Meteor/Meteorite News- 6NOV09

Meteor explodes over Indonesia

Examiner.com
Estimates of the meteor's size range from 5 to 10 meters. Had it survived to hit the ground, it could have done considerable damage to the area around its ...

Leonid meteor shower coming in mid-November

Examiner.com
The Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak just before dawn on November 18, 2009. Starting in the evening on November 17 and continuing to approximately ...

Begin watching for Taurid fireballs tonight

ScienceDude (blog)
Map courtesy of Spaceweather.com Most people have heard of the annual Perseid meteor shower, which reaches its peak during a night-long period every August. ...

Media: Hit or Miss - Latvian mobile phone firm's staged meteorite crash blows ... PRWeek UK Fake crater - A mobile phone company in Latvia was slammed for staging a 'meteorite crash'. Tele2 said the stunt was designed to give people something ...

Ice chunks from sky batter a North Side house Chicago Tribune "Was it a meteorite?" asked Michele Halleran of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as she looked at a picture, the question reflecting the complications ...

Unusual meteorite found by time-lapse camera observatory

Natural History Museum
An unusual meteorite with an interesting orbit has been tracked to the ground using a photographic observatory that records time-lapse images of fireballs ...

Unusual meteorite found by time-lapse camera observatory
PhysOrg Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:52 PM PST
(PhysOrg.com) -- An unusual meteorite with an interesting orbit has been tracked to the ground using a photographic observatory that records time-lapse images of fireballs traveling across the sky.

Leonids meteor shower set to spark November skies

TheJambar.com (subscription)
The Leonids meteor shower is expected to produce upwards of 500 meteors per hour on Nov. 17. While Youngstown is not the best area to see the better part of ...

Spectacular meteor shower forecast on Nov. 17

Inquirer.net
17 and you may view a spectacular meteor shower, possibly even a meteor storm, meteorologists said. Radiating from the constellation Leo, the Leonids meteor ...

Leonid meteor shower is coming

Global Times
Leonid, which means meteor shower of Leo, will reach its climax in the predawn hours of November 18. The period of 4 pm November 17 to 8 am November 18, ...

November nights bring easy viewing, meteor shower Seattle Times Western Washington residents should look for a nice view of Jupiter and its moons in November, and the spectacular Leonids meteor shower midmonth. ...

Spacecraft's data upset theories about origins, evolution of Mercury Baltimore Sun Its interior is surprisingly smooth and free of subsequent meteor impact craters, suggesting there were lava flows into the center as recently as a billion ...

Observing the Taurid meteor shower

Examiner.com
The peak of this year's Taurid meteor shower begins tonight and lasts throughout the coming week. There are actually two related groups of meteors falling ...

John Deere Planetarium Presents Holiday Show

Quad-Cities Online
... browse the Getz-Rogers Gallery, which includes full-color images from the Hubble Space Telescope and a quarter-ton piece of the Canyon Diablo meteorite. ...

Ecuador Meteor/Meteorite News- Daule, Ecuador Meteorite Fall Recovered 23MAR08 5NOV09

The Daule (provisional name) meteorite fell at approximately 9:00 am on 23 March, 2008 near the city of Daule in Ecuador. This is Ecuador`s first meteorite on record.
Mike Farmer and Hans Koser have recovered a second stone of 6,580 grams from the fall. In all, three stones were witnessed to have fallen, but only two have been recovered to date.

NEWSPAPER links to articles about the Daule meteorite fall Click here for article.

Mike Farmer (left) and Hans Koser (right) holding the second mass of Daule that they recently recovered.
For more details and photos:
http://www.meteoritehunter.com/

Meteor/Meteorite News- 5NOV09

The Taurid Meteor Shower

San Diego Reader
By Jerry Schad | Posted November 4, 2009, 9:47 am The Taurid Meteor Shower, featuring about 10-15 visible events per hour -- as seen under clear, ...

BBC News

Messenger spies iron at Mercury

BBC News
... measurements of Mercury's "atmosphere", the extremely tenuous cloud of atoms which is lifted off the surface by solar activity and micro-meteorite impacts. ...


