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April 2017: The month of 4 visible comets - Comet PanSTARRS (C/2015 ER61) brightens overnight

Bob King
Sky & Telescope
Wed, 05 Apr 2017 23:34 UTC
C/2015 ER61
© José J. Chambó
Look at the difference in appearance of comet PanSTARRS (C/2015 ER61) pre-outburst (left) on April 1st and in outburst on April 4th.
2017 may well go down as the year of the binocular comet. Three have been easy catches, and it's only the start of April: 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak and Lovejoy (C/2017 E4). Now there's a fourth. Overnight, PanSTARRS (C/2015 ER61) joined the club.

Discovered two years ago on March 15th by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on the summit of Haleakalā, it was a faint 21st-magnitude midge. But how it's bloomed! By late March and the start of April, the comet had brightened to around magnitude +8.5 while puttering across Sagittarius and Capricornus low in the southern sky before dawn.
PanSTARRS (C/2015 ER61)
© Gerald Rhemann
This April 5th photo catches the comet in the full glory of its outburst.
Then it happened. On April 4th, comet observer Juan José González Suárez reported a possible outburst to magnitude +7.4. This was confirmed, both visually and photographically, by several observers including myself early this morning. It's now as bright as magnitude +6.5, a leap of two magnitudes practically overnight! Although the specific cause of the outburst isn't known, it's likely that some sort of outgassing or disruption on the comet's surface exposed fresh ice to sunlight, initiating a new wave of vaporization.

Comment:

Green comet flyby on April 1st

Another comet brightens and now visible in the Northern hemisphere

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Fireball 2

Close pass by asteroid 2017 GM

Gianluca Masi
EarthSky Org
Tue, 04 Apr 2017 20:03 UTC
Asteroid 2017 GM is one of the 10 closest asteroids known so far to sweep past Earth, and then keep going. At its closest, it was less than 1/20th of the moon's mean distance.
Asteroid 2017 GM
© EarthSky Org
Image of asteroid 2017 GM, captured this morning (April 4, 2017), while the asteroid was approaching its closest point to Earth. Taken by Gianluca Masi and Michael Schwartz, as part of a cooperation between Tenagra Observatories, Ltd., in Arizona and the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy.
The near-Earth asteroid 2017 GM was discovered by the Mt. Lemmon Survey in Arizona (USA) on April 3, 2017, and, just a few hours later - midday April 4 in Europe, early in the day April 4 for the Americas - it safely came as close as within 10,000 miles of Earth (16,000 km, about 0.04 lunar distances). Our observations helped in determining its orbit.

We captured 2017 GM while it was safely approaching us. For this, we remotely used a telescope in Arizona, made available to the Virtual Telescope by Tenagra Observatories, Ltd. Above is an image coming from a single 30-seconds exposure, unfiltered, taken with the 16?-f/3.75 Tenagra III ("Pearl") unit. The robotic mount tracked the fast apparent motion (150?/minute) of the asteroid, so stars are trailing. The asteroid is perfectly tracked: it is the sharp dot in the center, marked by two red lines.
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Fireball 2

Social media lights up over meteor fireball in the night sky over Florida

Grady Trimble
wtsp.com
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 19:09 UTC
There were many reports of the fireball reported to the American Meteor Society webpage.
© American Meteor Society
There were many reports of the fireball reported to the American Meteor Society webpage.
There are social media reports of a fireball over Tampa around 3 a.m. early Sunday morning.

A report on the American Meteor Society webpage confirms a similar possible sighting. According to Antonio Paris, an astronomer at MOSI, seeing meteors flying across the sky isn't unusual.

If you look up at the night sky, Paris said you could see a meteor almost every night if it's clear. That's not as common in cities like Tampa. Paris said you'll have better luck in rural areas and national parks where there's less light pollution.
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Galaxy

Stunning interactive graphic reveals the path of every major meteor shower

Cheyenne MacDonald
Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 14:39 UTC
Interactive meteor graphic
© www.ianww.com
Every year, thousands of meteoroids crash into Earth's atmosphere, creating stunning displays of 'shooting stars' that can be seen from the surface below.

In a remarkable interactive website, researchers have plotted all the major meteor streams that orbit the sun, revealing the paths of those which give rise to meteor showers on Earth.

The visualization, created by engineer Ian Webster, allows users to view each stream in relation to our entire solar system or even watch from the perspective of Earth, showing the breathtaking magnitude of the space pebbles that bombard our planet.

The interactive site shows 12 different meteor showers that occur throughout the year, from the upcoming Lyrids in April to the Ursids in December. Or, you can choose to view every meteor shower at once.

The data comes from measurements by NASA's CAMS video camera surveillance network and calculations by meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center.
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Info

Deranged Dating: Cometary Carbon-14


Malaga Bay
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 05:09 UTC
Cometary Carbon-14
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/W. Reach (SSC/Caltech)
Earth Scientists apparently accept radiocarbon dating as the gospel truth.

However, if the Settled Science that supports radiocarbon dating is really just one huge homogenised hodgepodge then acquiescent Earth Scientists are simply being misdirected and left to flounder in the dark.
This would go some way towards explaining why so many Earth Scientists are gainfully employed chasing their tails.

Thus, the mainstream gained the scientific kudos associated with Radiocarbon Dating whilst [simultaneously] wrestling control of the Settled Science away from Willard Libby by imposing a calibration curve that was approved by the mainstream.

Sadly, this hybrid, high jacked and half-baked Settled Science has now degenerated into a recursive [incestuous] feedback loop where dendrochronology calibrates Radiocarbon Dating which, in its turn, is used to calibrate dendrochronology.

