The Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News 04AUG2015
Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News - Blogger
August is often regarded as “meteor month,” with the appearance of one of the best displays of the year. And viewing circumstances will be nearly .
Five best places to watch the Perseid meteorshowers
Los Angeles Times
Star-gazers watch shooting stars above Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs, Calif. during previous Perseid meteor showers.
Watch the Perseids Meteor Shower Next Week: How and Where to See It
Science World Report
Want to see a meteor shower? Then next week may be your chance. The Perseid meteor shower will be in full swing, and you may be able to start ...
Keep your eyes on the skies for the Perseid meteorshower
Ashbourne News Telegraph
The skies over Ashbourne will be littered with shooting stars for a few days this month, as the annual Perseid meteor shower gets underway.
THE NIGHT SKY: August brings fireworks with meteorshower
South Wales Argus
From late July until mid to late August this annual festival of shooting stars always promises to be a treat, and this year, with the phase of the moon past ...
Skygazers prepare for Perseids meteor shower
NYC Today
According to reports, the Perseids meteor shower is approaching its peak, and it is expected that it will be the best meteor shower in many years.
Meteors over Wheaton party by Adler Planetarium, Cantigny nears
Suburban Life Publications
Cantigny Park will aim for an out-of-this-world experience in partnership with Chicago's Adler Planetarium for their Perseid MeteorShower Star Party.
Celestial Happenings: The Perseid Meteor Shower!
WVVA.com
The Perseid meteor shower is annual and noted as one of the best of the year. The peak for 2015 is the morning of August 13th, however, meteors are ...
Guide To Astronomical Events In August 2015: PerseidMeteor Shower, Super Moon, New Moon
Yibada (English Edition)
The most exciting astronomical event of August 2015 is Perseidmeteor shower. The shooting star event that peaks in mid-August will light up the night ...
Local radio operators will monitor Perseid meteor shower
South Shore Breaker
Local radio operators will monitor Perseid meteor shower. Kathy Johnson. Amateur radio operators Roger Sturtevant (left) and Jim Fisher are hoping ...
Perseid Party
KVNF Public Radio
“Look!” I said excitedly, a brilliant streak of light cut through the star-shimmering sky. This was my first experience with the PerseidMeteor shower.
Green meteor crosses the sky of Buenos Aires
MSN.com
A video has emerged of a meteor rushing through the Argentinian sky. The footage, shot on Thursday in...
Star Guide: Perseid meteor shower peaks August 11-14
Reno Gazette Journal
August is prime time for meteor watching in the northern hemisphere. The Perseid meteor shower reigns king during the warm evenings of midsummer ...
Sky programming slated at Cherry Springs State Park
Bradford Era
Then, visitors are invited for a Perseids meteor shower watch from 9:30 to 11 p.m. Monday and Aug. 11. Participants will learn about meteor showers ...
Event 1753-2015
Fireball event
IMO received 28 reports about a fireball seen over NC, VA, PA, NJ, NY, MD, Maryland, West Virginia, KY, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York on ...
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Tracking A Mysterious Group of Asteroid Outcasts
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 3, 2015
Fast Facts:
* A new NASA study has traced some members of the near-Earth asteroid
population back to their likely source.
* The source may be the Euphrosyne family of dark, asteroids on highly
inclined (or tilted) orbits in the outer asteroid belt.
* The study used data from NASA's NEOWISE space telescope, which has a
second life following its reactivation in 2013.
High above the plane of our solar system, near the asteroid-rich abyss
between Mars and Jupiter, scientists have found a unique family of space
rocks. These interplanetary oddballs are the Euphrosyne (pronounced you-FROH-seh-nee)
asteroids, and by any measure they have been distant, dark and mysterious
-- until now.
