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  • 388E-425-Greg's Comet

    388E-425-Greg's Comet
    2026/05/12
    My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was searching for Earth approaching objects with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he discovered an interesting new comet moving through the constellation of Leo. After Greg posted his discovery observations on the Minor Planet Center's Near Earth Confirmation Page it was observed over the next 3 weeks by 10 different observatories around the world. These data were used to calculate the details of the new object's 51 year path around the Sun and give it the name Comet C/2017 W2 (Leonard) . Greg's newly discovered comet's orbital plane is almost at a right angle to paths of the planets and most of the asteroids so that it spends most of it's time in the lonely space high above or far below the rest of the members of our solar system. Riding with Comet C/2017 W2 (Leonard) would bring a space traveler into the inner solar system about once per human lifetime. Greg's comet receives only mild solar heating since at it's closest it is about 3 times further from the Sun than we are making it unlikely to ever be bright for human observers. At it's furthest from the Sun, Comet Leonard is in a very cold region, receives less than 1% solar energy than we do, and and likely to have a surface temperature of about -300 degrees Fahrenheit. Greg's comet is likely to remain as it is for eons since it spends so much of it's time far from the Sun and the gravitational tugs of most of the rest of the members of our solar system.
    © 2026. A. D. Grauer
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    2 分
  • 898-Pandora

    898-Pandora
    2026/05/08
    Looking into a star filled sky at a place like the Cosmic Campground International Dark Sky Sanctuary in New Mexico inspires a person to wonder if our home planet is unique in the Universe. To begin to answer this question, NASA launched the small satellite Pandora on January 11, 2026 . It is on at least a one year long mission to study the chemical composition of more than 20 planets orbiting nearby stars in the Milky Way.The Pandora satellite’s results will hopefully include a list of potentially habitable planets to be observed the James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe.
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    2 分
  • 387E-424-Long Winter Nights

    387E-424-Long Winter Nights
    2026/05/05
    Winter nights can be exhausting, productive, as well as sometimes frustrating for asteroid hunters. At the Sixty Inch Telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, near winter solstice, the night's observing starts at 6:30 PM and continues till after 6 AM which combined with start up and end tasks makes the asteroid hunter's work "day" more than 13 hours long. On such a recent long winter work night, my Catalina Sky Survey Teammate, Carson Fuls discovered an impressing total of 18 new Earth approaching objects. On the other hand on the next 3 night shift, I was treated to one night which was clear followed by two nights which were dominated by the first big snow storm of the season. The best nights are clear, cold, and calm with asteroid images which are small intense points of light. Such a night is said to have good seeing. Nights which are clear but have bad seeing with fuzzy star and asteroid images due to atmospheric turbulence and high winds makes the discovery of faint objects virtually impossible. High winds can and do shake the telescope producing double images of every object. Nights which consist of sporadic clear holes in the clouds also yield few new discoveries. Fishing what we call "sucker holes" in the clouds is very frustrating since it is hard to verify a new discovery under such conditions. Then there are the nights which are perfectly clear but we have to keep the dome closed because of the snow on it. Then there are those nights which are clear with good seeing from start to finish on which the asteroid hunter makes new discoveries while being treated to views of millions of stars, gas clouds, and galaxies which inspire a child like sense of wonder. For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
    © 2026 A. D. Grauer
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    2 分
  • 897-Kacper's Comet

    897-Kacper's Comet
    2026/05/01
    In 2007 a small icy object moving in the constellation of Ursa Minor crossed the orbit of Pluto at a speed of approximately 4.2 mi/s starting its journey towards the inner solar system. It was between the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter traveling at some 9 mi/s towards the Sun, when my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Dr. Kacper Wierzchoś discovered it on March 3, 2024, while asteroid hunting, in the constellation of Draco, with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona. Kacper studies comets passionately was thus excited to observe that it has a coma and a tail.On its way out of the solar system, in 2045, Kacper's COMET C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) will cross the orbit of Pluto heading in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major and is destined to wander between stars in the Milky Way till the end of time.
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    2 分
  • 386E-423-Silent ET

