Fire in the SkyS


Bad Guys

Australia: Space rock passes through satellite belt


Universityworldnews.com
Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:10 UTC
Astronomers around the world breathed a sigh of relief last Monday night when an asteroid passed within 12,000 kilometres of Australia, closer than communication satellites.

First observed by a dedicated telescopic asteroid tracker in the US on 22 June, the object was then observed by French astronomer Professor Klotz and PhD student Michael Todd, who remotely programmed it into the schedule for the Zadko Telescope at the University of Western Australia.

Director of the telescope, Associate Professor David Coward, said the asteroid - officially known as Near Earth Asteroid 2011MD - was identified as a tumbling, elongated 4-12 metre rock during a 40-minutes observation by Zadko over Australian skies. The Zadko telescope observations were the first to determine that the rock was rotating with a period of about 11 minutes.

"NASA said asteroids of the size of 2011MD come this close to Earth on average once every six years so it's a relatively rare event," Coward said. "2011MD was within the geosynchronous satellite belt, orbiting with our communications satellites and it could do a lot of damage if it collided with one."
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Binoculars

US - July 3, 1861: The Great Comet - what does it portend?


2newsadvance.com
Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:05 UTC
Image
© Cometography.comThe Great Comet of 1861 passed closest to Earth on June 30, 1861.
"The Comet. Mr. Editor: -- Did you see the comet Monday night? I was indebted for the pleasure to an excellent friend, who took the trouble to call and awaken me. I certainly was never more astonished. All similar visitors to our system have either been foretold, or discovered by astronomers when not visible to the naked eye. Their approach has been gradual, and their advent and progress duly chronicled by the newspapers. But this has come like a thief in the night, unannounced - - undiscovered -- until, with a splendor far beyond any of its predecessors, it blazes in our firmament ... The tail reached the zenith, inclining a little to the West. The body seemed three or four times as large as that of any other comet I ever saw. My friend says when it first caught his eye, without referring to the points of the compass, he took it for the moon ..."

Letter to the editor, The Daily Virginian
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Meteor

Meteorite strike? Russia can take it!

Tom Washington
The Moscow News
Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:05 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti. Vasiliy Litosh
If a large asteroid falls on the earth then the fallout will be huge and life as we know if comes to a choking, flaming end. But if it's a small one then Russia can take it.

That's more than can be said for Europe and North America, whose people can kiss the world goodbye if anything lands on them.

The reason is not that Russians are hardier than everyone else but that with its expanses of open space, covering one fifth of the world's land surface, Russia could take the strain.

A near miss

An asteroid the size of a truck skimmed past Earth four weeks ago, coming closer to us than the moon ever has. The 7-meter lump of celestial rock, named 2009 BD, came within 346,000 kilometers of Earth at around 9:51 pm Moscow time The moon's average distance from us is about 385,000 km.

So it, was relatively speaking, by a gnat's whisker that a calamity approaching the Hiroshima bomb bypassed humanity.

Comment: Actually, the possibility of a strike is much more imminent. Perhaps not by the "killer asteroid", but one doesn't need to be knocked over by the a sledgehammer, when series of "undetected" darts can do the job very well. The stony "drops" have been falling on our heads for quite some time now, and we wonder if one of them is about to provide us with the last wake-up call.

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Bizarro Earth

Large Asteroid To Pass Between Earth And Moon

Mark Dunphy
Irishweatheronline.com
Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:13 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The third near-earth asteroid of 2011 will pass between the moon and earth later this year, NASA has confirmed. The 400-metre wide asteroid, named 2005 YU55, will pass within 0.85 lunar distances of the Earth on November 8, 2011.

Discovered December 28, 2005 by Robert McMillan of the Spacewatch Program near Tucson Arizona, the object is believed to be a very dark, nearly spherical object 400 meters in diameter.

According to NASA's Neart Earth Object Program: "Although classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over at least the next 100 years. However, this will be the closest approach to date by an object this large that we know about in advance and an event of this type will not happen again until 2028 when asteroid (153814) 2001 WN5 will pass to within 0.6 lunar distances."

Earlier this week, earth experienced one of its closest encounters with an asteroid in recent years. But as NASA indicated in the days ahead of Monday afternoon's 'cosmic close call', the encounter was so close that Earth's gravity sharply altered the asteroid's trajectory and prevented the space rock from impacting the planet.

2011MD, a newly discovered asteroid passed within 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles) of Earth. The asteroid was only sighted for the first time on 22 June by a robotic telescope in New Mexico, USA. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts, USA, put out an alert Thursday.
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Meteor

The Mysterious Crestone Crater in Colorado, US: A real meteor crater or not?

Keno
The Crestone Eagle
Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© H. H. Nininger (1941)Aerial view of the Crestone Crater looking eastward from an altitude of about 500 feet.
Is the hole in the ground south of Crestone a meteor crater or not, and if not, what is it? Well it sure looks like one, and many geologists believe it is, but a few others say they aren't sure. It's a Crestone mystery that's not completely solved.

Known as the "Crestone Crater" to most, this striking feature lies inside of the Great Sand Dunes National Park, one mile from the Liberty Gate entrance in the Baca, and 6 miles from downtown Crestone. This crater measures 355 feet by 246 feet with a mean depth of 23 feet.