Distributed at the outer edge of the asteroid belt, the Euphrosynes have
an unusual orbital path that juts well above the ecliptic, the equator
of the solar system. The asteroid after which they are named, Euphrosyne
-- for an ancient Greek goddess of mirth -- is about 156 miles (260 kilometers)
across and is one of the 10 largest asteroids in the main belt. Current-day
Euphrosyne is thought to be a remnant of a massive collision about 700
million years ago that formed the family of smaller asteroids bearing
its name. Scientists think this event was one of the last great collisions
in the solar system.
A new study conducted by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California, used the agency's orbiting Near-Earth Object
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) telescope to look at these
unusual asteroids to learn more about Near Earth Objects, or NEOs, and
their potential threat to Earth.
NEOs are bodies whose orbits around the sun approach the orbit of Earth;
this population is short-lived on astronomical timescales and is fed by
other reservoirs of bodies in our solar system. As they orbit the sun,
NEOs can occasionally have close approaches to Earth. For this reason
alone -- the safety of our home planet -- the study of such objects is
important.
As a result of their study, the JPL researchers believe the Euphrosynes
may be the source of some of the dark NEOs found to be on long, highly
inclined orbits. They found that, through gravitational interactions
with Saturn, Euphrosyne asteroids can evolve into NEOs over timescales
of millions of years.
NEOs can originate in either the asteroid belt or the more distant outer
reaches of the solar system. Those from the asteroid belt are thought
to evolve toward Earth's orbit through collisions and the gravitational
influence of the planets. Originating well above the ecliptic and near
the far edge of the asteroid belt, the forces that shape their trajectories
toward Earth are far more moderate.
"The Euphrosynes have a gentle resonance with the orbit of Saturn that
slowly moves these objects, eventually turning some of them into NEOs,"
said Joseph Masiero, JPL's lead scientist on the Euphrosynes study. "This
particular gravitational resonance tends to push some of the larger fragments
of the Euphrosyne family into near-Earth space."
By studying the Euphrosyne family asteroids with NEOWISE, JPL scientists
have been able to measure their sizes and the amount of solar energy they
reflect. Since NEOWISE operates in the infrared portion of the spectrum,
it detects heat. Therefore, it can see dark objects far better than telescopes
operating at visible wavelengths, which sense reflected sunlight. Its
heat-sensing capability also allows it to measure sizes more accurately.
The 1,400 Euphrosyne asteroids studied by Masiero and his colleagues turned
out to be large and dark, with highly inclined and elliptical orbits.
These traits make them good candidates for the source of some of the dark
NEOs the NEOWISE telescope detects and discovers, particularly those that
also have highly inclined orbits.
NEOWISE was originally launched as an astrophysics mission in 2009 as
the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. It operated until 2011
and was then shut down. But the spacecraft, now dubbed NEOWISE, would
get a second life. "NEOWISE is a great tool for searching for near-Earth
asteroids, particularly high-inclination, dark objects," Masiero said.
There are over 700,000 asteroidal bodies currently known in the main belt
that range in size from large boulders to about 60 percent of the diameter
of Earth's moon, with many yet to be discovered. This makes finding the
specific point of origin of most NEOs extremely difficult.
With the Euphrosynes it's different. "Most near-Earth objects come from
a number of sources in the inner region of the main belt, and they are
quickly mixed around," Masiero said. "But with objects coming from this
family, in such a unique region, we are able to draw a likely path for
some of the unusual, dark NEOs we find back to the collision in which
they were born."
A better understanding of the origins and behaviors of these mysterious
objects will give researchers a clearer picture of asteroids in general,
and in particular the NEOs that skirt our home planet's neighborhood.
Such studies are important, and potentially critical, to the future of
humanity, which is a primary reason JPL and its partners continue to relentlessly
track these wanderers within our solar system. To date, U.S. assets have
discovered more than 98 percent of the known NEOs.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the
NEOWISE mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft.
Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing
and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages
and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose
orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth
Object Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information about NEOWISE, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/neowise
More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch
Media Contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
2015-256
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4678
2015 The SECOND Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
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