There is much uncertainty about the strength of this shower, both on Earth and on the Moon. In recent history, our planet has never passed directly through a debris stream from Comet 209P/LINEAR, so no one knows exactly how much comet dust lies ahead. A magnificent meteor shower could erupt, with streaks of light in terrestrial skies and sparkling explosions on the Moon--or it could be a complete dud. http://spaceweather.com/
Anticipation is building as Earth approaches a cloud of debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR. This weekend, meteoroids hitting Earth's atmosphere could produce a never-before-seen shower called the "May Camelopardalids" peaking with as many as 200 meteors per hour. The best time to look is on Saturday, May 24th, between 0600 UT and 0800 UT (2 a.m. and 4 a.m. EDT). Earth won't be the only body passing through the debris zone. The Moon will be, too. Meteoroids hitting the lunar surface could produce explosions visible through backyard telescopes on Earth. The inset in this picture of an actual lunar meteor shows the region of the crescent Moon on May 24th that could be pelted by May Camelopardalids: According to NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, the best time for amateur astronomers to scan the Moon for lunar meteors is after 0800 UT (4 a.m. EDT) on May 24th.
There is much uncertainty about the strength of this shower, both on Earth and on the Moon. In recent history, our planet has never passed directly through a debris stream from Comet 209P/LINEAR, so no one knows exactly how much comet dust lies ahead. A magnificent meteor shower could erupt, with streaks of light in terrestrial skies and sparkling explosions on the Moon--or it could be a complete dud. http://spaceweather.com/
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May 24th could be a big day for meteor astronomy. That's when Earth is expected to pass through a cloud of debris from comet 209P/LINEAR, producing a never-before-seen meteor shower. Meteor rates could exceed 200 per hour, and some forecasters have even mentioned the possibility of a meteor storm. Get the full story from Science@NASA. www.spaceweather.com
Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on the night of May 5-6 with as many as 60 meteors per hour in the southern hemisphere and half that number in the north. No matter where you live, the best time to look is during the dark hours before local sunrise on May 6th. [photo gallery] [meteor radar]. www.spaceweather.com
Earth is approaching a stream of debris from ancient Comet Thatcher, source of the annual Lyrid Meteor Shower. Usually the shower is mild (10-20 meteors per hour) but unmapped filaments of dust in the comet's tail sometimes trigger outbursts ten times stronger. Forecasters expect this year's peak, however strong it may be, to occur on April 22nd. [meteor gallery]
Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Comet 8P/Tuttle, source of the annual Ursid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Dec. 22nd with as many as 10 meteors per hour streaming from a radiant near Polaris, the North Star. Occasionally, Earth hits a denser-than-usual patch of debris and rates increase 5- to 10-fold. However, no one can predict when these outbursts occur. Listen for Ursid echoes on Space Weather Radio. www.spaceweather.com
Earth is entering a stream of debris from rock comet 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Dec. 13-14 with as many as 120 meteors per hour. Lunar interference will be a problem, as glare from the nearly-full Moon reduces the number of visible meteors 2- to 5-fold. You can listen to radar echoes from the Geminids, unaffected by moonlight, on Space Weather Radio. Also, tune into NASA's live web chat about the Geminids on Friday the 13th beginning at 11 pm EST. www.spaceweather.com The Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) is detecting an outburst of Andromedid meteors on Dec. 8th. "Meteor rates last night were near 20 per hour (ZHR)," reports Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "The shower could increase in intensity tonight, so we hope observers (especially Europeans) will be alert for meteors."
Andromedid meteoroids come from Comet Biela, which broke apart in the 19th century. The shower's radiant in Andromeda is high in the sky after sunset for observers in the Northern Hemisphere. A similar outburst of Andromedids in 2011 was rich in faint meteors. If the 2013 outburst is the same, dark skies will be required to see it. Stay tuned for updates. www.spaceweather.com Earth is entering a stream of debris from rock comet 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Our planet is just dipping into the outskirts of the debris zone now, so visual meteor rates are low. Nevertheless, the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) is starting to pick up echoes from Geminid meteoroids. This Dec. 4th radar map shows a concentration of activity in the constellation Gemini: "The Geminids, still ten days from their maximum, are very clearly visible in the latest CMOR data," reports Prof. Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario, which operates the radar.
In the radar map, the Geminid radiant is labeled 'GEM.' A second nearby radiant labeled 'NOO' marks the location of the November omega Orionids, a minor shower that peaks in early December. The Geminids won't peak until Dec. 13-14 when Earth passes through the core of the debris stream, but Brown thinks observers should start looking now. "Glare from the nearly-full Moon will interfere with the Geminid's maximum in mid-December," he says. "This week, however, the Moon is new. Observers should be starting to see activity from this very strong shower." Observing tip: The best time to look is during the hours between midnight and dawn when the constellation Gemini is high in the sky. www.spaceweather.com Today, Earth is passing through a narrow stream of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, source of the annual Leonid meteor shower. "The Leonids are showing up nicely in our data from the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR)," reports Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario. "Rates are only about 10 per hour, but the shower is definitely active, if muted due to moonlight this year!" Listen to Space Weather Radio for live Leonid echoes. www.spaceweather.com
NEW: Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On Oct. 21, 2013, the network reported 34 fireballs. (15 Orionids, 13 sporadics, 4 Leonis Minorids, 2 epsilon Geminids) In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] www.spaceweather.com
Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Last night NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network detected 15 Orionid fireballs over the United States. After sunrise, the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) continued to record echoes from Orionids in broad daylight. This CMOR sky map shows the Orionid radiant (ORI) clearly active at 1445 UT on Oct. 21st: Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Oct. 21st with about 20 meteors per hour. However, Halley's debris stream is broad, so Orionid activity could spill into Oct. 22nd. The best time to look is during the hours before local sunrise when the constellation Orion is high in the sky. [meteor radar] [sky map] www.spaceweather.com
Mars, the 1st-magnitude star Regulus, and Comet ISON have gathered together in the pre-dawn sky only a few degrees apart. Comet ISON is invisible to the naked eye, but Mars and Regulus are bright enough to see without optics. They form a pretty red-blue "double star" that can lead telescopic observers to the comet. Sky maps: Oct. 13, 14, 15. EARLY ORIONIDS: Earth is entering the outskirts of a debris stream from Halley's comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Last night, Oct. 12th, cameras in NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network detected two bright Orionid fireballs over the United States. The shower is expected to peak this year on Oct. 21st with ~20 meteors per hour between local midnight and dawn. An almost-full Moon on peak night will sharply reduce visibility, so watch out for the early Orionids. They might be the only ones you see.
