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PERSEID METEOR SHOWER:
The 2008 Perseid meteor shower peaks during
the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th, and forecasters
say it should be a good show. Get the full
story from Science@NASA.
BIG SPACE JUNK: Weight:
1400-lb. Size: Like a double-wide refrigerator. It is, in short,
one big piece of space junk:
Above: The
EAS photographed on July 23, 2007, by ISS astronauts: more.
The Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS), pictured above, was thrown
overboard from the International Space Station on July 23, 2007,
almost one year ago. At the time, the castaway was in a high orbit
and barely visible from Earth's surface. Not anymore: Twelve months
later, with its orbit decaying, the EAS has become easy to see.
"The EAS has noticeably brightened," reports veteran
satellite observer Marco Langbroek of Leiden, the Netherlands. "A
year ago it was a difficult naked eye object at mag. +4 to +4.5,
but on July 20, 2008, I easily observed it at mag. +2.5 to +2.0,
moving very fast due to its low orbit: photo."
The EAS is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate
near the end of 2008 or early 2009. Until then, you can see it,
growing brighter as it descends, with your own eyes. Europeans are
favored with flybys this week, North Americans next week. Check
our Simple Satellite Tracker to find
out when to look.
VIDEO BONUS: On July
15, 2008, Kevin Fetter used a low-light video camera to photograph
the EAS orbiting over his home in Brockville, Ontario: movie.
"The bright star in the video is Altair," he says. "It
was nice to see the EAS still hanging on."
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