* Astronomy

China to launch first 'space shuttle bus' this year China is expected to launch an upper stage aircraft this year that can be used as a "space shuttle bus" to propel payload in space, a senior official in charge of rocket research said Monday. The Yuanzheng-1 (Expedition-1) upper stage ai...

The Bruderheim (L6) meteorite fell in Alberta, Canada, on the 4th March, 1960. A total mass of 303 kg was recovered. 53° 54'N, 112° 53'W

Report from the March 14, 1920 issue of Nature During a heavy thunderstorm which ensued on Monday, March 4, [1920] between 2:30 p.m. and 4.15 p.m., an aerolite was observed to fall at Conleny Heath, near St. Albans. The observed who has placed the specimen in my hands for examination, stated that the s...

On this day in 1986, the Soviet Vega 1 space probe returned the first images of the nucleus of Comet Halley. Vega 1 made its closest approach on March 6 at around 8,889 kilometres (at 07:20:06 UT) of the nucleus. It took more than 500 pictures via different filters as it flew through the gas cloud around t...

George Gamow (March 4 [O.S. February 20] 1904 - August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov, was a theoretical physicist and cosmologist - notably an early advocate and developer of Lemaître's Big Bang theory. Read more Gamow's Fireball--The Birth of the Big Bang [spoiler][video=http://ww...

Orbital elements: C/2012 X2 (PANSTARRS) T 2013 Oct. 29.91035 TT MPC q 4.3745987 (2000.0) P Q Peri. 244.26913 -0.73659612 -0.28277789 Node 273.72976 +0.57573091 -0.73885039 e 1.0 Incl. 38.00164 -0.35490854 -0.61166720 From 47 observations 2012 Dec. 12-15. MPEC 2012 - Y01 Comet C/2012 X...

EphemerisDate TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase Mag 2012 11 17 21 26 02.6 +04 12 50 0.8401 1.3021 90.4 49.4 14.3 2012 11 18 21 29 46.9 +03 49 22 0.8401 1.2997 90.2 49.5 14.3 2012 11 19 21 33 33.5 +03 26 05 0.8403 1.2974 90.0 49.6 14.3 2012 11 20 21 37 22.5 +03 02 59 0.8406 1.2952 89.8 49.7 14.2 2012 11 2...

Cosmology's Best Standard Candles Get Even Better Members of the international Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory), a collaboration among the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a consortium of French laboratories, and Yale University, have found a new tech...

This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the colourful "last hurrah" of a star like our Sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star makes the...

Sir John Flamsteed FRS (19 August 1646 - 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. He catalogued over 3000 stars. Read more

Orbital elements: 2011 AM12 PHA, Earth MOID = 0.0254 AU Epoch 2011 Feb. 8.0 TT = JDT 2455600.5 MPC M 43.89833 (2000.0) P Q n 0.35928682 Peri. 239.19721 +0.83387900 -0.15931519 a 1.9596350 Node 124.32303 +0.17208021 +0.98475689 e 0.5597592 Incl. 39.78251 -0.52443705 +0.06980358 P 2.74 H 1...

Sun 03.03.14: Photo mosaic captured with a 100mm refractor (thick hazy cloud)

NGC 2309 (also OCL 557 and Collinder 122) is a magnitude +10.5 open cluster located in the constellation Monoceros. The cluster was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel using a 47.5 cm (18.7 inch) f/13 speculum reflector on the 4th March 1785. Right Ascension 06h 56m 03.6s, D...

NGC 2316 (also NGC 2317 and LBN 1021) is a magnitude +7.4 emission and reflection nebula located in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel using a 47.5 cm (18.7 inch) f/13 speculum reflector on the 4th March 1785. The nebula was redis...

NGC 2349 is an open cluster located in the constellation Monoceros. The cluster was discovered by British astronomer Caroline Lucretia Herschel using a 10.67 cm(4.2 inch) f/6.4 Newtonian speculum reflector on the 4th March 1783. Right Ascension 07h 10m 48.1s, Declination -08° 35' 34"