Asteroid 2013 BZ45 passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2013 BZ45 passed by the Earth at a distance of 9 670 000 km (25.16 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 6.5 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 8.30 pm GMT on Tuesday 3 February 2015. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented significant minor threat. 2013 BZ45 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 82-260 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 82-260 m in diameter), and an object towards the upper end of this range would be expected to be capable of passing through the atmosphere reasonably intact, impacting the ground in an explosion equivalent to about 700 megatonnes of TNT (roughly 41 000 times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb) and creating a crator about 4 km in diameter. Such an event would cause devastation over a wide area, and could cause climatic problems for decades.

 The calculated orbit of 2013 BZ45. JPL Small Body Database.

2013 BZ45 was discovered on 19 January 2013 by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2013 BZ45 implies that it was the 1150th asteroid (asteroid Z45) discovered in the secod half of January 2013 (period 2013 B). 

2013 BZ45 has a 373 day year orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 5.3° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from 0.87 AU from the Sun (i.e. 87% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.16 AU from the Sun (i.e. 1.16% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). This means that close encounters between the asteroid and Earth are extremely  common, with the last having occured in February 2014 this year and the next predicted in January 2016. As an asteroid probably larger than 150 m in diameter that occasionally comes within 0.05 AU of the Earth, 2013 BZ45 is also classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.

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Asteroid 2015 BL passes the Earth.
Asteroid 2015 BL passed by the Earth at a distance of 17 350 000 km (45.38 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 11.6 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 0.10 am GMT on Tuesday 3 February...

Asteroid 2008 CQ passes the Earth.           Asteroid 2008 CQ passed by the Earth at a distance of 1 854 000 km (4.8 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 1.2 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about 1.20 am GMT on Saturday 31 January 2015. There was no...

Asteroid 2015 BE passes the Earth.             Asteroid 2015 BE passed by the Earth at a distance of 11 890 000 km (30.91 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 7.9 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about 8.25 am GMT on Friday 30 January 2015...

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The genetic diversity and distribution of modern Giraffes.

Giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis, have traditionally been split into nine subspecies based upon their coat patterns, details of the skeleton and geographic distribution. Unlike many other large Mammals they have not been the subject of extensive genetic studies. The limited studies that have previously been undertaken have suggested that the Angolan Giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis, South African Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa, West African Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis peralta, Reticulated Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata, Rothschild’s Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi, and Masai Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi, may in fact be separate species, while Thornicroft’s Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti may in fact represent a population of the Masai Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi. The Kordofan Giraffe of Central Africa, Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum is closely related to the West African Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis peralta, and the Nubian Giraffe,Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis, has never been genetically sampled at all. This lack of understanding of the genetics of Giraffes has the potential to hamper conservation efforts, as Giraffes are currently frequently relocated by Humans, more often with the intention of providing visible Giraffes for the tourism industry than of moving the animals to promote their survival.

In a paper published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology on 23 October 2014, Friederike Bock of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre at the Senckenberg Gesellschaftfür Naturforschung, Julian Fennessy of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the School of Biological Earth and EnvironmentalStudies at the University of New South Wales, Tobias Bidon, also of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre at the Senckenberg Gesellschaftfür Naturforschung, Andy Tutchings and Andri Marais, also of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, Francois Deacon of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and of the Department Animal,Wildlife & Grassland Science at the University of Free State and Axel Janke of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre at the Senckenberg Gesellschaftfür Naturforschung and of the Institute for Ecology, Evolution & Diversity at Goethe University Frankfurt, describe the results of a population genetic study covering seven of the nine currently recognised Giraffe subspecies, primarily from regions of southern Africa where Giraffes have not previously been sampled.

A West African Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis peralta, near Koure in Niger. Wikipedia.

Bock et al. used a molecular clock method to estimate the divergence times of the Giraffe subspecies sampled (i.e. work out when the most recent common ancestor of each pairing of Giraffes lived). From this they estimate that the Giraffe subspecies divided into two distinct groups, the Angolan Giraffe, South African Giraffe, and Masai Giraffe to the south and the West African Giraffe, Reticulated Giraffe, Rothschild’s Giraffe and Kordofan Giraffe to the north, about 2.02 million years ago.

Within the southern group the Angolan Giraffe split from the other two species about 1.45 million years ago, and the South African Giraffe and Masai Giraffe split about 610 000 years ago.

