MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Adam Mann, Wired Science – “Two small asteroids buzzed by Earth, zooming well within the moon’s orbit, over the last 48 hours. Neither posed any danger, but the events were eagerly captured by amateur astronomers, and the second encounter was a record-setter.

The first asteroid, designated 2012 KP24, was first detected last week and passed within 32,000 miles of Earth on May 28. It is less than 70 feet across, approximately the size of a blue whale.

The second asteroid, named 2012 KT42, zipped by at midnight PDT on May 29, coming within 8,950 miles of Earth. That’s closer than the orbit of geosynchronous satellites, making the KT42 encounter one of the top 20 closest approaches ever recorded. The asteroid was discovered only a day before its flyby, but is a puny 15 feet across, not much bigger than a minivan.

To get a sense of how close each asteroid came, the moon orbits at a distance of 240,000 miles from Earth. Most near-Earth objects pass much farther away than lunar orbit.

Both NASA and amateur astronomers scan the skies for potentially dangerous asteroids. These two were detected so late because their small size made them hard to see. Officials with the Asteroid Watch program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted the passage of each rock, noting that each was at an intimate but safe distance.” Read more.

By ROB WAUGH, Mail Online – “The moon slowly ‘bit into’ the sun, creating incredible visual effects such as a golden heart gleaming through branches in Los Angeles as the world watched an annular eclipse – a partial eclipse where the moon appears smaller than the sun.

The annular eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, created incredible visual effects around the world – and photographers let their technical imaginations run wild with ‘trick’ shots such as this heart-shaped sun.

The ‘classic’ view of an annular eclipse is as a burning ring. In the U.S., viewing parties were held at observatories in Reno, Nevada, and Oakland, California, and elsewhere. In some areas, special camera filters for taking photographs have been sold out for weeks in anticipation of the big event.” Click here to view all photos.

By Gaby Leslie, Yahoo News – “As many as 6,200 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) are orbiting close to Earth, a new survey by Nasa has revealed.

The PHAs are considered robust enough to survive the passage through Earth’s atmosphere. If they were to collide with Earth they could cause damage on a large scale, experts warn.

In the most detailed study of PHAs yet researchers used infrared scans from Nasa’s 16-inch WISE telescope to identify 4,700 asteroids – plus or minus 1500 – that come within five million miles of Earth’s orbit.

An image released by Nasa shows the distribution of the PHAs – with every orange dot representing an asteroid measuring 330 feet (100 metres) or more that is in orbit.

Only 20% to 30% of these objects have previously been charted.

Although there is no cause for immediate alarm, Nasa said the information could prepare us for future disasters.

Lindley Johnson, programme scientist for the Near-Earth Object Observation said: ‘The NEOWISE analysis shows us we’ve made a good start at finding those objects that truly represent an impact hazard to Earth.’

‘But we’ve many more to find, and it will take a concerted effort during the next couple of decades to find all of them that could do serious damage or be a mission destination in the future.'” Read more.

By Ted Thornhill, Mail Online – “A mind-bogglingly big sunspot has appeared in the past few days, which could mean the Earth is about to be blasted by powerful solar storms.

Known as AR 1476, it was spotted by Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, which launched in 2010.

Its diameter of 60,000 miles is many times that of the Earth, which measures just under 8,000 miles across.

The sunspot is so ginormous that it’s possible to view with home telescopes – though experts warn that these must be fitted with sun filters to prevent permanent eye damage.

In a tweet the SDO mission described the sunspot as a ‘monster’ and predicted that a huge solar flare – or coronal mass ejection – could erupt as a result, meaning the Earth would be hosed by radiation travelling at up to 5million mph.” Read more.

By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times – “A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt.

This isn’t the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massive solar storms have happened before — and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England.

Much of the planet’s electronic equipment, as well as orbiting satellites, have been built to withstand these periodic geomagnetic storms. But the world is still not prepared for a truly damaging solar storm, Hapgood argues in a recent commentary published in the journal Nature.

Hapgood talked with The Times about the potential effects of such a storm and how the world should prepare for it.

What exactly is a solar storm?

I find that’s hard to answer. The term ‘solar storm’ has crept into our usage, but nobody has defined what it means. Whether a ‘solar storm’ is happening on the sun or is referring to the effect on the Earth depends on who’s talking.

I prefer ‘space weather,’ because it focuses our attention on the phenomena in space that travel from the sun to the Earth.

People often talk about solar flares and solar storms in the same breath. What’s the difference?

Solar flares mainly emit X-rays — we also get radio waves from these things, and white light in the brightest of flares. They all travel at the same speed as light, so it takes eight minutes to arrive. There are some effects from flares, such as radio interference from the radio bursts.

