Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

The sky is falling: Odds for a potentially devastating space rock to hit Earth are 1 in 10

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© Stéphane Guisard
The odds that a potentially devastating space rock will hit Earth this century may be as high as one in 10. So why isn't NASA trying harder to prevent catastrophe?

Breakthrough ideas have a way of seeming obvious in retro­spect, and about a decade ago, a Columbia University geophysicist named Dallas Abbott had a breakthrough idea. She had been pondering the craters left by comets and asteroids that smashed into Earth. Geologists had counted them and concluded that space strikes are rare events and had occurred mainly during the era of primordial mists. But, Abbott realized, this deduction was based on the number of craters found on land - and because 70 percent of Earth's surface is water, wouldn't most space objects hit the sea? So she began searching for underwater craters caused by impacts rather than by other forces, such as volcanoes. What she has found is spine-chilling: evidence that several enormous asteroids or comets have slammed into our planet quite recently, in geologic terms. If Abbott is right, then you may be here today, reading this magazine, only because by sheer chance those objects struck the ocean rather than land.

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Comet Hartley 2 Pumps Out the Cyanide

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© NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMDClose-up photo of Comet Hartley 2 from the Nov. 4, 2010 flyby performed by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. Image captured by the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument.
Comet Hartley 2 has graced our night skies for several weeks, reaching its closest approach (unfortunately timed near the full moon) on October 18th. NASA is taking advantage of this near approach to visit the comet with the Deep Impact/EPOXI mission, and they are already making surprising discoveries.

Deep Impact put on a spectacular show for scientists and space-geeks alike when it rendezvoused with Comet Tempel 1 in 2005, smashing a projectile into the dirty snowball in order to see what lies just beneath the surface. The mission, now renamed EPOXI, has taken the spacecraft past Earth several times on its way to a new cometary target, Hartley 2.

The craft's closest approach to the comet will be on November 4th, when it will pass just 435 miles from the comet nucleus just as it is starting to warm up and become active in its approach of the Sun. However, science observations are already underway, as data taken in early September indicates that Hartley 2 increased its cyanide output five-fold over a period of just eight days.

Meteor

Did You See That Fireball?

green fireball
© Unknown
Spaceweather.com is seeking reports of a possible fireball or other bright lights in the sky over North America on Jan. 18th around 4 am EST.

The area of particular interest extends from Lake Michigan to southern parts of Ontario and upper New York state. Did you see anything? Submit your reports here.

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US, Indiana: Meteorite Reported This Morning.....Historical Viewing-Area Meteorites

Meteorite Over Carroll County This Morning:

Kelly Britton reported a meteorite just south of Delphi this morning at 5:20 a.m. Here is her account from her email:
Didn't know if anybody saw what I saw this morning, 5:20am just south of Delphi. I saw a low flying light streak with a red glow around it and it was moving fast. First, I thought it was a plane going down at the Delphi airport, I thought no it was going way to fast for that. I've looked around on the local net and haven't saw anything yet. As low as it was you would of thought you could see something on the ground?
I have not had other reports, but it sure sounds like a meteorite that burned up in the lower atmosphere. She stated in a second email, it looked like it had to have been 100′ from the ground. Most of the time they burn up much higher than that, but the distortions caused by the curvature of the earth make them appear much closer to the ground. That is not to say a meteorite could end up in someone's field..........it has happened before.

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Western Australia Meteorite Excites Scientists

WA Meteorite
© Phil Bland

A unique meteorite that smashed into the West Australian outback last year is exciting the scientific world.

The ancient rock has an unusual composition and is being studied by scientists around the globe.

Now in the Natural History Museum in London, the meteorite is undergoing preliminary analysis and will be returned to the WA Museum when those tests are complete.

Curtin University department of applied geology Adjunct Professor Phil Bland said the meteorite, which is roughly the size of a tennis ball, could reveal vital clues to the origins of the universe.

Not only is its chemistry proving intriguing but scientists were able to track its fall to earth to determine where in the solar system it came from.

