Space Weather

[thelufias]

Space rock hit moon at 38,000 mph

Observers watching the January 20-20, 2019. total eclipse of the moon saw a rare event, a short-lived flash as a meteorite hit the lunar surface.

Astronomers say it’s the first time an event of its kind has been filmed.

A new analysis by Spanish astronomers says the space rock collided with the moon at 38,000 miles per hour (61,000 km/hour) excavating a crater 33-50 feet (10-15 meters) across. The study was published April 27, 2019, in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The January 20-21 total lunar eclipse was the last one until May 2021, with observers in North and South America and western Europe enjoying the best view. At 4:41 UTC, just after the total phase of the eclipse began, there was a flash on the lunar surface. Widespread reports from amateur astronomers indicated the flash – attributed to a meteorite impact – was bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Meanwhile, researchers at the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS) in the south of Spain used eight telescopes to monitor the lunar surface. Video footage from MIDAS recorded the moment of impact. The impact flash lasted 0.28 seconds and is the first ever filmed during a lunar eclipse, despite a number of earlier attempts. MIDAS telescopes observed the impact flash at multiple wavelengths (different colors of light), improving the analysis of the event.

The MIDAS researchers concluded that the incoming rock had a mass of 99 lb (45 kg), measured 12-24 inches (30-60 cm) across, and hit the surface close to the crater close to the crater Lagrange H at 38,000 miles per hour (61,000 km/hour).

The scientists assessed the impact energy as equivalent to 1.5 tonnes (1.7 tons) of TNT, enough, they said, to create a crater about the size of two double decker buses side by side. They estimated that the debris that was ejected when the rock hit reached a peak temperature of 9,800 degrees F (5,400 degrees C), roughly the same temperature as the surface of the sun.

[sidherose]

Interesting stuff, both. Thank you, J.

[thelufias]

I found this interesting.   Forgot they had these Defense Drills....

Center for Near Earth Object Studies ~ Planetary Defense Conferance...2019

[Jherrith]

GEOMAGNETIC STORM UNDERWAY NOW: A surprise geomagnetic storm is underway on May 14th. Storm levels are currently at G2 (moderately strong), which means auroras may be visible in northern-tier US states such as Minnesota, Michigan, and upstate New York. The reason for the storm: A crack has opened in Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to enter the magnetosphere. Aurora Alerts: SMS Text.

MULTIPLE CMEs ARE COMING: Three and possibly four CMEs are en route to Earth following a series of explosions near sunspot AR2741. The most potent so far occurred on May 12th when a filament of magnetism surrounding the sunspot became unstable and erupted. The blast zone was more than 200,000 km in diameter:



Similar eruptions on May 10th (twice) and May 13th have combined with this one to produce a train of faint coronal mass ejections (CMEs) heading in our direction. The incoming CMEs are lightweights compared to the bright massive CMEs typically seen during Solar Maximum. However, their combined effect could rattle Earth's magnetic field.

NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% to 60% chance of geomagnetic storms on May 15th and 16th when the CMEs arrive. Storm levels are expected to range between G1 (Minor) and G2 (Moderate). This means auroras could be sighted in northern-tier US states such as Montana, Minnesota, and upstate New York.

[thelufias]

"Sunny" is at it again.......  Thanks for the post "J".....

[Jherrith]

IS THE GREAT RED SPOT UNRAVELING? Around the world, amateur astronomers are monitoring a strange phenomenon on the verge of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS). The giant storm appears to be unraveling. "I haven't seen this before in my 17-or-so years of imaging Jupiter," reports veteran observer Anthony Wesley of Australia, who photographed a streamer of gas detaching itself from the GRS on May 19th:



The plume of gas is enormous, stretching more than 10,000 km from the central storm to a nearby jet stream that appears to be carrying it away. Wesley says that currently such a streamer is peeling off every week or so.

The Great Red Spot is the biggest storm in the solar system–an anticyclone wider than Earth with winds blowing 350 mph. Astronomers have been observing it for hundreds of years. In recent decades, the Great Red Spot has been shrinking. Once it was wide enough to swallow three Earths; now only one of our planet could fit inside the maelstrom. This has led some researchers to wonder if the GRS could break up or disappear within our lifetimes. Perhaps the streamers are part of this process.

