"This was my first Perseid of the season," he says. "During the 35 minutes I watched, I saw 4 more. Can't wait for the maximum..."

The maximum is coming. Meteor rates should remain low for the next week as Earth penetrates the sparse outskirts of the debris stream, then skyrocket to ~100 meteors per hour as the calendar turns to the second week of August. Forecasters expect maximum Perseid activity on the nights of August 12-13. [meteor radar] [NASA: Perseid fireballs].
www.spaceweather.com

SPACE WEATHER FACT CHECK: Many readers are asking about a report in the Washington Examiner, which states that a Carrington-class solar storm narrowly missed Earth two weeks ago. There was no Carrington-class solar storm two weeks ago. On the contrary, solar activity was low throughout the month of July. The report is erroneous. The possibility of such a storm is, however, worth thinking about: A modern Carrington event would cause significant damage to our high-tech society.

FIRST PERSEIDS OF 2013: Earth is entering a broad stream of debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Although the shower won't peak until August 12-13, when Earth hits the densest part of the stream, the first Perseids are already arriving. "Despite poor weather over our network of meteor cameras, we detected three Perseid fireballs on July 30-31," reports Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. He made this plot showing the orbits of the meteoroids:

In the diagram, the green lines trace the orbits of Perseid meteoroids. All three intersect Earth (the blue dot). The orbit of the parent comet is color-coded purple. An inset shows one of the fireballs shining almost as brightly as the Moon: video.

The shower is just getting started. Rates should remain low for the next week as Earth penetrates the sparse outskirts of the debris stream, then skyrocket to ~100 meteors per hour as the calendar turns to the second week of August. Stay tuned for more fireballs. [meteor radar] [NASA: Perseid fireballs].

CORONAL HOLE: Magnetic fields in the sun's northern hemisphere have opened up, forming a coronal hole. This UV image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the opening as a dark gap in the sun's upper atmosphere:

Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field bends back and allows the solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from this particular coronal hole will reach Earth on August 3-4. Its impact could spark a minor geomagnetic storm, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

Another space weather fact check: News sources such as space.com and Fox News recently reported a "giant hole in the sun." Fact: The "giant hole" was a fairly run-of-the-mill coronal hole, only slightly larger than usual. In defense of the journalists, their stories were prompted by a NASA report. The report was accurate, but it showed a high-contrast image of the sun, which made the coronal hole look bigger and deeper than it actually was. An SDO image taken at approximately the same time (July 18) shows the true scale of the hole.
www.spaceweather.com

May 18, 2013 – MOON - For the past 8 years, NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. “Lunar meteor showers” have turned out to be more common than anyone expected, with hundreds of detectable impacts occurring every year.   They’ve just seen the biggest explosion in the history of the program.

This artist’s illustration shows a meteor crashing into the surface of the moon. Scientists say hundreds of space rocks impact the lunar surface every year. (NASA) “On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we’ve ever seen before.” 

Anyone looking at the Moon at the moment of impact could have seen the explosion–no telescope required.  For about one second, the impact site was glowing like a 4th magnitude star. 

Ron Suggs, an analyst at the Marshall Space Flight Center, was the first to notice the impact in a digital video recorded by one of the monitoring program’s 14-inch telescopes.  “It jumped right out at me, it was so bright,” he recalls.

This photo shows the bright flash of the light that resulted from a huge boulder slamming into the moon’s surface March 17, 2013.(NASA) The 40 kg meteoroid measuring 0.3 to 0.4 meters wide hit the Moon traveling 56,000 mph.  The resulting explosion packed as much punch as 5 tons of TNT. 

Cooke believes the lunar impact might have been part of a much larger event.    http://www.thecelestialconvergence.blogspot.com/

FIRE IN THE SKY: Major Solar System Disturbance – NASA Records Giant Explosion On The Moon
As Boulder Crashes At 56,000mph; Glowed Like A 4th Magnitude Star; Visible To The Naked Eye On Earth;
Might Be Part Of A MUCH LARGER EVENT!

