Meteorite explosion over Bucharest

Huge asteroid named 'Beast' to fly by Earth on Sunday

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NASA space telescope spots new asteroid

Meteorite strike may have caused loud boom in Quebec, Ontario

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A meteorite strike may have been seen and heard on Montreal's West Island, the Vaudreuil region and the Ottawa area on Tuesday night, according to multiple reports.

Social media in parts of Quebec and Ontario were buzzing with reports of a loud boom on Tuesday at about 8 p.m. E.T.

Quebec provincial police said they received several calls about the incident, and had no reports of explosions or fires.

Andrew Fazekas, a spokesman for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, felt the tremor from his home.

He told CBC it possibly could have been a shock wave caused by a meteorite entering the atmosphere. Experts will analyze the data Wednesday, to confirm whether it was a sonic boom.

No reports of damage

Fazekas speculates that a meteor, the size of a sofa to a compact car, may have fragmented with some bits making it to the ground.

He says on his website that scientists will now comb through the reports along with any photo and video evidence in order to triangulate the trajectory of the possible meteorite.

Although the fall of a meteor can often be detected by seismographs, Earthquake Canada says it has not registered any such event.

Fazekas added this appears to be a minor event since there are no reports of damage.

Huge Russian meteorite breaks after it's pulled out of lake

 

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Meet the asteroid that might hit Earth in 2880

Fox News

Radar image of 1950 DA acquired by the Arecibo Observatory on March 4, 2001. (NASA/JPL/S. Ostro)

By Jason Majors/
There are over 10,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) that have been identified so far — asteroids and comets of varying sizes that approach the Earth’s orbital distance to within about 28 million miles. Of the 10,000 discoveries, roughly 10 percent are larger than six-tenths of a mile in size — large enough to have disastrous global consequences should one impact the Earth.
This is one of them.
First discovered in February 1950, 1950 DA is a 1.1-kilometer-wide asteroid that was observed for 17 days and then disappeared from view. Then it was spotted again on Dec. 31, 2000 — literally on the eve of the 21st century. Coupled with radar observations made a few weeks later in March 2001 it was found that, along with a rather high rotation rate (2.1 hours), asteroid 1950 DA has a trajectory that will bring it very close to Earth on March 16, 2880. How close? Close enough that, within a specific 20-minute window, a collision can not be entirely ruled out.
Top 10 Ways to Stop an Asteroid
The image above was made from radar observations by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in March 2001, when 1950 DA passed within 4.8 million miles of Earth. Is this the mug shot of a future continent-killer?
Radar analysis and research of 1950 DA performed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists J.D. Giorgini, S. J. Ostro, Don Yeomans and several others from JPL and other institutions revealed that the impact probability from 1950 DA in March 2880 is, at most, 1 in 300 based on what is known about the asteroid so far.
1 in 300 may sound like a slim chance, but actually this represents a risk 50% greater than that of the average hazard due to all other asteroids from now to then.
However, that’s a maximum value. The study also noted the collision probability for 1950 DA as being in the range from 0 to 0.33%. That upper limit could increase or decrease as more is learned about the asteroid. (The next opportunity for studying 1950 DA via radar is in 2032.)
There are many factors that influence the path of an asteroid through space. Its spin rate, reflectivity (albedo), composition, mass, terrain variations… gravitational interactions with other bodies, some of which may not even have been discovered yet… all of these can affect the movement of an asteroid and, more specifically, its exact position at a future point in time. While many of these things still aren’t precisely known for 1950 DA, one in particular could end up being the saving grace for our descendants: the Yarkovsky effect.
PHOTOS: Russian Meteor Strike Aftermath
A small but important force acting upon asteroids, the Yarkovsky effect is a “nudge” created by thermal emission. As an asteroid gathers heat energy from the sun, it releases some of that energy back into space. Thanks to Newtonian mechanics the sheer act of doing so creates a physical push back on the asteroid itself, altering its course ever so slightly. Over a long span of time, this slight alteration could result in the relocation of 1950 DA away from the spot in space where Earth will be on March 16, 2880… at least enough so that a miss is certain.
In fact, recent research by JPL scientists D. Farnocchia and S.R. Chesley have taken into consideration the Yarkovsky effect on 1950 DA based on known values from previous observations, as well as new research suggesting that the asteroid has a retrograde rotation. While their latest assessment does put the risk of an impact in 2880 within the lower end of the probability spectrum (4×10^-4, or -0.58 on the Palermo Scale) it is still far from zero, and in fact remains higher than any other known potential impacts.
PHOTOS: NASA’s Asteroid Capture Mission
So what would happen if the half-mile-wide 1950 DA were to hit Earth? While that depends on a lot of things, such as its composition, speed, angle of impact, where it impacts, etc., needless to say it would cause a lot of damage across a large area. I’m talking an energy release upwards of half a million megatons, which, were it to strike say, New York City, everything within at least a 100-mile radius would be flattened by the force of the impact alone — that’s halfway to Boston and Washington, DC. And that’s not even taking into consideration the air blast, atmospheric dust cloud, secondary impacts from debris, or damage from any resulting tsunami (if the impact were in the ocean)… the destruction would easily extend out many more hundreds of miles, and the repercussions — physical, financial, economic, and emotional — would extend around the globe.
But again, precisely where 1950 DA will be in another 866 1/2 years (and whether or not it will occupy the same point in space as our planet) relies on many factors that aren’t well known — even though its orbit is pretty well understood. More in-depth observations will need to be made, and that is why asteroids like this must be carefully — and continually — watched.
Luckily, 35 generations offers plenty of time to improve our knowledge. According to JPL’s Near-Earth Object program, “If it is eventually decided 1950 DA needs to be diverted, the hundreds of years of warning could allow a method as simple as dusting the surface of the asteroid with chalk or charcoal, or perhaps white glass beads, or sending a solar sail spacecraft that ends by collapsing its reflective sail around the asteroid. These things would change the asteroids reflectivity and allow sunlight to do the work of pushing the asteroid out of the way.”
ANALYSIS: Meet Asteroid 2013 MZ5, 10,000th Near-Earth Object
Still, whether because of ongoing research, faith in future generations of scientists, or just sheer probability, JPL remains confident that 1950 DA should cause little concern. “The most likely result will be that St. Patrick’s Day parades in 2880 will be a little more festive than usual as 1950 DA recedes into the distance, having passed Earth by.”
Let’s just hope the luck of the Irish is with our planet big time that year…

