MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Luke 21:25-26, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

By Will Stewart and Jill Reilly, Mail Online – “A terrifying meteorite shower left more than 950 people injured, buildings devastated and the mobile network wiped out when it hit Russia this morning.

Brightly burning rocks could be seen for miles as they crashed at around 9.20am local time and one bystander described it ‘like a scene from the Armageddon movie.’

The meteorite is believed to have landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in the neighbouring Chelyabinsk region.

The city of Chelyabinsk, 900 miles east of Moscow and close to the Kazakhstan border, took the brunt of the super sonic impact…

The Russian Ministry of Emergencies says 950 people have been injured, 82 of them are children and two are in intensive care.

Many of the injured had bloodied faces and one child’s back was seen covered in blood.

Tim O’Brien, associate director of the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, said the injuries were caused when the meteor created a sonic boom.

‘This reasonably large chunk of rock was moving faster than the speed of sound, maybe 20,000 miles per hour. It made a sonic boom in the atmosphere, and that hit buildings and shattered windows. That is what seems to have caused the injuries,’ he explained.” Read more.

Russia Meteorite Had Destructive Power Of Atomic Bomb – “A meteor streaked through the sky and exploded Friday over Russia’s Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows… The spectacle deeply frightened thousands, with some elderly women declaring the world was coming to an end. The meteor — estimated to be about 10 tons — entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph) and shattered about 30-50 kilometers (18-32 miles) above the ground, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. It released the energy of several kilotons above the Chelyabinsk region, the academy said.” Read more.

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The Telegraph – “Scientists say they are sure there is no chance of the 150ft (45.7m) wide space rock hitting the planet.

But there is a remote possibility that it could collide with one of more than 100 telecommunication and weather satellites in fixed orbits above the Earth.

The asteroid, 2012 DA14, has been closely tracked since its discovery a year ago.

It is predicted to reach its nearest point to the Earth at around 7.30pm UK time on Friday.

Experts have calculated it will stay at least 17,200 miles (27,681km) away – easily far enough to be safe, but a very close shave in astronomical terms. Scientists have never observed such a narrow miss before.

Dr Dan Brown, from Nottingham Trent University, said telecommunication satellites – that ping data between our mobile phones – could be in danger.

Travelling at between 12,427mph (20,000kph) and 18,641mph (30,000kph) – around five miles (8km) a second, or eight times the speed of a rifle bullet – the asteroid will fly inside the orbits of high geostationary satellites some 22,000 miles (35,406km) above the Earth.

‘These are the satellites that provide us with telecommunications and weather forecasts,’ said Dr Brown.

‘There are loads of them but you’re talking about a very big area. It would be very unlucky if a satellite was hit. The asteroid is more likely to hit some space junk, but most of this is only about a centimetre across and the impact won’t even be noticed.’

Through binoculars, the object should be visible as a tiny dot of light crossing the sky.

‘It will be too faint for the naked eye but with binoculars it should be visible if you know where to look. It will be low to the north-eastern horizon and moving quite quickly,’said Dr Brown.

‘You’ll be able to see it pass from the constellation Leo to roughly the Plough, more or less from anywhere in the UK, and it will be bright for about an hour.’

DA14 belongs to dangerous family of near-Earth objects (NEOs) that are small enough to be missed but large enough to cause serious damage.” Read more.

Luke 21:10-11, 27, “Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven… And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.'”

By STEVE ELWART, WND – “Later this year, Comet ISON will pass through the asteroid belt, enter the Inner Solar System and sidestep Mars on its way past Earth, putting on what scientists expect will be a spectacular heavenly show that is not to be missed.

Astronomers are calling it the ‘comet of the century.’

Comets offer one of the most spectacular celestial scenes the unaided human eye can see. By November or December, ISON is expected to be brighter than a full moon. Some believe it will be up to 15 times brighter.

While ISON may prove to be brighter than any other comet of the last century, this trip may also be its swan song, as it is projected to end its flight in a fiery death in the sun.

Comets are made of several parts. The core, or nucleus, is a solid snowball of dust and ice. As the comet nears the sun, the nucleus heats up, releasing the mixture of gas, called the coma, and dust, which forms the tail. There is also a plasma ion tail, which can be several hundred million miles long.

Occasionally, a comet is dislodged from its orbit and makes its way toward Earth.

Comet ISON, currently in the vicinity of Jupiter, was discovered by two Russian amateur astronomers, Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok, using a 16-inch International Scientific Optical Network telescope in Vitebsk, Belarus. The comet possibly came from the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy small bodies beyond Neptune.

ISON, for the moment, is a faint object, visible only in sophisticated telescopes, but that will change in the next few months. Read more…

By Gene J. Koprowski, FoxNews – “Sunny, with a mild chance of catastrophe?

A massive solar storm, like the one that knocked out radio communications all over the U.S. in 1958, is coming, and this time the devastation could total as much as $2 trillion, experts told FoxNews.com. Call it the perfect solar storm.

