Discovery Date: December 18, 2012

Magnitude: 19.1 mag

Discoverer: Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research project

The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-Y18.

Discovery Date: December 12, 2012

Magnitude: 20.0 mag

Discoverer: Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala)

The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-Y01.

C/2012 X1 (LINEAR) was discovered by the LINEAR survey using a 1.0-m f/2.15 reflector from Socorro, NM, USA, on Dec. 08.38. Their automatic routines do not require human intervention, so it was reported as asteroidal and posted in the NEO Confirmation Page under the temporary designation CE63887.

I was able to image it the following night with a 0.38-m f/6.8 reflector. Visually (i.e. on the screen) it appeared slightly diffuse respect to stars, and the analysis with the "FWHM method" clearly revealed its nature: profile 30% larger than stars nearby, and a coma 8″ wide.

This is again a demonstration of how good is the FWHM method (used largely in our T3 project) in discerning comets among asteroids.
Many other observatories detected it, and results were published in CBET 3340 (subscription required) and astrometry, together with preliminary parabolic orbital elements, in MPEC 2012-X70.

204 image (and FWHM boxes):

The peculiar 'red rain' is a novel phenomenon for Sri Lanka. The Medical Research Institute said it contained some kind of algae. And very recently, Industrial Technology Institute also announced that it contains heavy elements such as arsenic and silver. Is it possible these elements to enter the atmospheric clouds? What kind of algae is it?

What is the real reason for such an event?

The Nation had an opportunity to ask the said questions from the principal investigator, who studied the red rain occurred in Kerala some years ago, a Sri Lankan-born British astrophysicist and astrobiologist, currently the Director of the Buckingham University Centre for Astrobiology, Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe.

Q. How would you explain the red rain phenomenon recently occurred in Sri Lanka?

We haven't investigated red rain in Sri Lanka yet, but I have been very closely involved in the red rain studies in Kerala, southern province of India. This took place in 2001 and 2008. Samples of that red rain were sent to me for investigation. I had a big team of investigators working with me.Although we were in possession of the samples for several years we have still not identified what sort of organism it is. It's a living organism, we have been able to replicate it and we found that it multiplies in a temperature up to 120^0C at least, perhaps more than that. I think this is a very strong case that micro organism from space made their way down to the Earth with the red rain. These organisms had probably originated in a comet or a piece of a comet that exploded in the atmosphere. This is my conclusion for the red rain in Kerala.

Sri Lanka's red rain looks similar to that of Kerala. The Medical Research Institute (MRI) says that the organisms are similar to fungal, algal organisms of earth. But I believe that the shape is the only similarity. The conclusion had not been made based on any genetic or DNA studies. But the similarity of the organism to anything on the Earth does not mean that it came from the Earth. If life originally started from the Earth then to find living organism coming from space would be very strange. There is a long culture of belief that life started on the Earth. If that is true, we have to find some explanation, which is earth based. I am sure that if life did not start on the Earth it came from space.

Skywatchers are already gearing up for a spectacular show from the annual Geminids meteor shower this week, and now astronomers say a new meteor shower's debut could make for even more shooting stars. NASA officials say a never-before-seen show could come from comet Wirtanen, which is in the Jupiter family of comets (so-called because their orbits are altered by their close passage to the gas giant Jupiter). First discovered in 1948, comet Wirtanen circles the sun about every 5.4 years. Though it has skimmed Earth's orbit many times, 2012 could mark our planet's first encounter with the dirty snowball's debris streams.

"Dust from this comet hitting Earth's atmosphere could produce as many as 30 meteors per hour," Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said in a statement Tuesday (Dec. 11).

Discovery Date: November 27, 2012

Magnitude: 18.2 mag

Discoverer: M. Schwartz and P. R. Holvorcem (Tenagra II Observatory near Nogales, AZ, U.S.A.)

The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-X13.

Peeping into the vastness of our galaxy, NASA reported that the Herschel space telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA) took images of vast comet belts surrounding two planetary systems. "Herschel continues to reveal surprising information about the strange configuration of solar systems in the Milky Way," said NASA Herschel Project Scientist Paul Goldsmith.

The Herschel space telescope, officially named the Herschel Space Observatory, is known to have the largest single mirror for a space telescope at 3.5 meters in diameter. It can "collect long wavelength radiation from some of the the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe," according to the ESA. It was launched in 2009 and its mission is expected to end by 2013.

NASA also contributed to study for this mission. The Herschel Project Office is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA.

Discovery Date: November 7, 2012

Magnitude: 19.0

Discoverer: Rob Matson (SWAN/SOHO spacecraft images)

The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-X02.

Comets have inspired dread, fear, and awe in many different cultures and societies around the world and throughout time. They have been branded with such titles as "the Harbinger of Doom" and "the Menace of the Universe." They have been regarded both as omens of disaster and messengers of the gods. Why is it that comets are some of the most feared and venerated objects in the night sky? Why did so many cultures cringe at the sight of a comet?

When people living in ancient cultures looked up, comets were the most remarkable objects in the night sky. Comets were unlike any other object in the night sky. Whereas most celestial bodies travel across the skies at regular, predictable intervals, so regular that constellations could be mapped and predicted, comets' movements have always seemed very erratic and unpredictable. This led people in many cultures to believe that the gods dictated their motions and were sending them as a message. What were the gods trying to say? Some cultures read the message by the images that they saw upon looking at the comet. For example, to some cultures the tail of the comet gave it the appearance of the head of a woman, with long flowing hair behind her. This sorrowful symbol of mourning was understood to mean the gods that had sent the comet to earth were displeased. Others thought that the elongated comet looked like a fiery sword blazing across the night sky, a traditional sign of war and death. Such a message from the gods could only mean that their wrath would soon be unleashed onto the people of the land. Such ideas struck fear into those who saw comets dart across the sky. The likeness of the comet, though, was not the only thing that inspired fear.

Astronomers using the European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel space observatory have discovered massive comet belts orbiting two nearby planetary systems. The systems, named GJ 581 and 61 Vir, are known to host planets that range in mass from Earth-sized to Neptune-sized.

Neither of the systems shows evidence of planets that are close to Jupiter's or Saturn's mass. Scientists believe that Jupiter is responsible for disrupting our own Kuiper Belt in the past, sending comets raining toward the inner planets millions of years.

"The new observations are giving us a clue: they're saying that in the Solar System we have giant planets and a relatively sparse Kuiper Belt, but systems with only low-mass planets often have much denser Kuiper belts," said Mark Wyatt, lead author of a paper describing observations of the debris disc around 61 Vir and an Astronomer at the University of Cambridge. "We think that may be because the absence of a Jupiter in the low-mass planet systems allows them to avoid a dramatic heavy bombardment event, and instead experience a gradual rain of comets over billions of years."