A real "Science Snack" for anyone who is interested in the extraterrestrial.Dr. Al Grauer is a member of the Catalina Sky Survey which has led the world in near Earth asteroid discoveries for 17 of the past 19 years.The music is "Eternity" by John Lyell.Astronomy Asteroids Space NASA Comets Earth Impact Aliens
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Nov 13, 2026 · 2:01
Humans are dreaming and planning settlements on Mars. There are ice deposits which with solar power could be used to produce oxygen to breathe, water to drink, and hydrogen and…
Nov 10, 2026 · 2:01
In the space of only four days, my Catalina Sky Survey teammates, Brian Africano, Alex Gibbs, and Greg Leonard, discovered three Potentially Hazardous Asteroids. Searching for…
Nov 6, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Alessandra Serrano was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Cetus with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when a rapidly moving…
Nov 3, 2026 · 2:01
If you set your mind to it, you can find and hold a sample of an asteroid, called a meteorite, which has landed on the Earth's surface. On the other hand, watching major meteor…
Oct 30, 2026 · 2:01
A fascinating research paper suggests the possibility that there is an exchange of chemical elements, organic molecules, and potentially life’s precursors between star systems.…
Oct 27, 2026 · 2:01
Theoretically, If an asteroid on a collision course with our planet could be slowed sufficiently it could be made to pass behind our planet as it orbits the Sun.
Oct 23, 2026 · 2:01
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, also known as LSST, with its 8.4 m mirror, the width of a tennis court, and the worlds largest 3.2 gigapixel camera, roughly the size of a small…
Oct 20, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard's discovery of, 2018 FO5, a three football field diameter asteroid that can come closer than our Moon is a reminder that we need to…
Oct 16, 2026 · 2:01
After completing a sample and return mission to the asteroid Ryugu (ree-oo-goo) and a fly by of asteroid Torifune (toh-ree-foo-neh), the Japanese asteroid exploring spacecraft…
Oct 13, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Jess Johnson was very surprised when the large comet with a long stringy tail, which he has just imaged with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon,…
Oct 9, 2026 · 2:01
Viewed in a telescope an asteroid appears as a moving star like point of light while a comet often appears to be a fuzzy point of light with a tail. The orbit of an asteroid is…
Oct 6, 2026 · 2:01
On Saint Patrick's Day, while searching for Earth approaching asteroids with the Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona I spotted a slightly enlarged star…
Oct 2, 2026 · 2:01
Recently a pair of JPL SynTrack Robotic automated telescopes located at a high altitude low light pollution site in California provided 4 tracking data points taken less than 30…
Sep 29, 2026 · 2:01
To give you an idea of the asteroid traffic in our neighborhood, on a mostly cloudy night, through holes in the clouds, in a space of less than 2 hours, my Catalina Sky Survey…
Sep 25, 2026 · 2:01
The northern lights or Aurora Borealis have fascinated humans throughout the ages. Today aurora watching is a multimillion dollar industry in places like Alaska, Canada, Norway,…
Sep 22, 2026 · 2:01
The large dangerous asteroids that we don't know about are what keep asteroid hunters going to the telescope.
Sep 18, 2026 · 2:01
As the Earth orbits the Sun at 18.5 mi/s it sweeps up about 100 tons of micrometeorites and space dust every day of which some 14 tons eventually makes it to the ground. You can…
Sep 15, 2026 · 2:01
Tonight, even though the chances are extremely slim, an asteroid hunter could find a sizable asteroid on a collision course with planet Earth. If we have decades warning, the…
Sep 11, 2026 · 2:01
When accurately recorded historical observations do not agree with what we what we see today it is often very rewarding to find out why. In modern telescopes we see Theta Eridani…
Sep 8, 2026 · 2:01
In the future one can envision a space mining family boarding a descendent of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Vehicle for a trip into low Earth orbit. A few hundred miles above…
Sep 4, 2026 · 2:01
The comets we observe generally start out as icy dirty snowballs of frozen gases like water and frozen carbon dioxide in the Oort cloud. If recent scientific analysis is correct,…
Sep 1, 2026 · 2:01
A partnership of humans and computers will help to minimize the damage when asteroid hunters find a space rock with our number on it.
