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FARSIDE
ACTIVITY: NASA's STEREO probes
are monitoring strong activity on the far side of
the sun. A spectacular CME erupted during the early
hours of April 8th apparently from old sunspot AR1176.
This is the second day in a row that the active
region has hurled massive clouds into space. Movies:
April
7, April
8.
TENNESSEE
FIREBALL: Space rocks have landed
in Tennessee. That's the conclusion of researchers
who recorded a brilliant fireball streaking over
the Smoky Mountain state on Wednesday evening. Bill
Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office reports:
"On April 6th at 8:21:57 CDT, NASA all-sky
meteor cameras detected a very bright fireball moving
north across the state of Tennessee. First detected
52 miles above the Arnold Air Force base near Tullahoma,
the meteor was brighter than crescent Moon and was
approximately 2 feet in diameter, with a weight
of 200 lbs. It was last recorded 30 miles above
the town of Woodbury, Tennessee, moving at a speed
of approximately 9 miles per second (32,400 mph)."
Cooke continues: "The NASA Meteoroid Environment
Office has reasonable confidence that some fraction
of this meteor survived to the ground as one or
more meteorites. Calculations are underway to determine
the general impact location, which may lie close
to the Kentucky border. Eyewitnesses to the fireball
are encouraged to make a report to the American
Meteor Society or to the Meteoroid
Environment Office."
The smart cameras of Cooke's fireball network are
able to calculate the orbits of incoming fireballs
and backtrack their trajectories into the solar
system. "The orbit of this interloper indicates
that it came from the Asteroid Belt, with an aphelion
well beyond the orbit of Mars."
STEADY
SKIES OVER JAPAN: Only a few hours
before a new and powerful earthquake shook Japan
on April 7th, amateur astronomer Mitsuo Muraoka
of Hatoyama, Saitama, photographed a conjunction
of the crescent Moon and the Pleiades:
"It was a beautiful sight," says Muraoka.
"Only a little while later, however, [I might
have had trouble steadying my camera]."
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, a
7.4 magnitude aftershock of the March 11th super-quake
struck offshore at 11:30 pm Japan time. The latest
quake did do some damage to the island nation, but
no tsunami is forthcoming. Astronomers there can
return their attention to the sky, which remained
steady throughout.
more moonshots: from
Stephan Heinsius of Dreieich, Germany; from
Tamás Ábrahám of Zsámbék, Hungary; from
Stefano De Rosa of Turin, Italy; from
Tavi Greiner of Shallotte, NC; from
Doug Zubenel at the St. Philippine Duchesne
Memorial Park, Linn County, Kansas; from
Rafael Schmall of Kaposfo, Somogy, Hungary;
from
Alfredo Garcia Jr of Lomita, CA; from
Monika Landy-Gyebnar of Veszprem, Hungary;
April
2011 Aurora Gallery
[previous Aprils: 2010,
2009, 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005,
2004, 2003,
2002]
