Meteor

[VeveJones007]

Now people are coming forward claiming they have found pieces of the meteor ...

BUT -- early analysis of the fragment says it is a rocky fragment, likely a remnant of the asteroid belt, and not metallic like most larger meteorites..
Here are some pics..

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/environment/article_d1877c36-4997-11df-a968-001cc4c03286.html

thus if this is truly a fragment, then it is an isolated event and NOT part of any meteor shower..


Here's one story that says this of meteorites..
"Some of those materials can give scientists clues to the origins of life"

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100417/NEWS01/4170318/1002/NEWS01

but is this true...since no evidence of life other than on earth has ever been found...regardless of what some claim!

That quote doesn't say anything about finding evidence of life outside Earth. The quote means that asteroids and meteors are left-over material from when the solar system was forming, so they're basically time capsules from before the Earth was even a solid mass.

(lol at Dallas Brave. Can the shining light also lead Bradley to the next POB?

[tornado]

I agree, but the article said...
"Some of those materials can give scientists clues to the origins of life"

but inorganic minerals that have never been affiliated in any way with life, are somehow supposed to give clues as to the origin of life?
I don't understand..

[AZ BU Fan]

Let's come up with something more exciting!

It was a wayward interstellar spaceship.

The Feds quietly came in "Black" helicopters and wisked away the debris/bodies, and one surviving being, and took them to Wright Patterson Airport in Ohio for further study.
The "Men In Black" then scattered small rocky fragments around the crash area to cover their tracks.

Further investigation revealed the surviving being is Steve Merfeld, who disappeared off the face of the earth post BU.

Much more interesting than a small chunk of rock hitting our planet in the middle of nowhere.

[Future Walk-On]

After seeing the pictures....I believe it was a Transformer.

[tornado]

Last night was exactly 6 months since this meteor, which got a lot of press, streaked over the upper midwest and exploded over Wisconsin...
I have been trying to find someone who is selling pieces of it, but haven't gotten one yet...

But I ran across a really interesting story that happened in Bloomington, IL...a couple years ago...
..a family heard a crash and found that a metallic object about the size of a pack of cigarettes had flown through their window and crashed into a desk and come to rest on the floor.
there was a little publicity on the event, and most people started saying the object must be a meteorite....and a fairly large one at that weighing almost a pound.

Almost instantly the family began fielding calls from die-hard meteor enthusiasts and collectors...but they turned down offers to sell the object because they wanted to have it examined by experts and they thought they could get much more for it.
Meteorites as large as this in the half-pound to one pound range are exceedingly scarce and few are in private hands and a couple have been known to sell for well upwards of $50,000.

But -- even though the immediate offers were ranging up in excess of $10,000-$12,000 for the object. Even sight unseen, collectors wanted it badly and wanted to get their hands on it before someone else did or before someone cut the object or ruined it during some examination...


Well...guess what....after turning down offers that were bidding up to near $20,000...they had the object examined by experts and it turned out to be a total DUD...

What the object was -- turned out to be an old axe head that was embedded into some tree decades earlier, then the tree was cut and logs were used for decades, and an extremely powerful saw/chopper was cutting the log about 1/4 mile from their house and when the wood was cut, the axe head was propelled and launched for blocks and it went through this family's window...

Thus it turned out to be pretty useless and of little value....probably wouldn't be even worth the monetary damage to the window!!

So... in the end, the family missed a chance to sell the object sight unseen for nearly $20,000 hoping it might even be worth more, and in the end they were stuck with a piece of garbage.


This story shows some pictures...and yet -- even ME, as a relative novice, would have to have been very, very doubtful that it is a meteorite...
Note size & shape to suggest it was something that was manufactured, and the lower, recessed parts have rust on them!! Meteorites don't rust!!!
there's no air or water in space, and entry through the atmosphere would surely burn any rust or corrosion off!!

http://meteorite-identification.com/mwnews/03052007aa.html

As you read the article, it notes that Illinois State University professors staked their reputation... saying this object....
"definitely came from space...
In my 36 years of investigating meteorite calls, this looks like the
real thing".

..but then...they are ISU guys....and they were wrong...

[tornado]

Hey -- just a long range alert -- clear your calendars in March & November of 2013....

now that we have survived the Mayan apocalypse....we have two potentially awesome events coming.........

Two separate comets have been spotted heading our way - one that will peak in intensity in March 2013 and one in November 2013... BOTH are expected to be spectacular - ending a 15 year drought in readily visible comets...since Hale-Bopp!

BOTH are far brighter so far even billions of miles away than any comets in many decades...thus it is entirely possible - but never a guarantee - that they could be once-in-a-millennium-type spectacles...

Comet PanSTARRS will arrive early in March and is currently predicted to peak at 10 times the brightness of the brightest star (Sirius)

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2011L4/2011L4.html

Comet ISON might be 10 times brighter yet and even be visible in daytime...

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/A-Dream-Comet-Heading-Our-Way-171521041.html

http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_21649181/two-possible-great-comets-coming-2013

[Bravesfan]

Hey -- just a long range alert -- clear your calendars in March & November of 2013....

now that we have survived the Mayan apocalypse....we have two potentially awesome events coming.........