Aug 28, 2026 · 2:01
Looking into the sky at night with radio eyes you would not see the points of starlight forming the constellations instead you would see a very bright, colorful and wildly…
Aug 25, 2026 · 2:01
Although no comet nucleus impact on the Earth has been conclusively identified, there is some evidence that suggests the 1908 Tunguska event in Russia, which knocked down trees…
Aug 21, 2026 · 2:01
Bill Gray is an astronomer who specializes in tracking objects in space which come near the Earth. In addition to natural objects like asteroids and comets Bill also tracks…
Aug 18, 2026 · 2:01
In 2017 observers in 50 countries at 440 different observatories made nearly 19 million observations of asteroids and comets which enable scientists to calculate where about…
Aug 14, 2026 · 2:01
Recently on a Saturday afternoon a loud double booming sound startled residents of Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a large bolide meteor exploded high above. This type of space…
Aug 11, 2026 · 2:01
During the only 3 clears hours of his first night solo as an asteroid hunter, my new Catalina Sky Survey teammate Brian Africano discovered two new Earth approaching asteroids…
Aug 7, 2026 · 2:01
Comet 220P/McNaught orbits the Sun once every 5.5 years on a path which is between Mars and Jupiter. At that extreme distance, more than 1.5 times the Earth’s distance from the…
Aug 4, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls was observing, in the constellation Lynx, with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona , when within the space of only 35…
Jul 31, 2026 · 2:01
In an experiment that will involve all of the residents of planet Earth SpaceX has asked the FCC for permission to launch 1 million satellites into low Earth orbit to create a…
Jul 28, 2026 · 2:01
Elon Musk decided not to use a traditional mundane concrete block dummy payload for the first launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle to test his rockets lifting…
Jul 24, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammates Josh Hogan and Alessandra Serrano were asteroid hunting in the constellation of Ursa Major when they discovered a fast moving point of light in…
Jul 21, 2026 · 2:01
Using our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Richard Kowalski was searching for Earth approaching asteroids in the constellation of Virgo…
Jul 17, 2026 · 2:01
Asteroid hunters find asteroids by looking for objects which change their position relative to the stars. If an asteroid happened to match the Earth’s motion it might appear…
Jul 14, 2026 · 2:01
Most of the humans on planet Earth have never witnessed that the natural night sky is not dark; but rather it is alive with it's own lights. To see for yourself, pick a dark sky…
Jul 10, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Josh Hogan was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Ursa Major with our small but mighty Schmidt telescope when he spotted a fast moving point…
Jul 7, 2026 · 2:01
On December 25, 2017, while searching for Earth approaching asteroids in the constellation of Virgo, the Universe gave my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard a Christmas…
Jul 3, 2026 · 2:01
The visually stunning Lunar Crater Pierazzo, named for the late Planetary Scientist Elizabeth “Betty” Pierazzo was observed by the Artemis II Crew as they passed over the Moon’s…
Jun 30, 2026 · 2:01
Most asteroids are located in the lonely space between Mars and Jupiter where the average distance between two asteroids is about 600,000 miles. Even though there is a tremendous…
Jun 26, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Josh Hogan has discovered a 2 football field diameter asteroid that was placed on NASA’s Sentry list because it has a tiny minuscule but non-zero…
Jun 23, 2026 · 2:01
Asteroids appear as moving points of light in an asteroid hunter's images so that when my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Alex Gibbs spotted a fuzzy moving object he immediately…
Jun 19, 2026 · 2:01
On St. Patrick’s day 2026 a fireball meteor brighter than the full moon streaked across the daytime sky. The American Meteor Society received 223 eyewitness reports from…
Jun 16, 2026 · 2:01
Most small asteroids are likely to be rubble piles of small rocks and dust loosely held together by their weak force of gravity while others may be made of ices of various…
Jun 12, 2026 · 2:01
My team the Catalina Sky Survey has pioneered searching for asteroids coming from the direction of the dark side of the moon.
