A relatively large asteroid, just discovered on August 28th, will fly past the Earth-Moon system on Sept 14th only 2.8 million km (7.4 lunar distances) away. 2012 QG42 is about as wide as three football fields and comes to us from just beyond the orbit of Mars. Astronomers who are now monitoring the space rock say it shines about as brightly as a 15th magnitude star.



source:http://spaceweather.com Wednesday, Sep. 5, 2012

HIP 13044 b is officially the first planet discovered from outside our own galaxy. the gaseous and very hot planet spins very fast and orbits a dying star which is at the edge of Milky Way. The planet is a little bit bigger than Jupiter and is 2000 light years away from Earth.

For me personally, this is very exciting and it shows that we have gone a long way in discovering new planets this past decade. I hope that the trend only continues.

Hi

I'm Jack. Hmmm...I guess that sounds okay. I became interested in astronomy when I got my first telescope last year for Christmas. I am deeply passionate about astronomy. I don't want to be an astronaut. Just an astronomer. The reason being; I know I'll never be an astronaut. It's a goal I just can't physically set for myself. Anyway...the idea for this blog hit me when I found out I could make a blog...plus, I have a telescope, so, what the heck? Y'know? My telescope is a Celestron...

Watching M57, the Ring Nebula, does not hint at its 20KM/S expansion as the material comprising it escapes the outer gravitational influences of the parent star and heads off into inter-stellar space on a journey that begun 8000 years ago. Seeing the tiny, fragile disc through a telescope does not hint at its colossal 1.3 light-year diameter, which, with our Sun at the centre, would stretch beyond objects in our solar system which can only be hypothetical, as they are too far away for visual observation....