Fire in the SkyS


Sun

Earth Dodges Geomagnetic Storm: Scientist


Raw Story
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:19 UTC
solar flare
© unknown
A wave of charged plasma particles from a huge solar eruption has glanced off the Earth's northern pole, lighting up auroras and disrupting some radio communications, a NASA scientist said.

But the Earth appears to have escaped a widespread geomagnetic storm, with the effects confined to the northern latitudes, possibly reaching down into Norway and Canada.

"There can be sporadic outages based on particular small-scale events," said Dean Persnell, project scientist at NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory at Goddard Space Flight Center.

He told AFP the official forecast is "for generally quiet conditions today, perhaps some minor storming tomorrow, but nothing extraordinary."

The event began Tuesday at 0156 GMT with a spectacular solar eruption in a sunspot the size of Jupiter that produced a Class X flash -- the most powerful of all solar events.

The eruption blasted a torrent of charged plasma particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth at about 560 miles per second (900 kilometers per second), the Solar Dynamics Observatory reported.

A direct hit from a CME could trigger a huge geomagnetic storm as incoming particles bounce off the Earth's geomagnetic field, blacking out radio communications, interfering with GPS navigational systems, in theory even causing power outages.
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Meteor

Closest Ever View of a Comet: NASA Spacecraft Flies Just 112 Miles From Tempel 1

Graham Smith and Daniel Bates
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:13 UTC
Image
© NASA/JPLThis photo shows an image from NASA's Stardust mission of comet Tempel 1 taken on February 14
Nasa today used one of its craft to revisit a comet at close range for the first time in the history of space exploration.

The vessel Stardust flew within 112 miles of the Tempel 1 comet as it hurtled past at 24,000 miles an hour at 4.37am this morning.

Scientists confirmed the encounter, which took place 210million miles from Earth, had been a success 25 minutes later and that Stardust had taken 72 high-resolution pictures as planned.

It has now begun beaming back pictures taken during its fly-by. Nasa's Chris Jones said all the images are stored on the craft and it will take another six hours for everything to be downloaded.

The photos will let researchers compare how Tempel 1 looks now with its appearance in 2005 when a probe from the Deep Impact craft was deliberated slammed into it.
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Meteor

Canada: Streaking Asteroid Fireball Sets Morning Skyline Alight Over Calgary

Lea Storry
Calagary Herald
Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:11 UTC
Canadian Fireball
© University of Calgary, Calgary HeraldA frame of video of a streaking asteroid captured by the University of Calgary's all sky camera. The fireball as recorded lasted for approximately three seconds occurring from 6:55:20 to 6:55:23 AM MST on Monday February 14th.

Space gave Canada a Valentine's Day rock on Monday when a piece of asteroid lit up the Calgary morning skyline.

Niel Beckie was travelling westbound on Glenmore Trail just under Crowchild Trail around 6: 55 a.m. when he saw a flash.

Beckie said he witnessed a very large blue-green fireball that broke into pieces before fading out.

"It lasted about five or six seconds," noted Beckie.

"It was unique and doesn't look like a fireworks. I was curious if anyone else had seen it."
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Meteor

Rare daytime fireball lights up East Coast skies

Mike Wall
space.com
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:13 UTC
A rare daytime fireball lit up the sky over much of the eastern United States on Monday, causing necks to crane and jaws to drop from Maryland to Massachusetts.

The fireball burned bright at around 12:35 p.m. ET or so, according to news reports. The wide region of visibility and its unmistakeable brightness make the fireball a unique event for lucky skywatchers, experts say.

"Not very common," said Joe Rao, Space.com's skywatching columnist. "Indeed, this was a very rare event."

Rao said he could only remember one other event like Monday's, when a daytime meteor was widely seen across a broad swath of land - and that happened in 1972, over the central U.S. and Canada.
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Sun

Sun erupts with mightiest solar flare in 4 years

Clara Moskowitz
space.com
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:37 UTC
Image
© NASAAn ultraviolet image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows Monday's X-class flare erupting from the sun. It was the largest flare since Dec. 6, 2006, NASA said.
Explosion hurls massive wave of charged particles into space, toward Earth

The sun unleashed its strongest solar flare in four years Monday night, hurling a massive wave of charged particles from electrified gas into space and toward Earth.

