or what process is causing it, Kareta said. 'Considering the lingering disagreements about what caused the orbital acceleration of the first ISO 'Oumuamua, I'd be surprised if diagnosing and understanding this wasn't a priority for most,' Kareta wrote in an email. 'We don't know where (3I/ATLAS) came from yet, but as our understanding of the object's orbit (increases) we might be able to make some good guesses in a few months.' Astronomers said that the comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at least 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) from our planet. The comet is currently about 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) away from the sun and will make its closest approach to our star around October 30 at a distance of 130 million miles (210 million kilometers), according to NASA. The comet will also whip by Mars on October 2 at 18 million miles (30 million kilometers) from the red planet. This is a relatively close pass, astronomically speaking. For reference, Earth is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun. The nearest the comet will come to Earth is 167 million miles (270 million kilometers) on December 19, Masi said. Masi said the comet is currently visible in the Sagittarius constellation, which is best viewed from the southern sky in the middle of the night. While the full moon on July 10 will make 3I/ATLAS difficult to observe, observations even with small telescopes should improve in the coming months, he added. Astronomers expect that the comet will remain visible for ground-based telescope observations through September before disappearing from view. It should reappear on the other side of the sun in early December, enabling follow-up observations. It will be observable well into mid-2026, Chodas said. Further study could reveal whether comets look the same in other solar systems, Kareta said. Studying interstellar objects is also crucial to gaining a broader understanding of planets beyond our solar system and how they form, he added, describing these visitors as 'some of the most fascinating things we've discovered.' 'They're comets and asteroids which formed around other stars — the building blocks of planets around those faraway stars — which got ejected into interstellar space which we later find as they zip through our solar system,' Kareta said. 'We want to measure everything we can about these objects to compare them to our own local comets and asteroids. They're big questions, but the fact that we can make any progress on them by studying these fascinating objects should tell you why planetary astronomers are so excited to learn everything we can about them.' Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch newly discovered 'interstellar visitor' 3I/ATLAS shoot toward us in first livestream
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A mysterious, uninvited guest has been spotted shooting through the solar system at breakneck speed. And, for the first time, you can now see this interstellar visitor barreling towards us for yourself — thanks to a free livestream from the Virtual Telescope Project. The newly discovered interloper, initially dubbed A11pl3Z, was revealed to us on Tuesday (July 1), when researchers spotted it in data collected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which automatically scans the night sky using telescopes in Hawaii, Chile and South Africa. The mysterious object is traveling toward the sun at around 152,000 mph (245,000 km/h), and it is set on a very flat and straight trajectory, unlike any other known object in our solar system. Many experts initially predicted that it was an interstellar object, meaning it originates from beyond the sun's gravitational influence and has enough momentum to shoot straight through our cosmic neighborhood without slowing down. On Wednesday (July 2), NASA confirmed this and revealed that the interloper is most likely a comet. It has now been officially named 3I/ATLAS. The extrasolar entity is too faint to be visible to the naked eye or through amateur stargazing equipment, although it may brighten sufficiently to become visible to backyard telescopes in the coming weeks and months. However, the upcoming livestream from the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) will share the view from VTP's powerful telescope in Manciano, Italy. The livestream was recorded on July 3 and can be viewed on the VTP's YouTube channel. Related: 1 million 'interstellar objects' — each larger than the Statue of Liberty — may lurk in the outer solar system Only two other confirmed interstellar visitors have ever been spotted before now: Comet 2I/Borisov, which was seen shooting through the solar system in 2019; and 'Oumuamua, a cigar-shaped object that made headlines in 2017 when some astronomers argued it was potentially an alien probe, before experts showed it was most likely a hydrogen-spewing space rock. However, scientists suspect that many more interstellar interlopers likely pass through our cosmic neighborhood undetected. 3I/ATLAS is believed to measure up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) across and is currently around 4.5 times as far from the sun as Earth is. It will reach its closest point to the sun, known as perihelion, on Oct. 30, coming within 1.4 Earth-sun distances, or astronomical units (AU), of our home star. Shortly before this happens, the comet will also make its closest approach to Mars, coming within 0.4 AU of the Red Planet. Earth will be on the opposite side of the sun to 3I/ATLAS during the comet's solar flyby. The object will likely make its closest approach to Earth in December, on its journey back out of the solar system. As a result, "the comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at a [minimum] distance of at least 1.6 astronomical units," NASA officials wrote in a statement. Astronomers are now racing to learn more about the rare object before it leaves the solar system at some point next year. Researchers will be able to study it until the end of September, when it will become obscured by the sun's light, and again from December, when the comet reemerges from behind our home star. RELATED STORIES —An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014, declassified government data reveal —Scientists want to build an 'interstellar interceptor' to play hide-and-seek with the next 'Oumuamua —An interstellar visitor may have changed the course of 4 solar system planets, study suggests The interstellar visitor will likely be imaged by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory — the world's most powerful optical telescope, which recently released its first images. Some researchers have also suggested using the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA's Mars rovers to photograph the object as it shoots toward the sun.
