Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 13, 2013

-Look to the right of the Moon soon after dark for Gamma (γ) Pegasi, the leftmost star of the Great Square of Pegasus. The Great Square is standing on one corner.

-Mars (magnitude +1.2) is becoming a real challenge as it sinks lower low into the sunset. Brighter Mercury is your marker for finding it.

-Mars is currently on the far side of the Sun from us, but Mercury is swinging around to the Sun's near side as shown by its growing size and diminishing phase.

Astro Picture of the Day:
February 13, 2013

Source:
The Great Nebula in Orion is a intriguing place. Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. But this image, an illusory-color composite of four colors of infrared light taken with the Earth orbiting WISE observatory, shows the Orion Nebula to be a bustling neighborhood or recently formed stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the stars of the Trapezium star cluster, seen near the center of the above wide field image. The eerie green glow surrounding the bright stars pictured here is their own starlight reflected by intricate dust filaments that cover much of the region. The current Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the Horsehead Nebula, will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 14, 2013

-February is when Orion stands highest in the south in early evening. This season, Orion is framed by the two brightest points in the sky: Jupiter high to its upper right and Sirius down to its lower left.
-Jupiter (magnitude –2.4, in Taurus) dominates the high south in early evening and the southwest later. To its left is orange Aldebaran; to its right are the Pleiades. This whole group sets around 2 a.m. In a telescope, Jupiter is shrinking as Earth pulls farther ahead of it in our faster orbit around the Sun. This week it shrinks from 42 to 41 arcseconds wide.

Astro Picture of the Day:
February 14, 2013

Source:
On another Valentine's Day (February 14, 1990), cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back to make this first ever family portrait of our Solar System. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In it, Voyager's wide angle camera frames sweep through the inner Solar System at the left, linking up with gas giant Neptune, at the time the Solar System's outermost planet, at the far right. Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the bright spot near the center of the circle of frames. The inset frames for each of the planets are from Voyager's narrow field camera. Unseen in the portrait are Mercury, too close to the Sun to be detected, and Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight scattered in the camera's optical system. Small, faint Pluto's position was not covered.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Breaking News: Meteorite Explodes Over Russian Air

More to come as I find out more information; supposedly happened within the past hour. Video footage already exists. Notice the blast near the beginning of the video and the damage it causes.

The streak from far away.

Immediately below the meteorite, featuring the loud bang.

Aftermath of the meteorite.

This is the first known source to have an article on the matter.

http://www.space.com/19801-possible-meteor-blast-russia.html

This story was updated at 2:28 a.m. ET.

A powerful blast that shattered windows and left a smoky trail across the sky in eastern Russia appears to have been caused by a meteor or fireball, according to Russian officials and news reports.

The strange sight and blast occurred early Friday (Feb. 15) in the Russian region Ural Mountains and is initially being attributed to a meteor explosion in the atmosphere by authorities, according to a Reuters report.

Translations of updates on the Russian Emergency Ministry website suggest that some damage to buildings was caused by the meteor blast, and that meteorite fragments from the event are expected to be found.

Reuters cited a report by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti, which stated that officials had detected a mid-air blast at an altitude of about 32,800 feet (10,000 meters). It was reportedly seen across Russia's eastern Chelyabinsk and Sverdovsk regions, Reuters reported.

A report by the Russian television news agency Russia Today showed video of the possible meteor, which included what appears to be a fireball streaking across the sky from several vantage points. At times the object is so bright it casts shadows.



The strange event has reportedly sparked theories of a potential military intervention in meteor fall, and even UFOs, according to Russia Today.

In 1908, a fireball exploded over the Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia, flattening hundreds of square miles of land during a massive blast. That fireball was created by the explosion of an object about 150 feet (45 meters) across, NASA scientists have said.

A similarly sized object, the asteroid 2012 DA14, will fly extremely close to Earth on Friday, but will not hit the planet. The asteroid will approach within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of the Earth —about 5,000 miles (8,046 km) closer than geosynchronous satellites —during the close shave.