The end of the world

Dickinson Press
A large soaring meteor with a tail that reaches from here to the moon could hit us tomorrow. Or the Yellowstone National It could happen any day. ...

Meteor/Meteorite Nerws- Science`s Praise to the Almighty! 4NOV09

Science`s Praise to the Almighty!
featuring Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye

Meteor/Meteorite News- 4NOV09

France Obit Levi Strauss

Suomen Kuvalehti
... director of the Smithsonian's astrophysical laboratory at Cambridge, Massachusetts, inspect a meteorite fragment which fell in western Canada in 1960, ...

VERITAS and Fermi Findings; Parachute Problems

AccuWeather.com
The Taurid meteor shower peaks this week, too. Although this shower, which is at its maximum from the 5th-12th, only averages about 5 meteors per hour, ...

Leonid meteors are up next

Baltimore Sun
Astronomers are predicting an exceptional year for the annual Leonid meteor shower, which will peak two weeks from today. The Leonids are among the best ...

Taurid Meteor Shower coming... likely not as great as coming Leonids.

KOLD-TV
By Chuck George - email TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) - The earth is about to fly through a leftover tail of a comet called Encke. Have you ever seen a fireball, ...

Meteor/Meteorite News- Comet Dust has `Ultra-Primative` Particles 3NOV0

'Ultra-primitive' particles found in comet dust

Washington, D.C.—Dust samples collected by high-flying aircraft in the upper atmosphere have yielded an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution. The stratospheric dust includes minute grains that likely formed inside stars that lived and died long before the birth of our sun, as well as material from molecular clouds in interstellar space. This "ultra-primitive" material likely wafted into the atmosphere after the Earth passed through the trail of an Earth-crossing comet in 2003, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study cometary dust in the laboratory.

At high altitudes, most dust in the atmosphere comes from space, rather than the Earth's surface. Thousands of tons of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) enter the atmosphere each year. "We've known that many IDPs come from comets, but we've never been able to definitively tie a single IDP to a particular comet," says study coauthor Larry Nittler, of Carnegie's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. "The only known cometary samples we've studied in the laboratory are those that were returned from comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust mission." The Stardust mission used a NASA-launched spacecraft to collect samples of comet dust, returning to Earth in 2006.

Comets are thought to be repositories of primitive, unaltered matter left over from the formation of the solar system. Material held for eons in cometary ice has largely escaped the heating and chemical processing that has affected other bodies, such as the planets. However, the Wild 2 dust returned by the Stardust mission included more altered material than expected, indicating that not all cometary material is highly primitive.

The IDPs used in the current study were collected by NASA aircraft in April 2003, after the Earth passed through the dust trail of comet Gregg-Skjellerup. The research team, which included Carnegie scientists Nittler, Henner Busemann (now at the University of Manchester, U.K.), Ann Nguyen, George Cody, and seven other colleagues, analyzed a sub-sample of the dust to determine the chemical, isotopic and microstructural composition of its grains. The results are reported on-line in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.*

"What we found is that they are very different from typical IDPs" says Nittler. "They are more primitive, with higher abundances of material whose origin predates the formation of the solar system." The distinctiveness of the particles, plus the timing of their collection after the Earth's passing through the comet trail, point to their source being the Gregg-Skjellerup comet.

"This is exciting because it allows us to compare on a microscopic scale in the laboratory dust particles from different comets," says Nittler. "We can use them as tracers for different processes that occurred in the solar system four-and-a-half billion years ago."

The biggest surprise for the researchers was the abundance of so-called presolar grains in the dust sample. Presolar grains are tiny dust particles that formed in previous generations of stars and in supernova explosions before the formation of the solar system. Afterwards, they were trapped in our solar system as it was forming and are found today in meteorites and in IDPs. Presolar grains are identified by having extremely unusual isotopic compositions compared to anything else in the solar system. But presolar grains are generally extremely rare, with abundances of just a few parts per million in even the most primitive meteorites, and a few hundred parts per million in IDPs. "In the IDPs associated with comet Gregg-Skjellerup they are up to the percent level," says Nittler. "This is tens of times higher abundances than we see in other primitive materials."

