Travelers In The Night

The Phoenicids are a minor meteor shower which was discovered by the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition on December 5, 1956. To spot the illusive Phoenicids for yourself plan to observe during their expected peak which occurs around December 5/6 each year.

RADAR observations of asteroids and comets are an important way to measure an objects size, shape, and rate of spin. The precise distance measurements they provide make it possible to predict an object's path far into the future and thus determine if it is a risk to planet Earth.

Imagine how strange and wonderful it would be to witness such an event. When the impacting object hit it produced huge boulders, which held loosely by Phobos's weak gravity, continued to roll around and around this tiny moon, bouncing and leaping over small surface depressions for hours after the impact.

Our Moon is the only other world whose surface can be easily viewed by humans. The 59% of its surface visible from Earth is about 53 times the area of the state of California. It has a fascinating landscape which continues to impress observers.You can use a small telescope or binoculars to view lava flows, mountains, craters, walls, wrinkle ridges, rays, and rills on our Moon.

The Chinese, Chang'e 4 made a soft landing on the far side of the Moon where it is impossible to have direct radio communications with the Earth. Its companion Yutu rover whose name means "Jade Rabbit" is making scientific measurements and sending back spectacular images of the virtually unexplored part of the Moon .In the meantime China is preparing Chang'e 5 which is designed to bring lunar samples back to Earth.

The planet Jupiter is less important to us than the Earth, Sun, and Moon. However, it hold clues about the formation of our solar system and does send some comets towards us while causing others to miss our home planet.

On October 7, 2018 the moonless night sky became 25% brighter and reached the point where it is at a small light polluted city, all without human intervention. A check of the spaceweather.com website shows that from October 7 to 11 the Earth had experienced a geomagnetic storm when a canyon shaped hole in the Sun's atmosphere turned towards Earth projecting a stream of charged particles into our direction.

An unknown, quarter of a mile diameter asteroid, reached its furthest distance from the Sun on June 17, 2012. It brightened 10,000 times as it approached and crossed the Earth's orbit.Fortunately it never gets closer to the Earth than about 18 times the distance to our Moon. We will continue to observe to make sure that it does not become on an impact trajectory with the Earth as it passes other objects in space.

In 2018 there were 15 Meteorite Fall Events for which observers saw a fireball streaking across the sky which then led to the discovery of pieces of the celestial visitor on the ground. Amazingly two of the 2018 space rock fragments, called hammers, struck man made objects or structures. If find one, your reward will be the opportunity to hold a space visitor, older than the Earth, in your very own hand.

On November 12, 2007, Alex Gibbs, using the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey Schmidt telescope, discovered a bright fast moving asteroid. It was then observed by telescopes in Italy, England, Arizona, California, and Australia and given the name 2007 VK184. This asteroid created a considerable amount of interest since, until recently, it posed the most significant threat of Earth impact of any known object for the next 100 years. In March of 2014 Dr. David Tholen used the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii to detect and track 2007 VK184. His observations, the first in more than 5 years, were used to calculate a new orbit. Fortunately, the new path poses no treat to the Earth and indicates that this asteroid will never get closer to us than about 6 times the distance to our Moon.

From the naked eye to the Hubble Space telescope each advance has enabled new astronomical discoveries. We have thus begun to understand our place in the Universe. Perhaps new discoveries will be made from the lunar surface having 1/6 of Earth's gravity making it easier to build giant telescopes, no air to degrade images, and on the far side no artificial signals to obscure faint celestial sources.

As it approached the Earth's orbit , a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid literally came out of nowhere as it brightened 250 times in 15 days. On May 5, 2014, the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, AZ detected it. It was the fastest brightest asteroid I had ever seen. Fortunately, its orbit never brings it closer than about 4 times the distance to our Moon. We will need to keep track of it since the situation may change as it encounters other objects in space.

Recently the Kepler Spacecraft found that a catalogue star HD 139139 now nicknamed the "Random Transiter" had 28 apparently random sharp narrow dips in brightness in only 87 days. What it is remains a mystery.

During a recent 6 night observing run with the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, I found 29 Earth Approaching Asteroid candidates. With further observations, sixteen of these turned out to be real asteroids which in fact do not make close approaches to Earth. They range in size from about 5 football fields to nearly a mile in diameter

In our solar system the most exotic body which contains the complex organic molecules necessary for life is Saturn's Moon Titan. NASA's Dragonfly will explore this strange world with a flying drone. What it finds is likely to give us new insights into how life originated on Earth as well as to provide us reasons to value what we have at home.

Asteroid 2014 JO25 is truly an amazing object. It orbits the Sun, every 2.94 years, on a very elongated path that goes closer to the Sun than Mercury and then it travels out to well past Mars. It must be made of hard rocky material since during its close approach to the Sun it was traveling at 84 miles/second. At that point, it was closer to the Sun than the planet Mercury and probably had a surface temperature greater than 800 F. Fortunately this asteroid never gets closer than about 4.4 lunar distances from Earth.

A given piece of ground on Mars receives several times more space rock impacts than a similar sized area on Earth. Perhaps, in the future the Martian tourist industry will bring visitors to view super meteor storms which occur each year when Mars is furtherest from the Sun and to search for meteorites on the red planet's surface.

During a recent 6 night observing run with the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, I found 29 Earth Approaching Asteroid candidates which were posted on the Minor Planet Center website. The largest of this collection of space rocks is 2014 JO25. It orbits the Sun every 3 years and is about 1/2 mile in diameter. Its closet approach to Earth is about 4.4 times the distance to our Moon at which time it is traveling in excess of 20 miles/second. We will continue to observe it, to make sure that it does not become an Earth impactor, as it passes near other objects in space.

49 years after the Lunar Landing Module "Snoopy" was abandoned by Apollo 10 Astronauts, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls may have spotted it while searching for Earth approaching asteroids in the constellation of Cancer with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona.

When you look out in space you are also looking back in time. Objects in space are older than they appear to us; the Moon more than a second , Mars a minute and a half, and the Great Galaxy in Andromeda appears as it was 3 million years ago. This situation is due to the fact that it takes time for light to travel the great distances in the Universe.