Fire in the Sky

Giant asteroid 'Florence' has two moons as it whizzed past Earth

RT
Sat, 02 Sep 2017 16:58 UTC

The largest asteroid to come so close to Earth in over a century whizzed by the planet Friday without a hitch - and revealed two tiny moons in the process.

The highly anticipated asteroid '3122 Florence,' measuring a whopping 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) in width, came within 4.4 million miles (7 million km) of Earth. The gap is the equivalent of 18 times the distance from our planet to the moon.

"Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids begam," Paul Chodas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said of the fly-by.

Meteor lights up northern New Zealand skies

stuff.co.nz
Wed, 30 Aug 2017 18:40 UTC

A long-tailed meteor was seen streaking across the sky on Tuesday evening.

People in northern parts of New Zealand witnessed a "shooting star" travelling west to east across the "orange sunset backdrop" at about 6:30pm.

Stargazers from Hamilton to Whangarei posted their sightings on the WeatherWatch website.

One person in Tauranga saw a "fairly sizeable fireball" trailing behind it, while someone in Auckland said it had "a red/blue head".

Meteor fireball streaks across US east coast skies

The Fauquier Times
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 03:30 UTC

Did you see a fireball streak across the sky tonight? You weren't alone.

A bright green meteor was spotted across Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia about 9:14 p.m., prompting more than 50 reports to the American Meteor Society. A high concentration of sightings came from the D.C. area.

"Glowing bright near the ball and lasting on its own fading at the tail," one Arlington resident wrote.

Comment: The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received over 710 reports about a fireball seen over VA, DC, PA, NJ, NY, MD, WV, RI, District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, CT, New Jersey, West Virginia, OH and DE on Saturday, August 26th 2017 around 01:15 UT.

Meteor shower from dead comet arises again after 58 years

National University Sokendai
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:42 UTC

Japanese astronomers observed the elusive "Phoenicid meteor shower" and have determined that it was spawned by the now vanished Comet Blanpain. They also found that Comet Blanpain was active, though only weakly, in the early 20th Century. This is the first time that researchers could determine the activity of a comet by observing its associated meteor shower. These results are important for understanding the evolution of minor bodies in the Solar System.

© Photo: Hiroyuki Toda/NAOJ
A bright member of the Phoenicid meteor shower appears at the bottom left of this photo taken at 02h15m39s UT on December 2, 2014. The Moon is captured to the lower right of center in the photo. Camera: Pentax K-3 + SIGMA 4.5mm F2.8, 3 second exposure time, at Sandy Point, North Carolina, U.S.A…

The Phoenicid meteor shower (named after the constellation Phoenix) was discovered by the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition on December 5, 1956, during their voyage in the Indian Ocean. However, it has not been observed again. This has left astronomers with a mystery: where did the Phoenicids come from and where did they go?

Large meteor fireball filmed over Krugersdorp, South Africa

Jan Breytenbach
You Tube
Tue, 22 Aug 2017 19:32 UTC

A massive meteorite was spotted entering the earth's atmosphere at 18H59 today over Krugersdorp in South Africa.

Meteor fireball recorded over Morocco

Meteors
YouTube
Mon, 21 Aug 2017 06:24 UTC

This fireball was recorded on the night of 21 August 2017 at 2:41 local time (0:41 universal time). The fireball began over Morocco at a height of about 107 km and ended at an altitude of around 71 km above the Mediterranean Sea. It was recorded in the framework of the SMART Project from the astronomical observatories of Calar Alto (Almería, Spain), Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain), La Sagra (Granada, Spain), Sevilla and Huelva.

Night sky meteor fireball stuns residents of Warwick, Australia

Jonno Colfs
Warwick Daily News
Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:07 UTC

Social media lit up as bright as the sky last night in Warwick with reports of a large fireball in the eastern sky.

Residents from across the region recounted seeing a bright meteor in the sky towards the Great Diving Range for a few second before it dipped from sight at about 8pm yesterday.

Eyewitness reports indicated the light in the sky was "low and bright".

It's possible the meteor was a remnant of the Perseid meteor shower, one of the brighter meteor showers of the year, which occurs every year between July 17 and August 24.

The shower tends to peak around August 9-13.

Typical rates are about 80 meteors an hour, but in outburst years, such as last year, the rate can be between 150-200 meteors an hour.

The meteor was seen by residents in Warwick and further afield including Leyburn.

Meteor fireball streaks over Southern California

lightvalve
YouTube
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 19:20 UTC

AMS Event 2579 2017 - Meteor streaks over California. Video from South East facing Nest Cam, August 5, 2017 10:01PM 31 seconds

Meteor fireball flies over central Florida

International Meteor Organization
YouTube
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 19:54 UTC

Caught this meteor over Florida i am using 3 Axis 1435-E IP cameras this was the East camera the frame is centered at 125 degrees

Asteroid Florence to sweep past Earth on September 1st

Eddie Irizarry
Earth Sky Org
Sun, 13 Aug 2017 18:38 UTC

Named for Florence Nightingale, asteroid 3122 Florence is the biggest near-Earth object to pass this close since this category of objects was discovered over a century ago! It might be visible in binoculars.

© Stellarium
Asteroid 3122 Florence – named for the founder of modern nursing – on August 27 at 11:50 pm CDT as seen from central U.S. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

The next attraction coming up in our skies after the spectacular total solar eclipse of August 21 might be an asteroid big enough to be seen in small telescopes, and maybe even in binoculars, as a small, very slow-moving "star." Asteroid 1981 ET3 - also known as 3122 Florence - is a huge space rock at least 2.7 miles (4.35 km) in diameter. According to Paul Chodas at the Center for Near Earth Object Studies:

Florence is the largest asteroid to pass this close to our planet since the first near-Earth asteroid was discovered over a century ago.

Asteroid 3122 Florence will safely pass by our planet on September 1, 2017 at over 18 times the Earth-moon distance. The asteroid will not be visible to the unaided eye. It will, however, become visible in small amateur telescopes by late August, in the course of what will become the closest encounter to Earth by this asteroid since 1890.

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Fire in the Sky

Giant asteroid 'Florence' has two moons as it whizzed past Earth

Meteor lights up northern New Zealand skies

Meteor fireball streaks across US east coast skies

Meteor shower from dead comet arises again after 58 years

Large meteor fireball filmed over Krugersdorp, South Africa

Meteor fireball recorded over Morocco

Night sky meteor fireball stuns residents of Warwick, Australia

Meteor fireball streaks over Southern California

Meteor fireball flies over central Florida

Asteroid Florence to sweep past Earth on September 1st

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