Fire in the SkyS


Clock

Doomed Russian Mars Probe Just Hours From Crashing to Earth

A botched Russian Mars probe is just hours away from a fiery doom when it plunges into Earth's atmosphere in a fatal crash. It won't fall over the United States, but may crash into the Atlantic Ocean, Russian space officials said today (Jan. 15).

The spacecraft, Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars moon probe, has been stranded in Earth orbit since its November launch due to an engine failure that prevented it from beginning its journey to the Red Planet. The probe may fall any time between 12:50 p.m. EST and 1:34 p.m. EST (1750 to 1834 GMT), with a potential crash zone in the Atlantic, west of northern Africa, but exactly where the spacecraft will crash is still uncertain, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) officials said in a statement.

According to the latest prediction from Roscosmos, the final orbit of Phobos-Grunt will pass over southern South America, Asia, southern Europe and parts of Africa. North America, including the United States and Canada, Central America and Australia are in the clear, since the Mars probe will not be flying over those regions, according to the latest crash zone map.

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© Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos)This map shows a potential crash zone for the failed Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt as reported by Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) in the afternoon of Jan. 15, 2012.

Satellite

Russia Mars probe 'crashes into Pacific Ocean'

Russia said fragments of its Phobos-Grunt probe, which spiralled back to Earth after failing to head on a mission to Mars crashed on Sunday into the Pacific Ocean, a spokesman for its space forces said.
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© Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesRussian specialists working with the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft in 2011 before its launch

"According to information from mission control of the space forces, the fragments of Phobos Grunt should have fallen into the Pacific Ocean at 1745 GMT," spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin told the Interfax news agency.

There was no immediate comment from Russia's space agency Roscosmos, which throughout the day, as the probe approached Earth, had given wildly different predictions about where it could land.

Mr Zolotukhin said that the space forces had closely followed the probe's course. "This has allowed us to ascertain the place and time of the fall of the craft with a great degree of accuracy," he told Interfax.

Meteor

Russia Mars Probe 'Crashes Into Pacific Ocean': Military

Phobos-Grunt
© n/a
Russia believes fragments of its Phobos-Grunt probe which spiralled back to Earth after failing to head on a mission to Mars crashed Sunday into the Pacific Ocean, a spokesman for its space forces said.

"According to information from mission control of the space forces, the fragments of Phobos Grunt should have fallen into the Pacific Ocean at 1745 GMT," spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin told the Interfax news agency.

There was no immediate comment from Russia's space agency Roscosmos, which throughout the day, as the probe approached Earth, had given wildly different predictions about where it could land.

Zolotukhin said that the space forces had closely followed the probe's course. "This has allowed us to ascertain the place and time of the fall of the craft with a great degree of accuracy," he told Interfax.

According to the ITAR-TASS news agency, the probe should have splashed down 1,250 kilometres (800 miles) west of the island of Wellington off the coast of Chile.

A landing in the ocean would be a huge relief for Russia after earlier reports suggested it could crash into the territory of South America, possibly Argentina.

The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft should have been on an expedition to Mars' largest moon but instead became stuck in an Earth orbit that has become lower and lower as it becomes increasingly tugged by the Earth's gravity.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Meteor

US: Glowing hot meteorite discovered in Castro Valley backyard

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© Anda Chu Mitch Medeiros, of Castro Valley, holds a two-pound rock that may be a meteorite in Castro Valley, Calif. Friday Jan. 13, 2012. Medeiros found the rock in his backyard Wednesday and phoned Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Friday morning. The lab is working with Medeiros to help him identify the rock.
Meteorites plummeting to earth? In Castro Valley?

It wasn't exactly pennies from heaven, but if the smoldering, dark-colored rock discovered on Mitch Medeiros' property did indeed fall from the sky, it may fetch the 55-year-old a fortune. If, that is, it's a verifiable meteorite.

Whatever it is has turned life upside down for the retired truck driver.

Medeiros said his phone has continued to ring since he told friends his dog -- an energetic 2-year-old black Labrador retriever named Bella -- led him Wednesday to a small dirt pile that was spewing steam in the backyard of his Castro Valley hills home.

"She was the one who found it. I never would have known," he said.

While Bella barked in excitement, Medeiros shoveled the rock out of a fresh, foot-deep hole. It was glowing "like a barbecue coal," he said.

Comment: Meteorites officially cannot be warm or hot when they reach the ground. So much for official science then.


Meteor

Canada: Meteor Flashes Through Edmonton Sky

Did you see that ball of white that flew through the sky Friday morning?

Our newsroom was getting calls, emails, and tweets from listeners, and some are convinced they saw a meteor at around 7:30am.

"I saw this huge flash come right across the sky going west to east," says James, who was driving near Thorsby at the time. "Just by chance I caught the whole thing. It was very, very bright and very low to the ground."

Most callers agree that the light disappeared as quickly as it came.

"This was quite bright -- a big chunk of white," says Pat, who was driving on 153 Avenue near Castledowns Road. "(It only lasted) about two or three seconds. They go fast. You notice them, and then before it hit the ground or before it disappeared near the horizon, it was out."