May 20, 2013 – SPACE - In the last 24 hours the AMS has received confirmed reports about 4 unique fireball events all occurring near 4:00 AM UTC time. The most recent event occurred in Arkansas and Missouri on May 19th near 3:37 UTC. At the same time 3:37 UTC 4 witnesses reported a fireball in Arizona. The distance between these two locations would inhibit witnesses from observing the same fireball from both locations. On May 18th two large fireball meteors were also spotted within an hour of each other, one over the central east coast and another in Colorado. -AMS

HUBBLE SEES COMET ISON: A new picture of Comet ISON taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers key information about what might happen when the comet plunges into the sun later this year.

ELLIPTICAL MOON HALOS: The moon is waxing full, which means now is the time to be alert for icy moon halos. On April 22nd, Darryl Luscombe of Sointula, British Columbia, saw an unusual specimen. Instead of being circular, as usual, this halo was elliptical:

"I don't think I have ever seen an elliptical halo around the moon before," says Luscombe. "I looked up and just stared for about a minute. Then I raced inside to get my camera. I just managed to photograph it before it disappeared."

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley comments on the apparition: "There have been quite a few ellipticals seen in the last few weeks both in Europe and the US. Something strange [is happening] in all our skies!"

"These unusual ice halos are much smaller than the ordinary 22 degree halo encircling the sun or moon," Cowley continues. "In the 22 degree halo the ring is effectively made by light refracting through a 60 degree ice prism. The smaller elliptical halos need much narrower prisms and we think that six sided plate shaped crystals with very shallow pyramidal ends might do the work. The problem is that such crystals are unphysical and computer simulations using them do not predict the halo very well. An alternative is the wedge shaped sections of small snowflake-like crystals. Whatever their cause, they are rare and mysterious!"

LYRID FIREBALLS: For the past few days, Earth has been passing through a stream of debris from ancient Comet Thatcher, source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. According to international observers, the encounter produced as many as 25 meteors per hour. Some of these were fireballs. NASA's All Sky Fireball Network detected more than 30 Lyrids as bright as Venus on the nights around the shower's April 22nd peak. Here are their orbits:

In the diagram, the red splat marks the location of Earth; green ellipses are the orbits of the meteoroids, triangulated by multiple cameras in the meteor network. "The purple ellipse is the orbit of Comet Thatcher," adds Bill Cooke, lead scientist for NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "The orbits of the comet and the meteoroids match up nicely." According to Cooke, the Lyrid fireballs penetrated Earth's atmosphere as deeply as 44 miles above the planet's surface, traveling at an average speed of 105,000 mph.

The shower is subsiding now as Earth exits the debris stream.

Huge explosion in the sky in Cuba:  15 February 2013 : From Cuba has been reported in an explosion in the sky. In the central region of the island an object was seen falling from the sky and exploding with a great noise, which shook the houses in the place, according to reports on local television. In a report released this morning by Rodas, town in the province of Cienfuegos, witnesses described a very bright light of large size, comparable to that of a bus, before exploding in the sky. Marcos Rodriguez, a resident in region, as defined by the issuer an expert, reported that “everything seems to indicate that it was a fireball, which is a fragment of stone and metal that enters the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed.” Experts are now examining the area for possible remains Rodas minerals falling from the sky, the TV station added.
Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/breaking-meteor-crash-this-time-in-cuba/#RHWxkpH1zRrsIs4r.99

HAVANA – Another meteorite, another outbreak accompanied by objects falling from the sky was reported by residents of a town in the central region of Cuba
http://www.youreporternews.it/2013/altra-meteorite-a-cuba-testimoni-esplosione-e-grande-rumore/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

On Friday, February 15th at 9:30 am local time in Russia, a small asteroid struck the atmosphere over the city of Chelyabinsk and exploded. According to reports from news organizations and Russian authorities, as many as 1000 people received minor injuries from the shock wave. This is the most energetic recorded meteor strike since the Tunguska impact of 1908. NASA scientists have conducted a preliminary analysis. "Here is what we know so far," says Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "The asteroid was about 15 meters in diameter and weighed approximately 7000 metric tons. It struck Earth's atmosphere at 40,000 mph (18 km/s) and broke apart about 12 to 15 miles (20 to 25 km) above Earth's surface. The energy of the resulting explosion was in the vicinity of 300 kilotons of TNT. A shock wave propagated down and struck the city below, causing large numbers of windows to break, some walls to collapse, and minor damage throughout the city. When you hear about injuries, those are undoubtedly due to the effects of the shock wave, not due to fragments striking the ground. There are undoubtedly fragments on the ground, but as of this time we know of no recovered fragments that we can verify."