In the southern group the Kordofan Giraffe split from the other three species about 780 000 years ago and the Reticulated Giraffe split from the West African Giraffeand Rothschild’s Giraffe about 650 000 years ago. The Reticulated Giraffe was recovered as the closest relative of the West African Giraffe, with the two subspecies having split about 510 000 years ago.

Maximum clade credibility tree of the major Giraffe populations as reconstructed by Bayesian analysis conductedin BEAST. Blue bars indicate 95% highest posterior density intervalsfor node ages, asterisks denote posterior probability >0.95. Scale onthe bottom represents divergence time (million years ago). Bock et al. (2014).

This strongly supports the idea that some Giraffe subspecies should in fact be considered to be species. In other Mammal groups species which diverged over a million years ago, and many which are much more recent are seldom questioned, for example the Chimpanzee and Bonobo are considered to have diverged about 420 000 years ago. Interestingly this also hints that some unrecognised diversity may exist within current subspecies populations, with some Kordofan Giraffes having shared a most recent common ancestor around 430 000 years ago and some Masai Giraffes around 410 000 years ago.

The cause of divergence between African animal populations during the Pleistocene is notoriously hard to unravel. The continent did not suffer extensive glaciations during the period, but did undergo major climatic changes, with cooler drier periods leading to expansions of grasslands and deserts and warmer wetter periods leading to expansions of forests and lakes. In each instance this led to the shrinking and fragmentation of some habitats at as other expanded, driving speciation among African animals.

One surprising pattern that emerged among the Giraffe populations studied was the separation of subspecies in Botswana and Namibia. It has generally been accepted that the Giraffes of Botswana and Namibia are Angolan Giraffes, while the South African Giraffe is found further to the south and east in Zimbabwe and South Africa. However Bock et al. found that only the Giraffes of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana and Etosha National Park in Namibia grouped with Angolan Giraffes, while the Giraffes of the Chobe National Park, Moremi Game Reserve, Nxai Pans Park, and Vumbura Concession in northern Botswana and the Bwabwata National Park population in northeastern Namibia are all grouped with South African Giraffes.

(A) Distribution range of Giraffe (yellow patches) and sampling locations. Colours show genetically identified subspecies. (B) Depiction of southern African Giraffe populations and location of geographic boundaries. O-K-Z: Owambo-Kalahari-Zimbabwe epigeiric axis, O-B: Okavango-Bangweulu axis. Bock et al. (2014).

These are populations of particular concern, as the population of Giraffes in northern Botswana is thought to have declined from over 10 000 individuals to under 4000 individuals during the past 10 years, and the Giraffes of the Bwabwata National Park were almost wiped out by poachers in the 1970s and 1980s, with the population having recovered somewhat but still only standing at slightly over 150 individuals.

These populations are separated by less than 500 km in places, distances which should in theory present little obstacle to Giraffe movements, but these populations have apparently remained isolated for over a million years. While there is no good explanation for this line of separation, it has previously been recorded in other animal populations, with separate species of African Elephants (Loxodonta spp.) and subspecies of Damara Dikdik (Madoquada marensis) and Impala (Aepyceros petersi) on either side of the boundary.

See also…

Crop raiding behaviour by Chimpanzees in southwest Uganda.                                            Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, like all the Great Apes, face increasing conflict with Humans throughout their range, driven by logging...

The origin and diversification of modern Lions.

Lions (Panthera leo) are large, charismatic predators currently found in Africa and India, with a fossil record that includes areas of northern Eurasia and North America. Lions outside their current range persisted in North Africa (Barbary Lions) and the Middle East...

A new species of Bat from the Maghreb region of North Africa.

All South American Rodents are classified as members of a single monophyletic group, the Caviomorpha. This appears to be most closely related to Rodents with African and Asian distributions; a single fossil from the Early Oligocene of Egypt has been described as a possible Caviomorph. This suggests the Caviomorphs colonized...

 

 

 

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Natural gas emissions in Boston, Massachusetts.

Methane (CH₄) is considered to be a serious atmospheric pollutant, both for its role as a greenhouse gas and its immediate effect on the area where it is released, where it can contribute to raised ozone levels at ground level, which is harmful to human health. It is currently calculated that methane is present in the atmosphere at levels 2.5 times as high as in the pre-industrial period, and that the level of atmospheric methane, which rose steadily till the mid 1980s, then slowed and levelled off by the early 2000s, has begun to rise sharply again since 2007. Methane emissions can come from a number of sources, including landfill sites and sewage treatment works, but the majority of the released methane is thought to come from leaks in the natural gas infrastructure (i.e. gas extracted from fossil hydrocarbon sources and intended for use as a domestic or industrial fuel). However the exact contribution of different sources to atmospheric pollution is unclear (and sometimes controversial), and current levels of atmospheric methane are much higher in many areas than predicted to arise from leaks in the gas distribution network.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America on 23 January 2015, a team of scientists led by KathrynMcKain of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department ofEarth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University discuss the results of an experiment in which they monitored methane levels in and around the city of Boston, Massachusetts, for one year (twelve calendar months) in 2012-13, in order to determine levels of the gas in the city, and attempt to determine its origin.

