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.
COMET TAILS: "It's not real pretty--but it is real!" says Mike Holloway of Van Buren, Arkansas. On May 11th he took this picture of comet fragment 73P-B, overexposed to show the mini-comet's delicate tails:
Fragment B is flying by Earth today, May 14th, only 6 million miles away. This makes it an easy target for backyard telescopes such as the 4-inch refractor Holloway used. Look for the comet around 4 o'clock in the morning in the constellation Cygnus: sky map.
The fragments of comet 73P are traveling so fast, you can actually see them move through the eyepiece of a telescope. This 15-minute movie shows fragment C in motion on May 13th. Credit: Alberto Vodniza and Mario Rojas of Nariño, Columbia.
more images: from Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands; from Jeff Blair of Clarkdale, Arizona; from Toni Scarmato of Calabria, Italy;
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.