Videos of the event may be found here and here. In many of the videos you can hear the sound of windows shattering as the meteor's loud shock wave reaches the ground. Onlookers cry out in Russian as alarms and sirens sound in the background.

It is natural to wonder if this event has any connection to today's record-setting flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. NASA has issued the following statement:

"The trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14's trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north."   www.spaceweather.com

Earth is entering a stream of debris from rock comet 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Forecasters expect as many as 120 Geminids per hour to appear when the shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th. The best time to look is during the dark hours before dawn this Thursday and Friday. [sky map] [meteor radar] [video]

"I photographed my first spectacular Geminid this morning, Dec. 12th," reports Antonio Finazzi of Chiuduno (BG), Italy. The fireball was visible even through the trees:

According to the International Meteor Organization, Geminid rates are now at 20 per hour and climbing. Monitor the Spaceweather.com's realtime photo gallery for more images as the shower intensifies.

Extra meteors? NASA says that another meteor shower, appearing for the first time this year, could add to the count of Geminids on Dec. 13th. Comet Wirtanen was discovered in 1948, just after World War II, and takes 5.4 years to orbit the sun. It reaches its closest point to the sun just outside Earth's orbit. Although this comet has skirted Earth's orbit many times, Earth has not run into its debris streams before. 2012 could be different.  Computer models run by Russian forecaster Mikhail Maslov predict as many as four stream crossings between Dec. 10th and 14th.    Get the full story from Science@NASA.
www.spaceweather.com

TAURID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of gravelly debris from Comet Encke, source of the annual Taurid meteor shower. Because the debris stream is not very congested, Taurid meteor rates are low, no more than about 5 per hour. The special thing about Taurids is that they tend to be fireballs. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Nov. 12th, so be alert for Taurid fireballs in the sky tonight.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: The staff of spaceweather.com are in Australia this week to witness a total eclipse of the sun on Nov. 13/14. The path of totality cuts right across Port Douglas and Cairns, Qld--a.k.a. the "Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef." People on cruise ships, divers in the reef, and thousands of people standing along beaches of the Coral Sea will witness the early morning sun disappear behind the Moon for more than two minutes. It's going to look something like this:

Go to www.spaceweather.com to see NASA video about Total Eclipses of the sun

The only cloud on the horizon is ... well ... clouds. Residents are hoping that the grey skies they have been seeing in recent mornings will turn blue before the big moment arrives. Totality begins on Wednesday, Nov. 14th, at 06:38 am local time in northeast Australia (the afternoon of Nov. 13th in the USA) with the rising sun just 14 degrees above the horizon.

Spaceweather.com author Dr. Tony Phillips will be running the Solar Eclipse Marathon, which begins at 3rd contact when the first ray of sunlight lances over the limb of the retreating Moon. Race organizers say it's "the first marathon with an intergalactic starting gun." Actually, it's the first marathon with a rubber chicken. Phillips' running mate in the race will be the fowl Camilla, who is incorporating the 26 mile run into her astronaut training.   Stay tuned for photos and updates from the path of totality.
www.spaceweather.com

Sky watchers should be alert for fireballs in the nights ahead. Forecasters say Earth might be heading for a swarm of gravelly debris from comet Encke. If so, meteoroids the size of pebbles and small stones hitting Earth's atmosphere at 25 km/s would produce a slow drizzle of very bright fireballs flying out of the constellation Taurus--hence the name "Taurids." The display is expected to peak with a few fireballs every hour during the nights of Nov. 5-12. NASA's network of all-sky meteor cameras is already picking up some Taurid fireballs--"7 in the past two nights and 11 altogether since Halloween," reports Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office. Here are their orbits:

In the orbital diagram, the location of Earth is denoted by a red splat. The orbits of the meteoroids (yellow) roughly match that of parent Comet Encke (orange), confirming their association with the Taurid debris swarm.

