Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

Sun Diving Comet, October 30th

A small comet dove into the sun during the late hours of Oct. 30th. Blasted by intense solar heat, the 'dirty snowball' disintegrated in plain view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Watch the movie below and note how the comet shrinks to a pinprick just before it vanishes.


Meteor

Comets - Not What We Expected

This video highlights recent discoveries about comets that shatter existing theories in favour of the Electric Comet Theory.

Supporting documentation and links to all the NASA quotes, web sites, and papers used in the video can be found here.

Part 1

Meteor

Fireball Recorded Entering Atmosphere over Japan on October 19

Image
Source

While you're there, check out the "etc." section for what they have captured... Very interesting!


Meteor

Best of the Web: Three for the Show: Assessing the Potential Effects of Comets Elenin, Levy and Honda

Three For The Show Pt.1

August 16, 2011

Intro

Image
I sat down today with the full intention of writing about the comet Elenin. I started my research, first speaking with my very close friend and associate, Raymond Ward. He's incredibly informed and talented. I went through page after page on the Internet. The comments and the conclusions about these three comets that are coming put me over the top. I know, I know... We have published some pretty over the top kind of material ourselves. But we were really one of the first sites to challenge the status quo on the Internet. So what. Anyway...

One site was very slick, cool looking and had a lot of opinions; a beautifully designed and organized page. Another belonged to a former TMG friend/member, not very well done. But... well... I was going to write something very crass and very nasty... But I'll keep my boundaries intact! I'll let his design and conclusion stand for themselves and like we always say, 'you decide for yourself'! Anyway...

If you're reading this page, you are more likely than not going to be a return visitor. So you know more than the usual reader concerning comets and astronomy (but if you're new, welcome! read on!). But let me cut to the chase, save you some time, give you the facts and let you deal with what I've got to say. Here are the particulars we have seen:
1. Comets Elenin
2. Dramatic increase in the number of earthquakes
3. Dramatic increase in the number of strong earthquakes
4. Elenin positions and EQ dates coincide
5. We have been documenting clashes in our upper atmosphere
6. There has been some evidence larger ships have been over EQ sites
7. It now appears that there are three comets coming into a "conjunction" in the very near future

Meteor

US, California: Mystery Lights Interrupt News 8 Live Shot


One of our news crews spotted some mysterious lights in the sky during Tuesday's 11 p.m. news, and now we're trying to figure out what it was.

A series of glowing reddish lights, almost like floating flames, dominated the sky Tuesday night in University Heights looking east. The unidentified objects soared into the darkness, eventually appearing to burn themselves out, adding to the intrigue. Police say they had no reports of any unusual sky activity, nor did renowned local astronomer Dennis Mammana.

"Something like this would have definitely crossed my radar screen," he said.

Tuesday night's sighting comes at a time of other popular sky shows, from the Northern Lights to last month's meteor show.

"A few weeks ago you had that great fireball crossing the sky. People saw it all the way from Las Vegas to San Diego," Mammana said.

So what were the mysterious balls of fire?

Meteor

Video Captures Draconid Meteor

Meteor
© redOrbit

This video catches the moment when a Draconid meteor exploded in Earth's atmosphere earlier this month. The dramatic footage comes from a campaign to observe this important meteor shower using aircraft to beat the clouds.

On the evening of Saturday 8 October, Earth plunged through a stream of dust and rocks that had been expelled into space by the comet Giacobini - Zinner. The resultant meteor shower lit the skies over Europe with shooting stars.

The display radiates from the constellation of Draco, The Dragon, giving the name of "Draconids" to this shower which occurs at the same time every year as the Earth passes through the debris trail. In 2011, however, there was a difference. Astronomers had predicted an unusually high numbers of meteors as Earth was due to encounter particularly dense patches of the cometary detritus.

Detlef Koschny, leader of the Meteor Research Group at ESA, led the Agency's involvement in a project to find out if the prediction was right.

With cameras and other equipment packed into two Falcon-20 research planes, Detlef's colleagues took to the skies over Europe to rise above the clouds and watch for meteors.

Sun

Aurora (northern lights) seen in more than half United States

Several sightings in Maryland and Virginia

Aurora explosion in Ozark, Arkansas October 24, 2011. (FromYouTube video posted by briandjin2 ) A stunning auroral display amazed and awed sky watchers as far south as Arkansas Monday night. SpaceWeather.com reports the unusual northern lights display was observed in more than half of the U.S. states. MSNBC called it one of the "farthest-reaching auroral shows in years"


The above video was submitted to YouTube by briandjin2 who offered this description: "...a little time lapse from stills showing the faint aurora explode in just a few minutes to become some of the brightest aurora ever seen at such low latitudes."

Aurora are caused by geomagnetic storms which originate from coronal mass ejections, or blasts of solar wind. Yesterday's storm hit the Earth at 2 p.m. according to SpaceWeather.com.

Sun

CME Impact Sparks Geomagnetic Storm

A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 24th at approximately 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT). According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the impact caused a strong compression of Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to penetrate all the way down to geosynchronous orbit for a brief period between 19:06 UT and 19:11 UT. Earth-orbiting spacecraft could have been directly exposed to solar wind plasma during that time.

The impact also sparked a geomagnetic storm, underway now. Geir Øye sends this picture from Ørsta, Norway:

Geomagnetic Storm
© Geir Øye
"These are the strongest and most beautiful auroras I've ever seen," says Øye, a veteran observer of Northern Lights. "I can only imagine what the display must have been further north."

High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the CME impact. The best time to look is usually during the hours around local midnight.

Sun

Coronal Mass Ejection struck Earth's magnetic field today

A coronal mass ejection (CME) struck Earth's magnetic field today, Oct. 24th, at approximately 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT) setting the stage for a possible geomagnetic storm. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Storm alerts: text, voice.

Image
© Rob Stammes"The expected solarwind shockwave arrived on my instruments at 18.35 UTC.The sky is clear and there is beautiful northern light."
Update #1: Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the CME impact caused a strong compression of Earth's magnetic field, allowing the solar wind to penetrate all the way down to geosyncronous orbit for a brief period between 19:06 UT and 19:11 UT. Earth-orbiting spacecraft could have been directly exposed to solar wind plasma during that time.

Meteor

Comet Elenin cloud corpse spotted in space

"Doomsday Comet" Elenin was briefly famous for inaccurate predictions that it might hit Earth. Instead it disintegrated as it approached the sun last month. (Doomsday canceled.) Over the weekend, Italian astronomer Rolando Ligustri spotted the comet's remains. It's the elongated cloud in this Oct. 22nd photo of the star field where Elenin would have appeared if it were still intact:

Image
© Rolando Ligustri
Another team of astronomers--Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Nick Howes--spotted the cloud on the same night. At first they were skeptical. "The cloud was extremely faint and diffuse," says Guido. "We wondered if it might be scattered moonlight or some other transient artifact." But when the team looked again on Oct. 23, the cloud was still there. A two-night blink animation shows that the cloud is moving just as the original comet would have. Note: Some readers have noticed a fast-moving streak to the to the lower right of the debris cloud. That is an unrelated asteroid, 2000 OJ8 (magnitude 14), which happened to be in the field of view at the same time as the cloud of Elenin.