Jun 9, 2026 · 2:01
The beautiful star cluster the Pleiades in the constellation of Tauris is about 100 million years old making it one of the youngest objects that you can see in the natural night…
Jun 5, 2026 · 2:01
A start up company Reflect Orbital is proposing to launch 50,000 satellite mirrors by 2035 to illuminate solar panels on Earth all night long. This would be devastating for human…
Jun 2, 2026 · 2:01
The mysterious Earth approaching object Phaethon (FAY-eh-thon) does not fit neatly into our definition of either an asteroid or a comet. Further it appears to be like the Peanuts…
May 29, 2026 · 2:01
However, according to a recent research project, the Rubin Observatory will discover but not give an adequate warning time for objects destined to hit the Earth. To provide time…
May 26, 2026 · 2:01
Often observers report hearing a percussive sound, like a sonic boom from an aircraft, minutes after viewing a bright meteor fireball. In addition, in a fewer number of…
May 22, 2026 · 2:01
Some of the 635,000 impact craters found on Mars are the result of such violent impacts that pieces of Mars are ejected, travel around the solar system, and a few become one of…
May 19, 2026 · 2:01
389E-426-Rose Rules Again Recently my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Rose Matheny discovered 8 new Earth approaching object candidates on a single night with our Schmidt telescope…
May 15, 2026 · 2:01
Asteroids could provide a solution for the serious problem of how to protect astronauts from harmful solar and cosmic radiation during long duration space flights and thus…
May 12, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was searching for Earth approaching objects with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he discovered an interesting new…
May 8, 2026 · 2:01
Looking into a star filled sky at a place like the Cosmic Campground International Dark Sky Sanctuary in New Mexico inspires a person to wonder if our home planet is unique in…
May 5, 2026 · 2:01
Winter nights can be exhausting, productive, as well as sometimes frustrating for asteroid hunters. At the Sixty Inch Telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, near winter solstice, the…
May 1, 2026 · 2:01
In 2007 a small icy object moving in the constellation of Ursa Minor crossed the orbit of Pluto at a speed of approximately 4.2 mi/s starting its journey towards the inner solar…
Apr 28, 2026 · 2:01
Oumuamua (“Oh-moo-ah-moo-ah”) is the asteroid that zipped by the Earth on a trajectory that started beyond our solar system in truly deep space. After rounding our Sun at 97,000…
Apr 24, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was asteroid hunting with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he came across an unknown moving point of light in the…
Apr 21, 2026 · 2:01
Recently my Catalina Sky Survey teammates Carson Fuls and Greg Lenoard discovered an Aten asteroid which orbits the Sun once every 272 days and on a path that crosses the orbits…
Apr 17, 2026 · 2:01
According to NASA an average of one catalogued piece of space junk per day has come down to Earth over the past 50 years. Research is described which can track space junk in the…
Apr 14, 2026 · 2:01
The NASA Curiosity Rover has shown us evidence of ancient rivers and bodies of liquid water on the martian surface. Given it's thin cold atmosphere, seeps of liquid water,…
Apr 10, 2026 · 2:01
On a recent night my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Vivian Carvajal found 4 Earth approaching space rocks with our small but mighty Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona. These…
Apr 7, 2026 · 2:01
In 2012 as it crossed the orbit of Neptune heading towards the Sun a small space rock was 250 times fainter than can be detected by the Hubble Space Telescope. Five years later,…
Apr 3, 2026 · 2:01
Artificial light at night also known as light pollution is degrading human safety and health as well as damaging the natural environment on which we all depend. The loss of the…
Mar 31, 2026 · 2:01
Recently there were four fireball meteors, brighter than the planet Venus, which exploded over Germany, France, Ohio, and Arizona within the space of only 10 hours. A total of…
Mar 27, 2026 · 2:01
Humans can mitigate the damage done by the impact of an asteroid given a sufficient lead time. In 1998, the US Congress mandated NASA to detect and track 90% of the 1 km sized…
Mar 24, 2026 · 2:01
Astronomers continue to be delighted when they discover an Earth sized planet. Scientists were thus very disappointed when the red dwarf star hosting the nearest such planet,…
Mar 20, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Tracie Beuden was observing with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona in the constellation of Persus when she found the first asteroid of…
Mar 17, 2026 · 2:01
The orbits of the planets are closely aligned with the extension of the Sun's equator into space and are contained within the flattened disk of material which forms the plane…
Mar 13, 2026 · 2:01
Astronomers using the 8.1 m Gemini South Telescope in Chile were excited by the fact that 467P (LINEAR-Grauer)’s Centaur like orbit had been changed as the nucleus emitted rocket…
Mar 10, 2026 · 2:01
Once every 1,435 days , a 780 foot diameter space rock that my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls discovered makes an annihilation defying close approach to our star. At…
Mar 6, 2026 · 2:01
In 1892 the world’s largest telescope, the Lick Observatory’s 36 inch refracting telescope made the news when E.E. Barnard discovered, Amalthea, the 5th moon of Jupiter. In 2025…
