Space Weather

[sidherose]

You're so funny...but looks aren't everything

[dRaCX]

 

[sidherose]

"Wet clean-up on Aisle 4!"

[thelufias]

LOL....I read all the posts and it looked like fun.....

By that time I was 

5AM comes damn early....wish I could make 5AM start a wee bit later but then Lorna would probably complain that it wouldn't really be 5 AM then or some silly thing like that

[sidherose]

You can always insist it's 5 am when it's 6 am CDT, no matter what she thinks.

[thelufias]

LOL.....Worth a try..........When I learn how to go back to bed after dropping her off.....I'll be happy.....

[Jherrith]

A METEOROID HITS THE MOON DURING LUNAR ECLIPSE: On Jan. 21st at 04:41:43 UT, a meteoroid slammed into the Moon. We know this because many amateur astronomers witnessed or photographed the explosion. Petr Horálek was one of them; he captured the fireball from Boa Vista, one of the islands of Cape Verde:



"As I was sorting through my pictures of the eclipse, I was trying to avoid images with dusty specks or hot pixels," says Horálek. "Upon closer inspection, I realized this was no hot pixel. It was a flash of light on the Moon--and other astronomers had photographed it as well."

At least a dozen reliable still images and videos of the impact have surfaced so far. Analyzing a sharp image taken by Christian Fröschlin of the Netherlands, geologist and amateur astronomer Justin Cowart has estimated the selenographic coordinates of the impact site: 29.47S, 67.77W +/- 4km. This  puts it just to the west of the lunar crater Lagrange H. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter may be able to use such coordinates to target its cameras and photograph the crater.

Meteoroids hit the Moon all the time. Literally. NASA has been observing the impact flashes since 2005. Recently, other groups in Europe have joined the hunt. Flashes are typically observed once every 2 or 3 hours of observing time. Impactors range in size from softballs to boulders, liberating energies equal to tons of TNT when they strike.




Spain's MIDAS survey recorded this video of the Jan 21st lunar meteor strike

The rare thing about this strike is that it was photographed during a full Moon, when lunar glare usually overwhelms the glow of any fireball. During the eclipse, Earth's shadow turned lunar day into almost-night for an hour, allowing the fireball to be seen.

Readers, were you taking pictures of the eclipse around 04:41 UT? Inspect your images! You might have captured an explosion

[sidherose]

Here is a pretty cool image of five different phases of the previous lunar eclipse all in one image:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190126.html

[thelufias]

It's amazing out there.....Thanks for the posts "J" and Ray.....

[thelufias]

Astronomers find a new, nearby galaxy