The crater was first discovered by Crestone resident V.M. King in 1934. He and many others around the San Luis Valley had witnessed a fireball crash in the same area back in 1892. It was first studied in 1941 by Denver geologist Dr. H.H. Nininger, an expert in this line of research. His initial study suggested that it could be a true meteor crater, or perhaps an impact from a comet.
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Meteor

Australia: Colourful Spectacle Lights Up Sky Over Melbourne's West

Jay Savage
Herald Sun, Australia
Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:17 UTC
Mysterious bright lights have been spotted in the sky over Melbourne's western suburbs this morning.

Streaks of luminous blue, green and white lit up the area shortly before 6am.

The phenomenon was most likely caused by space junk or a meteor entering our atmosphere, according to Australasian Science Magazine astronomy expert David Reneke.

"My favourite (possibility) is always the fireball - that is, a meteor that's on fire," he said.

"It's pretty rare. I've seen two in my lifetime. You're seeing a piece of rock physically melting in front of your eyes. These things are pretty startling."

The lights probably moved too quickly for anyone to catch the event on camera, he said.

The spectacle comes after orbiting junk came perilously close to the International Space Station on Wednesday.
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Meteor

One Hundred Years Ago Today, A Mars Meteorite Fell in a Blaze

Arcynta Ali Childs
Smithsonian.com
Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:52 UTC
meteroite
One of the two original pieces of Nakhla sent to the Smithsonian, virtually untouched since 1911. Photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum.

On the morning of June 28, 1911, somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00 in the morning, a fireball was observed northwest of Alexandria, Egypt. Few would realize what it was. But soon after, W.F. Hume, minister of the Geological Survey of Egypt, began taking eyewitness statements, and two months later published his report, "The First Meteorite Record in Egypt."

One of those statements, from a farmer who claimed to have seen a fragment fall on a dog, gave rise to the popular myth that Nakhla, as the meteorite would be named, was "the dog killing meteorite," an unsubstantiated claim, but the dramatic account is irresistible: "The fearful column which appeared in the sky at Denshal was substantial. The terrific noise it emitted was an explosion which made it erupt several fragments of volcanic materials. These curious fragments, falling to earth, buried themselves into the sand to the depth of about one metre. One of them fell on a dog. . .leaving it like ashes in a moment."

Approximately 40 stones were recovered southeast of Alexandria, near the town of Abu Hummus. Of the stones recovered, Hume immediately sent two of them to the Smithsonian Institution, weighing 117g and 52g (or 4.3 4.13 ounces and .117 1.83 ounces). They arrived in August of 1911 and have been a part of the Natural History Museum's collections ever since. Today, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Nakhla's landing.
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Bizarro Earth

Peekskill Meteorite

Steven Schimmrich
Hudson Valley Geologist
Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:21 UTC
You may not have known it, but yesterday (Monday, June 27, 17:00 UTC) a 10 meter diameter asteroid called 2011 MD passed within 12,400 km (7430 miles) of the Earth's surface. For reference, that's about one Earth diameter away from us and about 31 times closer than the Moon. There was no danger of it hitting but sometimes the Earth's gravitational field happens to catch one of these space rocks. Here's the story of a much smaller meteorite which came crashing into the Hudson Valley 20 years ago.

On October 9, 1992, a meteorite entered Earth's atmosphere somewhere over Kentucky, exploded into fragments, which continued over West Virginia, where it was first filmed at 11:48 pm. The trajectory was toward the northeast, moving as a fireball through the skies over Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania, and finally crashing down to Earth striking a 1989 Chevy Malibu belonging to a Michelle Knapp at 207 Wells Street in Peekskill - a town in the in the lower Hudson Valley of New York (across the river from Bear Mountain).

At least 16 people in several states were able to film the meteorite fragments flying through the sky that evening. The Peekskill fragment was the only one found, but there were others that didn't make such a conspicuous touchdown.
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Sun

What's Going On With the Sun?


Physics World
Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:44 UTC
Solar Flare
© NASAA solar flare crackles from the site of a sunspot on the solar surface.
Earlier this month a lot of column inches were devoted to the news that the Sun continues to behave in a peculiar manner - and that solar activity could be about to enter a period of extended calm. The story emerged after three groups of researchers presented independent studies at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, which appear to support this theory. But are the new findings really that clear-cut and what implications do they have for the climate here on Earth? Physicsworld.com addresses some of the issues.

Why the recent interest in the Sun's activities?

Solar physicists agree that the Sun has been acting strangely of late. It relates to apparent abnormalities in the solar cycle, an approximately 11-year period during which the Sun's magnetic activity oscillates from low strength to high strength, then back again. When the Sun's magnetic activity is low, during a solar minimum, its surface remains relatively quiet, which leads to fewer sunspots. Then, as magnetic activity begins to increase, the surface becomes more dynamic and the sunspot numbers begin to increase in the lead up to a solar maximum.
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Meteor

Britain in list of countries 'most at risk' if an asteroid strikes


Telegraph UK
Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:42 UTC
Image
© Associated Press/NASA
Britain has been identified among a host of countries scientists believe would be worst affected in the event of an asteroid strike.

Experts at Southampton University have drawn up a league table of countries most likely to suffer severe loss of life or catastrophic damage should a large asteroid hit Earth.

The list is largely made up of developed nations including China, Japan, the United States and Italy, on the basis that the size of their populations would mean millions of deaths.

The US, China, Indonesia, India and Japan are most in danger on this basis. Canada, the US, China, Japan and Sweden are rated most at risk in terms of potential damage to their infrastructure.
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