Weekly - Devil’s comet reaches peak brightness and more
Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy
NASA identifies object that crashed from space
A few days ago, a cylindrical object crashed through the roof of a house in Florida. Last week, NASA identified the object to be a piece of space junk discarded from the International Space Station in 2021. The object was a metal support used for mounting old batteries on a cargo pallet. It was expected to burn up on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, but surprisingly, one piece survived. The debris is being analysed to understand how it managed to survive re-entry so that the ISS can take steps to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
Juno captures stunning images of mountain on Jupiter’s moon
Recently, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured stunning images of Jupiter’s moon Io during a flyby. The images revealed a mountain and an island amidst a lava lake on the lunar surface. Io is the most volcanically active place in the Solar System, filled with hundreds of volcanoes. This is not a new discovery, but the images offer a closer look at the volcanic features of Io, providing new insights into its volcanic activity.
Devil’s comet reaches peak brightness
Last week, the Devil’s comet also known as 12P/Pons-Brooks, reached its peak brightness as it passed near the sun. The comet is a popular and rare one that enters the inner solar system every 71 years. A unique feature of the comet is its frequent ‘bursts’. These ‘bursts’ are caused by the dust, ice and rocks on the comet that get turned into gas due to the sun’s heat.