Saudi Gazette
04-07-2025
- Science
- Saudi Gazette
Astronomers spot an interstellar object zipping through our solar system
PASADENA, California — A newly discovered object speeding through our solar system is sparking excitement among astronomers because it's not from around here. Believed to be a comet, the object is only the third celestial body from beyond our solar system ever to be observed in our corner of the universe. This interstellar visitor, now officially named 3I/ATLAS, became known when the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescope in Chile reported spotting it on Tuesday. Since then, astronomers reviewing archival observations from multiple telescopes have tracked the object's movements as far back as June 14 and found that the comet arrived from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. The comet's speed and path through the solar system are two strong indicators that it originated beyond our solar system, said Gianluca Masi, astronomer and astrophysicist at the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy and founder and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project. Masi has been making observations of the comet and will stream a live view of the object on the Virtual Telescope Project's website beginning at 6 p.m. ET Thursday. The comet is moving at nearly 37 miles per second (60 kilometers per second) — or 133,200 miles per hour (about 214,364 kilometers per hour) — too fast to be a 'local' object in our solar system, said Teddy Kareta, an assistant professor at Villanova University near Philadelphia. 'Objects bound to the sun — denizens of our solar system — take paths around it that return to the same point,' Kareta wrote in an email. 'The Earth's orbit is mostly circular, Pluto's orbit is a stretched oval, and many comets are very highly 'eccentric' — their orbits are very long and narrow ellipses. This object's path through the solar system is very nearly a straight line.' Tracking the object's orbit also reveals the path it has taken to reach our solar system, said Dr. Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center of Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. 'When we extrapolate its motion backwards in time we see that it clearly originated from outside our Solar System,' Chodas wrote in an email. 'It must have originated from another Solar System and probably has been travelling through interstellar space for millions of years until it happened to encounter our Solar System.' Since the initial sighting of the comet, located 420 million miles (675 million kilometers) from Earth, astronomers have rushed to observe the object with telescopes around the world. One of those astronomers is Kareta, who observed the comet, using the Lowell Observatory's Lowell Discovery Telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona, as soon as he heard about it on the night of its discovery. He said he believes it will only be a couple of weeks before just about every large telescope on Earth and in space has made time to spot and track the comet. 'People are excited. Almost every planetary astronomer I know immediately ran to a telescope or sent emails requesting telescope (observing) time in the next few days,' said Kareta, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at the Lowell Observatory. 'While we might have several months to study this fascinating object, the earlier we can figure out how it works — how it is evolving, what strange or unexpected properties it might have — the quicker we can plan for the rest of its passage through the solar system.' Comet 3I/ATLAS follows two other intriguing interstellar objects, called ISOs, that once passed through our solar system: 'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. Both objects, also thought to be interstellar comets, stirred intense interest. The accelerated movements of cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua even ignited claims that it could be an alien probe. Little is known so far about comet 3I/ATLAS. Astronomers estimate its diameter to be 12 miles (20 kilometers), with significant uncertainty due to the object's brightness, Masi said. However, the comet seems to be the brightest and fastest of the three interstellar objects discovered so far, Kareta noted. 3I/ATLAS is approaching our solar system from the Milky Way's galactic center, a different direction than the previous objects, Chodas said. The object has shown signs of cometary activity, including that it appears to be losing mass like a comet. Comets are made of ice, frozen gases and rock, and as they near stars such as the sun, heat causes them to release gas and dust, which creates their signature tails. But it's not yet clear what kind of material is releasing from 3I/ATLAS or what process is causing it, Kareta said. 'Considering the lingering disagreements about what caused the orbital acceleration of the first ISO 'Oumuamua, I'd be surprised if diagnosing and understanding this wasn't a priority for most,' Kareta wrote in an email. 'We don't know where (3I/ATLAS) came from yet, but as our understanding of the object's orbit (increases) we might be able to make some good guesses in a few months.' Astronomers said that the comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at least 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) from our planet. The comet is currently about 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) away from the sun and will make its closest approach to our star around October 30 at a distance of 130 million miles (210 million kilometers), according to NASA. The comet will also whip by Mars on October 2 at 18 million miles (30 million kilometers) from the red planet. This is a relatively close pass, astronomically speaking. For reference, Earth is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun. The nearest the comet will come to Earth is 167 million miles (270 million kilometers) on December 19, Masi said. Masi said the comet is currently visible in the Sagittarius constellation, which is best viewed from the southern sky in the middle of the night. While the full moon on July 10 will make 3I/ATLAS difficult to observe, observations even with small telescopes should improve in the coming months, he added. Astronomers expect that the comet will remain visible for ground-based telescope observations through September before disappearing from view. It should reappear on the other side of the sun in early December, enabling follow-up observations. It will be observable well into mid-2026, Chodas said. Further study could reveal whether comets look the same in other solar systems, Kareta said. Studying interstellar objects is also crucial to gaining a broader understanding of planets beyond our solar system and how they form, he added, describing these visitors as 'some of the most fascinating things we've discovered.' 'They're comets and asteroids which formed around other stars — the building blocks of planets around those faraway stars — which got ejected into interstellar space which we later find as they zip through our solar system,' Kareta said. 'We want to measure everything we can about these objects to compare them to our own local comets and asteroids. They're big questions, but the fact that we can make any progress on them by studying these fascinating objects should tell you why planetary astronomers are so excited to learn everything we can about them.' — CNN