Wireless networks that power Blackberrys and iPhones here on earth, as well as GPS satellites that help pilots navigate planes in the skies, could be blacked out. And electric grids that power neighborhoods and whole cities could temporarily go down, said Professor Jose Lopez, a physicist at Seton Hall University.

‘The concern of a strong solar flare in the direction of Earth is legit. The possibility that such a Sun burst could hit Earth could cause extensive damage as it would charge-up our electrical equipment and destroy them,’ Lopez told FoxNews.com.

What starts as a multimillion-degree blast of fire from the sun cools over the vast distances of space. But what remains is a wave of energy that leaves satellites ‘highly charged’ and damages components with its high current. Electronics are also damaged by high-energy particles that penetrate them and interfere with transmissions, as are electronics on Earth.

Solar maximum in 2013

The sun has an activity cycle, much like the hurricane season here on Earth, scientists tell FoxNews.com. And as it reaches a peak in activity, more solar flares and plasma will be hurled our way.

‘The ramped up solar activity is to be expected through 2013, as it’s the peak of the Sun’s current 11-year cycle,’ Lopez explained.” Read more.

By Tariq Malik, Space.com – “A European space telescope has captured new images of the huge asteroid Apophis, revealing that the potentially hazardous object is actually bigger than previously thought — and you have a chance to see the space rock yourself in two free webcasts tonight.

Asteroid Apophis has long been billed as a ‘doomsday asteroid’ because of a 2004 study that predicted a 2.7 percent chance of the space rock hitting Earth when it passes within 22,364 miles of the planet in April 2029, European Space Agency officials said. Later studies proved, however, that the asteroid poses no threat to Earth during that flyby, but astronomers continue to track the object since it will make another pass near Earth in 2036.

Today, ESA officials announced that its infrared Herschel Space Observatory has discovered that Apophis is about 1,066 feet wide, nearly 20 percent larger than a previous estimate of 885 feet.

‘The 20 percent increase in diameter … translates into a 75 percent increase in our estimates of the asteroid’s volume or mass,’ study leader Thomas Müller of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, said in a statement.

Tonight’s two free webcasts will stream live views of Apophis from telescopes in Italy and the Canary Islands tonight (Jan. 10). The webcasts, offered by the stargazing websites Slooh Space Telescope and Virtual Telescope Project, will show Apophis as a bright light moving across the night sky. The asteroid is too small to be seen through small backyard telescopes.

The Slooh Space Camera webcast will begin at 7 p.m. EST (0000 Jan. 10 GMT). The Virtual Telescope webcast will begin an hour later at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT). You can watch both live webcasts of asteroid Apophis here on SPACE.com tonight.” Read more.

If you listen closely you can hear it entering and then exploding in the earth’s atmosphere. If Revelation 8:8 is to be literally fulfilled, could this be the harbinger of one much larger right around the corner? …

Revelation 8:8, “Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.”

By Haberi Paylaş (Translation) – “A slight vibration, recorded by security cameras, was felt from a falling meteor in the district.

The meteorite fell into the sea during the night. The weather brightened up and a slight concussion has occurred. Some citizens panicked.

The natural event and its aftermath was recorded by cameras from moment to moment.” Source – trthaber.com

By Mike Wall, Space.com – “A giant asteroid will make a flyby of Earth over the next few days, and armchair astronomers can watch the action live on their computers.

The near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis, which is about 3 miles wide, will zoom within 4.3 million miles of Earth during its closest approach early Wednesday morning, Dec. 12. That’s too far away to pose any impact threat on this pass, but close enough to put on a pretty good show through top-notch telescopes, researchers say.

And some of those scopes will be tracking Toutatis’ movements for the benefit of skywatchers around the world. The online Slooh Space Camera and Virtual Telescope Project, for example, will both stream live, free footage of the asteroid from professional-quality observatories.

Slooh will webcast Toutatis views from a scope in the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa beginning at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) Dec. 11. Another show will follow at 10 p.m. EST tonight (0300 GMT Wednesday), with footage from an instrument in Arizona. You can watch them at Slooh’s website: http://www.slooh.com.

Both shows will feature commentary from Slooh president Patrick Paolucci and Astronomy Magazine columnist Bob Berman. [Photos: Asteroids in Deep Space]

‘Slooh technical staff will let the public follow this fast-moving asteroid in two different ways. In one view, the background stars will be tracked at their own rate and the asteroid will appear as an obvious streak or a moving time-lapse dot across the starry field,’ Berman said in a statement.

‘In a second view, Toutatis itself will be tracked and held steady as a tiny pointlike object, while Earth’s spin makes the background stars whiz by as streaks,’ Berman added. ‘Both methods will make the asteroid’s speedy orbital motion obvious as it passes us in space.’

Meanwhile, the Virtual Telescope Project — which is run by Gianluca Masi of Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy — will offer its own free webcast Thursday at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), complete with commentary from astrophysicists.” Read more.

By Frank Heinz, NBCDFW – “A yellow-green ball of fire seen streaking through the morning Texas sky is not a harbinger of the end of days, a la the Mayan calendar … it was just a meteor.

