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Tue, 15 Jun 2021
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Comets

Comet 2

New Comet P/2019 LM4 (Palomar)

Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blogspot
Fri, 15 May 2020 18:24 UTC
CBET 4775 & MPEC 2020-J68, issued on 2020, May 14, announce that an apparently asteroidal object discovered on images taken at Palomar on 2019 June 4 and 7 with the 1.2-m f/2.4 Schmidt telescope (and given the minor-planet designation 2019 LM_4 when published on MPS 1001527, along with observations made elsewhere on June 8) has been re-discovered showing cometary appearance at two other observatories. The new comet has been designated P/2019 LM4 (Palomar).

According to the CBET 4775: B. Li reported the discovery by G. Zhaori of an extended object on images taken by L. F. Hu with the 1.04-m f/1.8 Schmidt telescope at the XuYi Station of Purple Mountain Observatory on May 11 UT in the course of the "Chinese Near Earth Object Survey" (discovery observations tabulated below). Before the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage, it wasdiscovered independently in images obtained with the Pan-STARRS1 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala on May 12, with Y. Ramanjooloo (University of Hawaii) reporting that the full-width-at-half-maximum size was 3".6 compared to 1".2 for nearby stars. Observations were subsequently identified at the Minor Planet of yet another apparent independent discovery of the comet from 2020 May 9.5 at mag 16.4-17.0 with a 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial- Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program, though it appears that the ATLAS team did not report it as a comet.

Comet P/2019 LM4Palomar
© Remanzacco Blogspot
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Info

New evidence reveals that giant meteorite impacts formed parts of the Moon's crust


Royal Ontario Museum
Mon, 11 May 2020 19:50 UTC
Moon Impact
© Daniel D. Durda/FIAAA
An artist’s impression of how the early Moon was reshaped by an intense period of bombardment. A new study reveals that large impacts could have produced the range of lunar rocks sampled by the Apollo missions over 4.3 billion years ago.
Toronto, Canada - New research published today in the journal Nature Astronomy reveals a type of destructive event most often associated with disaster movies and dinosaur extinction may have also contributed to the formation of the Moon's surface.

A group of international scientists led by the Royal Ontario Museum has discovered that the formation of ancient rocks on the Moon may be directly linked to large-scale meteorite impacts.

The scientists conducted new research of a unique rock collected by NASA astronauts during the 1972 Apollo 17 mission to the Moon. They found it contains mineralogical evidence that it formed at incredibly high temperatures (in excess of 2300 °C/ 4300 °F) that can only be achieved by the melting of the outer layer of a planet in a large impact event. In the rock, the researchers discovered the former presence of cubic zirconia, a mineral phase often used as a substitute for diamond in jewellery.

The phase would only form in rocks heated to above 2300 °C, and though it has since reverted to a more stable phase (the mineral known as baddeleyite), the crystal retains distinctive evidence of a high-temperature structure. An interactive image of the complex crystal used in the study can be seen here using the .
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Comet 2

New Comet C/2020 J1 (SONEAR)

Ernesto Guido & Adriano Valvasori
Remanzacco Blogspot
Thu, 07 May 2020 19:20 UTC
CBET 4769 & MPEC 2020-J37, issued on 2020, May 04, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~17) on images taken with a 0.28-m f/2.2 astrograph of the "Southern Observatory for Near Earth Research" (SONEAR) at Oliveira, Brazil, on May 1 . The new comet has been designated C/2020 J1 (SONEAR).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 8 unfiltered exposures, 90 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, May 04.3 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 5" in diameter.

Our confirmation image (click here for a bigger version)
Comet C/2020 J1 SONEAR
© Remanzacco Blogspot
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Comet 2

New Comet C/2020 H6 (ATLAS)

Ernesto Guido & Adriano Valvasori
Remanzacco Blogspot
Tue, 05 May 2020 19:55 UTC
CBET 4768 & MPEC 2020-J23, issued on 2020, May 03, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~18.5) on individual images from taken on Apr. 22 UT with a 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program. The new comet has been designated C/2020 H6 (ATLAS).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 10 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 28.4 from Q62 (iTelescope network) through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + focal reducer, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 10" in diameter slightly elongated toward PA 330.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)
C/2020 H6 ATLAS
© Remanzacco Blogspot
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Info

Infectious disease modeling study casts doubt on the Justinianic Plague's impact


SESYNC
Fri, 01 May 2020 19:48 UTC
Justinianic Plague’s Impact
© SESYNC
Annapolis, MD — Many have claimed the Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750 CE) killed half of the population of Roman Empire. Now, historical research and mathematical modeling challenge the death rate and severity of this first plague pandemic.

Researchers Lauren White, PhD and Lee Mordechai, PhD, of the University of Maryland's National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, examined the impacts of the Justinianic Plague with mathematical modeling. Using modern plague research as their basis, the two developed novel mathematical models to re-examine primary sources from the time of the Justinianic Plague outbreak. From the modeling, they found that it was unlikely that any transmission route of the plague would have had both the mortality rate and duration described in the primary sources. Their findings appear in a paper titled "Modeling the Justinianic Plague: Comparing hypothesized transmission routes" in PLOS ONE.

