Roses. Candy. Spatulas? Make that the stars: Spaceweather PHONE for Mother's Day.
CRATER CHAINS: Comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 won't hit Earth, but what if it did? Get the answer from Science@NASA.
THEY'RE HERE: The many fragments of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 have arrived. For the next three days they will glide past Earth only 6 million miles away. The two biggest fragments, B and C, are easy targets for backyard telescopes. Look for them between midnight and dawn in the constellation Cygnus.
Morning sky maps: May 13, 14, 15.
Above: Fragment C of comet 73P, photographed May 12th by Friedrich Deters of LaGrange, North Carolina, using a 10-inch telescope.
Looking at the comet fragments through a telescope, you can actually see them move. They're that fast. This movie from amateur astronomer Andreas Murner shows fragment C in motion on May 6th.
POLLEN CORONA: The colorful rings around the sun peeking out from behind this rooftop are caused by--would you believe it?--pollen:
"2006 seems to be the year of pollen coronas," says Eva Seidenfaden who took the picture on May 11th from Trier, Germany. "After a long and very cold winter, the weather suddenly turned very warm," producing an explosion of pollen from flowers and coniferous trees.
Specks of pollen are very small, and when they float through the air they diffract sunlight, producing these beautiful halos. So while "people suffering from hay fever and car owners are having a bad time," says Seidenfaden, some sky watchers are actually enjoying themselves.