Posts

John Homenuk

Perseid outburst expected to make 2016’s shower special

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The Perseid meteor shower is always a highlight of the astronomical year, frequently bringing one of the most consistent meteor showers to the night sky in late summer. The warm weather and often favorable moon phases mean the Perseid’s are also one of the most comfortable meteor showers to enjoy. 2016 is expected to be even better than usual: An outburst of meteors is forecasted, resulting in nearly double the typical rate of meteors per hour during the showers peak from August 11th to 12th.

The meteor shower occurs each year as Earth passes through the debris tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle, resulting in meteors for several days with a peak of 1-2 days typically in mid-August. Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest known object to repeatedly pass by Earth, with a nucleus about 16 miles wide. It last passed by in 1992, and won’t pass again until 2126. Our respective orbits, however, mean that Earth passes through the debris trail of the comet every year.

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John Homenuk

Annual Orionid meteor shower peaks late tonight

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Favorable viewing conditions are anticipated for the peak of the Orionid meteor shower tonight, as Earth passes through the debris field of Haley’s comet. The annual meteor shower occurs with varying intensities, but astronomers struggle to differentiate between individual “Forecasts” for the amount of meteors streaking through the night sky. Instead, the shower remains relatively variable and dependent on the density of debris that the Earth passes through.

Regardless, the weather tonight is expected to cooperate. A frontal boundary will be situated well to our north, and our area will remain generally under high pressure. While there could be a few clouds moving in and out of the area, there certainly won’t be any overcast conditions — or low clouds, like the ones that obscured our view of the lunar eclipse last month.

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John Homenuk

Today is, without a doubt, Pluto day

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For most of us on Earth, this will be our last chance to see a new planet for the first time up close and personal. Today, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will finally make its pass nearest to Pluto, the much debated and no longer official planet. New Horizons has spent the past 9 years in space, traveling over 3 billion miles and passing most “landmark” planets in our solar system along the way. On July 14th, 2015, it will finally reach Pluto. No spacecraft, satellite, or high resolution imagery has come even remotely close to what New Horizons will provide us with in terms of detail regarding Pluto.

Already, New Horizons is allowing NASA’s team to make some incredible discoveries and bring forth some new information. While Pluto’s size has been debated for many years, we now have a very firm estimate on the size of Pluto. NASA’s team of specialists calculated a diameter of 1,473 miles. This is slightly larger than previous estimates. Perhaps even more exciting is the prospect of high resolution imagery which New Horizons will capture.

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John Homenuk

Bright fireball seen in New Jersey, New York Monday

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Over 250 reports have made their way to the American Meteor Society in the past 14 hours after a bright fireball was seen streaking through the skies in New York and New Jersey Monday evening. At 6:35pm Eastern, to our best estimation, a fireball soared from east to west through the skies, visible up and down the east coast. The fireball was described as “bright” and additionally as “green and blue with a bright flash”. Most likely, this was a meteor which made its way deeper into the earths atmosphere than most do. The brightening of the meteor occurs as it burns up while entering the earths atmosphere at a very high speed.

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