Also surprising is the comparison with the samples from Wild 2 collected by the Stardust mission. "Our samples seem to be much more primitive, much less processed, than the samples from Wild 2," says Nittler, "which might indicate that there is a huge diversity in the degree of processing of materials in different comets."

###

This work was supported by NASA's Cosmochemistry (NNG004GF61G) and Origins of the Solar System (NNX07AJ71G) programs, the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), the Office of Naval Research and the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The NASA Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office provided the IDPs for the research.

*Busemann, H., et al., Ultra-primitive interplanetary dust particles from the comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup dust stream collection, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. (2009), doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.09.007

Authors and affiliations:

Henner Busemann, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution (now at University of Manchester, U.K.)
Ann N. Nguyen, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution
George D. Cody, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution
Peter Hoppe, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany
A.L. David Kilcoyne, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Rhonda M. Stroud, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Thomas J. Zega, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Larry R. Nittler, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution

The Carnegie Institution (www.CIW.edu) has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), founded in 1998, is a partnership between NASA, 16 U.S. teams, and five international consortia. NAI's goal is to promote, conduct, and lead interdisciplinary astrobiology research and to train a new generation of astrobiology researchers. For more information, see http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai.

Public release date: 2-Nov-2009

Contact: Larry Nittler
lnittler@ciw.edu
202-478-8460
Carnegie Institution

Meteor/Meteorite News- Bacteria Could Survive in Martian Soil 3NOV09

Bacteria Could Survive in Martian Soil
Written by Nicholos Wethington
Universe Today
October 30, 2009

Multiple missions have been sent to Mars with the hopes of testing the
surface of the planet for life - or the conditions that could create
life - on the Red Planet. The question of whether life in the form of
bacteria (or something even more exotic!) exists on Mars is hotly debated,
and still requires a resolute yes or no. Experiments done right here on Earth
that simulate the conditions on Mars and their effects on terrestrial
bacteria show that it is entirely possible for certain strains of bacteria
to weather the harsh environment of Mars. ... (more)
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/30/bacteria-could-survive-in-martian-soil/

Sources: Arxiv papers:
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0910.4830

http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0706.0530

Meteor/Meteorite News- 3NOV09

EYE ON THE SKY Honolulu Star-Bulletin Meteor experts expect this year's Leonid shower to be a wonderful show. Meteor showers occur when Earth moves through debris from a nearby comet. ... Leonid Meteor Shower Recalled by International Astronomical Union The Spoof (satire) Mount Palomar, CA (IPP)- The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has issued a recall for the Leonid meteor shower which originally had been scheduled for ... Heavenly half-storm nears NewsOK.com By Wayne Harris-Wyrick Comments 0 This year has been a bit of a bust for meteor showers. For the normally good Perseids, back in August, a third-quarter ... Week of Nov. 8-14, 2009 Creators Syndicate And if a body is large enough to survive its plunge through our atmosphere and crash to Earth, it then has a new name: a "meteorite. ...

Meteor shower over Sri Lanka Daily Mirror By Yohan Perera The astronomical phenomenon known as Leonids Meteor Shower will be visible in the Sri Lankan skies on November 17 and 18, Sir Arthur C. ...

STAR TRAK

Indiana University
The annual Leonid meteor shower will peak on the night of Nov. 17-18, just one day after new moon. If the weather cooperates, the absence of moonlight will ...

skywatch: Leonid meteor shower, Jupiter AZ Central.com Callisto is an icy world, scarred by billions of years of meteor impacts. And Europa holds a liquid ocean beneath its frozen crust. ... See all stories on this topic

Red Phone: ufos in South Valley? Gilroy Dispatch Red Phone: Dear UFO Watcher, We're not sure what spied, but we're pretty sure it wasn't a comet or meteor. There was a major meteor shower that did come ...

Strong Leonid meteor showers expected Nov. 17

msnbc.com
17 on your calendar, for early that morning a moderate to possibly very strong showing of annual Leonid meteor shower is likely. ...

The Pilot

Awe for creation, pursuit of truth benefits science, pope says

The Pilot
By Carol Glatz Pope Benedict XVI examines a meteorite from Mars while visiting the new headquarters of the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, ...