McKain et al. monitored gas levels at four sites, Boston University and Copley Square in the city, and Harvard Forest and Nahant outside the urban area. Both the urban sites showed raised methane levels compared to the countryside year round, with the Boston University site with the Boston University site being 37.3 parts per billion above background in summer and 58.5 parts per billion above background in winter, while the Copley Square site produced levels 23.6 parts per billion above background in summer and 39.3 parts per billion above background in winter.

Location of two city [Boston University (BU), 29-m height; CopleySquare (COP), 215-m height] and two peripheral [Harvard Forest (HF);Nahant (NHT)] measurement stations (black points) in Boston, and the surrounding area, overlaid on a map of the number of housing units with NG per square kilometer (14). The 90-km radius circle delineates the ∼18,000km² land area for which CH4 emissions and the NG loss rate were calculated.The magenta and purple contours enclose 50% of the average footprint(sensitivity area) of the BU and COP afternoon measurements, respectively.The two city sites are difficult to distinguish at this scale because the horizontaldistance between them is ∼2 km. The influence area is ∼80% largerfor COP than BU because the former station is higher. McKain et al. (2015).

In order to determine the origin of the gas, McKain et al. also monitored ethane (C₂H₆) levels at each site. Ethane forms a significant proportion of supplied natural gas, but is not produced by microbial sources such as wetlands, landfill or sewage farms. Since Boston lacks other potential sources of atmospheric ethane, such as natural geological gas seeps or hydrocarbons refineries, this is taken as a good proxy for gas emitted by the natural gas infrastructure. Based upon this McKain et al. calculate that 98% of atmospheric methane in winter and 67% of atmospheric methane in winter originates from the natural gas infrastructure (a higher percentage in winter would be expected, as humans use less fuel and microbial production is higher).

This suggests that 2.7% of all natural gas supplied to the Boston area during the study period was leaked into the atmosphere. It is currently estimated that 0.7% of all supplied natural gas in the US is lost to the atmosphere, though this figure is not broken down by regions. The State ofMassachusetts produces its own figures, and estimates that 1.1% of supplied natural gas is lost (68% of the study area lies within Massachusetts, while 88% of the supplied gas in the state is consumed within the study area).

Reconstructed geographical distribution of NG consumption, in unitsof CH₄ mass flux, during September 2012 through August 2013 for the fourstates included in the study region. McKain et al. (2015).

McKainet al.’s figures suggest that both the US national figures and the independent figures produced in Massachusetts are severe underestimates. They suggest that this is because these figures are based upon detected leeks from the system (i.e. leeks large enough to be noticed and responded to), and that numerous smaller leeks could go undetected, particularly if occurring in inaccessible places. They also note that leeks on private property are not included in the official figures, but will still contribute to atmospheric pollution.

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Fire at natural gas well in Smith County Mississippi.                                                                               Fire fighters in Smith County Mississppi are reportedly fighting a fire at a natural gas well in the Boykin Church Oil Field (which produces oil and gas) after a piece of equipment overheated and caused the well head to catch fire. Five workers were at the site at the time of the incident, though all are reported to be unharmed. The well is not thought to be emiting any hazardous chemicals, though it may not be possible to extinguish the fire...

Chevron worker killed in explosion off the coast of Louisiana.                                                     A worker was killed and two others were injured in an explosion that occurred while they were carrying out maintenance work on an...

Assessing the risks of cement casing failure at oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania.                 Like other areas of the US, Pennsylvania has seen an increase in oil and gas production in recent years, driven by the expanded targeting of shale gas deposits using hydraulic fracturing (blasting water and chemicals into shale beds at high pressure to break up the shale...

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Asteroid 2015 BL passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2015 BL passed by the Earth at a distance of 17 350 000 km (45.38 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 11.6 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 0.10 am GMT on Tuesday 3 February 2015. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented a minor threat. 2015 BL has an estimated equivalent diameter of 36-110 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 36-110 m in diameter), and an object towards the upper end of this range would be expected to be capable of passing through the atmosphere reasonably intact, impacting the ground in an explosion equivalent to about 60 megatonnes of TNT (roughly 3500 times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb) and creating a crator about 1.5 km in diameter. Such an event would cause devastation over a wide area, and could cause climatic problems for several years.