There have been more than 50,000 documented meteorite falls over the past 200 years but scientists know the origins of just 10, highlighting the importance of the latest find.

Meteorites are the oldest rocks in existence and contain a 4.56 billion-year record of solar system's formation and evolution.

The latest meteorite's orbit was tracked using a series of stargazing cameras set up in remote areas of WA under a special international project involving Curtin University, the Imperial College London, Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic and the WA Museum.

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Two Major Fireballs Over North America on January 19

The American Meteor Society has received 39 reports of seven separate fireball events over North America on January 19th.

Two of these were widely seen events. Both of these events occurred near 21:00 EST. The first occurred over the northern Midwest and southern Canada. There is some wide scattered timing of this event and the possibility exists that this may be more than one fireball.

The second occurred over the southeastern states and was seen from Florida north to North Carolina. There is good agreement for the timing plus it seems to been a bit brighter with a majority of those reporting that the peak brightness exceeded that of the full moon.

Meteor

Big, green and glowing: Was it a meteor seen in mid-Michigan and other states?

green fireball
© Unknown
Whatever it was, it was green.

When Alma College Geologist Murray Borrello was driving south on Wright Avenue in Alma Wednesday evening and a big green light flashed across the sky in front of him, other motorists traveling south put on their brakes.

"You couldn't not see it," he said. "It would have caught your attention. It was a good sized object.

"Is it space junk? Something that fell from an airplane? I don't know. I had a kind of sick feeling. It was big, green and glowing. I've seen shooting stars. I've never seen green ones, but others have. It was weird."

No calls came into Gratiot County's 911 central dispatch, but that wasn't the case in the metropolitan Detroit area.

Several Oakland and Macomb county police departments received calls from people saying they saw something weird around 9 p.m.

In the mid-Michigan area, Borrello wasn't the only one to see it.

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UK: 'Fireball' Soars Across Penarth

Was it a bird? Was it a plane? No: it was a fireball over Penarth - according to one town resident anyway.

Translator Elisabeth Griffin was left with hot flushes recently after seeing what she described as a 'fireball' soaring overhead.

The Cornerswell Road resident had gone for a relaxing stroll when she saw the sizzling sight above Victoria playing fields.

"I was taken aback by this unusual but fantastic object in the sky," she said.

"I knew it wasn't a plane immediately because it was too big and too bright.

"It literally stopped me in my tracks as I saw it pass me overhead - it must have taken about a minute."

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Unusually bright shooting star prompts sighting reports from Chicago to Indiana

An unusually bright shooting star shot across the sky Wednesday night, prompting sighting reports from the Chicago area to Indiana, a local astronomer said.

A green-tinted burst was reported by amateur astronomers in LaPorte, Ind., just after 8 p.m.., said Adler Planetarium Astronomer Chris Lintott.

The shooting star, which was a meteor probably about the size of 10 grains of salt, likely won't hit the ground and won't become a meteorite, he said. Meteoroids are pieces of material traveling through space that become meteors when they streak through the Earth's atmosphere and meteorites if they strike the ground.

At least two motorists on Chicago-area expressways also reported seeing the flash.

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Probe to Survey Comet Dented by Deep Impact Mission

Comet Deep Impact
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMDDeep Impact's impactor hit Comet Tempel 1, spewing debris, but the mission was not able to see the resulting crater
NASA's Deep Impact mission pounded a comet in 2005, but failed to see the resulting crater. Now, scientists will get a second chance to glimpse the damage when a second spacecraft flies by the comet on 15 February.

In an unprecedented experiment, NASA smashed a 372-kilogram impactor into Comet Tempel 1 on 4 July 2005 as part of its Deep Impact mission.

A flyby spacecraft recorded images of the impact from a safe distance, but the cloud of impact debris and a flawed camera made it impossible to see the crater itself. Studying the crater could have revealed more about the interior composition and structure of comets.

Now, another spacecraft is about to make its own fly-by of the comet, offering a second chance to image the structure.

Called Stardust, the spacecraft collected material from Comet Wild 2 in 2004 and sent it in a capsule back to Earth, where scientists have been studying it ever since.