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Comets & Asteroids - Summary for April 2016

During the month of April 2016, 2 new comets were discovered and cometary activity was detected for 1 previously discovered object (earlier designated as an asteroid). NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet โ€” after Pluto โ€” in the Kuiper Belt. Pioneer comet observer Elizabeth (Pat) Roemer died on April 09.

Moreover the discovery of the binary nature of asteroid (5674) Wolff and the images of a new satellite of asteroid (130) Elektra have been reported (see below for more about these news).

"Current comet magnitudes" & "Daily updated asteroid flybys" pages are available at the top of this blog (or just click on the underline text here).

The dates below refer to the date of issuance of CBET (Central Bureau Electronic Telegram) which reported the official news & designations.

Comet Discoveries

Apr 05 Discovery of P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS)
Apr 08 Discovery of P/2015 HG_16 (PANSTARRS)*

*G. V. Williams, Minor Planet Center, noted that the 2016 April 3 observations of this comet appeared to belong to a supposedly asteroidal object found a year ago by Pan-STARRS1 on 2015 Apr. 20, 21, and 24 (and then given the minor-planet designation 2015 HG_16 on MPS 603395 and 603396)
Comet P/2016 G1 PanSTARRS
© JPL NASA
Cometary activity detected

Apr 24 Cometary activity detected in 2015 WZ = C/2015 WZ (PANSTARRS)

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Rocky comet from Oort Cloud may provide clues about origin our Solar System

C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS)
© ESO/M. Kornmesser Artist's impression of the unique object C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS). Observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope, and the Canada France Hawai`i Telescope, show that this is the first object to be discovered that is on a long-period cometary orbit, but that has the characteristics of a pristine inner Solar System asteroid. It may provide important clues about how the Solar System formed.Because the object has spent most of its life away from the inner Solar System it suffered very few collisions, and its surface displays few or no craters. As it formed in the same region as the Earth did, it is mostly rocky, and therefore has only very limited cometary activity.
In a paper to be published today in the journal Science Advances, lead author Karen Meech of the University of Hawai'i's Institute for Astronomy and her colleagues conclude that C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) formed in the inner Solar System at the same time as the Earth itself, but was ejected at a very early stage.

Their observations indicate that it is an ancient rocky body, rather than a contemporary asteroid that strayed out. As such, it is one of the potential building blocks of the rocky planets, such as the Earth, that was expelled from the inner Solar System and preserved in the deep freeze of the Oort Cloud for billions of years.

Karen Meech explains the unexpected observation: "We already knew of many asteroids, but they have all been baked by billions of years near the Sun. This one is the first uncooked asteroid we could observe: it has been preserved in the best freezer there is."

C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) was originally identified by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope as a weakly active comet a little over twice as far from the Sun as the Earth. Its current long orbital period (around 860 years) suggests that its source is in the Oort Cloud, and it was nudged comparatively recently into an orbit that brings it closer to the Sun.

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Green meteor fireball streaks over Southern California skies

SOCAL Fireball
© YouTube Screen Capture
Southern California residents took to social media after a streak of green light was seen falling from the sky Tuesday night. A news photographer's dashcam captured the streak as it fell over the downtown Los Angeles area around 10 p.m.

Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer and director of Griffith Observatory, said it was not clear what the streak was exactly. Krupp said based on the description, the phenomenon is a fairly common occurrence where material from outer space heats up, like a meteor.

He said it also could be debris from a previous launch.

NBC4 viewers called into the station from San Bernardino County and beyond to report seeing the curious ball of light.


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Fireball seen over Birmingham, UK as Lyrids meteor shower arrives

Meteor shower
© AP Photo/Amel Emric

Bright streaks of light in the skies over Birmingham - will you be watching?


People in Birmingham are being treated to another dramatic display of shooting stars this week.

A meteor shower known as the Lyrids has arrived in the skies and will reach maximum intensity on the night of April 22/23.

Some shooting stars are expected to be visible each night from April 19 to 25.

There has already been one report of a 'fireball' over Birmingham. So will you be watching?


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Possible meteor spotted over Phoenix

Mysterious light
© KPHO/KTVKMysterious light was spotted in the sky Saturday night.
Phoenix - A light in the sky was spotted over the Valley on Saturday night and some are wondering what it was.

One of our viewers was able to record the sudden burst of light in the sky before it suddenly disappeared.

Some witnesses said it looked like a meteor falling from the sky while others thought it might have been a flare.

No official word on what the light was.

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Huge bright meteor fireball lights up sky over Hampshire, UK

 meteor fireball April 2016
Representative image

UK Meteor Network releases incredible pictures of a space object dramatically burning up in Earth's atmosphere


The UK Meteor Network has recorded incredible pictures of a "fireball" lighting up the skies over Hampshire.

Stargazers took advantage of the clear weather to snap the meteor from four different locations at about 2am last night.

The group's camera network recorded black and white images of the astonishing fireball, which would have made a dramatic sight on a dark night.

It shone with an "intense" light which may even been bright enough to cast a shadow.


