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Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy
After a little break (of 25 years or so) Bob King is celebrating his retirement with a return to The North 103.3's airwaves!After almost 40 years with the Duluth News Tribune, Bob is now retired. But scratch a print guy and you'll find a radio guy; King and then-UMD Planetarium Director Glen Langhorst hosted Startalk on KUMD for several years in the early '90s.Listen for Astro Bob every other Tuesday at 8am on Northland Morning.

Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy: Comet NEOWISE and Super-Earths in the "Goldilocks Zone"

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson
Published June 30, 2020 at 2:29 PM CDT
Matteo Grassi/Unsplash

Who needs fireworks when you have a Fourth of July penumbral eclipse to look forward to?

Find viewing information for Duluth hereand or your location at this website.

NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft discovered a comet back in March - and named it after itself.

And researchers have discovered a pair of so-called "Super-Earths" in the "Goldilocks Zone." Super-Earths are bigger than Earth but smaller than Uranus and Neptune, and the "Goldilocks Zone" (also called the "habitable zone") refers to a location where liquid water could concievable exist on a planet's surface.

Perhaps they should have taken a page from NEOWISE's book, though: the Super-Earths, which orbit the nearby star Gliese 887, have been named Gliese 887b and Gliese 887c - hardly names to write home about even from a Super-Earth.

You can find more information on these stories and more at Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy.
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Environment & Outdoors Bob KingAstro Bob's Backyard AstronomyPenumbral EclipseCometComet NEOWISESuper-Earth
Lisa Johnson
Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
See stories by Lisa Johnson
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