COLORADO SUPERBOLIDE: Last night, Dec. 6th at 1:28 a.m. MST, a stunning meteor lit up the sky near Colorado Springs, CO. Astronomer Chris Peterson phtographed the event using an all-sky video camera dedicated to meteor studies: movie. "In seven years of operation, this is the brightest fireball I've ever recorded. I estimate the terminal explosion at magnitude -18, more than 100 times brighter than a full Moon." Meteors this bright are called superbolides; they are caused by small (meter-class) asteroids and are likely to pepper the ground with meteorites when they explode. Readers, did you see this fireball? Report your sighting here. MONSTER PROMINENCE: Readers, if you have a solar telescope, train it on the edge of the sun. An enormous filament of plasma is swirling over the eastern limb. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) took this picture just hours ago: This plasma-filled filament of magnetism popped up yesterday and it could collapse again just as rapidly. When a filament abruptly collapses and hits the sun's surface, it can produce a rare type of explosion called a "Hyder flare." Could one be in the offing? Stay tuned! more images: from Mark Walters of Four Crosses, Powys, Wales, UK; from Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the Netherlands; from Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland; from M. Ugro et al. of South Portland, Maine; TUMBLING TOOLBAG: The space station's famous sidekick, the ISS Toolbag, is circling Earth and producing flashes of light bright enough to record using off-the-shelf digital cameras. Peter Rosén sends this report from downtown Stockholm, Sweden: "I photographed the toolbag when it passed above the moon on Dec. 3rd. It was invisible to the naked eye, but my camera (a Canon 40D) detected it in a series of 4 second exposures. The toolbag must be rotating as the light seems to flash and disappear." (continued below) Photo details: Canon 40D, 85mm lens, f/1.2, ISO 100, 26 x 4 sec He combined 26 images to create this composite. "The other paths are from airplanes; the short interruptions in their lights are caused by the lag between shots." Longer "black-outs" in the path of the toolbag appear to be genuine, a result of tumbling and flashing. Readers, the toolbag and the ISS are making a series of evening passes over Europe and North America this weekend. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flyby times. UPDATED: Great Conjunction Photo Gallery NEW: Dec. 2008 Aurora Gallery [Previous Decembers: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2001, 2000] |