Asteroid 1998 QE2 has a moon, radar shows

cosmiclog

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

When astronomers analyzed radar readings to create their first maps of 1998 QE2, the big asteroid that's due to sail past Earth on Friday, they were surprised to find that it has a moon twice as big as an ocean liner.

1998 QE2 itself is way bigger: The latest readings from NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif., are consistent with earlier estimates that the asteroid is about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers wide). But the moon is hefty as well. Astronomers estimate its diameter at 2,000 feet (600 meters). That's big enough to wipe out an area of the size of Virginia if it were to strike land.

Fortunately, neither space rock will come any closer than 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers), or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon, during a flyby that reaches its climax at 4:59 p.m. ET Friday.

Even though Earth is in no danger, the close encounter is stirring up interest because it gives astronomers a rare opportunity to see an asteroid up close. Such observations could help NASA plan for efforts as the Osiris-Rex mission, which will bring back a sample from the asteroid Bennu in 2023; and an even more ambitious mission to corral an asteroid by the mid-2020s.

Goldstone's first radar observations of 1998 QE2 were made on Wednesday evening, producing images with a resolution of about 250 feet (75 meters) per pixel. The pictures show that QE2 has a rotation period of less than four hours, and is marked by several dark surface features that are suggestive of large craters. In an image advisory, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that the image resolution will get better as more radar readings become available, from Goldstone as well as the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Explosion on moon

Bright explosion on moon visible from Earth, NASA says

NASA

An explosion on the moon was caused by a meteor hitting the surface 

and was visible on Earth to the naked eye.

(CNN) -- A meteoroid struck the surface of the moon recently, causing an explosion that was visible on Earth without the aid of a telescope, NASA reported Friday. But don't be alarmed if you didn't see it; it only lasted about a second.

"It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before," said Bill Cooke, of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

NASA astronomers have been monitoring the moon for the past eight years, looking for explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. It's part of a program to find new fields of space debris that could hit Earth. NASA says it sees hundreds of detectable lunar meteoroid impacts a year.

None however can match the size of the explosion they say they saw March 17. NASA says the meteoroid was about 40 kilograms and less than a meter wide, and it hit the moon's surface at 56,000 mph. It glowed like a 4th magnitude star, NASA says, thanks to an explosion equivalent to 5 tons of TNT.