Hundreds of reports were received this morning from North Texans who spotted the yellow-green meteor streaking across the sky. On our Facebook page, NBC 5 readers recalled the sighting as ‘amazing’ or  ‘beautiful’ while others claimed it was the early arrival of Santa Claus, the end of the world … or, as one reader alleged, himself flying around in his Iron Man suit.

The meteor was seen at about 6:43 a.m. Central Time. NASA said Friday afternoon the meteor is likely a fragment from an asteroid belt and not associated with the Geminid meteor shower which will peak Dec. 13-15.

The National Weather Service said reports of the sighting were received from as far south as Houston and east into Louisiana.  The American Meteor Society has been plotting reports of the sighting on their website, which you can see here.” Read more.

SpaceWeather.com – CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% to 65% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Nov. 23/24 when a pair of CMEs is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. The incoming clouds were propelled toward Earth by the recent eruptions of sunspot AR1618. Black Friday might be tinged red and green by the glow of high-latitude auroras.

SUNSPOT AR1618–UPDATE: Sunspot AR1618 has experienced some decay during the past 24 hours, but it is still potent. The sunspot’s magnetic canopy has a ‘beta-gamma-delta’ configuration that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. Because of the sunspot’s nearly central location on the solar disk, any eruptions today would be Earth-directed.

By Tariq Malik – “The sun unleashed a monster eruption of super-hot plasma Friday (Nov. 16) in back-to-back solar storms captured on camera by a NASA spacecraft.

The giant sun eruption, called a solar prominence, occurred at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT), with another event flaring up four hours later. The prominences was so large, it expanded beyond the camera view of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which captured high-definition video of the solar eruption.

In the video, a colossal loop of glowing red plasma erupts from the lower left of the sun, arcing up and out of frame as it blasts away from the star.

‘The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium,’ officials with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which oversees the SDO mission, explained in a description. ‘The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun’s internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.’

Friday’s solar eruption does not appear to be aimed at Earth, so will likely have little effect on our planet. But that was not the case earlier this week when a powerful solar flare erupted on Monday (Nov. 12). That flare registered as an M6-class eruption, a moderate but still intense solar event.

On Tuesday and Wednesday (Nov. 13 and 14), space weather conditions sparked a geomagnetic storm that supercharged the Earth’s auroras, creating spectacular northern lights displays for observers at high latitudes.

When aimed directly at Earth, the most powerful solar flares and eruptions can pose a threat to satellites and astronauts in orbit, and also interfere with communication, navigation and power systems on the ground.

The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. The current cycle is called Solar Cycle 24 and is expected to peak in 2013.” Source – Space.com.

By Joe Rao, Space – “One of the best of the annual meteor displays will be reaching its peak this week — the annual Leonid meteor shower.

While the Leonid meteor shower has a history of putting on stupendous displays, this year will not be one of them; at best 10 to 15 meteors per hour may be seen. This year is a bit unusual in that the Leonids are expected to show two peaks of activity, one on Saturday morning (Nov. 17) and another on Tuesday morning (Nov. 20).

In the public mind the term ‘meteor shower‘ conjures up a vision of shooting stars streaming through the heavens like rain. Such meteor stormshave indeed occurred, when tens of thousands of meteors per hour flare into view. But most showers are a thousand times weaker.

Watching one consists of lying back, gazing up into the stars, and waiting. A very good shower will produce about one meteor per minute for a given observer under a dark country sky. Any light pollution or moonlight can reduce the count considerable.

This year the moon will not be a problem for the Leonid meteor shower. It will set well before the constellation Leo, where the meteors appear to radiate out from, climbs high into the sky. [Amazing Leonid Meteor Shower Photos]

The Leonids are tiny, sand-grain- to pea-sized bits of rocky debris shed long ago by the comet Tempel-Tuttle. This comet, like all others, is slowly disintegrating. Over the centuries its crumbly remains have spread all along its orbit to form a moving river of rubble millions of miles wide and hundreds of millions of miles long…

The Leonid meteor shower’s parent comet, Tempel-Tuttle, orbits the sun about every 33 years. Because of the comet’s proximity to Earth from 1998 through 2002, the Leonids were producing enhanced rates ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand meteors per hour. Now, with their parent comet having retreated far back to almost the far end of its orbit, near the orbit of Uranus, the Leonid rates have returned to their more typical 10 or 15 per hour.

This year the Earth will cross the orbital plane of the comet on Saturday morning, Nov. 17. About 10 Leonids per hour might be observed during the predawn morning hours. Of greater interest will be to see what might happen when our planet passes through debris shed by the comet during a pass through the inner solar system back in the year 1400. That interaction might produce a somewhat higher hourly rate of around 15 per hour early on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 20.” Read more.

Space Weather – “As solar activity picks up on the Earthside of the sun, the farside of the sun is coming alive, too. During the early hours of Nov. 9th, a magnetic filament located behind the sun’s southeastern limb erupted, hurling a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) into space: This explosion was not geoeffective, but future explosions might be. The blast site, still potent, is just days away from rotating onto the Earthside of the sun.” Source – The Extinction Protocol.