Mar 3, 2026 · 2:01
Without additional data, the true nature of the rapidly northward moving point of light my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls had just discovered would have remained a…
Feb 27, 2026 · 2:01
On Earth living things are everywhere from the deepest ocean depths to the highest mountain tops. On our home planet RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) is a complex essential molecule…
Feb 24, 2026 · 2:01
To get an idea of the energy involved in a rocket launch, the NASA Saturn V, moon rocket, fully fueled on the launch pad contained the chemical energy of 2,000 pounds of TNT.…
Feb 20, 2026 · 2:01
In April 2029 on one of the luckiest Friday the 13th in human history the 1500 ft by 500 ft asteroid Apophis will pass within 23,600 miles of the Earth’s surface traveling at…
Feb 17, 2026 · 2:01
Eighteen hours before my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Rose Matheny first spotted a small space rock with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona it had passed less than the…
Feb 13, 2026 · 2:01
The Earth’s atmosphere does a good job of protecting humanity from space weather, however, occasionally a major event does break through our shield and gets our attention. Tree…
Feb 10, 2026 · 2:01
In an area which is about 1/400th of the entire sky, the NASA Kepler spacecraft has discovered 30 Earth like planets which are likely to have liquid water on their surfaces…
Feb 6, 2026 · 2:01
Around the world those who value the natural night sky are evaluating the effects of light pollution. In addition to impairing astronomy and star gazing the past 100 years of…
Feb 3, 2026 · 2:01
On it's gravitational leash, Earth's pet space rock, 2016 HO3, accompanies us at a distance of between 38 and 100 times the Moon's distance from Earth as we both travel about the…
Jan 30, 2026 · 2:01
Since in its early history the Earth’s surface was hot and lifeless it is likely that asteroids formed in the same era as Bennu delivered the raw materials for life when they…
Jan 27, 2026 · 2:01
On Earth, human life is enabled by plants which provide us with calories, vitamins, fuel, medicines, and oxygen to breathe. In addition, recent scientific studies indicate that…
Jan 23, 2026 · 2:01
In the distant past things in our solar system were very much more wild and violent than they are today. 4.5 billion years ago a Mars sized object called Theia impacted Earth…
Jan 20, 2026 · 2:01
In less than 24 hours, while observing with the Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona , I discovered two 25 foot diameter space rocks that theoretically…
Jan 16, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate David Rankin was asteroid hunting in the evening twilight with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon Arizona when he spotted an unknown object in…
Jan 13, 2026 · 2:01
New Zealand's 4.5 million people are concentrated in three major population centers which to various degrees suffer from the modern plague of light pollution. However, most of…
Jan 9, 2026 · 2:01
It is possible the object creating the Tunguska event in Russia 1908 which knocked down 80 million trees over an area about twice the size of New York City was a fragment of a…
Jan 6, 2026 · 2:01
In November of 2006, University of Arizona's Spacewatch astronomers on Kitt Peak discovered a faint moving point of light in the night sky which appeared to be a garden variety…
Jan 2, 2026 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate David Rankin was asteroid hunting in the evening twilight with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon Arizona when he spotted an unknown object in…
Dec 30, 2025 · 2:01
Many people in our modern world rarely if ever experience night vision. To achieve this interesting state of sensory awareness you cannot look at your cell phone or any other…
Dec 26, 2025 · 2:01
It is possible the object creating the Tunguska event in Russia 1908 which knocked down 80 million trees over an area about twice the size of New York City was a fragment of a…
Dec 23, 2025 · 2:01
Venus and Earth are similar in size, composition, density, and mass. Unfortunately, our sister planet Venus is an example of a place where green house gases have created an…
Dec 19, 2025 · 2:01
Just before noon on September 1st of 1859 Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson were making sketches of clusters of sunspots when they were nearly blinded by an intense solar…
Dec 16, 2025 · 2:01
Dr Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory headed up a team of scientists who used the 70 meter antenna at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex to bounce…
Dec 12, 2025 · 2:01
The Dark Energy Camera on the National Science Foundation’s Blanco 4-meter telescope on Cerro Tololo in Chile is taking near Sun twilight images to search for asteroids, hidden…
Dec 9, 2025 · 2:01
At about 2AM on July 18, 2011 several people in near Tata, Morocco saw a bright fireball which was described by one of them to be initially yellow, then turned green, and finally…
Dec 5, 2025 · 2:01
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Vivian Carvajal was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Eridanus with the 90 inch, University of Arizona’s Bok telescope on Kitt Peak when…
Dec 2, 2025 · 2:01
Meteors, shooting stars, or falling stars are different names for the streaks of light in the night sky which are in reality the dying embers of tiny asteroids. These small…
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