Close encounters #3: Asteroiden scheren langs de aarde

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Bright fireball over Belgium and Netherlands
A bright fireball streaked across the night sky over Belgium and Netherlands at around 20:12 UTC on February 15, 2019. The event lasted several seconds.

The International Meteor Organization (IMO) received 107 eyewitness reports. The object was mostly seen from the Netherlands, northeastern Belgium and western Germany but people from southeastern England and as far south as Paris and Beaune, France also witnessed the event.

Another fireball was seen over northeastern Germany at 22:00 UTC on February 17 and was reported by 62 people so far. There are no images or videos of this event at this time.

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severeweatherEU twitterde op maandag 18-02-2019 om 01:30:09 Fireball meteor as seen from Ramsgate Kent UK on Friday Feb 15th. Camera is looking east towards Belgium across the English Channel. Thanks to Jeremy Derrick Housman for the report! https://t.co/3cV58Iodx2 reageer retweet

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'Enorme vuurbal' boven Gelderland blijkt meteoor
APELDOORN - Door het hele land was vrijdagavond een vallende ster te zien. Op sociale media werden meerdere meldingen van de vuurbal gedaan, onder meer vanuit Apeldoorn, Ede en Nunspeet.

Rond 21.10 uur werd het eerste filmpje geplaatst op Twitter waarop de vallende ster te zien is. Daarna stroomden de meldingen vanuit het hele land binnen. Sommigen spreken van een grote, groene vuurbal die door de lucht schoot, anderen juist van een blauwe flits.

Volgens MeteoGroup is het bijzonder dat de vallende ster zo duidelijk te zien was: 'Het was een kraakheldere nacht, dus daarom was de meteoor zo zichtbaar.'

Dat dit natuurverschijnsel door heel Nederland en zelfs in België en Engeland te zien was, komt doordat zo'n flits op grote hoogte door de lucht raast en ook nog eens ontzettend groot is.

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Grote vuurbal gezien boven Vlaanderen en Nederland

Tientallen mensen zagen gisteren een prachtig schouwspel boven delen van Nederland en Vlaanderen: een meteoor. De enorme vuurbal flitste iets na negen door de hemel. Een vallende ster is niet ongewoon, maar het levert wel spectaculaire beelden op.

De Nederlandse verslaggever Martin Drent van RTV Noord zag een “hele heldere, blauwe lichtkogel die naar beneden viel” en dacht eerst dat het vuurwerk was. Weerman Frank Deboosere kwam snel met een logische verklaring voor het verschijnsel: het is een gewone vallende ster of meteoor.

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Brilliant Green Fireball Lights Up Florida Sky

A bright green fireball east of Tallahassee, Florida sparked nearly 250 witness reports for the American Meteor Society across several states.

The large flash occurred on Saturday (March 30) at 11:52 p.m. local time, according to the society's event sighting page. It was visible in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, and possibly sighted as far north as Virginia.

Some witnesses reported the fireball being visible for 20 seconds, although the majority saw it as a briefer flash of just 3.5 seconds, according to the sightings page. "The glow from the burning meteor was so bright that it created shadows for several seconds before the light flickered out,

Giant Green Meteor West of Gainesville Florida Caught on Dash Cam

AMS event #1439-2019

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Fireball Asteroid Hit Earth Last Weekend, Impact Equal To 5,000 Tons Of TNT

Last weekend, Earth was hit by an asteroid that produced an energy equivalent to 5,000 tons of TNT. Before exploding, astronomers were able to spot the asteroid using telescopes.

According to astronomer Peter Brown, the minor impact event happened on June 22 after a small asteroid exploded in the sky toward south of Puerto Rico. The explosion happened at around 5:30 pm EDT and produced an energy of around 5,000 tons of TNT.

Despite the high amount of energy released by the asteroid, no one was reportedly injured because of the event. This is primarily due to the object burning up and detonating shortly after entering Earth’s atmosphere. Reports indicated that the asteroid was only about 10 feet long.

Ernesto Guido, an astronomer from Italy, noted that the asteroid’s name is 2019 MO or NEOCP A10eoM1. He shared a satellite image captured by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the asteroid as it entered the planet’s atmosphere.

The fact that asteroid 2019 MO was detected by astronomers and space agencies before hitting Earth came as a surprise as it was such a rare event. Although NASA noted that Earth gets frequently hit by small asteroids and meteors every year, spotting them before they enter the atmosphere is a bit uncommon.

