Strange Skies
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Info

Hints of a hidden structure detected at the edge of the Solar System

An artist's impression of the Kuiper Belt.
© ESO/M. KornmesserAn artist's impression of the Kuiper Belt.
If you travel far enough away from the Sun, the Solar System becomes a lot more populated.

Out past the orbit of Neptune lies the Kuiper Belt, a vast, ring-shaped field of icy rocks. This is where Pluto resides, and Arrokoth, and countless other small objects in the cold and the dark.

These are known as Kuiper Belt objects or KBOs, and astronomers have just found hints of an unexpected rise in their density, between 70 and 90 astronomical units from the Sun, separated by a large, practically empty gap between it and an inner population of KBOs closer to the Sun.

It seems, almost, like there are two Kuiper Belts, or at least two components - something nobody was expecting to find.

"If this is confirmed, it would be a major discovery," says planetary scientist Fumi Yoshida of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences and Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan.

"The primordial solar nebula was much larger than previously thought, and this may have implications for studying the planet formation process in our Solar System."

The objects in the Kuiper Belt are thought to represent the most pristine material our Solar System contains.

Info

Astronomers discover oldest known eclipse reference in 6,000-year-old Hindu text

A flowery passage in a 6,000-year-old Hindu text may be the earliest known reference to a solar eclipse, describing the sun as being "pierced" with darkness and gloom and proposing that evil beings had caused the sun's "magic arts to vanish."
Solar Eclipse
© Kirby Lee / Contributor via Getty ImagesThe moon passes in front of the sun during a solar eclipse as seen from the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on April 8, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio.
When astronomers combed through an ancient Hindu text known as the Rig Veda, they discovered that it referenced a total solar eclipse that occurred roughly 6,000 years ago — making it the oldest known mention of an eclipse.

The Rig Veda, a collection of sayings and hymns from various religious and philosophical schools, was compiled around 1500 B.C. Like nearly all religious texts, it mentions historical events. Most are contemporary to when it was written, but some stretch back much further. For example, various passages in the Rig Veda mention the location of the rising sun during the vernal equinox. One reference describes the vernal equinox as occurring in Orion, and another has it occurring in the Pleiades.

These descriptions allow astronomers to date those references, because as Earth spins on its axis, it wobbles like a spinning top, changing the relative position of important astronomical events. Currently, the vernal equinox is in the constellation Pisces. It was in Orion around 4500 B.C. and in the Pleiades around 2230 B.C., meaning the Rig Veda recorded some memories of events far earlier than its compilation.

Lightning

Red sprites captured on video in Arizona

mmmmmm

Fireball 2

Meteor fireball spotted in South Africa on August 25 [Update: Calculated total impact energy 0.092kt TNT]

meteor south africa patensie
© TsitsikamaboertjieA screenshot of the video doing the rounds on many groups was sent to Weather Guru by Tsitsikamaboertjie from Assagaaibosch.
Residents in the Mossel Bay area said they had heard two loud bang noises this morning, as did another resident in Great Brak.

Did you feel it? Did you hear it?

Unconfirmed reports have been doing the rounds of a possible meteorite or satellite that hit close to the Patensie area, causing people to think there might have been an earthquake.

According to Weather Guru, a Facebook page run by Garth Sampson, a former employee of the South African Weather Service, although it's unclear exactly what happened, it was definitely not an earthquake.

Residents in the Mossel Bay area said they had heard two loud bang noises this morning, as did another resident in Great Brak.

Weather Guru said: "My rainfall group in the Langkloof started reporting what sounded like an earthquake. Later reports came through of what seems to look like a meteor or satellite. It apparently hit in the Patensie area."

He said a video had been doing rounds on many groups and was sent to Weather Guru by Tsitsikamaboertjie from Assagaaibosch.


Comment: A SOTT reader comments:
"I heard it this morning it was around 9am local time, South Africa (it's about 200km away as the crow flies) - clear double boom. Incredible."
Update:

1) The Center for Near Earth Object Studies have listed this event with these data:
CNEOS data
© CNEOS
2) A screenshot of the map shows when zoomed in:
CNEOS South Africa fireball
3) The most energetic fireball this year was equivalent to 5.1 kt of TNT. In comparison this 0.092 kt is small potato, only slightly above the minimum for entering the list, 0.073 kt.

4) Some comments on X.com where the video has been shared, have suggested that the fireball is not natural, but the re-entering of human made object. However the speed of the observed object on entry, 20.1 km excludes this option. The Wiki for Atmospheric entry:
Reentry has been achieved with speeds ranging from 7.8 km/s for low Earth orbit to around 12.5 km/s for the Stardust probe.[1]
5) For other fireballs this year that were filmed and which entered the CNEOS list, see:


Sun

Mysterious phenomenon causes 7 'suns' to appear in the sky in China on August 18

Stargazers in China were taken aback recently after spotting what appeared to be seven suns in the sky.
Stargazers in China were taken aback recently after spotting what appeared to be seven suns in the sky.
Call these the magnificent seven.

Stargazers in China were taken aback after spotting what appeared to be seven suns as seen in a recent viral video.

In the mind-bending footage, which was shot earlier this month by a woman in a Chengdu hospital, the solar septet graces the sky like the view on some bizarro planet.

The seven suns are lined up next to each other and boast varying intensities.

The videographer, identified as Ms. Wang, said that viewers were transfixed by the trippy vista, which lasted around a minute and was visible from multiple angles, Jam Press reported.


Cassiopaea

Solar flare brings Northern Lights to parts of the US

Images of the aurora as seen from New York
Images of the aurora as seen from New York
A strong geomagnetic storm was observed Monday bringing the change for some parts of the US to see the Northern Lights.

