They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store. |
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QUIET
SUN: Solar activity is very low.
None of the sunspots on the Earthside of the sun
is actively erupting, and NOAA forecasters estimate
no more than a 1% chance of M-class
flares during the next 24 hours. Solar
flare alerts: text,
voice.
COMET-CLUSTER
CLOSE ENCOUNTER: This morning,
February 3rd, Comet Garradd (C/2009 P1) sailed just
0.5 degrees from globular cluster M92 in Hercules.
Italian astronomer Rolando Ligustri photographed
the encounter using a remotely-controlled 106 mm
telescope in New Mexico:
The full-sized
image shows the comet's fan-shaped dust tail,
which roughly traces the comet's orbit, and its
pencil-thin gas tail, which points almost directly
away from the sun due to the action of the solar
wind.
Although the comet is now receding
from the cluster, observers with wide-field telescopes
can frame the pair in a single exposure for several
mornings to come. They are located in the constellation
Hercules, high overhead in northern hemisphere skies
before sunrise. Sky and Telescope offers a sky
map of the comet's path. Observers with computerized
GOTO telescopes can track the comet by plugging
in orbital
elements from the Minor Planet Center.
At the moment, Comet Garradd has an
astronomical magnitude of +6.5, invisible to the
naked eye but an easy target for backyard telescopes.
Forecasters expect it to brighten by a factor of
~2 in the weeks ahead as the comet approaches
Earth for a 1.3 AU close encounter in early
March. This could be a good time to invest in a
Comet
Hunter.
more images: from
Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero & Nick Howes
using a remote-controlled telescope in New Mexico;
from
Paul Mortfield of Sierra Remote Observatories,
California; from
Gregg Ruppel of Ellisville, MO; from
Alan C Tough of Elgin, Moray, Scotland; from
Jean Jacquinot of Aix en Provence, France; from
Gary Meehan of Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico;
from
Michael Kunze of Moers, Germany; from
Dave Eagle of Higham Ferrers, UK;
TEXAS
FIREBALL:
After nightfall on Feb. 1st, a spectacular fireball
appeared in the skies of eastern Texas and Oklahoma.
As is often the case for unexpected night-sky phenomena,
few pictures are available. The best so far comes
from a police dash-board camera in the small town
of Little River-Academy, TX:
Eye-witness Daryn Morran reports:
"At approximately 756pm CST, over Abilene,
Texas, I saw an object falling from the sky much
brighter and long-lasting than anything I've seen.
[The fireball] lasted close to 8 secs before completely
burning out. At first, it was bright white, and
then started slowing down and getting brighter.
Then it exploded like a firecracker artillery shell
into several pieces, flickered a few more times
and then slowly burned out... awesome!!!"
Another observer in Coppell, Texas,
reported a "double boom heard at 8:00:30 CST.
[The object appeared to be] 1/2 the size of the
waxing moon, and broke into two major chucks with
many smaller pieces. It had a 'white plasma' (sun-colored)
look with a long golden tail." (This report
was relayed by NWS meteorologist Joe Harrris in
Frt Worth.)
According to Bill Cooke of NASA's
Meteoroid Environment Office, this was probably
a natural object--a small asteroid about the size
of a car or bus--not a decaying satellite or other
manmade space debris. The fireball, which disintegrated
in the general vicinity of Dallas-Fort Worth, was
bright enough to be seen on NASA cameras located
in New Mexico more than 500 miles away. "It
was about as bright as the full Moon (astronomical
magnitude -13)," estimates Cooke, who is still
analyzing data and sighting reports in hopes of
calculating the object's orbit. He might yet figure
out where the Texas fireball came from. Stay tuned
for updates.
BE ALERT
FOR MOON HALOES: With the full
Moon less than a week away, now is the time to be
alert for Moon haloes. Last night in Moray, Scotland,
amateur astronomer Alan C. Tough photographed this
specimen:
"I intended to photograph the
Moon beside the Pleiades, but the cold and cloudy
conditions were better suited to capturing this
spectacular halo," says Tough.
Moon halos are formed by ice crystals
in high clouds, which catch moonbeams and bend them
as
shown. The brighter the Moon, the brighter the
Moon halo, so any halos this week should be very
bright indeed. The Moon is full on Feb. 7th. Browse
the links below for more examples of what's in store.
more images: from
Jim Henderson of Kincardine O'Neil, Scotland;
from
Eric Walker of Conon Bridge, Ross-shire, Scotland;
from
Tyler Piskor of Karnes City, Texas;
January
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Januaries: 2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2005,
2004]
Comet
Lovejoy Gallery
[previous comets: McNaught,
Holmes,
Lulin,
Tuttle,
Ikeya-Zhang]