The solar storm sent a flash of radiation that hit Earth in a matter of minutes. Now a huge cloud of charged particles is headed our way. These coronal mass ejections, as they are called, typically take about 24 hours or more to arrive. They can spark spectacular displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, at high latitudes and sometimes even into the northern United States.

The mega flare, which registered as a Class X2.2 flare on the scale of solar flares, was the first class X flare to occur in the new solar cycle of activity, which began last year. The sun is now ramping up toward a solar maximum around 2013.
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Meteor

Blast from the Past: Did mystery object cause Morpeth, UK rumble?

John Dawson
Morpeth Journal Live
Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:59 UTC
Image
© UnknownMorpeth Station
It was just after 7pm on Tuesday, January 18, 1977, when houses were shaken over a wide area of Northumberland by a mystery object. The effect was felt as far apart as Stakeford, North Seaton, Morpeth, Ulgham and Whalton.

People described how their homes were shaken violently, with doors banging and windows rattling. The noise was compared to thunder by some, while others said it sounded like snow falling off the roof, but there was no snow on the roof.

Others said the noise sounded like bricks being dumped outside the house. A policeman who lived near Morpeth Railway Station thought there had been a train crash when he heard the noise.

However, a group of youngsters playing in the street at the police houses at the Kylins, Morpeth, saw a mystery flying object glowing in the sky. It was said to be a bright yellow ball and when it went bang, it went over the area quite quickly.
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Sun

Solar flare affects shortwave radio communications in southern China


Xinhua
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:51 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Beijing -- A large solar flare accompanied by electromagnetic storms affected shortwave radio communications in southern China on Tuesday, according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

The CMA's space weather monitoring center reported that it had spotted the X2.2-class solar flare at 9:56 a.m. Tuesday Beijing Time.

Xue Bingsen, a researcher with the center, said the solar flare caused sudden ionospheric disturbances in the atmosphere above China and affected shortwave radio communications, according to a CMA statement.

A solar flare is a violent explosion in the sun's atmosphere caused by huge magnetic activity. The flares produce large amounts of radiation that can affect the Earth's ionosphere and disrupt radio communications.
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Meteor

US: Silver Streaks in the Sky Likely a Meteor

John Noel
NBC New York
Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:20 UTC
Residents from NJ, NY, CT and Pa. report streaks of silver in the sky


"A streak of silver and then a flash with crazy colors." That's how one person on Twitter described the celestial phenomenon seen by thousands of people across five states.

Around 12:30 p.m. Monday a fireball appeared in the sky over Pennsylvania, traveling east for hundreds of miles.

The Internet lit up with reports of sightings from people in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

H.L. Devore says he was in his office in Ridgefield, N.J., looking out of the window when he saw it and said to himself, "What the heck is that."
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Meteor

US: Over the skies of Salem County and other parts of Northeast, a bright meteor seen in mid-day sky

Phil Dunn
Today's Sunbeam
Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:54 UTC
It's a bird, it's a plane ... no it's a meteorite?

If you were lucky enough Monday, at around 12:45 p.m., you looked to the skies over Salem County and saw a majestic, flaming fireball falling through the atmosphere.

"So far we have 30 reports of a fireball moving in a general west to east direction as seen from the northeastern United States," said American Meteor Society official Robert Lunsford Monday afternoon. "Daylight fireballs are rare and must be exceedingly bright to be noticed with the sun in the sky."

One sighting happened right here in Salem County.

Woodstown resident Walt McGuniess called the Sunbeam and described the meteorite as it flew over top of Woodstown High School.

"I was out on a walk with my son and then I looked over top of Woodstown High School and this huge meteor came hurdling through the sky," said McGuniess. "It was spectacular, like a huge fireworks display."

Lunsford called it a random event.
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Meteor

US: Giant fireball possibly a meteor sighted over East Coast

Carl Bagh
International Business Times
Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:49 UTC
A fireball that streaked through the skies over East Coast which was described by viewers as the size of a "Cesna plane" and one of "the biggest, brightest, and most colorful ever!", could have been a passing meteor.

FoxNews reported that the sighting occurred before 12:45 p.m ET. The sighting was reported over New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey.

The numerous reports of the fireball sighting started during the daytime, an unusual phenomenon as most of the meteor sightings are reported during the night.

Philly.com quoted NASA scientist Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight Center as stating that the object seen might have been 5 feet in diameter and would have weighed more than 5 metric tons, basing the measurements on the reports of the brightness of the object. Cooke also estimates that the object was traveling at a speed of 33,500 m.p.h.
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