Wonderful news! Asteroid 2004 BL86, which passed closest to Earth today at a distance of 750,000 miles (1.2 million km), has a companion moon. Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, have released the first radar images of the asteroid which show the tiny object in orbit about the main body.

While these are the first images of it, the "signature" of the satellite was seen in light curve data reported earlier by Joseph Pollock (Appalachian State University, North Carolina) and Petr Prave (Ondrejov Observatory, Czech Republic) according to Lance Bennerwho works with the radar team at Goldstone.

2004 BL86 measures about 1,100 feet (325 meters) across while its moon is approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across. The asteroid made its closest approach today (Jan. 26th) at 10:19 a.m. (CST), however it will peak in brightness this evening around 10 p.m. (4:00 UT) at magnitude +9.0. Unlike some flybys, 2004 BL86 will remain within a few tenths of a magnitude of peak brightness from 6 p.m. tonight (CST) through early tomorrow morning, so don't miss the chance to see it in your telescope.

Webster - A strange fireball spotted flying slowly over the Houston area raised a lot of questions after images and videos started popping up on social media. They were posted by a Webster man named Jordan Sterling. Sterling is used to the view from his balcony but he rarely see's anything but signs and wires. "I'm always looking in the sky to try to catch something out of the ordinary," Sterling explained. Early Sunday evening that changed. "I look up in the sky and just right there in the sky," Sterling says pointing to the horizon, "is a huge fireball with a giant fire tail on it just streaking across the sky!" He grabbed his camera then rolled for three minutes as the object crawled across the horizon. "At first I thought it was a meteor but it was moving way too slow. Meteors usually go a lot faster."

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's actually a fireball tearing across the night sky yesterday evening. This amazing photo was captured by Graham Harkness (You can view his great portfolio here) last night at about 10.30pm. Taking photos of the night sky in Dalkey, Harkness managed to capture this rare sight.

So what exactly is it?

Astronomy Ireland told TheJournal.ie, that Harkness managed to capture a rare photograph of a meteor burning up in the earth's atmosphere.

"It's definitely a fireball, it's difficult to catch a photo of it, he was very fortuitous," said David Moore of Astronomy Ireland.

By looking at sky maps, Moore estimated that the fireball in the photo is about 100 kilometres off the ground.

"It's towards the north east, unfortunately it wouldn't have made land fall in Ireland. Most likely, the drop zone could have been on the west coast of Britain, close to the border with Scotland. I would be surprised if there weren't reports on the west coast of Britain about it as it is rather bright," said Moore.

Knoxville - We had several calls to the WATE 6 On Your Side newsroom about a fireball spotted. Dr. Bill Cook with the Meteroid Environments Office said a meteor entered Earth's atmosphere Saturday night over Mississippi.

At 8:57 PM, an object about six inches in diameter and weighting fifteen pounds entered Earth's atmosphere southwest of Tupelo, Mississippi.

At its brightest, the fireball was as bright as the first quarter Moon. It was detected by three NASA meteor cameras at an altitude of 45 miles.

The meteor moved northeast at 54,000 miles per hour, finally burning up at an altitude of 15 miles.

It'll be closer than any known asteroid this large until 2027. At its closest, telescopes and binoculars will show it moving rapidly in front of the stars.
An asteroid, called 2004 BL86 by astronomers, will sweep safely past Earth on January 26, 2015. The flyby is notable because 2004 BL86 will be the closest of any known space rock this large until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies past Earth in 2027. This asteroid is estimated from its reflected brightness to be about 500 meters in diameter (about a third of a mile, or 0.5 km). At the time of its closest approach - January 26, 2015 at 16:20 UTC, or 10:20 a.m. CST - the asteroid will be approximately 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Earth, or about three times the moon's distance.

Don Yeomans, who on January 9 retired as manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office after 16 years in the position, said:

Monday, January 26 will be the closest asteroid 2004 BL86 will get to Earth for at least the next 200 years. And while it poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more.

The asteroid is expected to be observable to amateur astronomers with small telescopes and strong binoculars beginning in the evening of January 26 and into the morning of January 27. Its peak brightness will be about magnitude 8.8, meaning it will not be bright enough to view with the unaided eye. The asteroid will be at its most visible over Europe, Africa, and North and South America. Australians and east Asians will have to look a few hours earlier, when the asteroid isn't as bright. The asteroid will be moving about four degrees every hour through the course of the night. That's fast, faster than the moon moves (about half a degree per hour). The asteroid will be whizzing past in front of the constellations Hydra, Cancer, and Leo.

The surface of Mars is a well worn place in the Solar System, heavily pounded by countless meteor impacts. And some of these craters are hundreds of millions of years old. So it's unusual for there to be a completely fresh impact on the surface of Mars: but that's just what NASA scientists discovered looking through a recent batch of images returned from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

You're looking at an image taken by the Mars Context Camera, an instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In an older photograph taken of the region in February 2012, there was just a bunch of old craters. And then, in the newer image, taken June 2014, this fresh scar on the surface of Mars is clearly visible.