Even Sunday night, the Northern Lights were seen in parts of Wisconsin and Illinois.

Monday night, parts of the US including Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana could see the aurora borealis in the night sky. And places as far south as Northern Virginia, Southern Illinois, Nebraska, Wyoming and Northern Oregon could see the lights low on the horizon.

So if you're in the Western Carolinas, you'll have to hop in the car and drive at a chance to see them Monday night. the closest places would be West Virginia, Cincinnati, Ohio or far Northern Virginia.


Cassiopaea

Northern lights illuminate skies as far south as Cornwall, UK

Star gazers were treated to the Northern lights along with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, such as this Holyhead, Anglesey
Star gazers were treated to the Northern lights along with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, such as this Holyhead, Anglesey
Stunning displays of the Northern lights have been seen right across the UK, coinciding for the second night in a row with the Perseid meteor shower.

Skies as far south as Cornwall were lit up by the auroral display.

The Northern lights - or aurora borealis - has made regular appearances in the UK over the last few months but it takes a particularly strong geomagnetic storm for it to be visible in southern England.

With enhanced solar activity continuing, there will be more chances to see the aurora over the coming months.


Question

Observations detect a nearby hypervelocity stellar/substellar object

Brown Dwarf Signature
© Burgasser et al., 2024.Forward modeling of the Keck/NIRES spectrum of J1249+3621 in the 1.10–1.19 µm (left), and 1.235–1.28 µm (right) spectral regions, both of which contain stellar and telluric absorption features.
Using the Keck II telescope, astronomers have detected an object that may be a brown dwarf or a low-mass star, exhibiting a very high radial velocity. The object, designated CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 is located some 400 light years away. The finding was reported July 11 on the pre-print server arXiv.

Brown dwarfs (BDs) are intermediate objects between planets and stars, occupying the mass range between 13 and 80 Jupiter masses (0.012 and 0.076 solar masses). They form like stars but are not sufficiently massive to sustain hydrogen fusion in their cores.

Now, a team of astronomers led by Adam Burgasser of the University of California San Diego reports the detection of a new object at the brown dwarf/star mass boundary.

Using the Near-Infrared Echellette Spectrometer (NIRES) at the Keck II telescope, they investigated CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 (or CWISE J1249+3621 for short) — a high proper motion faint red source first identified by citizen scientists. As a result, it turned out that the source is a rare type of hypervelocity subdwarf.

"We report the discovery of a high velocity, very low-mass star or brown dwarf whose kinematics suggest it is unbound to the Milky Way. (...) The fastest 'hypervelocity' stars are unbound to the Milky Way's gravitational potential and may even have extragalactic origins," the researchers explained.

Cassiopaea

Best of the Web: Unexpected X-shaped structures in Earth's upper atmosphere seen by NASA leaves scientists baffled

x c plasma earth
© NASA’s Scientific Visualization StudioThis visualization shows C-shaped and reverse-C-shaped plasma bubbles appearing close together in the ionosphere on Oct. 12, 2020, and Dec. 26, 2021, as observed by NASA's GOLD mission.NASA's GOLD mission found unexpected X- and C-shaped structures in the plasma of Earth's ionosphere. Researchers have likened our upper atmosphere to "alphabet soup.".
A NASA satellite has spotted unexpected X- and C-shaped structures in Earth's ionosphere, the layer of electrified gas in the planet's atmosphere that allows radio signals to travel over long distances.

The ionosphere is an electrified region of Earth's atmosphere that exists because radiation from the sun strikes the atmosphere. Its density increases during the day as its molecules become electrically charged. That's because sunlight causes electrons to break off of atoms and molecules, creating plasma that enables radio signals to travel over long distances. The ionosphere's density then falls at night — and that's where GOLD comes in.

NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission is a geostationary satellite that has been measuring densities and temperatures in Earth's ionosphere since its launch in October 2018. From its geostationary orbit above the western hemisphere, GOLD was recently studying two dense crests of particles in the ionosphere, located north and south of the equator. As night falls, low-density bubbles appear within these crests that can interfere with radio and GPS signals. However, it's not just the wax and wane of sunshine that affects the ionosphere — the atmospheric layer is also sensitive to solar storms and huge volcanic eruptions, after which the crests can merge to form an X shape.

Comment: There appears to be an increase in rare, and even previously unknown, phenomena occurring in and around Earth: And check out SOTT radio's: See also:



Nebula

New Type Ia supernova discovered

Full color image of SN 2023adsy
© Pierel et al., 2024Full color image of SN 2023adsy.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) have discovered a new supernova. Designated SN 2023adsy, the newfound stellar explosion is the most distant Type Ia supernova so far detected. The finding was detailed in a research paper published June 7 on the pre-print server arXiv.

Supernovae (SNe) are powerful and luminous stellar explosions. They are important for the scientific community as they offer essential clues into the evolution of stars and galaxies. In general, SNe are divided into two groups based on their atomic spectra: Type I (no hydrogen in their spectra) and Type II (showcasing hydrogen spectral lines).

Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) are found in binary systems in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. Stellar explosions of this type are important for the scientific community, as they offer essential clues into the evolution of stars and galaxies.

SN 2023adsy was initially identified in 2023 as a transient object in the galaxy JADES-GS+53.13485−27.82088, at a redshift of 2.9. Follow-up observations of SN 2023adsy suggested that it may be a supernova of Type Ia.

Now, a new study conducted by a team of astronomers led by STScI's Justin R. Pierel confirms the previous assumptions.