Don't miss the meteor shower

The Nation
"If the sky is clear, we will see more than 100 meteors streaming down as the clock ticks past midnight," National Astronomical Research Institute of ...

Meteor/Meteorite New- 2NOV09

Is This the Global Warming Ad that Will Wake Us Up?

TheTyee.ca
It's as if the scientists have all told us quite clearly that Earth will be hit with a large meteorite, but people go about their lives as per normal. ...

Preparing for a big bang that fizzles

Philadelphia Inquirer
Jules is a marine biologist who, by observing the behavior of a quartet of damselfish, divines almost the exact moment when a meteor will strike Earth. ...

Meteor PR stunt backfires

guardian.co.uk
For starters there was no sign of any meteor, while on closer inspection the eagle-eyed experts noted a series of distinct shovel marks and suspicious ...

Meteoryt czy dowcip?

Gazeta.pl - Poland
Czy to był naprawdę meteoryt czy tylko dowcip? Ale kilka rzeczy jest tu dość zagadkowych, doniesienia mediów są sprzeczne i dlatego trudno powiedzieć, ...

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (11.01.09): Crater
The Aero-News Network Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:11 AM PST
Crater A bowl-shaped depression caused by a comet or meteorite colliding with the surface of a planet, moon, or asteroid. On geologically active moons and planets (like Earth), craters can result from volcanic activity.

Colorado skies: Light from the sun can resemble blood on the moon

The Coloradoan
The Leonid meteor shower will reach its peak activity during the early morning hours of Nov. 16-17. Although the Leonid display this year will be no match ...

HULIQ

Leonid meteor shower to put on a show November 17th

HULIQ
With no light from the moon to obscure the light show, the Leonid Meteor shower is expected to put on a dazzling display which will peak the early morning ...



Star Gazer: Mars will be big and bright, but not enormous

NRToday.com
November brings the Leonid Meteor Shower. This display of dusty debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle will peak on the morning of November 17 at about 1 am About ...

Fiction Book Reviews: 11/2/2009

Publishers Weekly
... who believes she witnessed a meteor's fall, embarks on a search of small islands near her Maine home to locate pieces of the meteorite to sell on eBay. ...

Meteor/Meteorite News- 1NOV09

Experts weigh in on 'axe' rocks' origin

Centre Daily Times
Very often, when a large, bright meteor is seen overhead one night, people go outside in the morning and 'discover' a 'meteorite' on their front lawn that ...

Washington Post

Going out in a blaze of glory

Washington Post
17-18, a possibly strong Leonid meteor shower brews. With a night sky free of a hindering, bright moon and Earth's cosmic positioning, astronomers think ...



Leonid meteor shower: An out-of-this-world show

MaineToday.com
The major highlight this month will be the Leonid meteor shower. It will peak on Tuesday morning, Nov. 17. This is predicted to be the best Leonid display ...

Planetarium manager offers tips for November sky

Charleston Gazette
17, the Leonid meteor shower will peak. With no moonlight in the sky to interfere, there may be a chance to see this if you are up early enough and look ...

Peak of meteor shower slated Nov. 17 and 18

Enid News & Eagle
By Bob Killam The peak of the Leonid meteor shower will be Nov. 17 and 18, and it looks like a very favorable year for this sometimes huge shower. ...

What else is in the night sky?

guardian.co.uk
While we know the dates when the Earth crosses these trails, we can't tell the exact moment when a meteor will appear. It's just a matter of gazing up and ...

Meteor/Fireball News- Yuba City Sentinel Fireball 30OCT09 1NOV09

Images by YC Sentinel (c) 2009
Photo, *movie, and Light Curve sent to Dirk-San of Nihon via Yahoo
and SETI. (*Movie is currently not able to upload- sorry)

Bolide of N. California

Oct. 30th. 2009 0316 Hrs. PDT.

Final Report:
Locaton North Central California. (Yuba City.)
Detonation Brightness = >Full Moon.
Duration = 2 Seconds.
Starting Elevation = 60 degrees
Starting Azimuth = 79 deg. True North.
Ending Elevation = 43 degrees.
Ending Azimuth = 72 deg. True North.

-2 small post explosion ablating products found running movie at 1/4 speed.
A short but very nice image and Q-Time movie. Data will be sent to AMS.
YCSentinel

Initial Reports:

Event was 2 seconds long.