According to Russia Today, there has been some speculation that the apparent meteor explosion could be somehow related to the upcoming flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14.


However, NASA astronomer Don Yeomans, who leads the space agency's Near-Earth Object Program Office, has repeatedly said that asteroid 2012 DA14 poses no threat to the Earth no, or in the foreseeable future.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered in February 2012 and is being closely tracked by NASA and astronomers around the world. The asteroid is about half the size of a football field, but will not be visible to the naked eye when it flies by on Friday. A small telescope or binoculars, very dark skies and good timing will be needed to see the fast-moving asteroid.

SPACE.com will provide updates on the apparent Russia meteor event as details unfold.

edit:

LIVE UPDATE LINK: http://rt.com/news/russia-meteor-met...elyabinsk-291/

250 people reported injured, 3 critically injured due to destruction from the blast such as shattering glass.

[Wayward Vagabond]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Yes

[Nullifidian]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

also this vid:

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Meteorite Explosion Update:
FOR LIVE UPDATES: http://rt.com/news/russia-meteor-met...elyabinsk-291/
Over 1,200 people have now been reported injured due to the shockwave of the explosion - mostly from shattered glass.

A picture of a crater of the supposed landing site has now been released to the internet.



Weather satellite Meteosat-10 Captured an image of the meteorite before enterring the atmosphere:



The mass of the meteorite is expected to be anywhere between 10-50 tonnes. Early reports say the meteorite was approximately 5-10 meters in diameter.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 15, 2013

-Comet PanSTARRS update: The incoming comet that we hoped would make a fine showing in March has been weakening. It may not even reach naked-eye visibility, what with its low altitude in the evening twilight.

-Close flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14: This gymnasium-sized asteroid will miss Earth by just 18,000 miles (28,500 km) around 19:25 Universal Time today. It will then be as bright as 8th magnitude, moving across the stars by 0.8° per minute — and it will be in nighttime view from easternmost Europe (in late evening) across Asia to Australia (before dawn on the 16th local date). By the time it's visible in Western Europe it will be a little fainter, and by its visibility in North America it will be down to 11th to 13th magnitude, receding into the distance near the Little Dipper. Click here to find more information about tonight's asteroid fly by.

-The Clay Center Observatory will be streaming the fly by at 6pm EST for those interested in watching.

-After dark, look right of the crescent Moon by roughly a fist-width at arm's length for the two or three leading stars of Aries, lined up almost vertically.

-Algol should be at minimum light for a couple hours centered on 8:12 p.m. EST.

News Posted Today:
February 15, 2012
Lessons from Today’s Russia Meteor Impact


Astro Picture of the Day:
February 15, 2013

Source:
Two dark shadows loom across the banded and mottled cloud tops of Jupiter in this sharp telescopic view. In fact, captured on January 3rd, about a month after the ruling gas giant appeared at opposition in planet Earth's sky, the scene includes the shadow casters. Visible in remarkable detail at the left are the large Galilean moons Ganymede (top) and Io. With the two moon shadows still in transit, Jupiter's rapid rotation has almost carried its famous Great Red Spot (GRS) around the planet's limb from the right. The pale GRS was preceded by the smaller but similar hued Oval BA, dubbed Red Spot Jr., near top center. North is down in the inverted image.

[25thhour]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

I saw some videos of the carnage the meteorite caused. THats crazy!!!

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Watch a stream of the Asteroid fly by here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/clay-center-observatory

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 16, 2013

-Bright Jupiter shines upper left of the Moon. Aldebaran is to Jupiter's left, and the Pleiades are a little farther to Jupiter's right.

-Mercury is at greatest elongation, 18° east of the Sun in evening twilight. A telescope shows (in reasonably good seeing) that this tiny little sphere, just 7 arcseconds wide, is now half-lit.

