GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: NOAA forecasters say there is a chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 20th or 21st when a high-speed stream of solar wind is expected to hit Earth. The gaseous material is flowing from a large southern hole in the sun's atmosphere. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
SMALL ASTEROID DISINTEGRATES OVER CANADA: Astronomers are getting better at this. Yesterday, for the 6th time in recent history, an Earth-bound asteroid was discovered before it hit Earth. Astronomer David Rankin was conducting a routine survey at Mt Lemmon, Arizona, on Nov. 19th when he spotted the 1-meter space rock coming in from the asteroid belt. Three hours later it was blazing through the atmosphere above Canada:
Dereck Bowen photographed the Moon-bright fireball (above) from his backyard in Brantford, Ontario. "It was a lucky shot," he says. "I had my GoPro set up trying to get some action from the Leonids meteor shower, and I was astonished to find the asteroid."
Not everyone was surprised. Rankin's discovery triggered warnings of an imminent impact. According to the Minor Planet Center, seven observatories had time to photograph the sub-meter object before it hit on Nov. 19th at 08:27 UTC. This is a testament to astronomers' improving ability to catch incoming dangers from space.
After the asteroid entered the atmosphere, ground-based weather radars tracked pieces of the disintegrating space rock as far down as 850 meters above Earth's surface. It was a deep hit, and meteorites may have reached the ground east of Grimsby, Ontario. NASA created this map of the fall zone:
Colored polygons estimate the landing sites of meteorites from ~1g (yellow) to 10kg (red) [more maps] Credit:NASA/ARES
Most of the fall landed in Lake Ontario but small masses might be found east of Grimsby with larger masses near McNab, according to NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division. If you find a piece, here's how to handle it.
More than 50 eyewitness reports of the fireball have been submitted to the American Meteor Society from as far south as Maryland in the USA. Experienced observers say the fireball's peak brightness was between magnitude -10 and -20. For some people the fireball was brighter than a full Moon.
The Minor Planet Center has posthumously designated this asteroid 2022 WJ1.
For the record, previous asteroids detected just before they hit Earth are: 2008 TC3, 2014 AA, 2018 LA, 2019 MO, and 2022 EB5. There have been two this year alone!
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SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT (UPDATED): New sunspot AR3150 exploded on Nov. 19th (12:56 UT), producing an M1-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a shock wave emerging from the blast site at 930 km/s (2 million mph):
Newly-arriving images from SOHO confirm that the shockwave lifted a CME out of the sun's atmosphere. However, NOAA models indicate that it will not hit Earth. The storm cloud will sail past our planet, a near-miss just ahead of Earth in its orbit, on Nov. 22nd.
A pulse of extreme UV radiation from the flare ionized Earth's upper atmosphere, causing a minor shortwave radio blackout over the south Atlantic Ocean. Aviators and mariners may have noticed signals below 15 MHz fading for as much as an hour after the flare. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
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MR. SPOCK CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT: It's the logical way to decorate your Christmas tree--with a rare Mr. Spock ornament. This one has been to the edge of space. In September, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched Spock to the stratosphere on board a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $129.95. The students are selling Spock ornaments to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Made by Hallmark in the 1990s, the ornament comes with a greeting card showing the science officer in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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