Published on May 25, 2012 by MrCometwatch
Update-World Watch http://www.mrcometwatch.com
Category Archives: Fireballs / Meteors / Comets
Brown Dwarf Birthing May Explain Mystery Object
- Analysis by Ray Villard
Tue May 1, 2012
Some of the most mysterious objects in our galaxy are also among the most numerous. And it turns out that there’s an estimated 100 billion mysterious brown dwarfs scattered among the stars.
They are so ubiquitous that there could be one closer to the Earth than the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. If a brown dwarf is ever discovered nearby, it would likely be the target of our first interstellar mission.
ANALYSIS: Do ‘Ultracool’ Brown Dwarfs Surround Us?
Brown dwarfs are smaller than the lowest-mass stars but can be dozens of times more massive than Jupiter. They are too low mass to sustain hydrogen fusion and so technically they are not stars by definition. (The term brown dwarf is also misleading because brown is not a color in the visible spectrum. Something like ultra-red dwarfs would be a more appropriate name.)
Among the biggest questions is why brown dwarfs aren’t commonly found orbiting normal stars. However, some tend to hang out together in binary pairs of dwarfs. That said, they are found in the vicinity of normal stars but not gravitationally bound to them, as seen in the above photo of the Pleiades star cluster.
A newly published set of dynamical simulations points to brown dwarfs being born as knots of gas in protoplanetary disks around normal stars. They are then rudely ejected into interstellar space as lone drifters.
“We conclude that gas clump ejection and the formation of low-mass and substellar objects is a common occurrence, with important implications for understanding the formation of stars,” writes Shantanu Basu of the University of Western Ontario and Eduard I. Vorobyov of the University of Vienna.
The team’s simulations show a lumpy, fragmenting gas disk whirling around a forming star (as seen here, arrow points to brown dwarf progenitor clump). Several other large gas clumps play a gravitational game of bumper cars. In a typical “three’s-a-crowd” interaction, a clump is gravitationally ejected from the system. The clumps left behind may fall into the star or get tidally shredded.
The runaway clump later forms its own separate accretion disk and gravitationally collapses down to a compact object ranging from one-tenth to one-third the mass of our sun. In some cases two brown dwarfs contract out of the clump to make a binary system.
I’m fascinated by this theoretical work because I wonder if it would help explain one of the most legendary and strangest space photos ever taken — of an unexplained object called TMR-1c:
In 1998, the Hubble Space Telescope made an infrared photo of a very red pinpoint object (seen at bottom right) that is at the end of a ghostly finger of illuminated dust stretching 135 billion miles from a young binary star system. The telltale finger was interpreted as being formed after a large, hot planet was gravitationally ejected from the binary.
ANALYSIS: Phantom Planet Comes Back From Oblivion
It was later dismissed as simply a chance juxtaposition of the dust-reddened light from an old background star with a foreground linear nebulous feature. However, ground-based telescopic observations in 2009 show that the mystery object had gotten brighter and bluer. This is something a normal main sequence star could never do.
The variability in brightness and color is interpreted as a young substellar object surrounded by a spinning thick disk of dust. The colors of TMR-1c could be explained by the presence of a condensed atmosphere, as commonly observed among brown dwarfs.
These detailed computer simulations underscore that star-making, planet-making and even brown dwarf birth is a much more chaotic and messy business than ever before imagined.
Photo credits: ESO, S. Basu, NASA
http://news.discovery.com/space/brown-dwarfs-birthing-may-explain-mystery-object-120501.html
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Did NASA Know There Was A Possible Large Meteor Impact Coming In California/Nevada In Advance?
Great call Mary!! Her instincts were correct when calling out NASA last week for paying a little too much attention to the incoming meteor shower. Then sure enough…BAM!! Thankfully no one was hurt in the incident, more links below.
