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SATELLITE COLLISION:
On Feb. 10th, 2009, Iridium 33 collided
with Cosmos 2251 over northern Siberia, and the two satellites were
shattered. US Strategic command has since catalogued 981 pieces
of debris, 25 of which have already reentered Earth's atmosphere.
On this three-month anniversary of the collision, veteran satellite
observer Daniel Deak has prepared a set of 3D orbital debris maps.
Broswe the links to see where the fragments are located on May 10,
2009: Iridium 33: #1,
#2,
#3,
Cosmos 2251: #1,
#2,
#3.
BONUS: A large piece of Iridium 33 wreckage is
visible to the naked eye as it tumbles through the night sky flashing
every 4.7 seconds. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker
for flyby times.
SOLAR RADIO BURST:
On May 9th at 1614 UT, the sun emitted a
strong shortwave radio burst. Amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft
recorded the
event using a 21 MHz radio telescope in New Mexico. Click on
the image to listen:
The loud swishing sound you just heard is a combo
Type
III-Type
V solar radio burst caused by electron beams moving through
the sun's outer atmosphere. The source of the electrons is probably
an active region now
emerging over the sun's eastern limb. The unnumbered region
is crackling with low-level A-
and B-class solar flares, and it could produce more radio sounds
in the days ahead. Ham radio operators, point your Yagis
toward the sun!
more images: from
Jesper Sorensen of Kastrup, Denmark; from
Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from
Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from
Lars Zielke of Tvis Denmark; from
Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from
Guenter Kleinschuster of Feldbach, Austria; from
P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from
Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky; from
Mike Strieber of Las Vegas, Nevada; from
Sylvain Weiller of Saint Rémy lès Chevreuse, France
EUROPA OCCULTS GANYMEDE:
On May 8th, Anthony Wesley of Murrumbateman, Australia, recorded
a very rare event--one of Jupiter's moons eclipsing another. "Here,"
says Wesley, "is an animation of Europa passing directly in
front of Ganymede."
He made the movie using a 13-inch telescope and a digital video
camera. "Seeing was not good, so I was only able to use 250
of the 1200 frames I collected." Nevertheless, it is an extraordinary
observation, showing the distant moons as genuine world-like disks
as they pass in "mutual occultation."
Earth is moving through the orbital plane of Jupiter's satellites,
allowing the moons to line up for events such as Wesley recorded
on May 8th. This special geometry comes along approximately once
every 6 years. The last time was in 2002-2003, and now it is happening
again. Between April and December of 2009, observers around the
world can see Jupiter's moons passing one in front of another as
they circle the giant planet. As part of the International Year
of Astronomy, professional astronomers are organizing a worldwide
observing campaign to record as many of these events as possible.
Click here
for details.
April
2009 Aurora Gallery
[previous Aprils: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005, 2004,
2003, 2002]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle
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