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Bright green meteor fireball spotted over Kentucky, Illinois

Fireball - stock image
Stock image

Initial Meteor Reports


15APR2016 Tiffany Binkley Calvert City, Ky 2230 3-5 N-W green; moon, no I was driving and there were trees all around me, but it looked huge.

15APR2016 Bryan Schaumburg, IL, USA 22:16 PM Central Only seen the last second or two of the burn E-W travel Stopped South West of Roselle Rd, facing SW Greenish White in color, no sound high beam headlight brightness, too dark to see any fragmentation. 7It was already moving fairly slowly when I seen it, and fairly close to the ground, probably below 500 ft. Too short of viewing time for any better guesses or info.

15APR2016 Andrew Rukavina Mundelein, IL USA approx 2215 hour 15 seconds from east to west i was driving south multi colored and very large between the Moon and Venus - very bright and large not sure it was large...it was not a reflection. I pulled over which i never do except once when I saw an amazing display of northern lights it was the biggest thing i've ever seen....I was heading southbound at intersection of 137 and 60 in Mundelein, IL. I had just made the turn onto 60 from 137 and was headed south, so no light pollution to create any illusions... I'm a 59 year old attorney... was not drinking or anything else...it flamed out shortly before it went over the cornfield.

15APR2016 Steve Wilson Rock Island,IL,USA 22:16 in Central Time Zone 3-4 seconds Facing South, I saw a bright white light with a tinge of blue streak from East to West. As bright as Venus on a clear night I'm not sure of fragmentation, but it reminded me of a sparkler as opposed to a single, solid point of light.

15APR2016 Anna St.Charles, IL, USA 22:14 5-10? East to West traveling burst of light/looked like fire. I was driving South on Kautz Rd, near DuPage Airport. A bright ball, looked like fire; it had a tail of blue behind it. I'm not sure I don't think so, maybe behind it. It really looked like it was on fire. I wondered if it was a piece from a plane I was driving, so no photo, Sorry. I know it was something, not sure what. It was not high in the sky, it came across my vision field from left to right (from East to West) as I was driving South. It was cool, but also a little scary. I wondered if it was part of a plane since we were adjacent to DuPage Airport.

15APR2016 Victoriano Berwyn, IL - 2200 5-10secs East to West facing South, green xeon bright fragment trail, green fireball.


Comment: See: Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!


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72 new asteroids discovered near Earth, says NASA

Asteroid's Near Earth
© ESAArtist's impression of a Near-Earth Asteroid passing by Earth.
Of the more than 600,000 known asteroids in our Solar System, almost 10 000 are known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). These are asteroids or comets whose orbits bring them close to Earth's, and which could potentially collide with us at some point in the future. As such, monitoring these objects is a vital part of NASA's ongoing efforts in space. One such mission is NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), which has been active since December 2013.

And now, after two years of study, the information gathered by the mission is being released to the public. This included, most recently, NEOWISE's second year of survey data, which accounted for 72 previously unknown objects that orbit near to our planet. Of these, eight were classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), based on their size and how closely their orbits approach Earth.

Originally launched back in 2009 as the Wide-field Survey Explorer (WISE), the spacecraft relied on its infrared telescope to look for previously undetected star clusters and main belt asteroids. In February of 2011, the mission ended and the spacecraft was put into hibernation. As of December 2013, it was reactivated for the purpose of surveying Near-Earth Objects (i.e. comets and asteroids) for the remainder of its service life.

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Blue-green fireball disintegrates over Ukraine and Crimea

dashcam
What is this mysterious blue-green light crossing the sky of Kherson, Ukraine on April 11, 2016?

Two dashcam cameras recorded the amazing sky event at approximately 9:34 pm Moscow time, so 7:34 pm (UTC).

Has anybody witnessed it?



The Lyrid meteor shower hasn't started yet, but the sky is already producing awesome natural fireworks.

A blue-green fireball (turquoise in the video description) was filmed by two dashcam cameras flying in the sky of Crimea and Kherson on April 11, 2016 7:34 pm (UTC).

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Meteorite lands on farm in Nigeria

meteorite
© Vanguard
About 10:45 am on March 12, farmers and hunters in Tse-Agena area of Mbatyula in Takum local government area of Taraba State heard a loud sound from the sky and then an object, suspected to be meteorite stone, landed.

The landing of the white object created panic.

Women and children were asked to vacate the farms immediately while men went to pick the object.

Mr. Shausu Agena, a farmer and an eye witness, said the object landed on a big tree in an empty farm land.

Agena, while speaking to Sunday Vanguard inside his hut in the village, said heavy sound accompanied the falling of the object from the sky.

The clan head of Mbatyula, Zaki Bem Tom, also disclosed that the object landed with a sound that was heard in several communities.

"It was in the morning. People were in their various farms when the object landed within our community. It was very shocking because some of us that witnessed it descending from the sky thought it was the end of the world," Ben Tom said.

"It took our brave men to go closer to the object so that we will know what it was. Initially when the object landed, it was pure white in color. Human faces were reflecting on the object like mirror. Then it turned pure black.

"We have been living in fear because we don't know what will follow".