Astronomy (renamed)

[Elnath]

EDITED Feb 25th 2013: This is going to be an interesting year for astronomy and of course there's always something going on in the sky. So this is the spot to talk about it!

<<Original post.>>
So, there is a close flyby of a football field sized meteor today. If I'm correct, it should be closest in about 14 minutes (11:24 am) But apparently not visible to the naked eye. Which might just be due to the glare. I'm going to get my welding goggles on and see if anything is visible.

But also! A huge meteor broke up over Russia, it appeared almost as bright as the sun and the shockwave blew windows out all over the place and might have caused some roofs to cave in, but from the photo I was looking at, it didn't look like that roof caved in recently.

Anyway, here's a page with lots about it. Some of the videos with the shockwave are incredible.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/15/breaking_huge_meteor_explodes_over_russia.html

[Alloud]

I don't believe we've any chance of seeing it from here, even with binoculars.
http://barentsen.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/2012da141.gif

But still cool stuff. :V

[Elnath]

Seems to me there's some big event coming up or has already past that we're supposed to be able to see during the day, or else will be very, very large in the sky. I'm not as up on this stuff as I was when I lived near my sister.

[Tef]

'tis pretty bloody tragic with the numbers of casualties and deaths that's for sure.

[Tamaska]

Slightly unrelated - Very glad you linked to Phil Plait's blog for this  ;D

[Red]

'tis pretty bloody tragic with the numbers of casualties and deaths that's for sure.

No one died....

[Elnath]

Slightly unrelated - Very glad you linked to Phil Plait's blog for this  ;D

Well, it's considerably better than The Guardian or any other news outlet. I've got professional astronomers in my family, when things like this happen they post the good stuff.

[Pea]

'tis pretty bloody tragic with the numbers of casualties and deaths that's for sure.

I smell a troll.

[Elnath]

'tis pretty bloody tragic with the numbers of casualties and deaths that's for sure.

Well, I suppose it's possible some could have died from heart attacks. But considering how extremely sensationalized most of the reports are, if there were any deaths I'm sure they would have made a huge deal out of it. So far, they're just saying 'Thousands injured' which likely means cuts from falling glass.

[Elnath]

Not sure how many people are keeping up to date with this, I'm just getting tidbits drifting in from family members, but it looks like the meteor over russia was not 10 tons as initially suspected by between 7,000 and 10,000 tons.
Again, I had to go to Phil Plait's blog for any comprehensive information.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/18/asteroids_and_meteors_why_are_we_suddenly_seeing_so_many.html

[Tef]

Okay, I take the deaths part of my statement back at my expense.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/02/20132165482145302.html

However, to further my point, if this meteor strike happens to have not hit Russia but a highly populated area, or close to home, be it in Canada or the States, I believe it would be quite a different story.

[Elnath]

Well, it didn't actually strike. Anything large enough to hit and cause serious damage is likely to be spotted soon enough that they can figure out where it would hit and hopefully evacuate the area. This thing was 7,000+tons (Likely before it entered the atmosphere) and still only dropped tiny fragments.
The explosion was the sonic boom which would have happened high above the ground.

There was a hole in the ice of a lake which they suspect is where the largest piece came down, but the hole was only 9 meters across. The piece that hit would not have been anywhere near nine meters across. Not knowing the depth of the lake, I couldn't say how large the piece was, but obviously it wasn't big enough to do much more than put a hole in the ice and not empty the lake or break up all the ice.
Where as anything large enough to cause wide spread damage would have to be considerably larger before even entering the atmosphere and be of a composition that wouldn't completely burn up on it's way down.
If a meteor like this were to come down over the middle of northern Canada, or the ocean, likely few people, if anybody would know about it. Even if people saw it, they'd have to be a lot closer to hear it.
The only reason they can really estimate the size and altitude of this thing was because there was so much footage of it, which they used to triangulate it's location.

I saw one that looked like it went right over the highway north of Merkimer, New York. It looked close, but wasn't bright enough to light up the ground beneath it and we didn't hear a boom.
Another time when I was young at my dad's place in the middle of Ontario cottage country, dead of winter, middle of the night, my room was lit up as though someone flashed a camera in through the windows.
I waited for thunder, nothing. Looked out the window, perfectly clear skies. The next day there had been reports of a fireball. It wasn't on the news, but there websites that you can check for reports. But again, unless lots of people from different locations see it and record it, there's only so much they can tell about it.

[Elnath]

There is a chance that comet C/2013 A1 will collide with Mars in about a year and a half. If it does it could leave a crater 500km across and 2km deep!
Astronomers will have a better idea as it draws nearer.

Read more about it here.
http://spaceobs.org/en/2013/02/25/comet-c2013-a1-siding-spring-a-possible-collision-with-mars/

[wolf4furbears]

comet ISON will be visible to the naked eye late November/December. they say it could be the brightest comet of the century depending on how much of it survives the orbit around the sun.
cant fukin wait! 
:birdy:

[tokar]

comet ISON will be visible to the naked eye late November/December. they say it could be the brightest comet of the century depending on how much of it survives the orbit around the sun.
cant fukin wait! 
:birdy:

but where will it be visible from?  north / south america, europe, australia?  some planets, eclipes, meteors etc are only visible not from this area.