Travelers In The Night1 Apr 2025

330E-349-Big and Fast

I was observing with the Catalina Sky Survey 60 inch telescope on Mt Lemmon, Arizona when a fast moving object appeared on a set of four images of the same area of the night sky. After I sent the discovery observations to the Minor Planet Center this new object was observed by telescopes in Arizona, Germany , South Bohemia in the Czech Republic , Chile, Pennsylvania , Italy, Hungary, and France. 2017 FE101's unusual path about our Sun is inclined by 53 degrees to the plane where the planets and most of the rest of the asteroids are located. In September of 2016 it was not observed by humans as it streaked by at an amazing 22 miles per second. Once every 125,000 years or so a 5 football field sized asteroid like 2017 FE101 collides with our planet producing a crater 4 or 5 miles in diameter, inflicts damage over a hurricane sized foot print on the Earth's surface, and in some cases throws up enough debris into the atmosphere to produce global climate change. Since on its current path, 2017 FE101 can't come closer than about 21 times the moon's distance from us , this very large space rock is not currently classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid. Rest assured that my team the Catalina Sky Survey and asteroid hunters world wide will keep track of 2017 FE101 as it comes near to Mars and Earth to make sure that its path does not change to make it a threat to our home planet.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(1000)

914-Deep Synoptic Array

Looking into the sky at night with radio eyes you would not see the points of starlight forming the constellations instead you would see a very bright, colorful and wildly changing scene. In a desert ...

28 Aug 2min

403E-444-Near Comets

Although no comet nucleus impact on the Earth has been conclusively identified, there is some evidence that suggests the 1908 Tunguska event in Russia, which knocked down trees over a 770 square mile ...

25 Aug 2min

913-Moon Impact

Bill Gray is an astronomer who specializes in tracking objects in space which come near the Earth. In addition to natural objects like asteroids and comets Bill also tracks rocket boosters and space j...

21 Aug 2min

402E-443-Unsung Heroes

In 2017 observers in 50 countries at 440 different observatories made nearly 19 million observations of asteroids and comets which enable scientists to calculate where about 800,000 objects will be in...

18 Aug 2min

912-Boston Bolide

Recently on a Saturday afternoon a loud double booming sound startled residents of Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a large bolide meteor exploded high above. This type of space rock is a message fr...

14 Aug 2min

401E-442-Brian's Debut

During the only 3 clears hours of his first night solo as an asteroid hunter, my new Catalina Sky Survey teammate Brian Africano discovered two new Earth approaching asteroids with our Schmidt Telesco...

11 Aug 2min

911-Comet Brightness Explosion

Comet 220P/McNaught orbits the Sun once every 5.5 years on a path which is between Mars and Jupiter. At that extreme distance, more than 1.5 times the Earth’s distance from the Sun, it still receives ...

7 Aug 2min

400E-441-Carson's Pair

My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls was observing, in the constellation Lynx, with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona , when within the space of only 35 minutes, he discovered two s...

4 Aug 2min