Scientists don’t often have the time to get all their equipment set up to study incoming meteors from space. Instead, they can study capsules from space missions as ‘artificial meteors.’
A mysterious hunk of space junk buzzed through Australian skies last night. It may have been the third stage of a Soyuz 2 rocket just launched by Russia.
The green glow of an aurora is caused by oxygen ions in the upper atmosphere. Some meteors can glow in this way, too, but only if they are extremely fast.
This image shows meteors that skimmed the atmosphere during just one night in March this year.
When the meteor exploded into pieces above New Zealand, it produced a shock wave strong enough to be picked up by earthquake seismometers. But any fragments have likely dropped into the ocean.
The 1833 Leonid Meteor storm, as seen over Niagara Falls.
Edmund Weiß (1888)
Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland and Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Could the Tau Herculid meteor shower put on a spectacular show next week? Only time will tell.
An Eta Aquariid meteor (centre) along with comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in the background, photographed during the 2020 Eta Aquariid shower.
Photo by Jonti Horner
NASA has only mapped 40% of the potentially dangerous asteroids that could crash into Earth. New projects will boost that number, and upcoming missions will test tech that could prevent collisions.
Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland and Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute
A poor start for meteor showers in 2021 but things get better with a possible spectacular surprise later in the year. Here’s your guide on when and where to look to catch nature’s fireworks.
A composite image of one night watching the Orionids meteor shower.
Flickr/Jeff Sullivan
The origin of Libyan desert glass found scattered in an Egyptian desert has puzzled scientists for years. But a new look at the glass structure reveals its meteoric formation.
We’re finding more near-Earth objects all the time, and the challenge is to identify those that could potentially hit us. So how come we missed one that caused a huge blast in December?
The 2018 Geminids meteor shower recorded over two very cold hours on the slope of Mount Lütispitz, Switzerland.
Flickr/Lukas Schlagenhauf
Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland and Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Moonlight will spoil some of the big meteor showers this year, but still plenty of others to see. So here’s your guide on when and where to look to catch nature’s fireworks.
An asteroid on a collision course with Earth is inevitable. Astronomer Michael Lund explains how a new telescope under construction in Chile will become a vital tool for detecting objects that could devastate our planet.