The crash and burn of a meteorite into the Earth atmosphere may have been seen and captured on different recordings in Romania last night at 3 AM, according to Romanian media. Many Romanians noticed a bright light, similar to day light, which lasted for several seconds during the night, and the unusual phenomena was captured on surveillance cameras, including on the Otopeni airport in Bucharest - videos below.

Internet users and bloggers reported they have seen something that may have been a meteorite disintegrating into the atmosphere, which resulted into the bright light. Some people who happened to be driving in Bucharest at the time of the incident reported the same phenomena.

It is yet uncertain where the meteorite may have fallen, but, according to ProTv, this could have happened somewhere around the counties of Buzau or Vrancea, where the intensity of the light, as seen on local surveillance cameras, was also the highest.

A mysterious glowing orb has been filmed breaking away from an unidentified meteorite-like object as it streaked across the sky above California.

The unusual object can be seen moving through the sky leaving a long tail behind that is characteristic of space debris or a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere. But after a few seconds a second round object separates from the main fireball and moves off in the opposite direction.

UFO hunters have claimed the bright orb may have been some sort of escape pod from a crashing ship. However, others have said it is more likely to have been a meteorite breaking apart in the atmosphere. There have been several sightings of meteorite fireballs in the US over the past week, with many reports coming from California. The past couple of days have also seen astronomers enjoying the peak of the annual Quadrantids meteor shower.

The fireball was spotted by Ken Roberts while he was driving home from work in southern California. He said: 'I was driving home after work when this UFO or whatever you call it caught my eye. 'I pulled over in front of somebody's house to film it. I would have got a better shot but I didn't want to jump these people's fence. 'Anyway I don't know what the hell to make of it. Couldn't have been a plane cause there was no noise. And I never heard a crash after either.

'The Orb thing flew straight up into the sky and disappeared.' He posted the video on YouTube on Monday evening but did not say when or where the footage had been filmed, other than the general area of California.

'I think it could be something re-entering and bits coming off it,' said Ben Biggs, editor of All About Space magazine. 'However, if it was a big spacecraft then we'd probably know about it. 'Could it be a meteorite? It's a bit slow to be one as they normally travel much faster through the atmosphere, although we are at the peak of the Quadrantids meteor shower.

Early morning December 28, loud booms accompanied the break-up of a large asteroid/comet fragment into hundreds of meteors over Southern Brazil, over the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Paraná and even in Paraguay. People on the ground were startled, amazed and scared by the spectacular display.

Local media and 'experts' were quick to throw the 'space junk' hypothesis on the table to account for at least one of the sightings, as what looked like a charred or carbonized gas cylinder had been found in a field in Santa Rita do Pardo, about 300 km from Campo Grande. Two years ago another meteor fireball sighting in Brazil was also blamed on 'space junk', after the fact. What are the odds of TWO satellites or rocket boosters hitting Brazil - and catching all space and ground observation systems - completely off-guard, and in the space of two years?

Space junk may of course fall, yet it cannot account for the increasing numbers of actual cosmic bodies raining down on us these days. The usual 'space junk did it' explanation is an obvious reaction to cover up any possible threat or omen coming from without our globe, as well as a calming agent to a very deep-seated fear in the collective human psyche; the association of meteors and large-scale human suffering.

This spectacular meteor fireball sighting in Brazil in October 2014 was just that - a meteor fireball. Given that they're being filmed, photographed and seen all over the world, and on a daily basis, it's far more probable that the 'visitation' on December 28th over Southern Brazil was another large meteor fireball.

A potentially hazardous asteroid, at least 20 times the size of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, will approach the Earth on January 26. The rock is expected to fly by at a distance of 1.2 million kilometers.

The asteroid, named 2004 BL86 by scientists, is estimated to be between 440-1,000 meters in diameter. 1.2 million kilometers is approximately three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

According to astronomers, there is no threat of the object colliding with our planet. The Goldstone Observatory, located in California's Mojave Desert, will observe the asteroid during its approach.

2004 BL86 was discovered on January 30, 2004, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR), responsible for the majority of asteroid discoveries from 1998 until 2005, when it was overtaken by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS). As of mid-September 2011, LINEAR had detected some 231,082 new objects, of which at least 2,423 were near-Earth asteroids and 279 comets.

A space object is considered potentially dangerous if it crosses the Earth's orbit at a distance of less than 0.05 AU (approximately 19.5 distances from the Earth to the Moon), and if its diameter exceeds 100-150 meters. Objects of this size are large enough to cause unprecedented destruction, or generate a mammoth tsunami in case they fall into the ocean.

When a meteorite burst above the city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, the impact was estimated to be equivalent to 440-500 kilotons of TNT. But the Chelyabinsk meteorite was relatively small, about 17 meters in diameter. It disintegrated with a blast at an altitude of over 20 kilometers.