A meteor or fireball sighting was reported across Scotland and the United Kingdom. Reports of a fireball filtered in to numerous police agencies across the UK shortly after 9:40 pm after the shooting star flashed across the sky. The event was seen by hundreds of people across Northern England with some impressive video shot of the fireball streaking across the sky.
Most reports described the fireball as being bright orange with a bluish or greenish tail. It very well have been the re-entry of this Chinese Long March Rocket. From the videos, it appeared the object was moving slower than typical meteor entries. The fireball could very well have been caused by re-entry of a made object like the Chinese Rocket.
Source: Guardian News Report
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Neptune
Jupiter is not the only planet in our solar system that harbors a “Great Spot.” Along with Uranus, Neptune also harbors a greats spot within its planetary atmosphere. These spots are a result of a atmospheric disturbances on Neptune that manifests themselves as giant storm systems with winds swirling at a thousand miles or more.
The storms on Neptune are not quite a permanent as Jupiter's red spot. A spot was first observed in the southern hemisphere of Neptune as Voyager to made a pass in 1989. Just five years later, the Hubble telescope observed that the southern hemispheric storm dissipated and a new spot was observed in the northern hemisphere. More recent observations show even more sporadic spot development and dissipation. Some of these spots are the result of large circulations, while others may be large cloud systems.
These storms are generated in the swirling winds of the Neptunian atmosphere. This atmosphere is quite complex, with low, middle, and high clouds, all made up of different material and structure. On Earth we have different names of all of our cloud types. Imagine that on Neptune you would have to come up with an entirely new classification system for clouds!
Some of these clouds build into towering complexes that burst through to the top of the Neptunian atmosphere, which appear as great white spots from ground and space based telescopes.
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun, orbiting at about 2.8 billions miles from the Sun. Since it has an atmosphere that readily radiates heat from the dark side of the planet at it highest level, Neptune is known to harbor some of the coldest temperatures within our solar sytem, even colder than Pluto.
The storms on Neptune are not quite a permanent as Jupiter's red spot. A spot was first observed in the southern hemisphere of Neptune as Voyager to made a pass in 1989. Just five years later, the Hubble telescope observed that the southern hemispheric storm dissipated and a new spot was observed in the northern hemisphere. More recent observations show even more sporadic spot development and dissipation. Some of these spots are the result of large circulations, while others may be large cloud systems.
These storms are generated in the swirling winds of the Neptunian atmosphere. This atmosphere is quite complex, with low, middle, and high clouds, all made up of different material and structure. On Earth we have different names of all of our cloud types. Imagine that on Neptune you would have to come up with an entirely new classification system for clouds!
Some of these clouds build into towering complexes that burst through to the top of the Neptunian atmosphere, which appear as great white spots from ground and space based telescopes.
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun, orbiting at about 2.8 billions miles from the Sun. Since it has an atmosphere that readily radiates heat from the dark side of the planet at it highest level, Neptune is known to harbor some of the coldest temperatures within our solar sytem, even colder than Pluto.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Uranus
The butt of many jokes while I was growing up, the planet Uranus was known as the “butt” planet among the gang of kids I ran with in my younger days. And since Uranus is considered one of the gas giants, the most famous saying of all: The gases of Uranus are not safe to inhale, it would kill us all" was mentioned quite often to kiddie giggles.
Now we are heading to the outer reaches of the solar system in our trek across our little ring planets. Uranus orbits the sun at about 1.7 billion miles with some variation in its elliptical orbit. The rotational spin of Uranus is unlike any of the other designated planets within the Solar System.
Uranus sits at 97 degrees with respect to the plane of its elliptical orbit, nearly pointing a pole at the Sun during solstice period. This results in either one or the other pole in receiving nearly 42 years of “summer” or “winter.” However, Uranus is actually warmer at its equator, due to some unknown internal process occurring within its atmosphere.
Rings were first definitively observer at Uranus in 1977 by Dunham and Mink using the Kupier Airborne Observatory while studying a star ocultation. Some mention of rings were also mentioned by William Herschel. The rings were seen one again when Voyager 2 made a pass in 1986.
Source of factual information: Uranus on Wikipedia
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Bolide Meteor Streaks Across Texas and Oklahoma Skies
Last Wednesday night, an object was seen streaking across the skies in Texas and Oklahoma. This object was most likely a meteor about the size ranging from a human fist or as large as a human head, which entered the Earth's atmosphere and created a fiery display.
It is unclear whether the meteor reached the ground. However, according to the Meteor Hunter's blog, there is a possibility that some debris landed around the Edgewood are in Texas. A number of all-sky cameras captured the event, as well as the OKC Sandia Sentinel radar.
You can also see a compilation of some of the TV news reports about the meteor's entry.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Saturn
One of the coolest astronomical events I witnessed growing did not happen as I watched the sky. It occurred watching television. Live imagery being beamed back to Earth from the Voyager I mission. I was young at the time, it was 1980, and a fledgling 24 hour news channel was running live broadcasts from NASA showing the spacecraft's approach to the ringed planet. Images of Saturn's rings appeared line by line across a CRT at Voyager's mission control center. What I witnessed astonished me, as well as many NASA scientists at the time, as raw close up images gradually appeared of Saturn's rings. I recall seeing for the first time, complex structures within Saturn's rings. Such complexity within the rings of Saturn was never dreamed of as only blurry telescopic shots of the ring were all that was available at that time.
Twenty years prior to the visit to Saturn, Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick collaborated on a movie and book project that had a profound impact on how space exploration was depicted in movies. However, there was one notable change made in the movie script that departed from the novel. The book continued the voyage onward to Saturn, while the movie script stopped the voyage at Jupiter.