    386E-423-Silent ET
    2026/04/28
    Oumuamua (“Oh-moo-ah-moo-ah”) is the asteroid that zipped by the Earth on a trajectory that started beyond our solar system in truly deep space. After rounding our Sun at 97,000 mi/hr this unusual space rock will continue onward into deep interstellar space. The fact that this reddish object's brightness changes by a factor of 10 every 7.3 hours has been interpreted as being due to an elongated rocket or cigar shape which reflects different amounts of sun light in our direction as it tumbles through space. This strange space rock appears to be about 730 feet long and about 100 feet wide. Oumuamua's interstellar path and unusual shape prompted Breakthrough Listen Scientists to use the 300 foot diameter, 8,000 ton, Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope to see if Oumuamua is emitting radio signals which could indicate that it is some type of artifact or spacecraft which passed through our solar system to check it out. Preliminary analysis of several hours of data with a cluster super computers do not reveal any signals of artificial origin even though this instrument could detect a cell phone at the space rock's distance in about a minute. Care is being taken to to reject signals which could be of human origin as well as those which are not consistent with Oumuamua's speed and location. The hypothesis that this interstellar space rock is an alien probe is pretty farfetched, however, how it came to have it's current shape is almost equally hard to imagine.For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer. © 2026 A. D. Grauer
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    2 分
  • 896-Sneaky But Potentially Dangerous

    896-Sneaky But Potentially Dangerous
    2026/04/24
    My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was asteroid hunting with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he came across an unknown moving point of light in the night sky. After Greg reported his observations to the Minor Planet Center his discovery was tracked by telescopes in California, Romania, Germany, New Mexico, Arizona, Bavaria, and Japan. Astronomers used these data to calculate that Greg’s discovery orbits the sun between Venus and Earth , estimate its size to be approximately twice the length of a football field, and give it the name 2026 BX4. NASA classifies it to be a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, however, since it doesn’t cross the Earth’s orbit it is not an immediate impact threat. In fact it will not come as close to us as it can on its current path until February 17, 2075 when it will pass less than 6 times the moon’s distance from us. Because 2026 BX4’s orbit is entirely within the Earth’s path about the Sun it is classified to be an Atira asteroid. These space rocks are difficult to discover and track because they are always near the Sun in the sky. 2026 BX4 could become an impact threat by gravitational interactions with Earth, Venus or another asteroid. There are also Aten asteroids which spend most of their time inside the Earth’s orbit but cross it and are more of a threat than an Atira asteroid like 2026 BX4. Currently the most dangerous Aten asteroid is Apophis which will safely pass closer to us than the communication satellites on Friday February 13, 2029. Asteroid hunters will continue to discover and track both Atira and Aten asteroids to make sure none of them sneak up on our home planet from the direction of the Sun.
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    2 分
  • 385E-421-New Aten

    385E-421-New Aten
    2026/04/21
    Recently my Catalina Sky Survey teammates Carson Fuls and Greg Lenoard discovered an Aten asteroid which orbits the Sun once every 272 days and on a path that crosses the orbits of Venus and Earth a number of times each year. Atens account for only about 6% of the Earth approaching asteroids that asteroid hunters discover. They are relatively dim and difficult to discover because they spend most of their time inside the Earth's orbit with their sunlit side facing away from us. For example Carson and Greg's newly discovered asteroid, 2017 WJ16, is bright enough for asteroid hunters to track for only about 50 nights every couple of years. It is about 150 feet in diameter and travels on an orbit which can bring it to a bit more than three times the Moon's distance from Earth. When 2017 WJ16 is closer to the Sun than Earth it travels faster then we do allowing it to catch and just barely cross our orbit as we both travel about the Sun. In 2020, 2017 WJ16 will make one of it's closer approaches to us when it comes to about less than 5 times the Moon's distance from our home planet. At that time it will be traveling at 2.9 miles/second relative to us which is well within reach of our current rocket technology. I suspect that in the future if the pattern of colors which 2017 WJ16 reflects, reveals a high metal or water content humans will mine it to construct and operate their colonies in space.
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    2 分
  • 895-Tracking Space Junk

    895-Tracking Space Junk
    2026/04/17
    According to NASA an average of one catalogued piece of space junk per day has come down to Earth over the past 50 years. Research is described which can track space junk in the atmosphere and provide the starting location and altitude for tracking clouds of environmentally problematic toxic chemical and/or nuclear contaminants released by the disintegration of reentering spacecraft.
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    2 分