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Fire in the SkyS
© Maurizio Eltri
The fireball was very low in the east.
Earth is about to pass through a stream of debris from 2003 EH1, a comet fragment that produces the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak around 07:20 UT (02:20 am EST) on Wednesday morning, January 4th. At maximum, as many as 100 meteors/hour could emerge from a radiant near Polaris, the north star.
Brian Emfinger of Ozark, Arkansas, photographed this one on Jan. 2nd:
"Wow! What a really nice fireball," says Emfinger. "It emerged very very close to the Quadrantid radiant, but I'm not 100% sure it is indeed an early Quadrantid."
Even among professional researchers there is a lot of uncertainty about the Quadrantids. Because the shower occurs during the deep cold of northern winter, and because its peak is brief (often no longer than a couple of hours), this strong shower is seldom observed. Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office hopes 2012 will be different. "We encourage sky watchers to be alert for Quadrantids and send their observations to NASA using the Meteor Counter app," he says. "With a little help, we just might learn something new about this intriguing shower."
Brian Emfinger of Ozark, Arkansas, photographed this one on Jan. 2nd:
© Brian Emfinger
Even among professional researchers there is a lot of uncertainty about the Quadrantids. Because the shower occurs during the deep cold of northern winter, and because its peak is brief (often no longer than a couple of hours), this strong shower is seldom observed. Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office hopes 2012 will be different. "We encourage sky watchers to be alert for Quadrantids and send their observations to NASA using the Meteor Counter app," he says. "With a little help, we just might learn something new about this intriguing shower."
The first bright fireball of the New Year streaked over the southwestern USA on Jan. 1st at 03:15 UT. It was visible from Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. "I was able to see it out my window," reports amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft from his rural observatory outside of Santa Fe. "It was brilliant turquoise blue." Ashcraft operates a combination all-sky camera/forward-scatter meteor radar system, which captured the fireball's flight. Click here to play the movie--and don't forget to turn up the volume to hear the ghostly radar echo:
Cameras belonging to NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network also recorded the fireball from multiple locations. An orbit calculated from those data show that the fireball was a random meteoriod hailing from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It hit Earth's atmosphere at 26 km/s (58,000 mph), which is relatively slow compared to other meteoroids, and disintegrated 82 km above Earth's surface.
"This was an auspicious start to 2012," says Ashcraft. "Clear skies and Happy New Year!"
© Space Weather
"This was an auspicious start to 2012," says Ashcraft. "Clear skies and Happy New Year!"
Tucson, Arizona - A streaking green light across the Arizona sky Saturday night created a stir among KOLD News 13 viewers and Facebook friends.
Around 8:15 p.m., viewers called to ask about the light, wondering if it were a meteor, an asteroid or fireworks.
"I would guess it's a meteor, but that's only a guess without actually seeing it," said Stephen Pompea, public information officer for Kitt Peak Observatory.
Pompea, who was traveling this weekend in Colorado, said a meteor shower will be visible in the Southern Arizona sky Wednesday morning,
"The Quadrantid meteor shower, one of the best displays of 'shooting stars' all year, will
peak in the hours before dawn," Pompea said. "If you get up early, bundle up warmly, and find dark site with a wide-open view of the clear sky, you might see 1 or 2 meteors per minute during the shower's brief but intense performance."
The light could be seen as far northwest as Prescott in Yavapai County and as far southeast as Douglas in Cochise County, according to News 13 Facebook friends.
Around 8:15 p.m., viewers called to ask about the light, wondering if it were a meteor, an asteroid or fireworks.
"I would guess it's a meteor, but that's only a guess without actually seeing it," said Stephen Pompea, public information officer for Kitt Peak Observatory.
Pompea, who was traveling this weekend in Colorado, said a meteor shower will be visible in the Southern Arizona sky Wednesday morning,
"The Quadrantid meteor shower, one of the best displays of 'shooting stars' all year, will
peak in the hours before dawn," Pompea said. "If you get up early, bundle up warmly, and find dark site with a wide-open view of the clear sky, you might see 1 or 2 meteors per minute during the shower's brief but intense performance."
The light could be seen as far northwest as Prescott in Yavapai County and as far southeast as Douglas in Cochise County, according to News 13 Facebook friends.
© NASAIt's coming this way: The CME, seen by Nasa's STEREO-B spacecraft, can be seen blasting out from the Sun on the right-hand side (circled)
On the downside, experts expect radio blackouts for a few days, caused by the radiation from the flare - or coronal mass ejection (CME) - causing magnetic storms.
The flare is part of a larger increase in activity in the Sun, which runs in 11-year cycles. It is expected to peak around 2013.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center wrote: 'Category G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storms are expected 28 and 29 December due to multiple coronal mass ejection arrivals. R1 (Minor) radio blackouts are expected until 31 December.'
Devices that depend on radio waves include GPS systems, radios and mobile phones.
A coronal mass ejection contains billions of tons of gases bursting with X-rays and ultraviolet radiation that are flung into space at around 5million mph.
They are mind-bogglingly hot - around 100,000,000C.
The Earth is occasionally hosed by these ejections, leading to amazing shimmering light shows.
Colin Legg from Esperance, Australia has been documenting Comet Lovejoy's holiday gift to the southern hemisphere, and this is his latest - and possibly last - timelapse, as the comet has started to fade. This one covers almost 5 hours of Legg's Comet Lovejoy views as seen during the early morning hours of December 27, 2011. "I used a tracking device to track in azimuth only to maximize coverage," Legg said. "If you look closely at the head in the 2nd half you can see it moving against the stars."
With thanks and gratitude for Suspicious0bservers's dedicated time and effort in producing this video.