"It jumped right out at me, it was so bright," said Ron Suggs of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Cooke says Earth was pelted by meteoroids at about the same time, but they hit the moon because it has no atmosphere to protect it.

"We'll be keeping an eye out for signs of a repeat performance next year when the Earth-moon system passes through the same region of space," Cooke said.

If you're wondering how there can be an explosion on the moon, without oxygen, NASA has the answer for you. It says the flash of light comes not from any type of combustion -- as we typically think of explosions -- but rather by the glowing molten rock at the impact site.

A Three-Mile-Long Asteroid Buzzes the Earth

NASA's Asteroid Advice? 'Pray'

foxnews

In the wake of last month's meteor strike in Russia and a close asteroid flyby on the same day, members of Congress asked NASA, White House and Air Force officials what they're doing to combat the threat of near-Earth asteroids during a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
"The answer to you is, 'if it's coming in three weeks, pray,'" space agency chief Charles Bolden said, in response to Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), who asked what NASA would do if a large asteroid headed on a collision course with Earth was discovered today with only three weeks before impact.
"The reason I can't do anything in the next three weeks is because for decades we have put it off."

'If it's coming in three weeks, pray. I can't do anything in the next three weeks because for decades we've put it off.'

- NASA chief Charles Bolden, when asked what to do if a large asteroid headed on a collision course with Earth were discovered today

By and large, the experts stressed that the two space rock events were a coincidence and that the chance of a catastrophic asteroid impact to Earth any time soon is remote. On Feb. 15, a surprise meteor exploded in the sky over Russia's Ural Mountains, just hours before the 150-foot-wide asteroid 2012 DA14 flew close by Earth in a pass that had been predicted beforehand by scientists.
"The odds of a near-Earth object strike causing massive causalities and destruction of infrastructure are very small, but the potential consequences of such an event are so large that it makes sense to take the risk seriously," John Holdren, science advisor to President Barack Obama, told the Science, Space and Technology Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Still, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, said it was "not reassuring" to learn that NASA has so far detected only about 10 percent of the near-Earth objects that are wider than 87 miles across. Holdren estimated that there may be hundreds of thousands of such objects within one-third the distance from Earth to the sun that remain unknown. [Meteor Streaks Over Russia, Explodes (Photos)]
In 2005, Congress directed NASA to detect, track and characterize 90 percent of these space rocks —those near-Earth asteroids larger than 87 miles. Bolden said today that NASA was unlikely to meet that deadline given its current budget.
"Our estimate right now is at the present budget levels it will be 2030 before we're able to reach the 90 percent level as prescribed by Congress," Bolden said.
Bolden criticized the lawmakers for slowing NASA down through budget cuts. "You all told us to do something, and between the administration and the Congress, the bottom line is the funding did not come," Bolden said.
Furthermore, he said the goal of finding a way to respond to asteroid threats has been repeatedly put off by lawmakers who cite a lack of money.
Budget concerns also hamper the military's ability to monitor near-Earth objects and other space threats, such as orbital debris (defunct satellites and spent rocket stages that litter Earth orbit).
"We are clearly less capable under sequestration," Gen. William Shelton, the current commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, told the committee. He said that any further budget cuts could have dire consequences.
"Our dependence on space, not only for our way of life but also for military operations, is very high, so we would sacrifice that," Shelton said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/20/asteroid-threat-earthly-budgets/?intcmp=features#ixzz2O7bCF2zY

¿De dónde vino el meteorito de Cheliábinsk?

microsiervos

Chelyabinsk Meteor Flash: el Metorito de Cheliábinsk fotografiado por Marat Ametvaleev como Imagen Astronómica del Día del 24 de febrero de 2013

Aunque el meteorito de Cheliábinsk pilló a todo el mundo por sorpresa los datos registrados por la red de detectores de infrasonidos del Sistema Internacional de Vigilancia de la Organización del Tratado de Prohibición Completa de los Ensayos Nucleares ha permitido refinar los datos sobre su tamaño y calcular su trayectoria, tal y como se puede leer en What Exploded over Russia?

Estos detectores responden a los pequeños cambios de presión atmosférica que provocan los infrasonidos, aquellos con una frecuencia menor de 10 hercios y que los humanos somos incapaces de oír, y 17 de los 45 detectores de la CTBTO grabaron el paso de lo que luego se supo que era el meteorito de Cheliábinsk, el más lejano de ellos a 15.000 kilómetros de Cheliábinsk, en la Antártida.