In fact, 2019 MO’s recent visit marked only the fourth time an asteroid was detected before it hit Earth, according to CNET. The other instances occurred during the last 12 years. One of them was the small asteroid that exploded over Africa in 2018. This asteroid came so close to the surface that scientists were still able to find small fragments of it on the ground.

Although being able to detect asteroids before hitting Earth is becoming more common within the last couple of years, this does not automatically mean that impact events are becoming more frequent.

Instead, this simply means that the equipment agencies and amateur astronomers use are becoming more sophisticated and accurate when it comes to spotting incoming space rocks. NASA even has a specific department dedicated to monitoring asteroids as they approach Earth’s vicinity.

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Zet in je agenda: 14 september vliegt een joekel van een asteroïde langs

Op 14 september scheert Asteroid 2000 QW7 langs onze aarde. De asteroïde heeft een diameter van zeker 300 meter; dat zijn zo'n drie Groningse Martinitorens op elkaar. Qua hoogte is 2000 QW7 met 650 meter helemaal imponerend.

Het gigantische stuk ruimtesteen vliegt met ruim 23.000 kilometer per uur op 5,3 miljoen kilometer voorbij. Ter vergelijking: de maan staat op zo'n 380.000 kilometer en Mars gemiddeld op 225 miljoen kilometer.

Zekere voor het onzekere
Asteroid 2000 QW7 komt dus bést dichtbij. Zeer waarschijnlijk vormt het geen gevaar voor onze planeet, maar NASA neemt het zekere voor het onzekere en houdt de baan van de asteroïde nauwlettend in de gaten.

De asteroïde komt vaker langs: zo eens in de 19 jaar. Volgens The Weather Channel is de volgende passage op 19 oktober 2038.

Objecten als 2000 QW7 zijn zelden te zien vanaf de aarde. Asteroïde 99942 Apophis is van een vergelijkbare grootte en komt 13 april 13 2029 31.000 kilometer langs. Apophis is dan in gebieden zonder al te veel lichtvervuiling waarschijnlijk wel zichtbaar.

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Extremely close flyby (0,03 LD!!) of asteroid

A newly discovered asteroid designated 2019 UN13 flew past Earth at an extremely close distance of just 0.03 LD / 8.43e-5 AU (12 611 km / 7 836 miles) at 14:45 UTC on October 31, 2019.

The asteroid was discovered early October 31 at Catalina Sky Survey, Arizona, just several hours before its close approach.

The object belongs to the Aten group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 1 and 2.2 m (3 - 7.2 feet).

It flew past us over Africa at a speed of 12.85 km/s. Its trajectory was heavily influenced by Earth's gravity, sending its aphelion out to the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.

Its flyby marks the third closest approach of any known asteroid on record, including 2010 RF12 expected to flyby us in September 2095, and the second closest since 2011 CQ11 on February 4, 2011.

This is the 61st known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year, including 2019 VA expected on November 2, and 11th in the month of October.

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Asteroid 2020 CW flew past Earth at a very close distance of 0.04 LD - 8th closest on record

A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 CW flew past Earth at a very close distance of 0.04 LD / 0.00011 AU (16 455 km / 10 225 mi) at 12:50 UTC on February 1, 2020. This is well within the orbit of our geostationary satellites ~ 35 800 km (22 300 miles). The object tied with 2017 GM for the 8th closest asteroid flyby on record, according to CNEOS database -- valid 22:00 UTC on February 3.

2020 CW is also the 11th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year and the 3rd this month. The count includes newly-discovered 2020 CJ which flew past us on January 31 at a distance of 0.92 LD.

The object belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was first observed at Mt. Lemmon Survey, Arizona on February 1.

Although this is one of the closest asteroid flybys on record, 2020 CW is very small -- just 0.83 to 1.93 m (2.72 - 6.33 feet). Among the 10 closest approaches on record, 2020 CW is the second smallest.

If it had entered our atmosphere over a populated area during night time, it would create a nice visual spectacle but hardly anything would survive the entry and reach the ground.

Its next close approaches will take place on October 7, 2023 at 0.09 AU, February 5, 2029 at 0.15 AU, and January 17, 2046 at 0.37 AU... nowhere near as it did on February 1, 2020.

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Grote vuurbal gespot boven Nederland

Meerdere mensen zagen zaterdagavond een zeer heldere meteoor voorbijtrekken. Op Twitter werden filmpjes en foto's gedeeld van de 'vuurbal'.