"What always strikes me about the Taurids," notes Cooke, "is how deeply they penetrate Earth's atmosphere. On average, they make it to an altitude of 44 miles. Contrast this to the recent Orionids, which burn up at an average altitude of 58 miles. Part of this is due to the speed difference: Taurids are slow (27 km/s) while Orionids are fast (66 km/s). In addition, many Taurids are made up of stronger stuff than the Orionids."

Yesterday, Cooke received this report from a hunter in Tennessee, who was near the terminus of a Taurid fireball which made it all the way down to 18.5 miles altitude: "On the morning of October 30 at approximately 6:00 CDT I was walking into a hunting spot in the middle of the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge. As I was standing, this bright white light appeared from the north, illuminating the woods like daylight, casting shadows of the trees, and as it passed overhead in a couple of seconds, the shadows quickly reversed direction. It was so intense I felt like a searchlight from an overhead helicopter was on me, but there was no noise. As it disappeared into the southern sky, I heard three extremely loud booms which I also felt much like a sonic boom from a plane. The resident birds all began to call for a minute after. In my 62 years of living on this planet, and witnessing several meteor showers- some very bright- I can tell you I have never witnessed anything like this. The experience was not totally unlike that seen in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the man's truck was stopped at a railroad crossing and he was engulfed in light!"                                                          www.spaceweather.com

DOUBLE ASTEROID FLYBY: A pair of big, near-Earth asteroids will fly by the Earth-Moon system on Sept. 14th. 2012 QG42 is a 300-meter space rock that comes from the inner asteroid belt; it will pass 2.8 million km (7.4 lunar distances) from Earth.
2012 QC8 is even bigger, about 1.1 km in diameter, hailing from the vicinity of Jupiter; it will pass about 8.7 million km (22.7 lunar distances) from Earth. Astronomers monitoring the incoming space rocks say they are glowing like 14th to 15th magnitude stars, which makes them good targets for advanced amateur telescopes. Ephemerides: 2012 QG42, 2012 QC8.

EXPLOSION ON JUPITER: Apparently, something hit Jupiter during the early hours of Sept. 10th (11:35 UT), igniting a ferocious fireball in the giant planet's cloudtops. Amateur astronomer Dan Peterson Racine, Wisconsin, saw it first through his Meade 12" LX200 telescope. "It was a bright white flash that lasted only 1.5 - 2 seconds," he reports. Another amateur astronomer, George Hall of Dallas, Texas, was video-recording Jupiter at the time, and he confirmed the fireball with this video screenshot:

The fireball was probably caused by a small asteroid or comet hitting Jupiter. Similar impacts were observed in June and August 2010. An analysis of those earlier events suggests that Jupiter is frequently struck by 10 meter-class asteroids--one of the hazards of orbiting near the asteroid belt and having such a strong gravitational pull.

Astronomers around the world will now begin monitoring the impact site for signs of debris--either the cindery remains of the impactor or material dredged up from beneath Jupiter's cloud tops. Some impacts do produce such debris, while others don't. Researchers aren't sure why; perhaps this event will provide some clues.

SOLAR CONJUNCTION OF MERCURY: An astronomical conjunction is underway this week--but don't bother looking up because it is hidden in broad daylight. Mercury is passing only a degree and a half from the sun. Using an opaque disk to block the sun's glare, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) took this picture of the close encounter on Sept. 10th:

In the weeks ahead, Mercury will move away from the sun, emerging from the glare in mid-October to assume the role of Evening Star in the western sky at sunset. Until then, it takes a coronagraph to see the comings and goings of the innermost planet. Join SOHO for a ringside seat.                                www.spaceweather.com

PLANETS ALIGN THIS WEEKEND: The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter are lining up in the eastern sky this weekend--right in the middle of the Perseid meteor shower. It's a must-see event. A new ScienceCast video from NASA previews the display.