Two separate comets have been spotted heading our way - one that will peak in intensity in March 2013 and one in November 2013... BOTH are expected to be spectacular - ending a 15 year drought in readily visible comets...since Hale-Bopp!

BOTH are far brighter so far even billions of miles away than any comets in many decades...thus it is entirely possible - but never a guarantee - that they could be once-in-a-millennium-type spectacles...

Comet PanSTARRS will arrive early in March and is currently predicted to peak at 10 times the brightness of the brightest star (Sirius)

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2011L4/2011L4.html

Comet ISON might be 10 times brighter yet and even be visible in daytime...

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/A-Dream-Comet-Heading-Our-Way-171521041.html

http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_216...ts-coming-2013

Hey, thanks for the heads up tornado! I'll definitely keep an eye out for them.

Let's just hope we don't have more cults killing themselves in order to hitch a ride on these comets like those morons did when the Hale-Bopp comet came around!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%...eligious_group)

[tornado]

there never seems to be a shortage of loonies and those willing to follow them, does there??

[Bravesfan]

there never seems to be a shortage of loonies and those willing to follow them, does there??

No there doesn't!

[tornado]

...Comet PanSTARRS will arrive early in March and is currently predicted to peak at 10 times the brightness of the brightest star (Sirius)
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2011L4/2011L4.html..

uh oh -- bad news for stargazers......

the comet PANSTARRS - which has been hyped since June of 2011 - as possibly a spectacularly bright comet- maybe as bright or brighter than the brightest star...


"it unfortunately isn’t living up to predictions.."

it isn't nearly as bright so far as had been hoped - and nobody knows for sure how much brighter it will get but it does continue to "inch" close to the sun for another month...

http://www.astronomy.com/~/link.aspx?_id=32700ef0-11f7-4396-8a4a-db8eaa3c67aa

Meanwhile, an asteroid as large as the Civic Center will shoot by the earth on Feb. 15 missing by only 17,000 miles - roughly a little over TWO earth-diameters..
Should an asteroid of that diameter strike earth - depending on the angle, likelihood of breakup, and location - it would have more destructive power than the biggest nuclear weapon known.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50672151/ns/technology_and_science-space/

[tornado]

at approx 10:05PM I saw a large ball of flame with a long streaking tail shoot across the northern sky from the northwest towards the due north and disappear at about the extreme north horizon..

anyone else see it?? It was clearly a large meteor high up in the atmosphere flaming out...

within 10 minutes there were thousands of reports on twitter of people who saw the same event -- and they saw it in northern half of Iowa, upper half of Illinois, all over Wisconsin and in Michigan..

The people near Madison Wisconsin reported it to be more directly overhead while all the people further to the south of Madison saw it in the northern sky - so obviously all were seeing the same event.

We will probably read more about in the press..........

wow - this event a couple years ago over southern Wisconsin that was seen in Illinois was just a small version of what happened over northern Russia yesterday...
..and lots of meteorite debris fell there -- accompanied by loud sonic booms...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-russia-meteorite-20130215,0,4465604.story

Of course a somewhat similar event happened in northern Russia a little over 100 year ago that was hundreds of times larger - theoretically caused by a comet glancing off the upper atmosphere...

http://www.universetoday.com/33367/1908-tunguska-event-caused-by-comet-new-research-says/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/science/meteor-not-siberias-first-brush-with-falling-space.html?_r=0

[tornado]

Comet PanSTARRS will arrive early in March and is currently predicted to peak at 10 times the brightness of the brightest star (Sirius)
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2011L4/2011L4.html..

The comet PANSTARRS has arrived and there's bad news & good news...

the bad - it is nowhere near as bright nor as impressive as was predicted..

the good - it is still reportedly easily visible but only shortly after sundown when the sky is still a little light so it won't be impressive...

here are some tips to see it when the skies clear.

http://www.boston.com/news/weather/weather_wisdom/2013/03/clear_skies_are_perfect_for_co.html

[tornado]

Tonight is the first good evening to view this comet...it should be clear at sunset...
just after sundown - if you look due west (note the diagram above)
the comet should be visible almost due west 10 degrees above the horizon (remember that directly overhead is 90 degrees above the horizon - so 10 degrees is 1/9 of the way between the horizon & vertically overhead - roughly 8 to 10 moon diameters from the horizon)
I am gonna try -lmk know if anyone is successful

Here are some recent photos but the articles say it is feint and shows on photos only with time lapse..

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/comet-posing-beside-crescent-moon-in-cool-photo-op-1.1191904

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/11/17273389-seeing-comet-panstarrs-is-tricky-for-skywatchers-but-its-easy-online

[tornado]

well, last night was a bad nite but possibly tonight will be good
here's a time lapse of what it looks like from a couple nights ago

http://www.universetoday.com/100675/comet-panstarrs-stars-in-a-new-timelapse-movie/

[tornado]

Another bright and widely visible meteor appeared from Ohio to Wisconsin but many people in Illinois saw it including one guy who photographed it...
Wednesday morning about 6AM

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/meteor-seen-by-plenty-of-folks-in-central-illinois/article_2ddd62b0-26c7-11e3-9cad-001a4bcf887a.html

http://wgntv.com/2013/09/26/meteor-sighting-reported-from-7-states-including-illinois/

here's the pic

http://www.nbcchicago.com/weather/stories/midwest-meteor-225327972.html