 The calculated orbit of 2015 BL. JPL Small Body Database.

2015 BD511 was discovered on 16 January 2015 (eighteen days before its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Hawaii's PANSTARRS telescope on Mount Haleakala on Maui. The designation 2015 BL implies that it was the 11th asteroid (asteroid L) discovered in the second half of January 2015 (period 2015 B).

While 2015 BL occasionally comes near to the Earth, it does not actually cross our orbital path. It has an elliptical 826 day orbit, at an angle of 3.2° to the plane of the Solar System, that takes it from 1.05 AU from the Sun (1.05 times the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun), slightly outside our orbit, to 2.40 AU from the Sun, (2.40 times the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, and considerably more than the distance at which the planet Mars orbits the Sun). As a Near Earth Object that remains strictly outside the orbit of the Earth it is classed as an Amor Family Asteroid. 

See also...

Asteroid 2008 CQ passes the Earth.           Asteroid 2008 CQ passed by the Earth at a distance of 1 854 000 km (4.8 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 1.2 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about 1.20 am GMT on Saturday 31 January 2015. There was no...

Asteroid 2015 BE passes the Earth.             Asteroid 2015 BE passed by the Earth at a distance of 11 890 000 km (30.91 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 7.9 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about 8.25 am GMT on Friday 30 January 2015. There...

Asteroid 2015 BD511 passes the Earth.   Asteroid 2015 BD511 passed by the Earth at a distance of 1 714 000 km (4.47 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 1.1 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 0.50 am GMT on Friday 30 January...

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A new species of Serranine Perchlet from the Philippines.

The Philippines form a major component of the Indo-Malay-Philippine Archipelago, which is considered to be a major biodiversity hotspot, with the highest diversity among coastal marine Fishes seen anywhere in the world, and many new species described every year. As such the country regularly visited by scientific vessels from major research organisations, looking for new fish species in the waters around its many islands, atolls and reefs. However other scientists have taken to searching the numerous Philippine Fish markets, looking for undescribed species caught by local fishermen.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 19 January 2015, Jeffrey Williams of the Division of Fishes at the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution and Kent Carpenter of the Department of Biological Sciences at Old DominionUniversity, describe a new species of Serranine Perchlet from a specimen obtained from the Public Fish Market in Iloilo City.

The new species is placed in the genus Chelidoperca, and given the specific name santosi, in honour of the Philippine researcher Mudjekeewis Santos of the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and National Fisheries Research and Development Institute in Manila, for his contributions to the advancement of science in the Philippines and help with the project which discovered the new species.

The specimen was found in the mouth of a large Grouper, which the vendor reported had been imported in a consignment of Fish from Palawan. A subsequent search of specimens in the collections of major museums, universities and other research institutes found two further specimens in the collection of Museum Victoria and the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution.

The new species is a small Perchlet, 69-84 mm in length. It is white on its underside, with pinkish markings towards the underside. The upper side is mottled pinkish and yellowish orange, with four dark spots between the eyes and two on the lower lip. Its fins are white, with yellow markings.

Specimen of Chelidoperca santosi from the Public Fish Market in Iloilo City, shortly after being discovered. Jeffrey Williams in Williams & Carpenter (2015).

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A new species of Rabbitfish from southern India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.            Rabbitfish (Siganidae) are morphologically conservative Perciforme Fish found on Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Region. They get their name from their prominent front...

A new species of Sweeper from the Comoro Islands.

Sweepers (Pempheridae) are small nocturnal Fish found in the...

The new species of Anthia from the Marquesa Islands in French Polynesia.

Anthias (Anthiinae), or  are small brightly coloured fish belonging...

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Four new species of Mushroom from Thailand.

Mushrooms of the genus Agaricus are well studied in temperate regions, where there are over 400 species divided into eight groups, including many commercially important medical species. The group is also found in the tropics, where it is likely to be much more diverse, although it is poorly studied here. Many tropical Agaricus Mushrooms are known not to fit into the traditional eight divisions, suggesting that fitting these Fungi into the group’s taxonomy will require considerable revision of the genus.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 14 January 2015, a team of mycologists led by Jie Chen of the State key laboratory of Mycology at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Instituteof Excellence in Fungal Research and School of Science at Mae Fah LuangUniversity present a study of tropical members of the section Brunneopicti of the genus Agaricus in which four new species are described, all from Thailand.