See: Carbon 14 - Libby's Ring
Carbon Dating
© Malaga Bay
Amongst the many issues associated with the Settled Science of radiocarbon dating there is the curious case of Catastrophic Cometary Carbon-14.

Arguably, the burning up of a cometary debris train in the Earth's atmosphere would significantly enhance the level of atmospheric Carbon-14.
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Fireball

Meteor fireball reported streaking across British Columbia; second in 2 weeks

Susan Lazaruk
Vancouver Sun
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 18:54 UTC
A NASA image of a fireball.



A NASA image of a fireball.
For the second time in two weeks, a large fireball was seen streaking across the sky in B.C., and astronomers say it's the best time of the year to see large, bright meteors.

"The springtime is considered fireball season; we actually call it that," said Derek Kief, an astronomer at the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre. "In the early spring, people tend to see more fireballs than at any other time of the year. They're random and inconsistent and once a month you'll get a very good one."

At least five people, including two in British Columbia, considered the fireball they saw on Thursday around 10 p.m. remarkable enough that they reported it to the American Meteor Society's "report a fireball" website, where it was deemed an "event."

They reported the bright sparking ball of fire flared for one to two seconds.

"Remarkable sight!" Kim D. on Mayne Island wrote on the site. "Saw sparks."
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Fireball

Asteroid discovered March 25th came closer to the Earth than the moon last night

Daisy Dunne
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 16:38 UTC
asteroid and earth

An asteroid as big as a bus came closer to Earth than the moon last night. The object, dubbed 2017 FJ101, zoomed passed within 202,000 miles (325,087 km) of our planet
An asteroid as big as a bus came closer to Earth than the moon last night. The object, dubbed 2017 FJ101, zoomed passed within 202,000 miles (325,087 km) of our planet. But the near-Earth asteroid posed no threat to our planet or the moon, scientists said.

The asteroid, which is 26ft (eight metres) wide, was first spotted by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope located on the summit of the Haleakalā volcano on Maui, Hawaii on March 25.

On average, the moon orbits around 238,855 miles (384,400km) away from our planet. But the bus-sized object came around 36,8555 miles closer to the Earth than the moon last night.
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Black Magic

Indian man charged with witchcraft in Canada


RT
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 14:46 UTC
Murali Muthyalu
© torontopolice.on.ca
Murali Muthyalu
A man has been charged with witchcraft, extortion and fraud in Toronto, Canada, after he charged $101,000 to remove an "evil spirit."

'Master Raghav', real name Murali Muthyalu, from India, was arrested on Wednesday and appeared in court Thursday after a man he scammed reported him to the police.

Muthyalu advertised his services as a psychic and astrologer at the Sri Gayatri Astrological Center in Toronto, promising that he "removes black magic evil spirit" and has a 100 percent guarantee of success.

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Comet 2

Another comet brightens and now visible in the Northern hemisphere

Bob King
Sky & Telescope
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 23:54 UTC

Terry Lovejoy's new comet has gone from faint to bright in just three weeks and is now a tempting binocular target at dawn.

Comet C/2017 E4 Lovejoy
© Terry Lovejoy
Comet C/2017 E4 Lovejoy was discovered on March 9th by Australian amateur Terry Lovejoy. It's his 6th discovery and seen here on March 25th.
Who doesn't love a comet that exceeds expectations? That's exactly what's happening with Terry Lovejoy's latest discovery, C/2017 E4 Lovejoy.

Discovered on March 10th at magnitude +12, early observations suggested a peak magnitude of +9 in mid-April, assuming it didn't crumble apart en route to an April 23rd perihelion.

Forget that. This fuzzball's already at magnitude +7 - 7.5 and a snap to see in 50-mm binoculars.

I know because I got up Wednesday morning (March 29th) shortly before the start of dawn, pointed my 10×50 glass just below the figure of Equuleus, the Little Horse, and saw a small, dense ball of glowing fuzz without even trying.

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak — now circumpolar in Ursa Major — shines at a similar brightness, but it's larger and less condensed and therefore not as easy to see as Lovejoy.
Comet Lovejoy
© Bob King
Comet Lovejoy captured with a 135-mm telephoto lens (f/2.8, ISO 2500, 10-second exposure) on Wednesday morning March 29th, when it entered the small constellation Equuleus. Though small at this focal length, the comet's blue-green color is a dead giveaway.
A little more than a week ago, Comet Lovejoy glowed at magnitude +10 - 11; a few days ago it was at +9. Given its meteoric rise in brightness, observers are anticipating the comet to crest to magnitude +6 around perihelion as it describes a roller coaster arc across Pegasus and Andromeda. Twice it passes bright deep-sky objects: the bright globular cluster M15 on April 1st and the Andromeda Galaxy on April 20 - 22. Another easy time to spot it will be on April 8 - 9 alongside β Pegasi in the northwest corner of the Great Square.
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Comet 2

Green comet flyby on April 1st


Space Weather
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 18:31 UTC
Green comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak is flying over Earth's North Pole this week where sky watchers can find it all night long not far from the bowl of the Big Dipper. At closest approach on April 1st it will be just 21 million km from Earth--an easy target for backyard telescopes and almost visible to the naked eye. Amateur astronomer Yasushi Aoshima sends this picture of the approaching comet from Fukushima, Japan:
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak
© Yasushi Aoshima
Taken by Yasushi Aoshima on March 22, 2017 @ Fukushima, Japan.
"On March 22nd I caught 41P 'eating' M108, the Surfboard Galaxy," says Aoshima. "The comet's green atmosphere appeared to swallow the distant spiral galaxy as it exited Ursa Major."
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