A newly discovered asteroid 2017 FS flew past Earth at 0.27 LD (103 680 km / 64 423 miles) from the surface at 03:33 UTC on March 19, 2017. It was first observed at Mt. Lemmon Survey on March 17. The estimated diameter of this object is between 4.2 and 9.4 m (13.8 -…
As British royal families fought the War of the Roses in the 1400s for control of England's throne, a grouping of stars was waging its own contentious skirmish — a star war far away in the Orion Nebula. The stars were battling each other in a gravitational…
A bright meteor fireball streaked across Vancouver sky at 03:40 UTC on March 17, 2017 (21:40 PDT on March 16) and was caught on car dash camera. People from Seattle, Washington also reported seeing the event. The American Meteor Society received 7 eyewitness reports…
A bright meteor fireball with a fiery tail was recorded over Orange, Australia at 08:45 UTC (19:45 AEDT) on Wednesday, March 15, 2017. The footage was taken from a car traveling on the Escort Way near Boree, New South Wales. President of the Orange Planetarium Inc.,…
A bright meteor fireball illuminated the sky over northern Pakistan around 16:00 UTC (21:00 PKT) on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, causing panic among residents. The object was traveling very low and was followed by several, powerful blasts some 5 seconds later. "I…
Just as seismologists use earthquakes to understand the interior of our planet, astronomers use starquakes to understand the interior of stars. In one such study, an international team provided unprecedented insights into conditions in the turbulent gas clouds where…
For the past couple of days, Comet 2P/Encke is visible through the eyes of ESA/NASA solar observatory SOHO as it swings around the Sun. The comet made its closest approach to the Sun – perihelion – at 02:11 UTC on March 10, 2017. Encke is a periodic comet that…
A new technological application of interplanetary radar pioneered by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has successfully located spacecraft orbiting the moon – one active, and one dormant. This new technique could assist…
The first lightning detector in a geostationary orbit, the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), aboard GOES-16, is now transmitting data never before available to forecasters. The mapper continually looks for lightning flashes in the Western Hemisphere, so…
Asteroid 2017 DS109 will flyby Earth at a distance of 0.90 LD (345 600 km / 214 745 miles) from the surface of our planet at 14:29 UTC on March 5, 2017. This asteroid belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was first observed by Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala on…
