Near-Earth objects and close calls

The Croatian Astronomical Union reported a great meteor bolide that flew through the atmosphere over central Italy last night at around 19:55.

The fireball was also visible from Croatia​

At the time of the flight, the bolide was at times brighter than the Moon, and could be seen from many parts of Croatia , especially Istria. The fireball glowed for about ten seconds.

In the attached video, the car was taken from Lovrečica near Umag.


The Croatian Astronomical Union immediately received numerous reports and inquiries from citizens​

Numerous citizens immediately reported and sent their inquiries regarding the bolide to the Croatian Astronomical Union. Croatia and the Global Meteor Network have recorded this phenomenon and are currently collecting and processing data and information. The official report will be released later in the day.

It is a space object that probably came from the Asteroid Belt, and burned up by passing through the atmosphere over central Italy.

Source: Croatian Astronomical Union / Facebook.com.

Brilliant meteor car over central Italy. Source: Croatian Astronomical Union / Facebook.com.

A car over central Italy. Source: Croatian Astronomical Union / Facebook.com.

Source: Croatian Astronomical Union / Facebook.com.

A statement from the Croatian Astronomical Association on the social network Facebook reads as follows:
" Meteor fireball over central Italy / Given the large number of reports and inquiries from citizens, we want to report that around 19:55 a bright fireball (meteor bolide) was observed from many locations in Croatia, and the burning of a space body probably originating from the Asteroid Belt, which according to current estimates burned in atmosphere somewhere above central Italy. The fireball lasted about 10 seconds, and from our region it was brighter than the 4-5 day old Moon, which means that above the place of flight it was very likely significantly brighter than the full Moon. Croatia and the Global Meteor Network have recorded an occurrence and data are currently being collected and processed, and a preliminary report can be expected tomorrow by the end of the day. For now, we are publishing footage of events captured by meteor cameras from Hum and Roč in Istria.“- Croatian Astronomical Association / Facebook.com.

https://www.facebook.com/astronomskisavez/posts/1370729400035827

From AMS:

We received 199 reports about a fireball seen over Abruzzo, Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Campania, Corse, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Graubünden, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Piemonte, Primorsko-goranska županija, Sežana, Sicilia, Split-Dalmatia County, Tessin, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria, Valais and V on Saturday, March 5th 2022 around 18:55 UT.




Edit: clarity
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1500846559625465861
The moment a fireball meteor appeared over the Western Isles was captured on video as an angler filmed his first fishing trip of this year.

Lewis Docherty was fishing near the Lochmaddy Hotel on North Uist when the fireball appeared at about 16:30 on Thursday.

He said he was lucky to be in the right place and time to see and film it.

Facebook group Western Isles Weather received numerous reports of the spectacle from islanders.

People across the isles, from Barra to Lewis, told of seeing a large bright light moving fast.

The UK Meteor Observation Network said it was likely to have been a fireball - the description for a bright meteor streaking across the sky.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1500735820323561475

1646666457764.jpeg
Casual recording of an impressive meteorite-dropping #bolide yesterday night over #Rome #Italy! It was also recorded by five PRISMA #FRIPON @VigieCiel stations at 18h55m55s UTC, so we already know all the details about its luminous trajectory, radiant and orbital details
https://twitter.com/x/status/1500374362171576321
I was at the Olympic stadium last night with my son when I noticed a spectacular #bolide and took it back. I thought I was wrong and that it was a bit of an extreme celebration, but ... it's him!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1499423997624299524
 
This news in 40-odd days old but i don't think it has been posted here yet and i had missed it: It has been officially confirmed that mega-comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is officially the largest comet ever discovered, it's the largest object detected in the Oort-cloud, and, at 85-miles wide, it's almost twice as large as Comet Hale-Bopp.

It has already been predicted that on its current orbit and speed it will 'get closest to Earth in 2031..and will remain just outside Saturn's orbit, Live Science reported.' - that's obviously unless something changes its orbit, it doesn't speed up, and it doesn't break up...

