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)

Residents of Portugal spotted a bright fiery object streaking across the sky over the country. Based on reports by eyewitnesses, it seems a small asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere and turned into a meteor fireball over Portugal.

Details of the incident were reported by the American Meteor Society (AMS). According to the organization, the fireball incident was spotted by eyewitnesses from the states of Lisboa and Setubal.

According to the eyewitness reports, the fireball event occurred on April 28 at 4:47 a.m. UT or around 12:47 a.m. EDT. The reports indicated that the fireball had a magnitude or general brightness that ranged from -6 to -17, which means it was much brighter than the planet Venus when viewed from Earth.

The phenomenon occurred when a rock from an asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere and could be seen from Andalucia, Extremadura and Castilla la-Mancha.

Detectors from the SMART project, part of the astronomical observatories in Huelva, Sevilla and La Hita (Toledo) have registered the passage of a fireball over Spain at 82,000 kilometres per hour, which has been seen from Andalucia, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha .

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)

People across Hereford were awoken by a loud bang in the early hours of this morning.

Described as 'a huge boom', and 'like a cannon', the sudden noise was heard all over the city, from Kings Acre Road to Hampton Dene, at around 2.45am.

Many have taken to social media to question what they heard, with suggestions ranging from fireworks to thunder.

Natalie in Belmont said: "It wasn't a gun shot, it was a deep bang, so much so that the first thing I did was look at the news."

Catherine Street resident Robin Hart said: "This is at least the second time we have been woken by this bang.

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.

A viewer of WJHG's shared a video from his security camera of a meteor shooting over the sky of Panama City Beach Thursday night.

The meteor may have been a precursor to the upcoming Eta Aquariid Meteor Showers which peaks during the early morning hours of May 4, 5, and 6. You can read more about that meteor shower at the link to the right.

If you happened to be looking skyward over Metro Vancouver on Thursday afternoon, you may have been lucky enough to catch a shooting star so bright it was visible in broad daylight.

Motorist Al Dinis caught the bright flash on his dashcam as he was eastbound on Marine Way at North Fraser Way in Burnaby, around 1:30 p.m.

"This is the first time I've seen this, maybe I should play the 6/49 [lottery]," Dinis told Global News.

Dinis most likely saw a meteor — a lump of space rock that's been captured by earth's gravitational force, says Rachel Wang, an astronomer at Vancouver's HR MacMillan Space Centre.

"When they enter Earth's atmosphere and then they start burning up and if they become really bright they're fireballs, or normally we call them shooting stars," she said.

A fireball event caused by a meteor illuminated the skies of Arizona recently. According to a couple of eyewitness reports, the falling meteor may have broken apart in the sky and produced visible signs of fragmentation.

The fireball incident was confirmed by the American Meteor Society (AMS). A total of 11 eyewitness reports were filed through its website.

Based on the data compiled by the AMS, the fireball event happened on April 25 at around 11:00 p.m. UT or around 7:00 p.m. EDT. The event was mainly spotted from various cities in Arizona.

Based on the eyewitness reports, the fireball produced by the falling meteor had a brightness or magnitude that ranged from -5 to -19, making it brighter than the planet Venus when viewed from Earth. As noted by the eyewitnesses, the fireball appeared for about 1.5 to 3.5 seconds long.

Many people have reported spotting a fireball in the sky above parts of Washington on Thursday.

According to the American Meteor Society, reports came in of a fireball came in from Twisp, Moses Lake, Omak and Richland.

The Okanogan County Sheriff's Office also received several reports of a loud explosion or sonic boom-type noise being heard or felt across the county.

Several people in the Methow Valley reported seeing a green ball with a fire tale, possibly a meteor, flying over Twisp, according to the Sheriff's Office.