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SPACECRAFT SEES CME ENGULF EARTH: For the first time, a spacecraft far from Earth has turned and watched a solar storm engulf our planet. The movie, released yesterday during a NASA press conference, has galvanized solar physicists, who say it could lead to important advances in space weather forecasting. Get the full story from Science@NASA.
SPACE STATION TRANSIT: "During an observing run on August 17th, I decided to to test a new guide camera by imaging the North America Nebula (NGC7000)," says Nick Howes of Cherhill, Wiltshire , UK. "Just then the ISS decided to fly right through my image!" (continued below)
It might sound like an incredible stroke of luck to catch the ISS crossing an interstellar cloud, but this week the odds are tilted in some observers' favor. In Europe, the space station is passing overhead as often as three times each night, crossing stars, planets, and distant nebulae as it slides silently from horizon to horizon over and over again. If you live in that part of the world, check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flyby times; an incredible stroke of luck could be in the offing.
METEORITE ALERT: Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has issued a meteorite alert for residents of small towns east of Cleveland, Ohio. There could be space rocks on the ground waiting to be found. "On August 8 at 1:22 Eastern Daylight Time, all-sky cameras belonging to the Southern Ontario Meteor Network detected a fireball entering the atmosphere 54 miles above Lake Erie (80.944 W, 41.945 N), moving SSE at 25 km/s (55,900 mph). There is high confidence that this meteor produced meteorites." For one thing, the debris appears to have produced echoes from KCLE's doppler radar in Cleveland; note the circled reflections:
"The deep atmospheric penetration of this fireball combined with its deceleration and doppler radar echo strongly suggests a fall somewhere in the countryside east of Clevelend," continues Cooke. Pushpins in this Google map show some possible fall locations based on different assumptions about the meteorite's speed and mass. There could be debris anywhere in the countryside around the Ohio towns of Warren, Kinsman, and Hermitage. Readers who find a candidate meteorite are encouraged to contact the Meteoroid Environment Office for further instructions.
August 2011 Aurora Gallery
[previous Augusts: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002]
2011 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009]