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GEMINID METEOR SHOWER: The Geminid
meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th. Bright moonlight will interfere with the display, but not obliterate it. Forecasters expect observers
with clear skies to see as many as 40 meteors per hour. The best time to look, no matter where you live, is between
10 pm local time on Tuesday, Dec. 13, and sunrise on Wednesday, Dec. 14th. [full story] [meteor radar] [meteor app] [sky map] [Geminid images: #1]
SIGNIFICANT COMET PLUNGES TOWARD THE SUN:
A comet nearly as wide as two football fields (200m) ｉｓ
plunging toward the sun where it will most likely
be destroyed in a spectacular light
show on Dec. 15/16. Although Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3)
could ｂecome as bright as Jupiter or Venus when it "flames
out," the glare of the sun will hide the event from human eyes.
Solar observatories in space, however, will have a grand view.
Yesterday the brightening comet entered the field of view of
NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft:
"You can clearly see the comet heading diagonally through the
images," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab who
prepared the animation. "During the 16-hour sequence,
the comet brightens from magnitude +8 to +6.5, approximately.
"It will soon grow much brighter. "This comet is a true sungrazer,
and will skim approximately 140,000 km (1.2 solar radii) above
the solar surface on Dec. 15/16," notes Battams. At such close range, solar heating will almost certainly destroy the icy interloper,creating a cloud
of vapor and comet dust that will reflect lots of sunlight.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) will have
a particularly good view.Discovered on Dec. 2nd by amateur
astronomer Terry Lovejoy of Australia, the comet is an
unusually large member of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers
are fragments of a single giant comet (probably the Great
Comet of 1106) that broke apart back in the 12th century.
SOHO sees one plunging into the sun every few days,
but most are small, no more than 10 meters wide.
Comet Lovejoy is at least ten times larger than
usual. more images: from Jan Ebr of
Malargue, Argentina; from Ernesto Guido,
Giovanni Sostero & Nick Howes using a remote controlled
telescope in Australia
AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is buffeting
Earth's magnetic field, causing mild geomagnetic
disturbances and auroras around the Arctic Circle.
"Last night, Dec. 12th, we went out to see the meteor shower,
but the Moon was too bright," says Helge Mortensen of Kvaløya,
Norway. "Instead of Geminids, we got the Northern Lights." Not a bad consolation prize:
The chances of auroras mixing with meteors will increase on Dec.
13/14 as the Geminid meteor shower intensifies and the solar
wind continues to blow. Arctic photographers are encouraged to
target the heavens on Tuesday night. Images may be submitted
here. Aurora alerts: text, phone.
more images: from Frank Olsen of Tromsø, Norway
Dec. 10th Total Lunar
Eclipse Gallery
can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet,
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