But that’s a pretty small-beer thing. The big thing is the geomagnetic storms [on Earth] that affect the power grid, and that’s caused by the coronal mass ejections [from the sun].

Coronal mass ejections are caused when the magnetic field in the sun’s atmosphere gets disrupted and then the plasma, the sun’s hot ionized gas, erupts and send charged particles into space. Think of it like a hurricane — is it headed toward us or not headed toward us? If we’re lucky, it misses us.” Read more.

Large New Sunspot Beginning To Emerge Over Sun’s Northeastern Limb – “BIG NEW SUNSPOT: A large sunspot group is rotating into view over the sun’s northeastern limb. The emergence of this apparently significant active region could herald an increase in solar activity.” Source – Spaceweather.com.

Annular Solar Eclipse

By Tariq Malik – “The month of May looks to be a promising one for skywatchers around the world, with the largest full moon of the year — a so-called ‘supermoon’ — kicking things off this weekend. But the moon is just one of several tantalizing sky events this month, which include a meteor shower from Halley’s comet and the first solar eclipse of the year.

The skywatching action starts with a celestial double-feature. On Saturday and Sunday (May 5- 6) a ‘supermoon’ of 2012 and the Eta Aquarid meteor shower will both hit their peak.

While the bright full moon could interfere with the Eta Aquarid meteor display, some of the shower’s brightest fireballs should still be visible late Saturday and early Sunday, NASA scientists say.

Then, on May 20, the moon will pass in front of the sun but not completely block it, creating what scientists call an annular solar eclipse. Parts of the eclipse will be visible from much of North America, though the western U.S. states are in prime position for the best viewing experiences, according to SPACE.com skywatching columnist Geoff Gaherty.” Read more.

Sky News – “Tiny meteorites weighing about the same as a 50p piece have been found in northern California following a giant fireball that exploded over the US.

The miniature rocks were found in the Sierra foothills by Robert Ward of Prescott, Arizona, who has been hunting and collecting meteorites around the world for more than 20 years.

Mr Ward found the first piece on Tuesday morning in between a baseball field and a park on the edge of the town of Lotus.

He ‘instantly knew’ it was a rare meteorite known as ‘CM’ – carbonaceous chondrite – based in part on the ‘fusion crusts from atmospheric entry’ on one side of the rock, he said.” Read more.

By Lori Preuitt, NBC Bay Area – “People in Northern California and Nevada reported hearing a loud boom in the sky above the Sierra Sunday morning.

The Tuolumne County sheriff’s department said they are investigating the possibility that it might have been the physical impact of an overnight meteor shower. Some people in the Tahoe area said they saw what they believed to be a meteor just prior to the sound. Others said they saw a fireball streak across the sky at the same time.

People who live in in Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County, Placer County, Tuolumne County, Amador County and Nevada County contacted our sister station in Sacramento. KCRA is reporting that they heard the sound just after 8:30 a.m.

The Associated Press reported the explosion rattled windows and shook houses from Reno to Winnemucca in Nevada, and from the Sacramento to Bakersfield.

Meteorologists in California and Nevada including our own Rob Mayeda said there were meteor showers Saturday night that could have still been going on Sunday morning.

If the boom was a signal that an outer space rock made it way through the atmosphere, then there could be a rock or rocks now on Terra Firma. So far, no one has called authorities or television stations to report ‘a hit.'” Read more.

“A UFO, not behaving like a meteor, streaked across the skies of Arizona, causing many to call police. And for a local news team to head out of the studio to investigate. What was it?

In a sign that mainstream media is beginning to pay serious attention to the unidentified flying object phenomenon, local Arizona TV news affiliate ABC15 did a two-minute news segment on the fireball which was reportedly streaking across the sky as the newscast aired live.

Witness photographs and videos were shown on-screen, and this one, showing an irregular flight path of the object, was broadcast.

The news team speculated over what the object could be, even calling it a UFO at one point. A camera crew was sent out to the field to catch video of the object and they were successful.” Read more.

By Tariq Malik, SPACE.com – “The sun erupted in an amazing solar flare today (April 16), unleashing an intense eruption of super-heated plasma that arced high above the star’s surface before blasting out into space.

The powerful solar flare occurred at 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT) and registered as a moderate M1.7-class on the scale of sun storms, placing it firmly in the middle of the scale used by scientists to measure flare strength. The storm is not the strongest this year from the sun, but photos and video of the solar flare captured by NASA spacecraft revealed it to be an eye-popping display of magnetic plasma.

‘Great eruption happening on the sun now,’ scientists with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) wrote in a Twitter post.

The solar flare erupted along the sun’s eastern limb (its left side) from an active region that may also be responsible for solar storm activity observed on Sunday, SDO mission officials said. The flare kicked up a massive amount of solar plasma in an explosion known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.” Read more.