"This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a robust mathematical modeling approach has been used to investigate the Justinianic Plague," said lead author Lauren White, PhD, a quantitative disease ecologist and postdoctoral fellow at SESYNC. "Given that there is very little quantitative information in the primary sources for the Justinianic Plague, this was an exciting opportunity to think creatively about how we could combine present-day knowledge of plague's etiology with descriptions from the historical texts."

White and Mordechai focused their efforts on the city of Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire, which had a comparatively well-described outbreak in 542 CE. Some primary sources claim plague killed up to 300,000 people in the city, which had a population of some 500,000 people at the time. Other sources suggest the plague killed half the empire's population. Until recently, many scholars accepted this image of mass death. By comparing bubonic, pneumonic, and combined transmission routes, the authors showed that no single transmission route precisely mimicked the outbreak dynamics described in these primary sources.
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Fireball 4

Burning object recorded in New Zealand sky likely a meteor

Hugh Collins
Otago Daily Times
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 21:29 UTC
Meteor over the Remarkables
© Matthew Willcox
Queenstown resident Matt Wilcox was lucky enough to witness what was probably a meteor on Wednesday evening.
A Queenstown man has captured some mysterious footage above the Remarkables mountain range.

Matt Wilcox was out for a walk when he spotted something odd.

"[It] was probably only visible for around a minute or so. Then it went behind the Remarkables and out of sight."

Southland Astronomical Society astronomer Mike Bailey had examined the footage and said he believed it was not a plane as it was moving too fast.

"It also looks dirty, aircraft contrails would normally be white," he added.
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Info

Prof. Wickramasinghe and team share potential origin and predict progression of COVID-19


EIN Press Wire
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 00:38 UTC
Map of Coronavirus spread
© EIN PressWire
Map of Coronavirus spread.
Scientific researchers released their findings about the source and predicted direction of the coronavirus and proposed critical measures for the pandemic.

London, UK, — Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his team of researchers believe that the novel coronavirus arrived on meteorites in Oct 2019 and instantaneously infected hundreds of thousands of people through the atmosphere, as meteorites were reported in China, Northern Italy, Michigan in October 2019. This is somewhat at odds with the mainstream assertion that it originated in bats in WUHAN, China. Given this disparity, they went to great lengths to produce a timely research paper to back up their argument.

In the research paper released on COVID-19, Professor Wickramasinghe puts forward several thought-provoking arguments. Notably that: "our informed view is that many people were almost simultaneously infected and naturally inoculated with the same COVID-19 virus strain."
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Comet 2

New Comet C/2020 H2 (Pruyne)

Ernesto Guido, Marco Rocchetto & Adriano Valvasori
Remanzacco Blogspot
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 19:31 UTC
CBET 4761 & MPEC 2020-H220, issued on 2020, April 28, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~16.5) by Theodore A. Pruyne on four 30-s CCD exposures taken with the Catalina Sky Survey's 0.68-m Schmidt telescope. The new comet has been designated C/2020 H2 (PRUYNE).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 55 unfiltered exposures, 10 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 27.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a diffuse coma about 1' arcmin in diameter.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)
C/2020 H2 PRUYNE
© Remanzacco Blogspot
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Fireball 5

Huge meteor fireball observed over Brazil


archyworldys.com
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 21:40 UTC
Meteor over Brazil
© Screen Capture
A large meteorite crossed the Brazilian night sky and became extinct at an altitude of 67 kilometers, just one kilometer above the cities of Nova Petrópolis, Canela and Gramado, in the south of the neighboring country.


Comment: 'Became extinct'?! What a strange turn of phrase, given what meteors will likely do to us some day...


This was reported this Saturday by the Heller and Jung Space Observatory, which recorded last Thursday how the bolide (a type of meteorite with a very intense brightness) fell in the Hortensias region, in a sect of the mountain ranges of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
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Info

19 'Centaurs' beyond Jupiter may be from another star system

Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Gizmodo Australia
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 22:40 UTC
Centaur Chariklo
© Illustration: ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger/SkySurvey Org
Artist’s impression of the Centaur Chariklo.
Astronomers think they've found an entire population of asteroids originating from outside our solar system, according to a new paper.

The objects at the centre of this investigation aren't new discoveries. Called the Centaurs, they're mysterious asteroids that orbit in the neighbourhood of Jupiter and beyond. These objects take highly inclined orbits relative to the plane of the rest of the planets, and in at least one case, orbit the "wrong" way relative to the rest of the solar system's objects. By playing the laws of physics in reverse, scientists Fathi Namouni at the Université Côte d'Azur in France and Helena Morais at UNESP in Brazil found that 19 of these objects likely originated around another star.

Astronomers first spotted the object (514107) 2015 BZ509, now called Ka'epaoka'awela, in the Pan-STARRS survey in 2015. Analysis of this asteroid revealed something shocking: It was orbiting the wrong way around the solar system in a stable yet eccentric orbit near Jupiter, on a tilt relative to the rest of the planets.

Morais and Namouni studied that object's orbit, built a simulation, and played in reverse the behaviour of a million imaginary objects that fit Ka'epaoka'awela's orbital parameters, each with slightly different properties within the margin of error of the original observations. Most of the simulated objects either crashed into the Sun or other planets or were ejected from the solar system, but both of these cases failed to produce sensical origin stories for the asteroids once they turned the arrow of time back forward, Namouni explained. The ones that did obey the laws of physics were stable since the founding of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. The researchers interpreted their observations as the objects having been captured from elsewhere.
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