The first new species described is named Agaricus niveogranulatus, meaning ‘white granules’, in reference to the colour and texture of the squamules (scales on the upper surface of the Mushroom). The Mushrooms of this fungus are 10-16 cm in diameter, starting out as hemisphere, but becoming flatter as they mature. The gills start out white, turning pink as they mature, then orange-brown, then brown, then dark brown. The flesh of the Mushroom is white, and gives of a phenol-like smell. These Mushrooms were found in Dipterocarp forests, Bamboo woodland and grassland, as well as in cultivated parks and gardens. It was found in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai Provinces of Thailand.

Section viewof Agaricus niveogranulatus in laboratory. Scale bar is 20 mm. Chen et al. (2015).

The second new species described is named Agaricus brunneosquamulosus, meaning ‘brown squamules’, a reference to the colour of the scales on the upper surface of the Mushroom. The Mushrooms of this species reach 3-6 cm in diameter, starting out convex then flattening as they age. The gills are pinkish to grey, and turn dark brown with age. The flesh of the Mushroom is white, but turns pink after being cut, and emits a phenol-like smell. The species was found growing in grassland and gardens in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand.

Specimen of Agaricus brunneosquamulosus growing in the wild. Scale bar is 10 mm. Chen et al. (2015).

The third new species is named Agaricus sordidocarpus, in reference to the dirty appearance of the Mushrooms, which have fibrous squamules and develop a grey tint after rain. The Mushrooms grow up to 4 cm in diameter, grey-brown in colour and convex with a flattened top. The gills are pink or brownish-grey, turning darker as they age. The flesh of the Mushrooms is firm and white, and emits a phenol-like smell. The species was found growing in the grounds of Chiang Mai University.

Brownish gray squamules on the upper surface of an Agaricus sordidocarpusMushroom. Scale bar is 10 mm. Chen et al. (2015).

The final new species is named Agaricus toluenolens, in reference to the toluene-like odour the Mushrooms produce when bruised (expand). The Mushrooms are 3-6 cm in diameter and convex to flat in shape, with brownish-grey squamules. The gills are pink to brownish-grey, turning browner as they age. The flesh is firm and white, but with a strong, unpleasant smell. The Mushroom was found growing on grass in Chang Mai Province.

Mushroom of Agaricus toluenolens. Scale bar is 10 mm. Chen et al. (2015).

See also…

Two new species of Coral Fungi from the Ozark region of Arkansas.                                        Coral Fungi of the genus Ramaria have been extensively studied in the temperate rainforests of the American Pacific Northwest, and to a lesser extent in the forests of America’s Eastern Seaboard, but are...

A new species of Earthstar Fungus from the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary of northeast Thailand.

Earthstars (Geastrales) are distinctive Macro-fungi (fungi that produce large fruiting bodies) found in...

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Asteroid 2008 CQ passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2008 CQ passed by the Earth at a distance of 1 854 000 km (4.8 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 1.2 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about 1.20 am GMT on Saturday 31 January 2015. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented only a minor threat. 2008 CQ has an estimated equivalent diameter of 36 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 36 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to break up in the atmosphere about 12 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface.

 The calculated orbit of 2008 CQ. JPL Small Body Database.

2008 CQ was discovered on 2 February 2008 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Laboratory in Socorro, New Mexico. The designation 2008 CQ implies that it was the 16th asteroid (asteroid Q) discovered in the first half of February 2008 (period 2008 C).

2008 CQ has a 511 day year orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 8.7° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from 0.80 AU from the Sun (i.e. 80% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.71 AU from the Sun (i.e. 171% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, considerably outside the orbit of Mars). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). This means that close encounters between the asteroid and Earth are fairly common, with the most recent having occured in January 2008.

See also...

Asteroid 2015 BE passes the Earth.             Asteroid 2015 BE passed by the Earth at a distance of 11 890 000 km (30.91 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 7.9 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about 8.25 am GMT on Friday 30 January 2015. There...

Asteroid 2015 BD511 passes the Earth.   Asteroid 2015 BD511 passed by the Earth at a distance of 1 714 000 km (4.47 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 1.1 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 0.50 am GMT on Friday 30 January...

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) reaches perihelion.

Comet C/2014 Q1 (Lovejoy) reached its perihelion (the closest point on its orbit to the Sun) on Friday 30 January 2015, when it will be 1.29 AU from the Sun....

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