Astro Picture of the Day:
February 16, 2013

Source:
For now, Comet Lemmon (C/2012 F6a), and Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) are sweeping through southern skies. Lemmon's lime green coma and thin tail are near the left edge of this telephoto scene, a single frame from a timelapse video (vimeo here) recorded on February 12, tracking its motion against the background stars. Comet Lemmon's path brought it close to the line-of-sight to prominent southern sky treasures the Small Magellanic Cloud and globular cluster 47 Tucanae (right). Sporting a broader, whitish tail, Comet PanSTARRS appears in later video frames moving through the faint constellation Microscopium. Visible in binoculars and small telescopes, both comets are getting brighter and headed toward northern skies in coming months.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 17, 2013

-The first-quarter Moon shines to the right of Jupiter just after dark, as shown below. Watch it move closer to Jupiter through the evening, by about one Moon-diameter per hour, as they tilt down toward the west. They set around 1 or 2 a.m.

Astro Picture of the Day:
February 17, 2013

http://vimeo.com/59789517

Source:
There it goes. That small spot moving in front of background stars in the above video is a potentially dangerous asteroid passing above the Earth's atmosphere. This past Friday, the 50-meter wide asteroid 2012 DA14 just missed the Earth, passing not only inside the orbit of the Moon, which is unusually close for an asteroid of this size, but also inside the orbit of geosynchronous satellites. Unfortunately, asteroids this big or bigger strike the Earth every 1000 years or so. Were 2012 DA14 to have hit the Earth, it could have devastated a city-sized landscape, or stuck an ocean and raised dangerous tsunamis. Although finding and tracking potentially dangerous asteroids is a primary concern of modern astronomy, these small bodies or ice and rock are typically so dim that only a few percent of them have been found, so far. Even smaller chunks of ice and rock, like the (unrelated) spectacular meteors that streaked over Russia and California over the past few days, are even harder to find - but pose less danger.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 18, 2013

-The Moon now shines to the left or upper left of Jupiter and Aldebaran, drawing farther away from them through the evening.

-Mars (magnitude +1.2) is disappearing into the sunset, moving ever farther to Mercury's lower right.

-Mercury (about magnitude –0.5) continues its excellent apparition in the evening twilight. Look for it low in the west-southwest as the sky darkens. No other point in the area is nearly so bright.

Astro Picture of the Day:
February 18, 2013

Source:
Where is the Pelican Nebula? Today, thanks to inventive digital manipulations of Filipe Alves, it is possible to show you exactly where the photogenic Pelican Nebula can be found. Today's picture of the day is a spectacular movie that zooms from the perspective of an unaided human eye to that of a powerful telescope. The observatory dome visible on the right is part of Calar Alto Observatory in southern Spain. The image zooms into the constellation of Cygnus, passes the greater Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), and settles on a dust structure in the Pelican head housing unborn stars.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 19, 2013

-The Moon after dark stands straight over Orion, who's standing straight upright in the south.

-Saturn (magnitude +0.5, in Libra) rises in the east-southeast around 11 or midnight, well to the lower left of Spica. By the beginning of dawn Saturn is highest in the south — more or less between Spica, 18° to its right, and Antares farther to its lower left. Saturn is 4½° northwest of the wide double star Alpha Librae.

In a telescope Saturn's rings are tilted 19.3° from edge-on, their most open of the year (by just a trace).

News Posted Today:
February 18, 2013
Baby Black Hole Discovered


Astro Picture of the Day:
February 19, 2013

Source:
Have you ever seen the planet Mercury? Because Mercury orbits so close to the Sun, it never wanders far from the Sun in Earth's sky. If trailing the Sun, Mercury will be visible low on the horizon for only a short while after sunset. If leading the Sun, Mercury will be visible only shortly before sunrise. So at certain times of the year an informed skygazer with a little determination can usually pick Mercury out from a site with an unobscured horizon. Above, a lot of determination has been combined with a little digital manipulation to show Mercury's successive positions during March of 2000. Each picture was taken from the same location in Spain when the Sun itself was 10 degrees below the horizon and superposed on the single most photogenic sunset. Currently, Mercury is visible in the western sky after sunset, but will disappear in the Sun's glare after a few days.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 20, 2013

-Have you ever seen Canopus, the second-brightest star after Sirius? Canopus lies almost due south of Sirius, by 36°. That's far enough south that it never appears above your horizon unless you're below latitude 37° N (southern Virginia, southern Missouri, central California). And there, you'll need a flat south horizon. Canopus transits the sky's north-south meridian just 21 minutes before Sirius does.