Published on Apr 22, 2012 by Marygreeley1954
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9iBOCX2wCw
http://www.space.com/15355-lyrid-meteor-shower-2012-space-balloon.html
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/
http://lasvegasbadger.blogspot.com/2012/04/cool-meteor-hits-northern-nevada.html
http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/2012/04/breaking-news-california-ne…
World Update/Incoming Asteroid in 11 Months.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 heads for Earth
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/320607
Solar,Volcano and Incoming Asteriod
Jpl Models For Asteroid at http://www.mrcometwatch.com
Meteor Lights Up Saskatchewan, Calgary Skies – CTV News – Feb. 21, 2012
Uploaded by Sheilaaliens on Feb 22, 2012
“It was an incredible sight for anyone lucky enough to catch a fleeting glimpse Tuesday night of a very bright light that streaked across the sky above Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Witnesses went on Twitter to report a multi-hued flash between Lloydminster and Saskatoon that lasted just seconds.
One observer in Calgary who had a camera pointed skyward caught the flash northeast of the city and posted it on YouTube.
A motorist driving just north of Saskatoon near the community of Martensville described seeing a ball of fire suddenly light up the sky.
Other people reported hearing booming noises in the North Battleford region in western Saskatchewan.”
Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120222/flash-spotted-sky-above-prairie…
First Week in February 2012 Brings Fireballs Raining Down Around the Globe
Reports of fireball with huge tail seen over Western Australia
lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:39 CST
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:39 CST
5 Feb 2012: ‘sas’ Perth – 01.10am 10 sec. Australia – Yellowish huge yellowish shooting star not that I saw. No photo
5 Feb 2012: ‘Rhett’ WA Kalgoorlie – 1:05:00 15 seconds. N-S, Green As the moon N/A I’ve never see anything like it, it had a huge tail.
5 Feb 2012: ‘dan’ perth, WA, Australia – 1:18 15 seconds. N-S, orange, blue, yellow brighter than moon, larger than moon none massive, bigger than moon.
5 Feb 2012: ‘Tara Isaac’ Perth, Western Australia – 01.10 hours approx 20 secs. E-W, Large, bright green fiery head, long white tail. Brighter than Venus. No photo, seen while driving freeway North
East coast of US lights up as another enormous fireball streaks through sky
Kari Pugh
Inside NoVA
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:22 CST
Inside NoVA
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:22 CST
© lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Kudos to http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com for putting this map of eyewitness reports together. The Neon Markers are Sighting Reports and the Red Circle Markers are Allsky Camera Locations. Hopefully one of them picked up visual of this fireball.
Kudos to http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com for putting this map of eyewitness reports together. The Neon Markers are Sighting Reports and the Red Circle Markers are Allsky Camera Locations. Hopefully one of them picked up visual of this fireball.
More than 100 people from New Jersey to North Carolina reported seeing a bright streak of light with a tail shooting through the night sky late Friday.
“It looked a lot brighter than a shooting star,” German Osorio wrote on InsideNova.com’s Facebook page. “Maybe only a few hundred feet up and it had that color that propane gets when it burns.”
Kseniya Ledbetter of Fairfax said she spotted the fireball as she drove along Braddock Road east of Va. 28 around 10:15 p.m. “The most beautiful thing I ever saw! It was changing colors and then went out right above Hampton Chase neighborhood.”
NASA, the FAA and the National Weather Service have yet to weigh in on the sky phenomena, but the website “The Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News” had more than 100 posts Saturday about the fireball from people in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and North Carolina.
The American Meteor Society had 56 reports of a fireball sighting, again from New Jersey to North Carolina. Most reports came from Virginia and Maryland.
“Big and blue with a red tail. Looked like a meteor to us,” Jessica Guido of Stafford wrote on our Facebook page.
Witnesses reported seeing the fireball between 10 and 10:30 p.m. All described it as very bright and very low.
“It was awesome, bright as could be with a hint of blue green,” wrote Michele Janke, who saw the fireball along Prince William Parkway.
According to the American Meteor Society, fireballs are very bright meteors, about as bright as Venus in the morning and evening skies. About 10 to 15 meteorites fall to Earth each day, but sighting are rare since streaking fireballs often fall over the ocean, or during daylight hours when they can’t be seen.