Starting Elevation and Azimuth is 60 degrees Elev., 79 degrees Azimuth True North.

Ending Elevation and Azimuth is 43 degrees Elev., 72 degrees Azimuth True North.

1/4 speed movie indicates a post explosion of 2 small ablating products.

Peak brightness exceeds full moon.

YCSentinel

0316:41 Oct. 30, 2009 PST

Exceptionally clean explosion with (no initial evidence) of post explosion
wake light or ablation products. High elevation event. I have not yet
measured Azimuth & Elevation but will do so later today and post it here.

Without further examination at this time, the apparent peak light period too
brief to even saturate a single frame but could easily be as bright or
brighter than the Sun. Over 75,000 pixels peak in Sentinels light graph.
Graph looks like a needle point. Super clean!

YCSentinel
Yuba City, California

Libyan Desert Glass-Tektites: Ancient "Atomic Bombs" 1NOV09

Ancient Atomic Bombs

The Epoch Times
Even so, scientists have proposed that the meteorites causing the glass rocks could have exploded several miles above the surface of Earth, similar to the ...

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Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News- NASA's Earth Observatory 1NOV09

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (13 October 2009)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Latest Images:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/

* Kipuka, Craters of the Moon
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40708&src=eoa-iotd

* Craters of the Moon, Idaho
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40705&src=eoa-iotd

* Oblique View of the Arnica Fire, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40681&src=eoa-iotd

* Tombouctou, Mali
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40684&src=eoa-iotd

* Rainfall from Typhoon Parma
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40687&src=eoa-iotd

* Earthquakes Near Vanuatu
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40677&src=eoa-iotd

* Hampton Glacier, Alexander Island, Antarctica
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40629&src=eoa-iotd

* Typhoon Melor and Tropical Storm Parma
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40615&src=eoa-iotd

--------------------

NASA News:

* Space Radar Reveals Topography of Tsunami Site
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40561&src=eoa-nnews

* Study Highlights Data on How Pollution Travels
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40672&src=eoa-nnews

* The Life, Data and Death of a Satellite Mission
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40673&src=eoa-nnews

* Arctic Sea Ice Extent is Third Lowest on Record
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40674&src=eoa-nnews

--------------------

Headlines from the press, radio, and television:

* Crystal Ball Predicts Sea Level Rise
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40636&src=eoa-hnews

* Science Gives Clearer View of Landscape
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40637&src=eoa-hnews

* Warming Ocean Melts Greenland Glaciers
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40638&src=eoa-hnews

* Laser Satellite Records Ice Loss
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40639&src=eoa-hnews

* Kenya's Heart Stops Pumping
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40640&src=eoa-hnews

* Four Degrees of Warming 'Likely'
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40641&src=eoa-hnews

* Iraq's Drought: Eden Drying Out
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40642&src=eoa-hnews

* India Drought 'Worst Since 1972'
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40643&src=eoa-hnews

* Earthquakes Weaken Distant Faults
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40644&src=eoa-hnews

* NASA Makes Cloud to Study Particles
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40645&src=eoa-hnews

* Earth's Climate Outside 'Safe Operating Space'
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40646&src=eoa-hnews

* Volcanoes Defrosted Ice Age
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40647&src=eoa-hnews

* Dust Storm Triggers Ocean Bloom
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40648&src=eoa-hnews

* Video: Science of a Tsunami
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40649&src=eoa-hnews

* Loss of Top Predators Causing Ecosystems to Collapse
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40650&src=eoa-hnews

* 6-Foot Sea-Level Rise Called Inevitable
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40651&src=eoa-hnews

* Pollution Travels the Globe, Study Confirms
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40652&src=eoa-hnews

* Plumbing of a Supervolcano Revealed
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40653&src=eoa-hnews

* Volcanoes Wiped Out All Forests 250 Million Years Ago
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40654&src=eoa-hnews

* Alaska Coast Eroding Fast
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40655&src=eoa-hnews

* River Deltas are Sinking, Thanks to Us
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40656&src=eoa-hnews

--------------------

Press releases from institutions that either address climate research or are NASA-funded.

