NASA’s daring Parker Solar Probe spacecraft zips past the sun again today

The Parker Solar Probe is ready to make its 11th close flyby of the sun during its quest to understand how our neighboring star works. The plucky spacecraft, heavily shielded against the sun’s radiation and extreme heat, will dip to within 5.3 million miles (8.5 million kilometers) of the solar surface on Friday (Feb. 25). … Read more

A large asteroid zips past Earth today, here’s how to watch it live

The Virtual Telescope Project will provide a livestream Monday (Feb. 21) of an asteroid zooming safely past Earth, weather permitting. You can catch live views of asteroid 1999 VF22 starting at 7 p.m. EST Monday (0000 GMT on Tuesday, Feb. 22) from Rome, Italy, where the project is situated. You can watch the livestream on … Read more

Stellar Video Shows Comet Leonard as It Zips by Earth For The 1st Time in 80,000 Years

Since early this year, skywatchers on Earth have been tracking Comet Leonard, a kilometer-wide dirty snowball made of ice, rock, and dust. Now, as it heads towards a close encounter with the Sun on 3 January 2022, several spacecraft – with the distinct advantage of having an unobstructed front-row seat to the action – have … Read more