In fact, such unraveling clouds have been seen before. For instance, the Gemini North adaptive optics telescope on Maunakea saw a lesser but similar streamer in May of 2017:



"Events like this show that there's still much to learn about Jupiter's atmosphere," said Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press release about he 2017 streamer.

Wesley describes how the streamers are behaving now: "Each streamer appears to disconnect from the Great Red Spot and dissipate. Then, after about a week, a new streamer forms and the process repeats. You have to be lucky to catch it happening. Jupiter spins on its axis every 10 hours and the GRS is not always visible. A joint effort between many amateurs is underway to get clear images of the process."

Now is a great time to monitor the action. Jupiter is approaching Earth for a close encounter in June 2019. In the weeks ahead, Jupiter will shine 4 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and even small telescopes will reveal its storms, moons, and cloud belts. You can find Jupiter in the constellation Ophiuchus in the southern sky at midnight: sky map.

A sharable version of this story is available here.

[Agent0013]

Astronomers have speculated on whether or not the GRS is a permanent feature. My thoughts have leaned toward the "Not" answer. I say that because all things come to an end.

[thelufias]

Somewhere I read where they stated "it's a weather system and all weather systems do come to an end.....sooner or later...." 

In our lifetime....???

Not in mine....but perhaps in my kids or grandkids or great grandkids lifetime. 

[Jherrith]

A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH THE TAURID SWARM: In November 2032, Earth will pass through the Taurid Swarm, a cloud of debris from Comet 2P/Encke that makes brilliant fireballs when its gravelly particles occasionally hit Earth's atmosphere. Previous encounters with the Swarm in 2005 and 2015 produced showers of bright meteors observed around the world; in 1975 the Swarm contacted the Moon, making Apollo seismic sensors ring with evidence of objects hitting the lunar surface. If forecasters are correct, we're in for similar activity 22 years from now.

Some researchers are beginning to wonder if there might be more to the Taurid Swarm than the pebble-sized particles that make fireballs–something, say, that could level a forest. On June 30, 1908, a forest in Siberia did fall down when a 100-meter object fell out of the sky and exploded just above the Tunguska River. Back-tracking the trajectory of the impactor suggests it may have come from the Taurid Swarm.



Trees felled by the Tunguska explosion. Credit: the Leonid Kulik Expedition

Why would the Swarm contain such big rocks? After all, comet debris is normally no bigger than specks of dust. The most popular theory holds that 10 or 20 thousand years ago, a giant 100-km wide comet fragmented in the inner solar system. The breakup produced a mixture of dust and asteroid-sized bodies that are still present today. Comet 2P/Encke itself may be just one of the fragments.

If the Taurid Swarm does indeed contain Tunguska-class impactors, the people of Earth need to know. A team of astronomers from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) suggests that this summer is a great time to find out.

"In June 2019 the Earth will approach within [0.06 AU or 9 million km] of the center of the Taurid swarm, its closest post-perihelion encounter with Earth since 1975," write UWO astronomers David Clark, Paul Wiegert and Peter Brown in a paper just accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. "This will be the best viewing geometry to detect and place limits on the number of Near-Earth Objects proposed to reside at the swarm center until the early 2030s."



To be clear, the team won't be looking for fireballs disintegrating in Earth's atmosphere. Instead, they want to point powerful telescopes at the Swarm, peering deep inside it to see if they can find big, dangerous pieces of rock gliding among the pebbles.

"Seeing anything in the Taurid Swarm will be tough," says Wiegert. "It's faint, it's spread across a lot of sky, and it's moving fast. A fair dash of serendipity will be needed to catch a glimpse of it. But we have to try to strike when the iron is hot, and that's now."

"We've applied for 10 hours of time on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea," he adds. "And we're hoping other big telescopes will join the search as well."

To learn more about this year's close encounter with the Taurid Swarm, read the original research at

[thelufias]

I'll mark that date on my Calendar....LOL

But cool reading for sure.  I have no worries about this one....