PERSEID METEOR SHOWER: The annual Perseid meteor shower is underway. International observers are reporting 15+ meteors per hour in pre-dawn skies as Earth enters a broad stream of debris from parent comet Swift-Tuttle. The shower has been building since late July. Over the past two weeks, NASA's All-Sky Meteor Network has recorded more than 57 Perseid fireballs. Their orbits are shown here, with Earth's position marked in red:

The show is about to get much better. Earth will pass through the heart of the debris stream on the nights of August 11th through 13th, boosting meteor rates beyond 100 per hour. Forecasters say the best time to look is probably during the dark hours before sunrise on Sunday, August 12th.
www.spaceweather.com

MINOR GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A minor geomagnetic storm is underway. The cause is a knot of south-pointing magnetism drifting past Earth. The IMF is opening a crack in Earth's magnetosphere, allowing solar wind to enter and fuel the storm.

CURIOSITY & SOLAR FLARES: Mars rover Curiosity has been hit by multiple solar flares en route to the Red Planet, giving NASA planners an idea of what faces human astronauts in the Earth-Mars expanse. [full story]

PERSEID METEORS:
1 August 2012 : Earth has entered a broad stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Meteoroids in the outskirts of the stream are now hitting Earth's atmosphere, producing as many as 10-15 meteors per hour according to worldwide counts from the International Meteor Organization. NASA's network of all-sky meteor cameras captured 17 Perseid fireballs on the nights of July 28th through 30th. Here are their orbits:

The position of Earth is denoted by the red starburst; all of the meteoroid orbits intersect at that point. The purple line traces the orbit of the parent Comet Swift-Tuttle. Fortunately, the comet itself does not intersect Earth.

In the days ahead, Earth will plunge deeper into the meteoroid stream, and meteor rates will increase accordingly. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on August 12-13 with as many as 100+ meteors per hour visible from dark-sky sites. Monitor the realtime meteor gallery for sightings.

2 August 2012 : As Earth enters a broad stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, more and more Perseid meteors are appearing in the night sky. "Last night, I captured a Perseid fireball ripping through the ionosphere over New Mexico," reports amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft. "It was travelling pretty fast - 133,000 miles per hour!" Click to see and hear the meteoroid disintegrate: [go to www.spaceweather.com]

The movie's sound track comes from Ashcraft's dual-frequency meteor radar. It works like this: Radio signals from distant VHF transmitters bounce off the meteor's ion trail. Ashcraft's antennas can pick up those reflections, which sound like ghostly echoes in the loudspeaker of his VHF receiver.

At the moment, Perseid meteor rates are low--no more than about 10 per hour. In the days ahead, however, Earth will plunge deeper into the comet's debris stream, and meteor activity will increase accordingly. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on August 12-13 with as many as 100+ meteors per hour visible from dark-sky sites. Stay tuned for Perseids.
www.spaceweather.com

The eta Aquarid meteor shower, due to peak on May 5-6, is already underway. Cameras in NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network have picked up more than a dozen eta-fireballs this week, including seven last night alone. NASA astronomer Bill Cooke prepared this diagram showing the orbits of the fireballs detected so far:

April 23, 2012 – SPACE - Here’s troubling news in the world of astrophysics, in which astronomers can’t seem to find the dark matter. As you may know dark matter is a much-speculated upon, but unknown substance that cannot be seen but appears to exist as it exerts a gravitational force on material around it. Astronomers first posited the existence of dark matter to explain why the outer portions of galaxies rotate quickly, and it now is also an important part of theories that explain how galaxies form and grow.

“This is an article that we are going to have to take seriously,” Texas A&M astronomer Nick Suntzeff told me. Which is to say that if dark matter is not where our theories predict it will be, our theories probably have some serious issues. –Chron

New evidence may now rule out gamma-ray bursts as sources of these. Using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole in Antarctica, the boffins watched 300 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) while searching for the neutrinos that are believed to be linked with cosmic ray generation, and found none. “The unexpected absence of neutrinos from GRBs has forced a re-evaluation of the theory for production of cosmic rays and neutrinos in a GRB fireball and possibly the theory that high energy cosmic rays are generated in fireballs.”  -Space,  Register
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/