Comment: If sightings are so rare, why has SOTT.net collected eight reports of fireballs in the past week alone?
Fireballs are sometimes accompanied by sonic booms, as happened in Texas on Wednesday.
More than 200 people from Texas to Oklahoma reported a streaking fireball that night. A dash-mounted camera in a police cruiser captured the meteor’s descent. Many also reported a loud boom as the fireball approached the ground. Watch the video here, courtesy of WFAA TV in Dallas-Forth Worth.
Comment: Reports of fireball with huge tail seen over Western Australia
Huge Fireball Over Tokyo, 2 February 2012
Fireball Photographed Over Corfu, Greece
Russia: Something fell from the sky in the village of Novobureysk
US: Wednesday night’s Texas meteor so bright it was seen in Kansas
Canada: Halifax ‘fireball’ probably a meteor
Rhode Island, US: Extremely bright ‘unexpected’ meteor caught on camera
Fireball Photographed Over Corfu, Greece
Bill Metallinos & Jim Foster
Earth Science
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:00 CST
Earth Science
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:00 CST
© Bill Metallinos
The photo above showing a startling fireball appearing to rip apart the night sky was seen during a star observation session at Mount Pantokrator on the Greek island of Corfu. I had set my camera up to get a picture of our small group and before long this brilliant meteor lit up the surrounding landscape. It was approximately -8 magnitude or about 25 times brighter than Venus at its brightest — so bright that we were bathed in a sea of blue-green light. You can see the reflection on my 16 in (41 cm) telescope, on the table at right-center and on the side of my car. Click here to see a short animation.
Photo details: Canon EOS 40D camera; 15mm fisheye lens; f/2.8; ISO 800; 30 second exposure; Photoshop; Cropped.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241129-Fireball-Photographed-Over-Corfu-Greece
Russia: Something fell from the sky in the village of Novobureysk
Translation by SOTT
Oko Planety
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:36 CST
Oko Planety
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:36 CST
Car’s DVR camera captured a UFO. A glowing object fell from the sky on the outskirts of the village Novobureysk. The footage shows the date and time: January 22, 2012, 9:10.
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JoeyB’s Earth Changes Report: Solar Flares, Raining Goo Balls in UK and Texas Fireballs Feb. 3/2012
Whoops! My apologies for the late posting, this one got by me. Regardless, it took two video’s to get through this action packed Earth changes so it’s most definintely worthy of your attention…
Earth Changes Report: Feb. 3/2012(part 2)
From: JoeyB613| Feb 3, 2012 | 652 views
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Bright Fireball Over Finland – January 3, 2012
Uploaded by Sheilaaliens on Jan 4, 2012
[Translated Article]: “Tuesday evening, above Finland showed a significant fireball. Impressive bright phenomenon lasted for a total of over 10 seconds.
Ursaan were reported as soon as the ball came to a lot of sightings from all over the South-Finnish. ” Over 155 reported sightings of the same fireball have been reported. Read them here:
http://www.taivaanvahti.fi/observations/browse/pics/8760/observation_id/desc/
Video source:
http://hukka1974.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Tulipallot+ja+tahdenlennot/3.1.2012/M20120103…
Referring article:
http://www.avaruus.fi/uutiset/tahtiharrastus-ja-taivaanilmiot/suuri-tulipallo…
Originating source: Search term “fireball” on http://www.twitter.com
~Meow
Lovejoy’s Split tail and a Graceful Bon Voyage
Comet Lovejoy HAS TWO TAILS – and even A SPLIT TAIL! Wow -
Lovejoy from Space Station
“Star Wonder of the East” Comet Lovejoy’s from International Space Station
A spectacular image of Comet Lovejoy, which recently survived a close encounter with the Sun, was captured by International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank as the object appeared over Earth’s eastern horizon. Burbank described the view as “the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space.” Robin Scagell of the Society for Popular Astronomy suggested the Star of Bethlehem could have been a comet like Lovejoy. More at The Telegraph.
