Peter Brown, a meteor scientist and planetary astronomer with the University of Western Ontario, reported some details on a particularly dramatic fireball that was spotted Tuesday night streaking across skies to the west of Toronto, toward the Great Lake's southeastern shores.
All-sky cameras at the university caught the bright meteor at 8:52 p.m. ET, moving slowly and nearly as luminous as the full moon:
Meteor particles as small as pebbles or motes of dust can burn bright enough when they collide with our atmosphere to be seen from the ground. In the case of this fireball, Brown estimates the hunk of material was significantly larger -- perhaps the size of a softball.
While you're here, how about this:
Asteroid approach: NASA tracks a 25,433mph asteroid approaching Earth - Will it hit?
NASA’s astronomers have dubbed the asteroid’s arrival an “Earth close approach”.
Asteroid BB1 is a so-called near-Earth object or NEO, meaning its orbit around the Sun comes close to our planet.
Trapped in the inner rings of the solar systems, NEOs are all comets and asteroids that orbit the Sun from a distance of no more than 1.3 astronomical units.
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As proven by the Chelyabinsk meteor incident in 2013, NEOs will occasionally crash into our planet.
Asteroid news: 200 asteroids dubbed greatest collision risk spark 'deep concern' |
He told the Joe Rogan Experience in 2019: “I don’t think preparation has been made and it’s very clear that preparation is not being made for the risk of another cosmic impact.
“A point that I’d like to make about this is that we are, in a sense, in a place where history can repeat itself, there are certain cycles at work.
“The work on the comet impact 12,800 years ago has very clearly and specifically identified the debris trail of that comet and that is the Taurids meteor stream.
An asteroid was found closer to the sun than Venus for the first time | Science News
For the first time, an asteroid has been found orbiting closer to the sun than Venus — a neighborhood where asteroids are thought to be rare and tricky to find.
The space rock, designated 2020 AV2, orbits the sun once every 151 days along an elongated trajectory that keeps it between the orbits of Mercury and Venus. Such asteroids — known as Vatiras — were first predicted in 2012 , but until now, no one had ever found one.
Asteroid 2020 AV2 was found January 4 by researchers at the Palomar Observatory in southern California. Following an alert by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center , observers around the world confirmed and refined the asteroid's orbit.
Quite a lot has been going on:
The Evidence is Leaning More and More Towards an Asteroid Ending the Dinosaurs - Universe Today
When it comes to the extinction of the dinosaurs, science has whittled it down to those two possibilities. The asteroid strike has been the leading candidate for quite some time now, but those darn volcanoes refuse to stand down.
A new study is presenting even more evidence that it was the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, and not volcanoes.
The asteroid strike is known as the Chicxulub impact event in the Yucatan in modern day Mexico. That asteroid is estimated at between 11 to 81 kilometers (6.8 to 50.3 miles) in diameter. It blasted out a crater about 150 kilometers (93 miles) in diameter and 20 kilometers (12 miles) deep.
Asteroid Discovered Orbiting Inside Venus for the First Time | Digital Trends
Most of the asteroids in our solar system orbit around the sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, or in a cluster in the same orbit as Jupiter called the Trojans. Plus, there are asteroids that come close to the orbit of Earth, called Near-Earth asteroids . But now, for the first time, an asteroid has been discovered orbiting entirely inside Venus.
Astronomers from Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) observed the asteroid, called 2020 AV2, as part of a small class of asteroids called Atira. These bodies orbit within Earth, but only 2020 AV2 orbits within Venus.
Asteroid approach: NASA tracks a large rock heading past Earth at 37,000MPH - Will it hit?
At this rate, the US space agency said Asteroid BP will close in on the planet around 5.14pm GMT (12.14pm EST).
Asteroid BP is an Apollo-type rock trapped on an orbit that crosses paths with Earth’s own path around the Sun.
NASA’s systems have pegged it down as an NEO or Near-Earth Object, meaning it can come incredibly close to Earth.
The US space agency said: “As they orbit the Sun, NEOs can occasionally approach close to Earth.
Astronomers Spot First Asteroid Nearer to the Sun Than Venus | Smart News | Smithsonian
By and large, asteroids have a tough time getting much closer to the sun than the approximate orbit of Earth. That’s what makes 2020 AV2 so special. This intrepid asteroid, first detected on January 4 by researchers at the Palomar Observatory in California, is now officially the first of its kind known to revolve around the sun within the orbit of Venus.
2020 AV2’s tight-knight tango with the sun also earns the asteroid a few more noteworthy titles. Apart from Mercury, no other natural object in our solar system is known to have a smaller aphelion—the point at which an orbiting body is farthest from the sun. Capable of completing a lap around its star in just 151 days, the space rock also has the shortest known orbital period of any asteroid documented thus far, Masi writes in a statement .
Happening on Twitter
2.229 billion years ago, an asteroid 7 kilometers wide slammed into the Earth, carving out a crater 70 kilometers w… https://t.co/79SPnTMewB BadAstronomer (from Boulder) Thu Jan 23 16:30:29 +0000 2020
Scientists say they've identified the world's oldest asteroid impact, 2.2 billion years ago in Australia. They say… https://t.co/FpPpRo6HiQ nytimes (from New York City) Wed Jan 22 07:00:13 +0000 2020
An asteroid slammed into Earth 2.2 billion years ago during an ice age, and now studies say that may have changed E… https://t.co/8055tmjuX7 USATODAY (from USA TODAY HQ, McLean, Va.) Wed Jan 22 03:45:00 +0000 2020
More than two billion years ago, an asteroid slammed into Earth and created a 43-mile wide crater in Western Austra… https://t.co/qc8xZmFd0P CNN Wed Jan 22 05:56:58 +0000 2020
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