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Meteor Lights Up East Coast

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East Coast Meteor Sighting Report Map (Source: Mike Hankey/American Meteor Society )
East Coast Meteor Sighting Report Map (Source: Mike Hankey/American Meteor Society )

Yet another ancient space rock has decided to visit Earth, this time in a highly populated area. Hundreds of reports came in form cities all along the East Coast of the U.S as a meteor approximately  3 feet (0.9 meters), according to NASA, came blazing through the sky.

Although it may seem like we have had more meteor activity than usual, it’s actually quite common for meteors to hit the Earth. Meteors of this size hit the Earth about every 3 days but most of the time they occur in areas that are relatively unpopulated and sometimes they occur during hours at which most people aren’t out and about.

The reality is that we are under a constant bombardment from space debris, some of it man-made. Our atmosphere causes most of it to burn up well before it even gets close to the surface of Earth. It’s nice to get a show every once and a while, it always sparks up curiosity about what’s going on out there, which is something we should spend a lot more time researching.

A Quick Guide to Understanding the Equinox

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NorthHemiSeasons

The Earth is tilted in relation to the sun. Earth’s axial tilt to orbit is 23.44°. On March 20th 2013, this marked the Spring Equinox for the northern hemisphere. The Fall Equinox is in September and vice versa for the southern hemisphere. The Equinox is the point at which the Earth is neither leaning towards or away from the sun. The sunlight that hits the Earth is evenly distributed across the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere. From space, the terminator (where night meets day on the Earth’s surface) appears to be perfectly straight from north to south.

After the equinox, the sunlight begins to either become more direct or less direct depending on which hemisphere you live in. The Solstice is the point at which the sun appears at either it’s highest or lowest point in the sky or when the Earth is tilted all the way towards or away from the sun. These are known as the summer and winter solstices.

Interestingly, the orientation of the Earth’s axis actually changes very slowly before making a complete circle every 25,800 years.

The illustration above shows how the tilt of the Earth and it’s location in orbit around the sun, change how light falls on the Earth’s surface. For a really cool view of the Earth undergoing seasonal changes in sunlight, you can view this NASA animation made from images from a geosynchronous satellite above Earth.

Keep NASA Strong Sign a Petition

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NASAmeatball

Help keep NASA going strong by helping them keep their budget from dropping below 1% of Federal Funding. There are many things that make the United States successful and advancing our knowledge and ability, which NASA greatly contributes to, is clearly one program worth keeping strong.

So, if you feel the same, then let’s take action and let the government know how we feel by signing a petition.

In 1961, at the height of the space race, the NASA budget was 4.41% of federal outlays. In 2005, despite the federal government spending only ~$15 billion on NASA.

The 2013 budget expects ~$19 billion of funding for NASA or half of a percent of spending; truly this is a pittance, but one that yields vast economic and scientific rewards.

NASA advances our nation when well-funded; by guaranteeing that no less than 1% of federal spending will be on NASA, we promote job creation, encourage creativity in the economy, and gain insight on our universe.

1% is a small financial guarantee of progress in the final frontier!

Earth Gets A View of a Comet

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Comet Dates
Source: Science @ NASA

The comet Pan-STARRS, which was discovered in 2011, is making it’s way thorough our solar system and on March 5th, it made it’s closest approach to Earth at 100 million miles away.

Although the comet is no longer at it’s closest point to our planet, it’s getting closer to the Sun and we should all hopefully see a nice show as it continues to brighten in the sky. Pan-STARRS will be closest to the Sun on Sunday, March 10th and at that point is should be very bright.

Until recently, only people who live in the southern hemisphere were able to see the comet at all, but that will change at those of us in the northern hemisphere will begin to see the comet on March 7th. It will appear on the west-southwest horizon shortly after sunset.

This won’t be our only comet this year as comet ISON will be making an appearance in November and should be much, much brighter that Pan-STARRS.

More than 1000 Injured After Meteorite Explodes Over Russia

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It’s not often a large meteorite comes flying through our atmosphere and it’s even more rare to see one fall within a populated area, but that’s exactly what happened in Chelyabinsk Russia. The meteorite sped across the sky at 19 miles per second in a ball of fire as it broke apart high up in the air. The incredible speed of the meteorite caused a large sonic boom that did significant damage to windows and even some buildings just before a large piece of the once 10 ton meteorite landed in a nearby lake. Over a thousand people were injured, mostly due to broken glass.

This does bring attention to the fact that we are essentially helpless when it comes to space rocks hitting Earth. Although we are getting better at detecting near Earth objects, it’s crucial that we continue to research ways in which to protect ourselves. As for now, we will just have to hope that if anything is headed our way that it hits an unpopulated area. The good news is that, although at times it may not seem like it but the Earth is largely unpopulated and there are vast regions of land and ocean where meteorites are far more likely to land. It’s also likely that meteorites, like the one that fell in Chelyabinsk, have fallen many times before but were never seen by anyone.

This has all happened just as 2012 DA14, a much larger meteorite than the one that just hit Russia, was on track to come within just 17,500 miles of Earth. That distance puts 2012 DA14 within the geosynchronous ring of our planet and that means it’s closer to Earth than many of our satellites. Experts say that 2012 DA14 is in no way a part of the meteorite that landed today, it’s purely a coincidence. 2012 DA14 has already passed Earth by this time and is actually heading away from our planet. This is a good thing considering that id 2012 DA14 were to land on Earth it would cause massive localized damage.