Werkgroep Meteoren kreeg ruim honderd meldingen binnen van mensen in Nederland die het fenomeen met hun eigen ogen hadden gezien. Ook zijn er zo'n 40 meldingen binnengekomen uit Duitsland. De vuurbal was gisteravond rond 23.45 uur kort te zien.

'Groene vuurpijl'
Op beelden die op social media zijn verspreid, is een lichtflits te zien. Een aantal mensen op Twitter zag er zelfs de kleur groen in.

AMS event #1587-2020

AMS event #1587-2020

AMS event #1587-2020

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Space: A mile-wide asteroid is about to fly past Earth

Yes - a mile wide!

And when we say "close to Earth" we mean 3.9 million miles away - but that's still considered quite close in space terms!

The big asteroid is known to scientists as 1998 OR2, and astronomers are hoping and looking forward to getting a closer look at the asteroid to learn more about it.

It's due to fly past Earth on Wednesday, 29 April.

The asteroid poses no threat to Earth, in fact one of Nasa's scientists said: "There are no asteroids which have any significant chance of hitting the Earth that are of any significant size."

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has been tracking this particular asteroid since 1998.

It's 1.2 miles wide and scientists have joked that the latest image of the asteroid look like it's wearing a mask because of all the dust and debris around it.

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Asteroid 2020 LD flew past us at 0.8 LD - the largest within 1 lunar distance since 2011

A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 LD flew past Earth at a distance of 0.80 LD / 0.00205 AU (306 675 km / 190 559 miles) at 08:25 UTC on June 5, 2020.

This is the 45th known and the largest asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year. It is also the largest asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since 2005 YU55 on November 8, 2011, and the 9th largest on record (within 1 LD).

The object was first observed at ATLAS-MLO, Mauna Loa, Hawaii on June 7, two days after it made its close approach.

The asteroid belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 89 and 200 m (292 - 656 feet), making it by far the largest known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 LD since the start of the year.

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Asteroid 2011 ES4 will pass closest on September 1

The orbit of asteroid 2011 ES4 is still not entirely known. Our knowledge of it might improve sometime today – or early tomorrow – if it is “recovered” by astronomers. It’s expected to pass within the moon’s orbit, possibly as close as 0.19 lunar distances.

A healthy-sized chunk of space rock is expected to pass closer than the moon on September 1, 2020. There is uncertainty in its orbit, but scientists say it will not hit our planet. Asteroid 2011 ES4 is expected to pass at somewhere around 30% of the Earth-moon distance. But it might pass farther – far outside the moon’s orbit – as far as 3.4 lunar distances. Or it might pass closer, as close as 0.19 lunar distances. Why is there so much uncertainty? More about that below.

The asteroid should pass closest around 16:12 UTC on September 1 (12:12 p.m. EDT; translate UTC to your time).

The asteroid has an estimated diameter of 72 to 161 feet (22 to 49 meters). That’s in the range of the Chelyabinsk meteor – around 17 meters (55 feet) in diameter – which swept through Earth’s atmosphere above Russia in February 2013, generating an enormous shock wave that broke windows in six Russian cities and caused some 1,500 people to seek medical treatment, mostly from flying glass.

But back to asteroid 2011 ES4. The uncertainty about its orbit is due to the fact that observatories were able to track the space rock during only four days after it was detected on March 2, 2011, from the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona. After that, the asteroid became too faint to be observed.

Astronomers use an uncertainty scale from 0-9, in which 0 means the orbit is well known, and 9 means great uncertainty. Asteroid 2011 ES4 has an uncertainty of 7. The uncertainty not only means it may pass farther or closer than expected, but also may cause it to pass a few hours earlier or later than expected.

Asteroid 2011 ES4 is classified as a Near-Earth Object (NEO). But it’s good to know that this Apollo-class asteroid is not classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. What’s the difference? A Potentially Hazardous Asteroid is defined as an object that passes relatively close to Earth, and also is large enough (more than 150 meters, about 500 feet, in diameter) to cause significant regional damage, were it to strike Earth.

Thus you may see that asteroid 2011 ES4 has the potential to come rather close. And it’s a healthy size, bigger, for example, than the tiny (truck-sized) asteroid that swept just 2,000 miles (3,000 km) from Earth on August 16, 2020. Yet – as asteroids go – asteroid 2011 ES4 is still relatively small, not large enough to cause significant damage upon impact (and it is not expected to get close enough to enter our atmosphere, much less impact).