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| 2024-05-24 16:19:59 | 6.6N | 114.2E | 42.0 | 36.5 | 26.5 | -23.8 | 8.1 | 5.4e10 | 0.18 |
BRIGHT METEOR LIGHTS UP SINGAPORE SKY
On May 24, a spectacular bright blue meteor streaked across Singapore's sky at 11:50 PM, mesmerizing onlookers.
Described as a "rare and thrilling experience," the meteor was bright enough to outshine the full moon.
Astronomical Society of Singapore's Soh Kim Mun confirmed it was a fireball, an exceptionally bright meteor.
Despite Singapore's heavy light pollution, this stunning celestial event left viewers in awe.
- A new study of asteroid Dinkinesh and its moon Selam, led by researchers at Southwest Research Institute, shows a complex geological history for both bodies.
- Data from NASA’s Lucy mission, which passed by Dinkinesh in November 2023, show ejected material from the larger asteroid likely formed its satellite, the dual-lobed Selam.
- Lucy will be visiting at least nine more asteroids during its mission, including eight Trojan asteroids near Jupiter.
Asteroid Dinkinesh and its lobed moon, Selam
When the NASA spacecraft Lucy visited the asteroid Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt in November 2023, it made quite a discovery. It found Dinkinesh had a small companion moon, which researchers named Selam. A few days after that discovery, more images from Lucy showed Selam wasn’t just a single satellite but two fused together. A team led by researchers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, recently studied data sent back by Lucy. They said on May 30, 2024, that new research shows how the asteroid’s double moon points to a complex history of all three mini-worlds.
The researchers published their findings in a new peer-reviewed paper in Nature on May 29, 2024.
Asteroid’s double moon
Scientists say Selam likely formed when material on Dinkinesh shifted, which created a trough on the asteroid and ejected material into space. Some material fell back on Dinkinesh and formed a ridge. Then, some of the other ejected material coalesced to form Selam. Astronomers aren’t quite sure how the satellite arrived at its current form of two lobes stuck together, or what scientists call a contact binary. But these closer looks at the ridged asteroid Dinkinesh and binary Selam suggest they have a lot of internal strength. Lead author Hal Levison at SwRI said:
This flyby showed us Dinkinesh has some strength and allowed us to do a little ‘archaeology’ to see how this tiny asteroid evolved. When it broke apart, a disk of material formed, some of which rained back onto the surface, creating the ridge.
Levison also said:
To understand the history of planets like Earth, we need to understand how objects behave when they hit each other, which is affected by the strength of the planetary materials. We think the planets formed as zillions of objects orbiting the sun, like asteroids, ran into each other. Whether objects break apart when they hit or stick together has a lot to do with their strength and internal structure.
So just how the material from Dinkinesh formed the lobed moonlet is still uncertain. As astrophysicist Kevin Walsh at SwRI explained:
We see ridges around asteroids’ equators regularly among near-Earth asteroids, but seeing one up close, around an asteroid with a satellite, helps to unravel some of the possible histories of these binary asteroids.
Asteroid’s double moon delivers data and delights
The Lucy flyby provided data and unexpected delights. Simone Marchi, Lucy deputy principal investigator and second author of the paper, said:
The Lucy science team started gathering data about Dinkinesh using telescopes in January 2023, when it was added to our list of targets. Thanks to the telescopic data, we thought we had quite a good picture of what Dinkinesh would look like, and we were thrilled to make so many unexpected discoveries.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured this view of asteroid Dinkinesh and its smaller moon Selam on November 1, 2023. Here, the little moon looks like 1 small body. But later images would show it to be 2, attached together. Image via NASA/ SwRI/ Johns Hopkins APL/ NOIRLab.
More asteroids for Lucy
Lucy’s mission is far from over. There are nine more asteroids the spacecraft will explore over the next several years. Currently, it’s heading back toward Earth. It will use Earth’s gravity in December 2024 to slingshot out toward its next encounters. Its next target? Asteroid Donaldjohanson in 2025.
After that, it will head for its primary target, the Trojan asteroids. The Trojans share the same orbit as Jupiter, in swarms both ahead of and behind the planet. In 2027, Lucy will fly past no less than eight Trojan asteroids, in both swarms. Will Lucy find any more asteroids with moons? Or even double moons? Stay tuned!