* There's Still Time to Cut the Risk of Climate Catastrophe
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40661&src=eoa-manews

* Acid Clouds Nourish World's Oceans
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40662&src=eoa-manews

* Panama Butterfly Migrations Linked to El Ni単o, Climate Change
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40663&src=eoa-manews

* New Coastland Map Could Help Strengthen Sea Defenses
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40664&src=eoa-manews

* Do Dust Particles Curb Climate Change?
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40665&src=eoa-manews

* Arctic Sea Ice Recovers Slightly in 2009, Remains on Downward Trend
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40666&src=eoa-manews

* Sand Dunes Reveal Unexpected Dryness During Heavy Monsoon
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40667&src=eoa-manews

* A Tree's Response to Environmental Changes: What Can We Expect Over the Next 100 Years?
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40668&src=eoa-manews

* Peering Under the Ice of a Collapsing Polar Coast
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=40669&src=eoa-manews

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Earth Observatory weekly mailing -- http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

Meteor/Meteorite News- Dawn Journal - October 31, 2009

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/journal_10_31_09.asp

Dawn Journal
Dr. Marc Rayman
October 31, 2009

Dear Dawn-o'-lanterns,

Dawn continues to make steady progress on its journey through the solar
system. The spacecraft has devoted another month to thrusting with its
ion propulsion system, ever with its sights set on its rendezvous with
Vesta in July 2011. While it will have other assignments along the way,
propelling itself to the giant protoplanet deep in the main asteroid
belt remains its principal responsibility.

The asteroid belt consists of innumerable objects in orbit around the
Sun between Mars and Jupiter. (Dawn is aiming for the 2 most massive
members of the belt.) Just as with a ball of cotton or a cloud, while
there may appear to be a clear border when viewed from a great distance,
a more careful examination reveals it to be less distinct. There is no
sharp edge to demarcate the boundary. For example, although most
asteroids remain between the two planets, the orbits of some bring them
closer to the Sun than Mars. We can adopt a part of one common
definition in which, to be designated as a resident of the main asteroid
belt, an object's orbit can bring it no closer to the Sun than 1.666
astronomical units (AU). It is not coincidental that this is the greatest
distance that Mars travels from the Sun. (Earth and its inhabitants never
reach more than 1.017 AU from the solar system's gravitational master.)

As with Earth, Mars, and asteroids, Dawn's orbit around the Sun is
elliptical. The principal difference is that the ship is constantly
changing its course by emitting a high velocity beam of xenon ions. (It
has racked up more than 10,000 hours of powered flight, with much more
thrusting ahead.) In a lovely solar system dance in February, Dawn
briefly partnered with Mars for additional assistance on its way.
As we saw in the last log , the spacecraft's orbit grows larger as the
mission progresses, bringing the explorer ever closer to its first
destination. On November 13, it will enter the asteroid belt as its
silent flight takes it past 1.666 AU from the Sun. It will remain in the
belt for the rest of its mission and well beyond. Dawn will become a
permanent inhabitant of that part of the solar system, the first emissary
from Earth to take up residence in the main asteroid belt.

The probe has been here before. On June 30, 2008 it passed the outermost
part of Mars' orbit. But its elliptical path reached its greatest distance
from the Sun of more than 1.68 AU on August 8, 2008, and 40 days after that,
it crossed the orbit of Mars again. On April 17, 2009, then at 1.37 AU from
the Sun, its momentum began carrying it outwards once again. By then it
was in a larger orbit, and thanks to the extensive additional orbital energy
imparted to the spacecraft by its persistent ion thrusting, it will sail
smoothly through 1.68 AU next month and continue deeper into the asteroid belt.

As Dawn continuously enlarges its solar orbit still more, mission
controllers work diligently to ensure the distant craft remains healthy.
They are also preparing to give it some additional tasks before the year
is out, and inside sources reveal that these may be described in an
upcoming log. In the meantime, emitting its eerie bluish glow, the probe
silently streaks toward unexplored worlds, seeking to reveal new secrets
and likely new questions as well.

