New Delhi - Experts are yet to ascertain the composition of the mysterious "celestial" objects that fell on Chand Mohalla colony in Gandhi Nagar in east Delhi. Police sources said the material resembled a meteorite even as they were not ruling out the possibility of a prank. The incident took place on Sunday evening.
Police sources said incidents of meteorites falling on earth are rare. "It is too soon to arrive at a conclusion. The objects have been sent to FSL for examination and we will have to wait for the expert's take on the incident," said a police source. The incident, however, has had an impact on those who witnessed it.
"A strange black fireball first hit a cricket bat and then a towel. Both caught fire. Even the bike caught fire because of the fireball,'' said Indrapal Singh, whose household items were set on fire by the "celestial" objects.
Indrapal was watching television with his family when they heard a sound and rushed out. Moments later, several items - including a cricket bat and a towel - were on fire. "We brought out buckets and tried to douse the fire with water. However, it took us a while to bring it under control," he said. Police sources said they have collected the material from the site.
Fire in the Sky
As predicted by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at approximately 2145 UT on Nov. 28th. The impact was weaker than expected, but it still produced bright auroras around the Arctic Circle:
"The CME that hit Earth gave us some nice, colourful and easy-moving auroras," says photographer Antti Pietikäinen of Muonio, Lapland, Finland, who enjoyed the show with his two dogs.
Also in the Finnish Lapland, Chad Blakely says "the auroras exploded all over the sky. If this is a sign of things to come the rest of the season should be fantastic!!"
© Antti Pietikäinen
Also in the Finnish Lapland, Chad Blakely says "the auroras exploded all over the sky. If this is a sign of things to come the rest of the season should be fantastic!!"
At least one person was watching the sky before dawn on Thanksgiving morning. And..he had a view to be thankful for.
Around 4:30 AM today Ty in Grimesland, NC between Greenville and Washington saw a bright meteor low in the sky...heading south to north.
He writes, "It appeared to be really low, bright and with a long tail lasted for about 3 sec".
Did anyone else catch this bright but brief visitor?
Around 4:30 AM today Ty in Grimesland, NC between Greenville and Washington saw a bright meteor low in the sky...heading south to north.
He writes, "It appeared to be really low, bright and with a long tail lasted for about 3 sec".
Did anyone else catch this bright but brief visitor?
[File image]
"I was headed north on Graham Road and was right about in front of my house when it happened," said the 1431 Graham Road, Lexington, man. "I was looking toward the east and noticed a big ball of fire fall from the sky. It was cruising."
Beverly said a red glow lit up a large section of woods behind his home. He thinks the fireball may have landed there.
Lt. Michael Vinson, of the Mansfield post of the Ohio Highway Patrol, said several agencies, including the Lexington Police Department, Troy Township Fire Department, the Richland County Sheriff's Office and the Air National Guard, responded.
Earlier today, Nov. 25th, the new Moon passed in front of the sun, slightly off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from Antarctica, Tasmania, and parts of South Africa and New Zealand. Mike Nicholson photographed the event about two minutes before sunset from Otaki Beach, NZ:
"We were experiencing gale force Sou'westerlies when I took the picture," says Nicholson. "Low clouds plus flying salt and sand provided a natural filter to reduce the glare of the sun."
Maximum coverage occurred about 100 miles off the coast of Antarctica where the sun turned into a slender 9% crescent. Will any pictures be submitted from that remote location? Stay tuned.
© Mike Nicholson
Image Taken: Nov. 25, 2011
Location: Otaki Beach, New Zealand
Image Taken: Nov. 25, 2011
Location: Otaki Beach, New Zealand
Maximum coverage occurred about 100 miles off the coast of Antarctica where the sun turned into a slender 9% crescent. Will any pictures be submitted from that remote location? Stay tuned.
© Michael Jaeger
Comet Garradd on November 19 shows a classic dual tail. The longer, blue streak is the ion tail. The dust tail is shorter and glows pale yellow from reflected sunlight.
Comet Garradd on November 19 shows a classic dual tail. The longer, blue streak is the ion tail. The dust tail is shorter and glows pale yellow from reflected sunlight.
