Travelers in the Night Eps. 243E & 244E: Earth/Venus Express & Pale Blue Dot

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org Today's 2 topics: - We will probably never know the details of the collision that put my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls' recent discovery, 2016 HD3, on its current path. What we do know is that Carson's new space rock is about 25 feet in diameter and in the next 100 years will make 53 close approaches to planet Earth and 12 to our sister planet Venus. In 2016 this small object passed to near both the Earth and our Moon. It's 322 day orbit around the Sun can someday bring it to about a quarter of the Moon's distance from where we live. - More than 25 years ago Voyager 1 took a picture of the Earth from beyond Pluto's orbit. This image shows our home planet to be an isolated tiny pale blue dot floating in the vastness of space.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].