Dawn is 1.25 AU (187 million kilometers or 116 million miles) from
Earth, or 485 times as far as the moon and 1.26 times as far as the Sun.
Radio signals, traveling at the universal limit of the speed of light,
take 21 minutes to make the round trip.

Dr. Marc D. Rayman
11:30 pm PDT October 31, 2009

P.S. Although Dawn works tirelessly in interplanetary space, the team on
Earth is taking a break for Halloween. Observant readers have already
noticed that this correspondent has dawned his costume, and it is a
delightful and impressive disguise indeed. In an act of astonishing
creativity, he is pretending to be someone who can write a (relatively)
short log.

Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News- 31OCT09

Leonid Meteor Shower On The Way!

KOLD-TV
By Chuck George - email We are still a couple of weeks away from the Leonid Meteor Shower. The Leonids occur as the earth passes through the tail of a comet ...

Farmer sparks UFO alert with helium balloons

Telegraph.co.uk
"The local paper had an article about it with a so called expert saying it was probably 20- 22000 feet in the air and was more than likely a meteor shower. ...

Close call reminds me there are many ways to go

Gaston Gazette
A meteorite could crash into my house. Or I could be an accidental stowaway on a runaway helium balloon contraption one of my family members created as a ...

“such objects are expected to impact the Earth on average every 2 - 12 years”

GlobalPost
A reported meteorite strike in Latvia turned out to be a publicity stunt by a telecommunications company, who are now facing some awkward questions from the ...

Latvia experts call meteorite crater a hoax
Marin Independent Journal Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:11 AM PDT
Scientists investigating a large crater initially believed to have been caused by a meteorite said a closer analysis has revealed it was a hoax. Experts in the Baltic country of Latvia rushed to the site after reports that a meteoritelike object had crashed Oct. 25 in the Mazsalaca region near the Estonian border.

Weekly business accounts

Times Online
A publicity stunt gone wrong is blamed for a meteorite scare on the Latvian-Estonian border. Scientists cordoned off a crater after reports that a “fiery ...

November 2009 Geology and GSA Today highlights

EurekAlert (press release)
The Sudbury bolide probably was approximately the same size as the giant meteorite that hit the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico 65 million years ago, ...

Tele2: meteorite campaign in Latvia gives results

The Baltic Course
After the meteorite publicity stunt, the telecommunication company Tele2 has been receiving many phone calls from private individuals as well as enterprises ...

Asteroid Explosion over Indonesia

Universe Today
They are well equipped to monitor explosions of nuclear weapons, but also detect other events such as meteorite impacts and asteroid explosions, ...

Fields of Fear spooks Washington County Fair Complex

Corvallis Gazette Times
HILLSBORO - A meteorite has landed in the Hillsboro area, releasing a deadly gas that has infected thousands of residents. The United States military has ...

'Meteorite' that landed in Latvia is a hoax, claim experts

Newspost Online
Experts have said that the claims by a group of students that a meteorite landed in Latvia on October 25, are false, and is an elaborate hoax set up by the ...

Risk Assessment of Tunguska-type Events- 30OCT09

PDF on risk assessment of Tunguska-type events

A report on risk assessment of Tunguska-type events written by Arnaud M of France has been released.
Link:
http://www.rms.com/Publications/1908_Tunguska_Event.pdf

A peer-reviewed paper should follow soon.

Source: ArnaudM, France

Meteor/Meteorite News 30OCT09

Backyard Astronomer: LIFE in the universe Sierra Vista Herald If even one singled cell life form could hitch a ride on a meteor from a distant place in the galaxy, survive and land on Earth, it could mix with another ...

November Sky Nepali Times This month, we have two meteor showers, the Hunter's Moon and Jupiter dominating the evening skies. But let's talk of the stars first. ... Ares IX finally reaches T-minus-zero Astronomy Magazine Three days ago, Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds wrote his first in what will be a series of blogs about meteorites and meteorite collecting. ... Science chases more meteorites C21Media NEWS BRIEF: Discovery's Science Channel has ordered six more episodes of Meteorite Men, about modern day treasure hunters Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold, ... Association president: action with meteorite hoax could be considered an ... The Baltic Course As reported earlier, the meteorite publicity stunt was organized by the mobile phone operator Tele2 in tandem with the media agency Inspired, ...