-When to look? Canopus is at its highest point when Beta Canis Majoris's Mirzim, the star three finger widths to the right of Sirius is at its highest point crossing the meridian. Look straight down from Mirzim then.

News Posted Today:
February 19, 2013
Star HD 140283 is confirmed roughly as old as the universe.


Astro Picture of the Day:
February 20, 2013

Source:
Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is sure. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it anywhere else in the Solar System. If Saturn's South Pole wasn't strange enough with its rotating vortex, Saturn's North Pole might be considered even stranger. The bizarre cloud pattern is shown above in great detail by a recent image taken by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. This and similar images show the stability of the hexagon even 20+ years after Voyager. Movies of Saturn's North Pole show the cloud structure maintaining its hexagonal structure while rotating. Unlike individual clouds appearing like a hexagon on Earth, the Saturn cloud pattern appears to have six well defined sides of nearly equal length. Four Earths could fit inside the hexagon. Imaged from the side, the dark shadow of the Jovian planet is seen eclipsing part of its grand system of rings, partly visible on the upper right.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 21, 2013

-Early this evening, look lower right of the Moon for Procyon and upper left of the Moon for Castor and Pollux. Much farther to the lower right of Procyon shines bright Sirius.

-Neptune is in conjunction with the Sun.

Astro Picture of the Day:
February 21, 2013

Source:
How would you change the course of an Earth-threatening asteroid? One possibility - a massive spacecraft that uses gravity as a towline - is illustrated in this artist's vision of a gravitational tractor in action. In the hypothetical scenario worked out in 2005 by Edward Lu and Stanley Love at NASA's Johnson Space Center, a 20 ton nuclear-electric spacecraft tows a 200 meter diameter asteroid by simply hovering near the asteroid. The spacecraft's ion drive thrusters are canted away from the surface. Their slight but steady thrust would gradually and predictably alter the course of the tug and asteroid, coupled by their mutual gravitational attraction. While it sounds like the stuff of science fiction, ion drives do power existing spacecraft. One advantage of using a gravitational tractor is that it would work regardless of the asteroid's structure. Given sufficient warning and time, a gravitational tractor could deflect the path of an asteroid known to be on a collision course enough to miss planet Earth.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

What's in the sky tonight?
February 22, 2013

-This evening the Moon is left of Procyon and below Castor and Pollux.

-Mercury (about magnitude –0.5) continues its excellent apparition in the evening twilight. Look for it low in the west-southwest as the sky darkens. No other point in the area is nearly so bright.

-Mars (magnitude +1.2) is disappearing into the sunset, moving ever farther to Mercury's lower right

-Comet Lemmon is passing through the Southern Hemisphere constellation of Tucana, just beside the Small Magellanic Cloud. Comet Lemmon is currently roughly Magnitude +5 and is expected to peak at Magnitude +3.0 come the beginning of April. The path is shown below.

News Posted Today:
February 21, 2013
Info on Russian Meteor Pours In


Astro Picture of the Day:
February 22, 2013

Source:
This remarkable self-portrait of NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover includes a sweeping panoramic view of its current location in the Yellowknife Bay region of the Red Planet's Gale Crater. The rover's flat, rocky perch, known as "John Klein", served as the site for Curiosity's first rock drilling activity. At the foot of the proud looking rover, a shallow drill test hole and a sample collection hole are 1.6 centimeters in diameter. The impressive mosaic was constructed using frames from the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Mastcam. Used to take in the panoramic landscape frames, the Mastcam is standing high above the rover's deck. But MAHLI, intended for close-up work, is mounted at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The MAHLI frames used to create Curiosity's self-portrait exclude sections that show the arm itself and so MAHLI and the robotic arm are not seen. Check out this spectacular interactive version of Curiosity's self-portrait panorama.