www.spaceweather.com On Sept. 27th, a meteor exploded in the skies above the US midwest. Witnesses report shadows cast upon the ground, unusual sounds, and a swirling contrail marking the aftermath of the blast. "It was the most brilliant fireball that I have ever seen!" reports Angela McClain, who sends this picture from Faith Ranch in Jewett, Ohio: "The entire landscape lit up," she continues. "I spun around and there it was, a huge, bright green light, streaking across the sky. Even when it was gone, there was still a bright line in the sky about 20 seconds later. We were all stunned."
A NASA all-sky camera in Hiram, Ohio, also recorded the fireball: movie. "This was a very bright event," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Flares saturated our meteor cameras, and made determination of the end point (the terminus of the fireball's flight through the atmosphere) virtually impossible. Judging from the brightness, we are dealing with a meteor class object." Data from multiple cameras shows that the meteoroid hit Earth's atmosphere traveling 51 km/s (114,000 mph) and passed almost directly over Columbus, Ohio. Cooke has prepared a preliminary map of the ground track. According to the American Meteor Society, the fireball was visible from at least 14 US states. www.spaceweather.com European sky watchers are reporting an outburst of September epsilon Perseid meteors. "The outburst occurred around UT midnight on Sept. 9-10," says Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "During a two hour period, meteors appeared at a rate equivalent to ~50 per hour (ZHR). We did not see the outburst in North America because it was still daylight at the time." NASA all-sky cameras have been recording epsilon Perseid fireballs for days, albeit at a much lower rate than what the Europeans saw. The shower has been active since early September, allowing Cooke's team to calculate orbits for more than a dozen meteoroids: In the diagram, orbits are color-coded by velocity. Epsilon Perseid meteoroids hit Earth's atmosphere at a "blue-green" speed of about 62 km/s (139,000 mph). According to NASA data, the debris stream appears to be rich in fireball-producing meteoroids.
The epsilon Perseid shower peaks every year around this time, but the shower is not well known because it is usually weak, producing no more than 5 meteors per hour. In 2008 the shower surprised observers with an outburst five times as active, and this year the shower may have doubled even that. Clearly, the epsilon Perseid debris stream contains some dense filaments of material that Earth usually misses but sometimes hits. No one knows the source of the September epsilon Perseid meteor shower. Whatever the parent is, probably a comet, its orbit must be similar to the green ellipses shown in the orbit-map above. As NASA cameras continue to gather data on this shower, orbital parameters will become more accurately known, possibly leading to a match. Meanwhile, sky watchers should be alert for more epsilon Perseids in the nights ahead. The shower is waning but still active and more outbursts are possible. http://spaceweather.com/ September 11, 2013 – ALABAMA – A baseball-sized meteor blasted over the southeastern United States on Monday night, creating a bright streak of light, a sonic boom and a ruckus on Twitter, officials said on Tuesday. The meteor appeared at 9:18 p.m. EDT over Alabama, traveling at about 76,000 mph. It exploded 25 miles above Woodstock, Alabama, located about 30 miles from Birmingham.
“Objects of this size hit the Earth’s atmosphere on a daily basis, but this one happened near Birmingham, which is a fairly decently sized city and lot of people saw it,” Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told Reuters. Many of the more than 180 eyewitness reports came from people attending a Mumford & Sons concert in Birmingham. “This one wasn’t at 2 in the morning, so a lot of people were out and about,” Cooke said. “I saw what I first thought was a falling star and then it turned bright green,” an observer from Anniston, Alabama, posted on the American Meteor Society website. “I saw it near Dallas Highway in Marietta, (Georgia), near the National Battlefield,” wrote another witness. “At first, I thought it was an errant firework, but it was bigger, neon green, came straight down and then disappeared.” Scientists calculated the meteor’s orbit and determined that it came from an unknown comet. It exploded so low in Earth’s atmosphere that it triggered a sonic boom. The meteor was too bright to be picked up by NASA’s All-sky Fireball Network, which tracks meteors brighter than Venus with 12 cameras in the eastern United States and New Mexico but whose parameters are set to screen out things like lightning. The network did detect nearly two dozen other meteors on Monday night, including five that are part of the little-known annual Epsilon Perseids meteor shower, which peaks in early- to mid-September. Sky watchers also are on the lookout for Comet ISON, which is due to pass by Mars this month and by Earth in November. The comet, which was discovered last September by a pair of amateur astronomers in Russia, is expected to pass relatively close to the sun on November 28. As it approaches, heat from the sun vaporizes ice in the comet’s body, creating a bright tail. But so far, Comet ISON hasn’t brightened as much as astronomers had predicted. “People are no longer thinking it is going to be visible in daylight,” Cooke said. – Yahoo http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/baseball-sized-meteor-blows-up-over-alabama-creates-sonic-boom/ |
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