| Where's
Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name
of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a
fun new astronomy helper from Meade. |
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STRANGE CRATERS:
The surprises continue. Scientists examining photos from Messenger's
January flyby of Mercury have found several strange dark-rimmed
craters and one crater with a shiny bottom. The dark rims may
be "melt marks" caused by exploding impactors. And the
shiny bottom? No one knows. Click
here and ponder the mystery.
MORNING SHOW:
This morning in Fort Collins, Colorado, Robbie
Merrill woke up early, looked southeast, and saw two bright
lights beaming through the dawn. It was Venus and Mercury only 1o
apart:
Photo Details: Nikon
D40 at ISO 400, 3 second exposure, f/14
The two innermost planets have gathered together and are rising
before the Sun every morning for the next week. They're easy to
see if you can wake up early enough. A date of note is March 5th
when the crescent moon joins the show: sky
map.
more images: from
Doug Zubenel of Johnson Co. Kansas; from
Dan Gibbons of St. George, Utah; from
Jorge Solano of San José Pinula, Guatemala; from
Salvador Aguirre of Hermosillo, Mexico; from
Elias Chasiotis of Markopoulo, Greece;
NEW YORK FIREBALL:
"Last night [Feb. 25], I was just out walking the dog when
I saw a HUGE burning ball fly through the air, reports. Michele
Kiefer of Ithaca, New York. "If the stars were the size of
a pin prick, this object was the size of a quarter!" John Cook
of Endicott, New York, witnessed the same thing: "It was glorious
and really bright. There really was no missing it if someone was
looking up."
What was it? Answer: A garden variety fireball.
Earth is under constant bombardment by small asteroids and other
space debris, creating a drizzle of surprisingly-bright and -frequent
meteors. According to calculations by NASA astronomer Bill Cooke,
fireballs as bright as Venus appear somewhere on Earth more than
100 times daily. Fireballs as bright as a quarter Moon occur once
every ten days, and fireballs as bright as a full Moon once every
five months:
The vast majority are never noticed. About 70% of all fireballs
streak over uninhabited ocean. Half appear during the day, invisible
in sunny skies. Many are missed, however, simply because no one
bothers to look up. So grab a leash and a dog (optional), and head
outside. The chance of a fireball is better than you think.
GREENLAND
FIREBALL: On Feb. 17th, a small and random
asteroid disintegrated in the skies above Qaanaq (Thule) Greenland.
"At first, I thought it was an airplane falling from the sky,"
says eyewitness Sara Lyberth. "There was a lot of fire and
I immediately called the police." Moments later, police officer
Farda Olsen took this
picture of the meteor's smokey trail twisting in the wind. Radio
Greenland offers a full
account.
Lunar
Eclipse Photo Gallery
[Interactive
World Map of Eclipse Photos]
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