April brings us three meteor showers – Virginids on April 12th, Lyrids on the 22nd and 23rd and Alpha Schorpiids on the 28th. The Moon will present minimal interference for Lyrids and Alpha Scorpiids. On April 1, Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák is making…
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák will make a close approach to our planet on April 1, 2017, passing at a safe distance of 0.142 AU / 55.4 LD. This will be its closest flyby of Earth since its discovery in 1858. 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2017 FU102 will flyby Earth at a distance of 0.55 LD (~211 200 km / 131 233 miles) from the surface of our planet on Sunday, April 2, 2017. The estimated size of 2017 FU102 is between 5.1 and 11 m (16 – 36 feet). It will flyby…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2017 FJ101 will flyby Earth at a distance of 0.83 LD (~318 720 km / 198 034 miles) from the surface of our planet on Thursday, March 30, 2017. This is the 15th asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since January 9,…
ESA’s Swarm mission has discovered that this seasonal variation of Birkeland currents, strong electric currents in the upper atmosphere, is not the same in the north and south polar regions. Named after Kristian Birkeland, the scientist a century ago who first…
Scientists analyzing data obtained by Swarm trio of satellites have discovered supersonic plasma jets high up in our atmosphere that can push temperatures up to almost 10 000 °C (18 000 °F). The discovery was presented at this week’s Swarm Science…
A new study led by Edward F. Schlafly is providing a detailed, 3-D look at dust on a scale spanning thousands of light-years in our Milky Way galaxy. This dust map is of critical importance for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a Berkeley Lab-led…
A newly discovered asteroid 2017 FD3 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.45 LD (~172 800 / 107 372 miles) from the surface on March 17, 2017, two days before it was discovered. 2017 FD3 has an estimated size between 7.8 and 17 m (25 – 55 feet) and it belongs to the…
After three years of collecting data, Swarm mission scientists have produced the highest resolution map of Earth’s lithospheric magnetic field from space to date. The dataset combines measurements from ESA’s Swarm satellites with historical data from the…
A very large blue fireball illuminated the sky over Sweden around 20:30 UTC (21:30 CET) on March 20, 2017. The event was so powerful that the whole sky lit up, Swedish All Sky Meteor Network astronomers said. Images of the event immediately started appearing on…
