Near-Earth objects and close calls

There will be three meteor showers at their peak this November. Southern Taurids, Northern Taurids and the Leonids. The latter may be a candidate for a surprise meteor storm.

November 5-6Southern Taurids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
November 11 through 13Northern Taurids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
November 18Leonids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak

The famous Leonid meteor shower produced one of the greatest meteor storms in living memory. Rates were as high as thousands of meteors per minute during a 15-minute span on the morning of November 17, 1966. That night, Leonid meteors did, briefly, fall like rain. Some who witnessed it had a strong impression of Earth moving through space, fording the meteor stream. Leonid meteor storms sometimes recur in cycles of 33 to 34 years. But the Leonids around the turn of the century – while wonderful for many observers – did not match the shower of 1966. And, in most years, the Lion whimpers rather than roars.


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Old woodcuts depicting the 1833 Leonid meteor storm

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Leonid meteors viewed from space in 1997
 
The Leonid meteor shower will reach its peak tomorrow (11/18). Although it will not be as large as in the past, it will collide with the earth at 71 km/s, the fastest in the meteor shower, and you can enjoy the speed difference with the Taurid meteor shower (30 km/s), which is also at its peak. This is a view of the fireballs captured by the same camera before, streaming at the same time. The Leonids are on the right and the Taurids on the left.
Translated with Deepl
 
Today at 2:03 AM
The Leonid meteor shower will reach its peak tomorrow


Crop of the first and last image of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks that I obtained on November 14. That night it had a burst of activity increasing 1.5 magnitudes and coincidentally I was able to record most of the event: in just one hour the series lasted it increased 1.1 magnitudes.


 
Screenshot 2023-11-18 at 13-13-29 吉本@彗星屋 on X 12P、全光度ではなくアパーチャー30秒での光度推移です。4回のバーストが良く分[...].png For a week now, at the Pujalt Observatory, we have been doing special monitoring of comet 12P/Pons. A comet that has undergone several bursts in its nucleus, increasing its brightness exponentially.A few minutes ago we observed it like this from our TGS telescope.
Screenshot 2023-11-18 at 12-51-43 Observatori de Pujalt on X Fa pocs dies de nou va tenir un f...png
L-2
A few days ago, it again had a strong outburst that made it go from magnitude 16 to practically 9, multiplying its brightness by 60 times. With today's photos, it seems to be starting to slowly decrease in brightness, you can see a darkened line/part on the right side.

NORTH TAURID #SPMN161123G OVER #CÓRDOBA LAST NIGHT at 21h41m39s TUC (22h41 CEST). This is how Antonio J. Robles
@AJ_Robles captured it from Estepa, #Sevilla . These nights have bright afternoons with #Táuridas and sunrises with #Leónidas . To the list: https://ice.csic.es/news/citizen-s

Last night, we were able to capture the lunar impact flash, which may have come from the Leonid meteor shower! A flash of light that occurred at 17:27:31.6 on November 17, 2023, and is being played at 1/10x speed. The photo was taken with a self-made camera that can also capture infrared light, which is why it is colored red. It fell into the central cove.
L-2
This is a diagram showing the direction in which meteoroids from the Leonid meteor shower fall on the lunar surface when this lunar surface impact flash appears, and a comparatively bright composite image. + is the center position, and the dots are the falling area. You can see that it is within the fall area.

Screenshot 2023-11-18 at 13-23-12 Asteroids and Comets on X asteroid (2016 UJ101) missed earth...png
Screenshot 2023-11-18 at 13-24-44 Asteroids and Comets on X asteroid (2019 VL5) missed earth b...png
 
Aten type near-Earth #小惑星 2023 VY7 will approach approximately 7.54 million km from the earth (approximately 20 times the distance to the moon) at around 22:19 on November 19, 2023 (JST). November 11 It was discovered at ATLAS-HKO, Haleakala in Hawaii, USA, and has an estimated diameter of 58-130 m. Although it is not a PHA, it is a relatively large object.

The Apollo-type near-Earth #小惑星 2023 WA will pass approximately 27,000 km from the earth's center (about 1/2 of the way to the geostationary satellite orbit) at around 12:41 JST on November 17, 2023. The asteroid was discovered on November 16th (JST) at ATLAS Chile, Rio Hurtado, and has an estimated diameter of 5-12m.https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23W10.htmlhttps://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_loo

Screenshot 2023-11-19 at 10-56-55 鈴木邦彦 on X せっかく木星の閃光現象を記録できたので、時間経過の画像をつくててみました。 木星閃光(2023_11...png
I would like to see a graph of light intensity changes. Arimatsu-san will probably do it.

Screenshot 2023-11-19 at 12-52-46 Cosmic Collisions Meteors and Whale Strandings (@MatthewHoo1...png

A Starship re-entry fireball has also been spotted.
 
Is this still considered a "close call"?
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Strasbourg : une voiture possiblement perforée par… une météorite
Strasbourg: A car possibly pierced by... a meteoriteA car was found with a hole approximately 50 centimeters wide in the Alsatian capital. Firefighters and police are considering the possibility of a meteorite fall.

A projectile from space? In Strasbourg, Alsace, a vehicle was found with a hole 50 centimeters wide. On Monday, November 20, firefighters and police are questioning the possibility of a meteorite fall.

Firefighters were called in the early morning to deal with "smoke release from a car" parked in a peripheral neighborhood of the Alsatian city. "Following the reconnaissance by the first team, we suspect the fall of a celestial body," wrote the Bas-Rhin Fire and Rescue Department in its intervention report.

"Upon arrival, we observed a relatively significant impact, with a diameter of about 50 centimeters, which penetrated the roof, the lower part of the body, and the vehicle's tank," said Captain Matthieu Colobert to AFP. A search confirmed the absence of radioactivity. "We found no objects," he continued. Several hypotheses are possible: "Either the object was so small that we can't find it, or the impact was such that the object disintegrated and turned into dust," he suggested.

"We still have a suspicion about a pebble" about two centimeters wide found on the spot, he said. This pebble has been handed over to the police for further analysis to determine its nature. "It's an object the size of a hazelnut, resembling burnt wood, very light," a police spokesperson told AFP. He announced that the object would be sent to Paris to a forensic police service.

"Did an object come from space, that's the whole question," the police officer wondered. "Even a marble thrown at very high speed in descent can cause damage. But it still needs to be proven that it's an object from space," he tempered.
 

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