The Live Science article above is easier to understand but here's the official update from Cornell University:

1646698730923.png

Size and albedo of the largest detected Oort-cloud object: comet C/2014 UN 271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein)​

[2201.13188] Size and albedo of the largest detected Oort-cloud object: comet C/2014 UN 271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein)
E. Lellouch, R. Moreno, D. Bockelée-Morvan, N. Biver, P. Santos-Sanz

The recently announced Oort-cloud comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) is remarkable in at least three respects: (i) it was discovered inbound as far as ~29 au from the Sun (with prediscovery images up to ~34 au); (ii) it showed cometary activity already at almost 24 au; and (iii) its nuclear magnitude (Hr ~ 8.0) indicates an exceptionally large object. Detection of gases is expected in the upcoming years as the comet is heading towards a ~11 au perihelion in 2031. We used ALMA in extended configuration (resolution ~0.064") to measure the 1287 um (233 GHz) continuum flux of the comet. Observations were performed on August 8, 2021 at a 20.0 au distance from the Sun. The high spatial resolution was chosen in order to filter out any dust contribution. We detected the thermal emission of the object at ~10 sigma, with a flux of 0.128+/-0.012 mJy. Based on observational constraints and our theoretical estimates of the dust contribution, the entirety of the measured flux can be attributed to the nucleus. From NEATM modelling combined with the Hr magnitude, we determine a surface-equivalent diameter of 137+/-17 km and a red geometric albedo of 5.3+/-1.2 %. This confirms that 2014 UN271 is by far the largest Oort-cloud object ever found (almost twice as large as comet C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp), and except for the Centaur 95P/Chiron which shows outburst-like activity, the largest known comet in the Solar System. On the other hand, the object albedo is typical of comets, adding credence for a "universal" comet nucleus albedo. With its distant perihelion and uniquely large size, 2014 UN271 is the prominent archetype of distant comets, whose activity is driven by hypervolatiles. Post-perihelion thermal measurements will permit to study possible albedo changes, such as a surface brightening compared to pre-perihelion, as was observed for Hale-Bopp.


Comments:Accepted for publication in A & A Letters. Abstract slightly shortened to fit within word limit
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as:arXiv:2201.13188 [astro-ph.EP]
(or arXiv:2201.13188v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
[2201.13188] Size and albedo of the largest detected Oort-cloud object: comet C/2014 UN 271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein)

Submission history​

From: Emmanuel Lellouch [view email]
[v1] Mon, 31 Jan 2022 12:52:27 UTC (124 KB)
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The URKSAT 5B FALCON 9 R/B (lunched Dec 18, 2021), loses it orbit and decays over South America.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1501193814442225676
It wasn't a racing car! It was space junk 🛰️🔴 Space debris ingress at 07:35 UTC. The object called "TURKSAT 5B Falcon 9 R/B" re-entered Paraguayan territory. Image of @jremisTrack @Geografia_Afic https://twitter.com/AnthonyPaez59 /status/1501136941949108224
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Today/A fireball was observed from Asunción and other cities in the Central Department. 4:30 a.m. 🌠🇵🇾☄️
video courtesy @oscar_marandu @marlycaceresz @agustingenovese @flogismondi @CarlosGomezPy @JOSEESCAURIZA
https://twitter.com/x/status/1501136941949108224
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A fireball has the appearance of a sphere of fire, and not a punctual or stellar aspect. The luminous path that it leaves behind as it passes through the atmosphere persists for more than tens of seconds and can last for several minutes and even half an hour.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1501167566479405061


Sidenote:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1480436308208074753
 
~20 minutes ago, north-west-west of Cassiopaea, on a clear starry sky I saw - what must have been - my first vertical entry comet. A nice fat purple-red explosion in space - the size of an average head of a shooting star, lasting for half a second and nothing else. No trail. That's why I'm posting. :-o
Since I'm only out at night for like 50 seconds.. to 2 minutes at most on average, I usually see shooting stars. In those small timeframes.. so there must be a lot of shooting stars these days.