Con sus datos el físico Peter Brown de la Universidad de Ontario Oeste ha estimado que el asteroide medía unos 17 metros de diámetro y que pesaba 10.000 toneladas métricas, que entró en la atmósfera terrestre a unos 72.000 kilómetros por hora, que se desintegró a una altura de entre 25,15 y 27 kilómetros, y que su explosión liberó una energía superior a los 470 kilotones.

La onda expansiva de la explosión provocó daños por varios millones de euros y causó heridas a algo más de mil personas, sobre todo a causa de los cristales rotos que cayeron sobre ellas.

Trayectorias del asteroide de Cheliábinsk y de 2012 DA14

Además, dado que obviamente no todas las estaciones del SIV recibieron los infrasonidos al mismo tiempo, han sido capaces de determinar la trayectoria del asteroide, que por lo visto venía del cinturón de asteroides del sistema solar, confirmando que su órbita no tiene nada que ver con la de 2012 DA14, que la noche del 15 de febrero pasó también al lado de la Tierra en una coincidencia cósmica.

(Agunos datos vía CTBTO).

Todos los meteoritos de los que tenemos constancia, en un mapa

microsiervos

Se calcula que cada día caen sobre la Tierra unas cien toneladas de material procedente del espacio. La inmensa mayoría de este se quema en la atmósfera.

Pero tal y como nos recordó el meteorito hace unos días en Cheliábinsk, a veces no es ni necesario que lleguen a tierra, conviertiéndose entonces en meteoritos, para causar daño.

En Every meteorite fall on earth mapped hay un mapa interactivo de todos aquellos de los que tenemos constancia.

Figuran datos del nombre del lugar, si se encontraron restos, el tipo de meteorito, el peso de los restos encontrados en miles de gramos, y el año.

Video del meteorito kubiche

y  aqui >>

[Video] Cae-explota meteorito en Cuba

ta'bien que los kubiches tengan tambien su meteorito, pero no podian buscar un astronomo para que brindara la informacion en vez de un antropologo? curioso signo de los nuevos tiempos en cuba, es que pescadores furtivos del remoto pueblo de rodas anden con su celular para grabar el viajante cosmico extraviado.

Video of asteroid 2012 DA14’s flyby and fade out online

 

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Video: Huge hole as Russian meteor smashes into icy lake

RussiaToday

An aerial meteorite explosion has wreaked havoc in Russia's Urals. The video shows a tremendous hole in Chebarkul Lake made by meteorite debris.

Videos of meteor fireball screams across the sky in Russia

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Potentially Hazardous Rock Makes First Pass by Earth

A European space telescope has captured new images of the huge asteroid Apophis, revealing that the potentially hazardous object is actually bigger than previously thought — and you have a chance to see the space rock yourself in two free webcasts tonight.

Asteroid Apophis has long been billed as a "doomsday asteroid" because of a 2004 study that predicted a 2.7 percent chance of the space rock hitting Earth when it passes within 22,364 miles of the planet in April 2029, European Space Agency officials said. Later studies proved, however, that the asteroid poses no threat to Earth during that flyby, but astronomers continue to track the object since it will make another pass near Earth in 2036.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/09/potentially-dangerous-asteroid-apophis-bigger-than-thought-see-it-online/#ixzz2HWBfrT00

Un asteroide pasará entre la Tierra y la Luna en febrero

lamentiraestaahifuer

CNN

Un asteroide pasará relativamente cerca a la Tierra el próximo 15 de febrero. Tanto, que transitará entre nuestro planeta y la Luna y estará mucho más próximo que incluso algunos satélites de telecomunicaciones en órbita.

El asteroide, que fue detectado por la Agencia Espacial Europea en marzo pasado, pasará a sólo 22.000 kilómetros del globo. La distancia de la Tierra a la Luna es de alrededor de 384.000 kilómetros.

“Pasará muy cerca pero no va a impactar la Tierra, eso lo sabemos. Va a pasar por la órbita de nuestros satélites, los que toman imágenes meteorológicas y los de GPS, pero es poco probable que choque contra ellos”, dijo Chad Myers, experto climático de CNN.
El asteroide, llamado 2012 DA14, tiene alrededor de 50 metros de diámetro y según Myers no será lo suficientemente brillante para que pueda verse en el cielo sin ayuda aparatos.
Los científicos aún no tienen certeza el efecto que la gravedad de la Tierra tendrá en la trayectoria del asteroide.