Frank Florian from the Telus World of Science didn't see it, but by the description he's fairly confident that this was a meteor.

Meteor

Comet Lovejoy - Some Comets like it Hot

Comets are icy and fragile. They spend most of their time orbiting through the dark outskirts of the solar system safe from destructive rays of intense sunlight. The deepest cold is their natural habitat.

Last November amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy discovered a different kind of comet. The icy fuzzball he spotted in the sky over his backyard observatory in Australia was heading almost directly for the sun. On Dec. 16th, less than three weeks after he found it, Comet Lovejoy would swoop through the sun's atmosphere only 120,000 km above the stellar surface.

Astronomers soon realized a startling fact: Comet Lovejoy likes it hot.

"Terry found a sungrazer," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "We figured its nucleus was about as wide as two football fields - the biggest such comet in nearly 40 years."

Comet Lovejoy_1
© Wayne-EnglandComet Lovejoy at sunrise on Dec. 25, 2011. Wayne England took the picture from Poocher Swamp, west of Bordertown, South Australia.
Sungrazing comets aren't a new thing. In fact, the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watches one fall toward the sun and evaporate every few days. These frequent kamikaze comets, known as "Kreutz sungrazers," are thought to be splinters of a giant comet that broke apart hundreds of years ago. Typically they measure about 10 meters across, small, fragile, and easily vaporized by solar heat.

Based on its orbit, Comet Lovejoy was surely a member of the same family - except it was 200 meters wide instead of the usual 10. Astronomers were eager to see such a whopper disintegrate. Even with its extra girth, there was little doubt that it would be destroyed.

When Dec. 16th came, however, "Comet Lovejoy shocked us all," says Battams. "It survived, and even flourished."

Meteor

UK: Scientists Probe Mystery Boom and Earth Tremors in Northumberland and Scottish Borders

Experts are trying to determine what caused earth tremors and buildings to shake in Berwick and coastal areas of the Scottish Borders this afternoon.

Scientists can't say if it was an earthquake and the RAF said the RAF says none of their planes caused a sonic boom.

Seismologists are currently looking into the 3.15pm incident in Berwickshire and Northumberland.

A British Geological Survey spokeswoman said: "We know something happened as we've had lots of reports of the earth shaking and it registered on our equipment."

The data is being studied but the spokeswoman said they could not confirm if it was an earthquake or a sonic boom. But she said the data did not have the 'tell-tale' signs of an earthquake.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said that reports had come in from as far afield as south as Craster and that Lothian and Borders Police had received reports from Burnmouth.

He said that the RAF had reported that although planes were operating in the area it was not believed to be a sonic boom.

It has also been felt in Wooler and Belford as well as throughout Berwick.

Meteor

US: Fireball Report Prompts Search of Island Marsh

Brunswick, Georgia. -- Authorities say they turned up nothing after Georgia State Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard crews searched a marsh off Jekyll Island for a possible plane crash.

The search began around 10 p.m. Wednesday, after someone reported seeing a fireball disappear in the marsh.

The Florida Times-Union reports the search was called off shortly after midnight early Thursday, and state patrol officials say it is believed the fireball might have been a meteor.

Meteor

Best of the Web: Mexico: Authorities Search for Meteorite that Fell on Northwest Mexico

Meteor
© LAHT
Culiacan - Mexican authorities are searching for a meteorite that fell to earth in a rural area in the northwestern part of the country, which was sighted in the region but about which there are as yet few details, officials said Friday.

The alarm sounded when inhabitants of a mountainous region of Sinaloa state near the border with Chihuahua were startled by the approach of a luminous object in the night sky.

NASA and Mexican emergency services agencies confirmed that the object was a meteorite, whose dimensions and exact place of impact are unknown.

Some witnesses believed it could have crashed to earth between the Gustavo Diaz Ordaz Dam and the town of San Jose de Gracia.

After hours of searching by air and land, an official of the Sinaloa municipality of Sinaloa, Marcial Alvarez, told Efe that the meteorite is believed to have impacted next door in Chihuahua state.

This Saturday observers will fly over the area in search of the meteorite.

It would not be the first time Sinaloa has seen a phenomenon like this. In 1871 a meteorite fell on the settlement of Bacubirito, which with a weight of 22 tons is considered one of the biggest in the world.

Meteor

Fantastic Quadrantids

This morning, Jan. 4th, Earth passed through a stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1. The encounter produced a strong display of Quadrantid meteors over the Atlantic side of our planet, as many as 80 per hour according to the International Meteor Organization. Fredrik Broms caught this one streaking over his home in Kvaløya, Norway:

Quadrantids Shower
© Fredrik Broms
"The Quadrantids of 2012 were fantastic," says Broms. "The display was dominated by fairly bright and fast meteors."

NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network recorded 20 fireballs during the outburst. Data from multiple cameras allowed the orbits of the meteoroiuds to be calculated, and they are shown here in a diagram of the inner solar system:

Quadrantids Shower_1
© NASA