But this was the first Star-Wars-like explosion, like when (IIRC) in the first movie they watching the space ships of the Sith and the Rebels duke it out up there. Minus the giant-long laser beams of course.. :D Then from the west - exactly in the path ==> heading toward - the explosion one of the satellites swam in steadily. ISS or rather probably the smaller ones, like Musks space junk called Starlink, maybe. I half-expected to see some space war after this flash, but nada. :(
Can't even have a flashy Space Invasion visual experience at night.
Boring..
:D
 
This comes from a reliable source from Spain. Dr. Trigo is part of the global Planarity Defense System #DART.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1502854914870894602

https://twitter.com/x/status/1502529153471770626
https://twitter.com/Josep_Trigo
Dr. Josep M. Trigo #PlanetaryDefense #DART HERA
A meter-sized asteroid hit the atmosphere this morning over the North of Iceland. The Earth's atmosphere is a excellent shield for small asteroids like this so please don't worry about. Unfortunately the fragmentation occurred over the sea so a meteorite recovery seems impossible
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He just deleted the tweet associated with the video above.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1502684548232007691

https://twitter.com/x/status/1502665129988612096

https://twitter.com/x/status/1501946298122989571
 
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AN ASTEROID JUST HIT EARTH: Discovered. Photographed. Destroyed. All three things happened to asteroid 2022 EB5 in quick succession on March 11th. Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky discovered the asteroid at 19:24 UT. Italian astronomer Enrico Pettarin photographed the asteroid at 20:28 UT
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The asteroid destroyed itself at ~21:22 UT when it hit Earth's atmosphere off the coast of Iceland, disintegrating harmlessly as a bright fireball. The entire sequence of events took less than 2 hours.​
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2022eb5_strip_opt.gif
The explosion was detected by Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization infrasound stations in Greenland and Norway. Combining data from the two locations, University of Western Ontario astronomer Peter Brown estimates that "the asteroid exploded with an energy close to 2 kilotons of TNT. Assuming a speed of 15 km/s, it must have been about 3 m in diameter," he says.
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This is only the 5th time an asteroid was discovered just before it hit Earth. The others were 2008 TC3 (Sudan), 2014 AA (Atlantic Ocean), 2018 LA (Botswana), and 2019 MO (Puerto Rico).
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Interesting.

Imagine if 2022EB5 had hit NYC or any other City. The United States would have said it was a Russian missile.

Perhaps something like this is in the plans for the near future...As said before about war and Celestial intentions.

Why was 2022 EB5 not noticed until just two hours before?

It was a tiny rock. It reflects just a little light from the Sun - it is hard to identify it," Polishook explained.
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The impact made no damage, falling into the sea between Norway to Iceland. However, just imagine it would have crashed a few hours earlier over Russia," Polishook said. "With the ongoing crisis, would Russia have identified it as an asteroid or as a rocket, and returned fire with its own missiles?"
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Came across this story today:

Dad finds meteorite worth $130,000 in farmer’s field​


A Dad has found a 2lb 4oz meteorite worth up to $130,000 in a farmer’s field after searching for it for 18 months.

Tony Whilding, 38, of Wrexham, North Wales, began his hunt after a ball of flames shot over his home and went out.

Tony is hoping to get the rock certified to find how much it is worth.

He said: “I was in my back garden having a midnight cigarette when I noticed the sky lighting up above my head.

“I looked up to see a low-flying ball of fire with two swirling trails of smoke.

“It got brighter as it approached my house at about twice its height. It was so low you could have kicked a football in the air and it would have reached it.

“As it crossed over, it extinguished within a few seconds. There was no noise, it just disappeared, leaving only the trails of smoke.”
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Source
 
On March 21st a fireball over Finland lit up the sky for 6 seconds sparking about 100 reports.

"Some observers in Kainuu [Eastern Finland] mistook the glowing streak of light for an aircraft. This led to the rescue department launching an unsuccessful investigation for signs of a plane crash in the Piispäjärvi area."

Interesting that a spokesman for the Ursa Astronomical Association Finnish Fireball Network team stated this is very rare and "this kind [of phenomenon] can be seen once every ten years" when we know this happened in 2017.

Is this a portent or sign telling Finland not to join NATO and not to inflame relations with their Eastern neighbor of Russia?

Fireball over Finland March 21
 
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