The brightest comet of the year never received the dire publicity that stuck with Elenin to the end. Comet Garradd was well-placed and easily visible in binoculars this summer as it crossed the Milky Way en route to its current residence in the sprawling constellation Hercules. Underdog Garradd remains a 7th magnitude fuzzball in binoculars this month. I looked it up recently on one of the few clear nights we've had in November and was thrilled to see two tails sticking out of the comet's bright, fuzzy head or coma. Both show wonderfully in Michael Jaeger's photo and were just as pretty in my 15-inch scope though much more subtle.
© NASA
ISS
ISS
The space agency said that the crew may have to take shelter early on Wednesday as a 4-inch piece of debris from the destroyed Chinese Fengyun 1C weather satellite is heading towards it.
NASA said that object may come within 2,800 feet of the station. Tracking shows that the space junk could float within a "pizza box" of the ISS.
It warned that the crew will be directed to take precautions that include closing hatches between station modules and getting into their Soyuz spacecraft about 30 minutes before the time of closest approach, which is no later than 4:30 a.m.
Standard procedure for these encounters is to maneuver the space station out of the way of the predicted path of the debris if there is enough time to coordinate the move.
The space agency said Mission Control will continue to monitor the object, and will inform the crew whether it will need to take shelter.
© Hinode/XRT
Annular solar eclipse observed by the Hinode spacecraft on Jan. 6, 2011.
Annular solar eclipse observed by the Hinode spacecraft on Jan. 6, 2011.
While many in the U.S. will be recovering from Thanksgiving day meals and looking for ways to stretch their holiday shopping dollars at (hopefully local) retailers' "Black Friday" sales, the face of the Sun will grow dark as the Moon passes in front of it, casting its shadow over the Earth. But it won't be visible to American shoppers - or very many people at all, in fact... this eclipse will be hiding in the southern skies above Antarctica!
On Friday, November 25, an annular eclipse will occur, reaching a maximum coverage at 06:20:17 UT of magnitude .905. It will be the largest - and last - partial eclipse of the year.
But its visibility will be limited to the most southern latitudes... outside of the Antarctic continent, only New Zealand, Tasmania and parts of South Africa will have any visibility of the event.
An annular eclipse is similar to a total eclipse, except that the Moon is at a further distance from Earth in its orbit and so does not completely cover the disc of the Sun. Instead a bright ring of sunlight remains visible around the Moon's silhouette, preventing total darkness.
© redOrbit
Reports of a slow-moving double-headed meteor with an orange tail have been reported from Redcliffe to the Gold Coast on an astronomy blog.
But others think it was more likely man-made space junk.
Donna O'Kearney had been driving north from Canungra on the Gold Coast when about 7:37pm she saw a huge flaming object soaring through the sky.
"I thought it was a plane coming down and I couldn't understand why there was no noise," she said, saying it looked as big as a 747.
"All I could see was a blinding white light at the front going back to orange.
"You just couldn't take your eyes off it, it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
She said it took as long as 10 seconds to make its way across the sky before burning out in the distance.
Meteors are not uncommon sights in Australia, with more than 500 being found on our soil in the past 40 years and even more passing overhead, but the massive size of last night's one was an unusual sight for many.
For the past few days, astronomers around the world have been monitoring a dark filament of magnetism sprawled more than 1,000,000 kilometers across the face of the sun. Make that 750,000 km. On Nov. 14th the filament snapped and flung a fraction of itself into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:
Click here to watch a 3Mb movie.
The eruption hurled a cloud of plasma into space, but not toward Earth. The only effect on our planet would be to disappoint observers hoping for a longer filament.
Meanwhile, a wall of plasma towering over the sun's SE limb is seething with activity and may be poised to erupt as well. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.
© SpaceWeather
The eruption hurled a cloud of plasma into space, but not toward Earth. The only effect on our planet would be to disappoint observers hoping for a longer filament.
Meanwhile, a wall of plasma towering over the sun's SE limb is seething with activity and may be poised to erupt as well. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.
