Meteor Showers

NASA discovered over the New Year a new meteor shower called the Volantids. According to NASA they were surprised to discover them and the stream was not known before. It looks like if earth is getting closer to something when considering the facts of the big sightings in the last few weeks.

Meteor fireball spotted over Luxembourg and France

Largest fireball meteor since Chelyabinsk falls over the Atlantic

Australian catches close-up footage of meteor fireball

Meteorite lands in Tamil Nadu, killing one and injuring three
 
Soncat said:
While I was looking for more info on meteor fields and possible meteor showers I found this article:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/507480/Asteroid-Strikes-Earth-Damage-Nasa-Destruction

Although it is dated Sept 2014, I found it to be rather pertinent, with all the meteor/fireball reports coming in currently.

Checkout SOTT's comment on the article. :)

http://www.sott.net/article/285483-Shock-asteroid-warning-Earth-faces-100-years-of-killer-strikes-beginning-in-2017-or-maybe-even-earlier
 
"THIS Sunday morning you might have a chance at catching one of the brightest and fastest meteor showers on the astronomical calendar.

The Orionid meteor shower occurs every year in October as debris from Halley’s comet comes into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere."

See: http://www.news.com.au/technology/s...r/news-story/63f971ef88616ef480ed633ee7664f2d

It seems a bit clouded out in the Canberra area, so I have not managed to witness this yet. I did sight Halley's comet back in 1986 though. It was visible for about six months.

I'll try again tomorrow.
 
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hey Musicman.
It was very cloudy here in western Aus so unfortunately we couldn't see it either. It turned into a brutal storm actually.
 
wand3rer said:
hey Musicman.
It was very cloudy here in western Aus so unfortunately we couldn't see it either. It turned into a brutal storm actually.

Yeah, it was a pity the clouds rolled in before we had a chance to see it. Maybe tonight we'll have better luck :)
 
It's been overcast and raining intermittently the past few days over here on the Mid north coast of NSW too. Might get a chance tomorrow night, would be cool to see it.
 
A green ball of fire plunged to earth in Newfoundland, Canada, lighting up the sky by the Southside Hills area.

WATCH: Blazing Green Ball of Fire Plunges to Earth in Canada (Video)
https://sputniknews.com/art_living/201710241058509333-blazing-green-ball-fire-plunges-earth-canada/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMylcTPvwsM (0:27 min.)

Andrew Wilkins was eating dinner when he saw the mysterious sight.

"The whole sky just lit up. It was like a big green ball of fire, is what it looked like," Wilkins told CBC.

"At first I thought, ‘Wow, geez, that's a really bright firework' — but fireworks don't shoot downwards."

According to another local, Krista Godfrey, " [It was] certainly the biggest thing I'd ever seen in terms of a meteor or meteorite."

"I kept waiting to see if there would be a boom coming with it. But nothing happened."

​Another viewer said, "The best time for a UFO to come down would be under the guise of a meteor shower… just saying," while another added, "Finally, aliens want to communicate with us!"

The Orionid meteor shower, which occurs every October, has been taking place and the Newfoundland ball is likely to have been a shooting star.

Orionid meteors are called such because they seem to radiate from the constellation Orion; they travel at about 41 miles per second.
 
I don't know if this belongs to this subforum or not, please move it if needed.

The Geminid meteor shower 2020 peaks tonight, 13th-14th Dec, and here's a live coverage from Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, with cameras placed next to the building where I'm currently working/observing.
Enjoy the sky show!

 
Thank you for the link Sasa. It was so lovely to look at and watch! I don't get the chance to observe the night sky - too many bright city lights. Years ago I lived in the country and we had no street lights on our small dead end street. The kids and I would go out in mid August at midnight during the Perseids Meteor Shower, put our sleeping bags up in the open field, crawl in, and watch the light show. Lovely memories.
 
Nicely it coincide with today's New Moon, by lack of the Moon in the sky it should be more availaible :). I think even if you are in the urban area, somehow you can find a darker spot somewhere near & outside the city and watch some of those shining in the sky @Echo Blue. Thank you for sharing @Saša.
 
Never heard about Camelopardalids until today but looks like they increased this year.

ENHANCED CAMELOPARDALIDS (CAM #0451) ACTIVITY RECORDED IN 2022 BY GLOBAL METEOR NETWORK​


 
FWIW an article about the Geminids published by Princeton University.

Mysteries surrounding the origin of this meteoroid stream have long fascinated scientists because, while most meteor showers are created when a comet emits a tail of ice and dust, the Geminids stem from an asteroid – a chunk of rock that normally does not produce a tail. Until recently, the Geminids had only been studied from Earth.

Now, Princeton researchers used observations from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission to deduce that it was likely a violent, catastrophic event – such as a high-speed collision with another body or a gaseous explosion – that created the Geminids. The findings, which were published in the Planetary Science Journal on June 15, narrow down hypotheses about this asteroid’s composition and history that would explain its unconventional behavior.

 
New meteor shower detected!

A new preprint by respected meteor forecaster Jeremie Vaubaillon and colleagues urges sky watchers to be alert for a new southern hemisphere meteor shower in Dec. 2023. "We predict the birth of a new shower on Dec. 12, 2023, between 8:00 and 12:30 UT," the authors write. "The location of the radiant is close to the star λ-Sculptoris star, so a possible name for the shower is λ-Sculptorids." The source of the display, if it occurs, would be Comet 46P/Wirtanen. [full story]
 
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