EarthSky community members from around the world share their photos and experiences of this year’s Geminid meteor shower, here. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/favorite-photos-of-2020s-geminid-meteor-shower…
Tag: fireballs
Is that a UFO?! There’s probably an explanation
Most Unidentified Flying Objects aren’t actually unidentified. Here’s a list of phenomena, either natural or human-made, that people often mistake for UFOs. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/if-its-not-a-ufo-what-is-it…
Taurid meteors rain down in November
The Southern and Northern Taurid meteor showers peak in November and often produce fireballs. A beautiful Taurid photo from an EarthSky community member – plus more about the shower – here. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-taurid-meteors-nov-2020…
Tips for watching N. Taurid meteors
The nominal peak of the North Taurid meteor shower is on the night of November 11-12, 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/sky-archive/peak-night-for-n-taurid-meteor-shower-on-november-1112…
Bright fireball widely seen over northeastern Mexico
A fireball is an especially bright meteor from space. It can start out icy and burn up entirely in our atmosphere, or rocky … in which case a meteorite sometimes falls to Earth’s surface. This bright fireball blazed over northeastern Mexico on Tuesday, October 6, 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/video-photos-bright-fireball-northeastern-mexico…
Looking edgewise into the Milky Way
Here are a few shots of the edgewise view into our Milky Way galaxy – with bright Jupiter and fainter Saturn also in the scene – plus a few Perseid meteors. These are from earlier this month, when the moon was less bright in the evening sky. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/photos-summer-milky-way-aug-2020…
An Unusual Meteorite, More Valuable Than Gold, May Hold Life’s Building Blocks
Slashdot reader sciencehabit tells the strange story of a 4.5-billion-year-old meteor from “the cold void beyond Jupiter” that sent “blazing fireballs and rocks raining down on farms and fields.” On 23 April 2019, a space rock the size of a washing machine broke up in the skies over Aguas Zarcas, a village carved out of Costa Rica’s rainforest. The falling fragments,…
The Galaxy’s Brightest Explosions Go Nuclear With an Unexpected Trigger
sciencehabit writes: Type Ia supernovae, a bright and long-lasting brand of stellar explosion, play a vital role in cosmic chemical manufacturing, forging in their fireballs most of the iron and other metals that pervade the universe. The explosions also serve as “standard candles,” assumed to shine with a predictable brightness. Their brightness as seen from Earth provides a cosmic yardstick, used…
Watch for Lyrid meteors this week
Assuming ideal conditions, you might catch 10 to 15 meteors per hour in 2020’s Lyrid meteor shower. The peak is probably Wednesday morning – April 22 – but watch the mornings before and after, too. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/lyrid-meteors-best-before-dawn…
Active asteroid unveils fireball identity
At around 1 a.m. local standard time on April 29, 2017, a fireball flew over Kyoto, Japan. Compared to other fireballs spotted from Earth, it was relatively bright and slow. Now, scientists have determined not only what the fireball was, but also where it came from. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-asteroid-unveils-fireball-identity.html…