Updates in this Newsletter- Order Before Monday to Receive Calendars before Xmas!
- 30-70m Rock Tumbles Past Earth
- Earth-Moon System Captured by Juno
* Order Before Monday to Receive Calendars before Xmas!
With only 13 days until Christmas, it's your last chance to get your order in and receive them in time. If you order and pay for your calendars before Monday 16th December (use Paypal to be sure!), they'll be in Monday's post and gives enough time (for Australia-wide postage) to receive them before Christmas!
Need that last minute gift for Aunty Fran or Uncle Bob? The calendars make great gift ideas and stocking fillers.
There's the IceInSpace Astronomy 2014 Calendar, and the Southern Sky 2014 Calendar. Both calendars have star charts and notices of important celestial events for the year.
You'll also get 20% off if you order 2 or more, and cheap flat-rate shipping no matter how many you order.
Order online at the
IceInSpace Shop. We ship international too and accept 3 forms of payment including Paypal.
Just a reminder: the shop login is separate from your forum login.
* 30-70m Rock Tumbles Past Earth
Yesterday, an asteroid approximately 30-70m in size flew by Earth at a distance of around 760,000 kilometers, less than twice the distance to the Moon. The crazy part - Asteroid 2013 XY8 was only discovered 5 days ago!
At that distance, and that size, it was just too faint to be picked up any sooner, so it's lucky it wasn't on an Earth-impacting trajectory. The asteroid orbits the Sun every 3.3 years, however there's no danger of an impact at this time, and is unlikely to come near Earth again until 2072.
"But XY8 is a good reminder that there are lots of asteroids out there, and we need to find them. And it’s also a good reminder that finding them isn’t all that easy."
Read the full story by Phil Plait and watch an animation of the asteroid fly-by on Slate.
* Earth-Moon System Captured by Juno
The
Juno spacecraft, currently on its way to Jupiter, swung past earth (literally) in late October to use Earth's gravity as a slingshot to help it reach the gas giant in just over 2.5 years.
On it's way, it used a low-res camera to capture some images of the Earth-Moon system and the resulting animation is beautiful to watch. Seeing the Moon pass by Earth, and the Earth rotating, is quite amazing and really shows we're on this tiny ball hanging in space!
The spacecraft passed by the Earth at an altitude of only 560km, travelling at 138,000 km/h!
Watch the animation on Slate.
* What's Hot This Week
Thanks for reading! Keep looking up!