When Lucy flew past Dininesh on November 1, 2023, it found some surprises. The larger asteroid has a small moon. And the moon is a pair of 2 smaller bodies fused together. Image via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ YouTube.
Bottom line: A new study of asteroid Dinkinesh and its moon, Selam, shows a complex history. Data from the Lucy mission provided a deeper insight of Dinkinesh and the asteroid’s double moon.
After only four recordings in the first four months of the year, now there has been an uptick in the CNEOS list, with the following seven between early May and early June. The last three, have come within just eight days, and have been added since the above posting.
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Melburnians were treated to a remarkable sight on Wednesday night, as a “huge” meteor lit up the sky.
Experts say back-to-back sightings of multiple fireballs detected across Victoria overnight were purely coincidental.
The events were detected by the Global Fireball Network — an Australia-wide network of cameras designed to track meteoroids entering the atmosphere.
Monash University professor and member of the network Andy Tomkins said the first sighting came in just before 6:30pm, followed by another about 9pm and two more just after 4am.
Dozens of Victorians reported spotting meteors across several locations including in the suburbs of Frankston, Footscray and Seaford.
"That's not uncommon with large fireballs, because they burn up in the upper atmosphere quite high up in the sky," Professor Tomkins said.
"Because they're so high up, they can be seen from a long way away, meaning different people report them."
He said they can typically appear in the sky for one to three seconds.
'Bit of a fluke', expert says
Although the meteors were highly visible, they were not large enough to hit the ground as a meteorite, astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology Allan Duffy said.
It startled the cows, intrigued the locals and excited scientists around the world. Fifty years on, the Murchison meteorite still defines a town and yields new discoveries every year.
"[It's] quite unusual to have two highly visible fireballs in the same location so close over the same space, so close in time," he said.
Professor Tomkins said the fireballs were not part of a meteor shower, instead they originated from asteroids.
"Since they were on distinctly different orbits, we know that they were not related to a common origin, such as breaking off a larger structure," he said.
But he said the appearance of several in the same location was a "bit of a fluke".
"It's just purely coincidence this time," he said.
He said experts do rely on the public to report the sightings and send in videos.
"The public's response is actually really useful ... it's been really good to see so many people reporting in."
The International Meteor Organization has also listed several pending reports from Victorians who spotted the meteors on Wednesday night.
www.sott.net
Shortly after midnight from Monday to Tuesday, residents in parts of Poland witnessed a vivid flash in the night sky. The cause was a meteoroid hurtling towards Earth, its flight captured by observation stations affiliated with the Skytinel project.
"The fireball, whose trajectory passed entirely over the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in Poland, was observed by two monitoring stations affiliated with our project: SN05 (operated by Dariusz Wiosna) and SN07 (operated by Mateusz Roman). Fortunately, no meteorites reached the ground this time," confirmed the authors of the Skytinel research project, which gathers enthusiasts of sky observation.
Calculations indicated that the meteoroid became visible at an altitude of 95.42 km and traveled towards Earth at an initial speed of approximately 25 km/s. During its flight, it decelerated to about 9 km/s and completely burned up at an altitude of 38.45 km, explained representatives of Skytinel on their websites.
The meteoroid fragmented multiple times during its flight and orbited between Mars and Jupiter before entering Earth's atmosphere.
"The brightest flash was significantly brighter than a full Moon (-12 mag), and witnesses reported a loud noise that followed its passage. This was due to the shockwave associated with the supersonic speed of the cosmic visitor," explained Mariusz Żmija from the Polish Meteorite Society.
The Skytinel project aims to ensure effective sky monitoring over Poland by harnessing the efforts of enthusiasts who build their own fireball stations, forming an observational network equipped with modern, sensitive cameras.
Its goal is to document meteorite falls and subsequently locate them. The project invites astronomy enthusiasts, non-profit organizations, scientific institutions, and related companies to join in setting up cameras, capturing extraordinary events, and assisting in the search for meteorites, collectively unraveling numerous cosmic mysteries.
Source: skytinel.com
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