CNN
03-07-2025
- Science
- CNN
Astronomers spot an interstellar object zipping through our solar system
A newly discovered object speeding through our solar system is sparking excitement among astronomers because it's not from around here. Believed to be a comet, the object is only the third celestial body from beyond our solar system ever to be observed in our corner of the universe. This interstellar visitor, now officially named 3I/ATLAS, became known when the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescope in Chile reported spotting it on Tuesday. Since then, astronomers reviewing archival observations from multiple telescopes have tracked the object's movements as far back as June 14 and found that the comet arrived from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. The comet's speed and path through the solar system are two strong indicators that it originated beyond our solar system, said Gianluca Masi, astronomer and astrophysicist at the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy and founder and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project. Masi has been making observations of the comet and will stream a live view of the object on the Virtual Telescope Project's website beginning at 6 p.m. ET Thursday. The comet is moving at nearly 37 miles per second (60 kilometers per second) — or 133,200 miles per hour (about 214,364 kilometers per hour) — too fast to be a 'local' object in our solar system, said Teddy Kareta, an assistant professor at Villanova University near Philadelphia. 'Objects bound to the sun — denizens of our solar system — take paths around it that return to the same point,' Kareta wrote in an email. 'The Earth's orbit is mostly circular, Pluto's orbit is a stretched oval, and many comets are very highly 'eccentric' — their orbits are very long and narrow ellipses. This object's path through the solar system is very nearly a straight line.' Since the initial sighting of the comet, located 420 million miles (675 million kilometers) from Earth, astronomers have rushed to observe the object with telescopes around the world. One of those astronomers is Kareta, who observed the comet, using the Lowell Observatory's Lowell Discovery Telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona, as soon as he heard about it on the night of its discovery. He said he believes it will only be a couple of weeks before just about every large telescope on Earth and in space has made time to spot and track the comet. 'People are excited. Almost every planetary astronomer I know immediately ran to a telescope or sent emails requesting telescope (observing) time in the next few days,' said Kareta, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at the Lowell Observatory. 'While we might have several months to study this fascinating object, the earlier we can figure out how it works — how it is evolving, what strange or unexpected properties it might have — the quicker we can plan for the rest of its passage through the solar system.' Comet 3I/ATLAS follows two other intriguing interstellar objects, called ISOs, that once passed through our solar system: 'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. Both objects, also thought to be interstellar comets, stirred intense interest. The accelerated movements of cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua even ignited claims that it could be an alien probe. Little is known so far about comet 3I/ATLAS. Astronomers estimate its diameter to be 12 miles (20 kilometers), with significant uncertainty due to the object's brightness, Masi said. However, the comet seems to be the brightest and fastest of the three interstellar objects discovered so far, Kareta noted. The object has shown signs of cometary activity, including that it appears to be losing mass like a comet. Comets are made of ice, frozen gases and rock, and as they near stars such as the sun, heat causes them to release gas and dust, which creates their signature tails. But it's not yet clear what kind of material is releasing from 3I/ATLAS or what process is causing it, Kareta said. 'Considering the lingering disagreements about what caused the orbital acceleration of the first ISO 'Oumuamua, I'd be surprised if diagnosing and understanding this wasn't a priority for most,' Kareta wrote in an email. 'We don't know where (3I/ATLAS) came from yet, but as our understanding of the object's orbit (increases) we might be able to make some good guesses in a few months.' Astronomers said that the comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at least 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) from our planet. The comet is currently about 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) away from the sun and will make its closest approach to our star around October 30 at a distance of 130 million miles (210 million kilometers), according to NASA. The comet will also whip by Mars on October 2 at 18 million miles (30 million kilometers) from the red planet. This is a relatively close pass, astronomically speaking. For reference, Earth is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun. The nearest the comet will come to Earth is 167 million miles (270 million kilometers) on December 19, Masi said. Masi said the comet is currently visible in the Sagittarius constellation, which is best viewed from the southern sky in the middle of the night. While the full moon on July 10 will make 3I/ATLAS difficult to observe, observations even with small telescopes should improve in the coming months, he added. Astronomers expect that the comet will remain visible for ground-based telescope observations through September before disappearing from view. It should reappear on the other side of the sun in early December, enabling follow-up observations. Further study could reveal whether comets look the same in other solar systems, Kareta said. Studying interstellar objects is also crucial to gaining a broader understanding of planets beyond our solar system and how they form, he added, describing these visitors as 'some of the most fascinating things we've discovered.' 'They're comets and asteroids which formed around other stars — the building blocks of planets around those faraway stars — which got ejected into interstellar space which we later find as they zip through our solar system,' Kareta said. 'We want to measure everything we can about these objects to compare them to our own local comets and asteroids. They're big questions, but the fact that we can make any progress on them by studying these fascinating objects should tell you why planetary astronomers are so excited to learn everything we can about them.'
