Comet Siding Spring Animation

Ever since it was realised that asteroid and comet impacts are a real and present danger to the survival of life on Earth, it was thought that most of those objects end their existence by plunging into the Sun. But a new study finds instead that most of those objects are destroyed in a drawn out, long hot fizzle, much farther from the Sun than previously thought.

Inner planets Mercury and Venus are currently approaching conjunction, low to the southwest horizon shortly after sunset. If you have an extra clear sky, then Mars completes the scene.

A new analysis of gullies carved into Martian impact craters suggests the Red Planet has undergone several ice ages in the last several million years. The driver of these climate swings is likely the planet’s wobbly axis tilt.