In a commentary to the 30 year edition to 2001, Arthur C. Clarke makes note of the decision to stop the movie script mission at Jupiter as being a fortuitous decision. The net effect was to make the movie more visually appealling since big discoveries on Saturn were still to be made with the Voyage mission. Sticking to a visit to Jupiter in the film allowed 2001 to stand the test of time. Kubrick and Clarke would have never dreamed of adding such special effects to the rings of Saturn if they were to continue to Saturn within the movie script.
Not only is Saturn's ring system complex and varied. There are an astonishing number of moons orbiting Saturn. There are 62 moons orbiting the ringed planet. And these range in size from just a few kilometers in size, to the second largest moon in the solar system with Titan. Titan is big enough to have its own atmosphere.
More recent observations by the Cassini spacecraft revealed more interesting intricacies within the rings of Saturn. since the first 'moonlet' observations in 2006, hundreds more of these objects have been found within the rings of Saturn.
Twenty years prior to the visit to Saturn, Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick collaborated on a movie and book project that had a profound impact on how space exploration was depicted in movies. However, there was one notable change made in the movie script that departed from the novel. The book continued the voyage onward to Saturn, while the movie script stopped the voyage at Jupiter.
In a commentary to the 30 year edition to 2001, Arthur C. Clarke makes note of the decision to stop the movie script mission at Jupiter as being a fortuitous decision. The net effect was to make the movie more visually appealling since big discoveries on Saturn were still to be made with the Voyage mission. Sticking to a visit to Jupiter in the film allowed 2001 to stand the test of time. Kubrick and Clarke would have never dreamed of adding such special effects to the rings of Saturn if they were to continue to Saturn within the movie script.
Not only is Saturn's ring system complex and varied. There are an astonishing number of moons orbiting Saturn. There are 62 moons orbiting the ringed planet. And these range in size from just a few kilometers in size, to the second largest moon in the solar system with Titan. Titan is big enough to have its own atmosphere.
More recent observations by the Cassini spacecraft revealed more interesting intricacies within the rings of Saturn. since the first 'moonlet' observations in 2006, hundreds more of these objects have been found within the rings of Saturn.
Friday, December 9, 2011
NASA Follows an Active Launch Schedule in 2012
NASA will devote a considerable amount of time to testing rockets and space vehicles in 2012. Other missions that partner with the Russians will shuffle the crews back and forth from the International Space Station. There is also mission on tap to send a space telescope to study X-rays coming from deep space.
The brunt of the heavy lifting in 2012 will fall to the Russians and the venerable Soyuz spacecraft. Various forms of the Soyuz spacecraft has been operating since its first flight took place in 1966 as an unmanned spacecraft. There are four Soyuz launches scheduled for 2012. The Soyuz launches will take place in March, May, October, and November. All of the Soyuz launches will occur at Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The Russians will also offer the launch facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome to the European Space Agency. A robotic arm will be carried atop a Proton rocket to the International Space Agency in May. The European Robotic Arm will be used in the Russian module of the International Space Agency. The arm will be used to ferry external payloads around the space station, and can also be used to move astronauts around external portions of the space station.
A new space telescope will will be headed for the heavens in the spring of 2014. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope will launch from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. The mission, called NuSTAR will place a high energy x-ray telescope in Earth orbit. NuSTAR is expected outperform Earth based telescopes, and will help scientists count how many black holes are our universe.
NASA will also test vehicles as a part of the commercial space program. Vehicle test launches will occur in January, February an May. The tests will be of the Falcon 9, and there will be two tests of the Cygnus/Taurus II vehicle.
There will be two launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Atlas V rocket will be used in both launches. One rocket will carry the Radiation Belt Storm Probes into low Earth orbit in August. The other Atlas V will carry a tracking an communications satellite into Earth orbit late in the year.
Even though the space shuttle program has ended, NASA still remains active in 2012, and there are even more exciting mission expected to start in 2013.
Source:
NASA Launch Schedule
The brunt of the heavy lifting in 2012 will fall to the Russians and the venerable Soyuz spacecraft. Various forms of the Soyuz spacecraft has been operating since its first flight took place in 1966 as an unmanned spacecraft. There are four Soyuz launches scheduled for 2012. The Soyuz launches will take place in March, May, October, and November. All of the Soyuz launches will occur at Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The Russians will also offer the launch facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome to the European Space Agency. A robotic arm will be carried atop a Proton rocket to the International Space Agency in May. The European Robotic Arm will be used in the Russian module of the International Space Agency. The arm will be used to ferry external payloads around the space station, and can also be used to move astronauts around external portions of the space station.
A new space telescope will will be headed for the heavens in the spring of 2014. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope will launch from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. The mission, called NuSTAR will place a high energy x-ray telescope in Earth orbit. NuSTAR is expected outperform Earth based telescopes, and will help scientists count how many black holes are our universe.
NASA will also test vehicles as a part of the commercial space program. Vehicle test launches will occur in January, February an May. The tests will be of the Falcon 9, and there will be two tests of the Cygnus/Taurus II vehicle.
There will be two launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Atlas V rocket will be used in both launches. One rocket will carry the Radiation Belt Storm Probes into low Earth orbit in August. The other Atlas V will carry a tracking an communications satellite into Earth orbit late in the year.
Even though the space shuttle program has ended, NASA still remains active in 2012, and there are even more exciting mission expected to start in 2013.
Source:
NASA Launch Schedule
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