Today's New Astronomy Videos - Comet Harpoons and Telescopes

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Always exciting, there's a great new video by Goddard Multimedia:
"NASA Developing Comet Harpoon for Sample Return"
A comet harpoon is exactly what you would think it'd be.  The spacecraft approaches the asteroid or comet, then launches a sharp cylinder which gathers material samples during impact.  The sheath is left in the object and the sample container is withdrawn and brought home.  I think it's very cool that measures are being taken to maintain the pristine uncontaminated state of these samples specifically to allow for future scientists with new technology to inspect the samples in greater (different) detail.



Video Credits: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center




Deep Sky Videos, a spin off of Sixty Symbols, recently released this video on Deep Sky Objects.  It's particularly interesting to learn that telescopic camera exposures of any decent length have an increasingly higher probability of catching a picture wide streak from objects in orbit.



Video Credit:Deep Sky Videos



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