WHAT'S NEW?

(2012 Archives)

June 20, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

June 9, 2012

As a part of its current transition the Earthrise Institute is developing some new educational curricula in certain areas of astronomy and space. We will be testing initial phases of these curricula during summer programs at the New Mexico Space Academy (at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico) and at the Challenger Learning Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico over the coming two months.

We congratulate Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, for the successful resupply mission of their Dragon capsule to the International Space Station last month. This successful mission hopefully heralds the beginning of a new era in commercial space activities.

The Earthrise Institute gratefully acknowledges the donation of $12,000 from an anonymous donor.

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

At right is a projected image of the transit of Venus on June 5, as seen from the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Photograph taken by Earthrise Institute President Alan Hale.
June 3, 2012

On Tuesday, June 5 (Wednesday, June 6 from the Eastern Hemisphere) a transit of Venus will be visible from much of the Earth's surface (western Africa, southern and eastern South America, the southern Atlantic Ocean, and Antarctica being excepted). The transit begins near 4:10 P.M. MDT, mid-event occurs near 7:30 P.M., and the transit ends near 10:50 P.M. From the Earthrise Institute's headquarters in New Mexico the first four hours are visible, but the transit will end over 2 1/2 hours after local sunset. It should be noted that this is the last transit of Venus until December 11, 2117.

Meanwhile, on Monday, June 4, a small partial lunar eclipse will be visible from most of North and South America, eastern Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. The partial eclipse begins at 4:00 A.M. MDT, mid-eclipse is at 5:03 A.M., and the partial eclipse ends at 6:06 A.M. At mid-eclipse 37% of the moon's diameter will be immersed in the Earth's umbra.

We have posted a new update to our comet update page. This update includes Comet McNaught C/2011 R1, which is presently visible in the morning sky as seen from the southern hemisphere.

At right is a projected image of the annular solar eclipse on May 20, as seen from Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the location reserved by The Albuquerque Astronomical Society. Photograph taken by Earthrise Institute President Alan Hale (his son Zachary is holding the box).

May 18, 2012

An annular solar eclipse will be taking place on this coming Sunday, May 20 (May 21 west of the International Date Line). The path of annularity crosses portions of southern China (including Hong Kong) and southern and eastern Japan (including Tokyo), then the northern Pacific Ocean, and finally crosses several States in the western U.S., including California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. The partial phases are visible throughout northern and eastern Asia and most of North America.

The path of annularity passes just a few miles (km) north of the Earthrise Institute's location in Cloudcroft, NM. Earthrise Institute President Alan Hale will be viewing the eclipse from Albuquerque, NM, at the location reserved by The Albuquerque Astronomical Society.

Project Icarus (of which Earthrise President Alan Hale is a team member) has now been officially selected as a partner in the 100 Year Starship project, a non-governmental effort to develop human interstellar spaceflight within the next 100 years.

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

We have now begun a "What's New" archive page for the 2012 entries.

April 30, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

April 24, 2012

We are beginning a fundraising activity on Facebook via a contest entitled "The May Instrumentals." Submissions for this contest are now being accepted, and it will formally begin on May 1. Details are on Alan Hale's Facebook page, and the contest is open to anyone on Facebook.

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

April 15, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

April 2, 2012

The "In Our Skies" e-book available through our Earthrise Store now has columns up through the end of the first quarter of 2012. Among the recent columns are: "Blast from the Past" (January 27), "The 500" (February 3), "Doctor, Plus Twenty" (March 2), and "Life in the Deep" (March 30).

We have posted a new update to our comet update page. This update includes the new tally addition Comet PANSTARRS C/2011 L4, which could become a conspicuous naked-eye object a year from now, and also reflects the fact that Comet LINEAR C/2010 S1 is again accessible in the morning sky.

March 25, 2012

Two relatively bright supernovae have appeared within the recent past. Supernova 2012au in the galaxy NGC 4790 was discovered in images taken March 14 during the course of the Catalina Sky Survey, while Supernova 2012aw in the galaxy M95 was discovered on March 16 by Paolo Fagotti and Alessandro Dimai of the Italian Supernovae Search Project. Both supernovae are presently between magnitudes 13 and 13 1/2.

We have posted a new update to our comet update page. This update includes the new tally addition Comet LINEAR C/2011 UF305.

March 17, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

March 4, 2012

Twenty years ago today Earthrise Institute President Alan Hale successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation (at New Mexico State University) on the subject of extrasolar planets. That field has changed dramatically during the intervening two decades (in part due to the many fascinating discoveries that have been made by the Kepler spacecraft that was launched three years ago this week), and as of now 760 extrasolar planets have been confirmed. We expect to be incorporating extrasolar planet research into Earthrise's educational activities over the coming months as we continue our current transition, and we invite our participants and readers to stay tuned for forthcoming developments.

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

February 26, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page. This update includes the new tally addition Comet 246P/NEAT P/2010 V2.

February 19, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page. This update reflects the fact that Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 has undergone another weak outburst, and that Comet LONEOS C/2006 S3 is again accessible in the morning sky.

February 15, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page. This update includes the new discovery (and new tally addition) Comet Bruenjes C/2012 C2.

February 5, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page.

January 28, 2012

Comet 500 has now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly. This brings completion to "Countdown," and we expect to transition to a new program within the next two to three months. During the interim we will continue to update the update page just as we have throughout "Countdown;" new tally additions will be included as they are added, however this will normally be done without announcement or fanfare.

The first-known and second-largest of the near-Earth asteroids, (433) Eros, passes 0.179 AU (16.6 million miles, or 26.7 million km) from Earth on January 31. Eros was the destination of the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker mission, which orbited Eros from February 2000 to February 2001 and then successfully soft-landed upon the asteroid's surface. One of Earthrise's partner organizations, Astronomers Without Borders, is utilizing this week's Eros encounter to conduct a re-enactment of a classic research effort, the Eros Parallax Project.

January 14, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program.

January 8, 2012

We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update reflects the fact that Comet Hill C/2010 G2 has recently undergone a relatively distinct outburst.

January 1, 2012

We wish a Happy New Year and a successful and prosperous 2012 to all our friends and colleagues all over the planet! We envision a number of changes taking place at Earthrise over the course of this new year, including some new projects and other efforts, and we invite our friends and colleagues to check in on us often.

Comets 498 and 499 have now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly.

The "In Our Skies" e-book available through our Earthrise Store now has columns up through the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, including those written since the resumption of the column in November. Among the recent columns are: "The Lakes of Europa" (November 25), "Kepler's Newest Worlds" (December 16), and "The Comet That Survived" (December 23).

The annual Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak on this coming Wednesday morning, January 4. The maximum, which is usually very brief, is expected between 7:00 and 8:00 Universal Time (Midnight to 1:00 A.M. MST), which means the prime viewing locations will be in eastern North America. (There is a waxing gibbous moon that will set around 3:00 A.M. local time.) The peak rates could exceed 100 meteors per hour.

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