A very bright fireball streaked through the night sky over the Mexico – Texas, U.S. border region at 02:13 UTC on September 25, 2024 (21:13 LT, September 24). The event lasted about 4 seconds before disintegrating.
A very bright fireball lit up the skies over the western United States at 05:46 UTC on September 24, 2024, and was seen from California to Washington.
Comet 2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), discovered in January 2023 by the Tsuchinshan Observatory and the ATLAS project, has reemerged from behind the Sun and is rapidly brightening. It is expected to become one of the brightest comets in recent years, with peak visibility between October 7 and 12, 2024, as it approaches Earth and the Sun.
NASA’s Deep Space Network Goldstone Solar System Radar captured images of asteroid 2024 ON during its close approach to Earth last week, at a safe distance of 2.6 LD (~1 million km / 620 000 miles) from Earth.
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2024 RC42 flew past Earth at a distance of just 0.06 LD / 0.00014 AU (21 645 km / 13 449 miles) at 19:32 UTC on September 12, 2024.
Earth’s gravity will trap a 10 m (23.8 feet) wide asteroid 2024 PT2 on September 29, 2024, keeping it in orbit for 56.6 days before returning it to its regular journey around the Sun on November 25, 2024.
The partial lunar eclipse of September 18, 2024, will be visible from several continents, including the Americas, Europe, and Africa. It is part of a series of astronomical phenomena in 2024 that will last more than four hours, with the partial phase beginning at 00:41 UTC and peaking at 02:44. During this period, a small piece of the Moon will pass through Earth’s umbral shadow, darkening around 8.5% of its surface.
On September 12, 2024, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission made history by conducting the first commercial spacewalk from a spacecraft. This extravehicular activity (EVA) took place 738 km (459 miles) above Earth and was designed to test SpaceX’s new EVA suits as well as further commercial space exploration.
The Iraqi Meteorological Organization and Seismology confirmed on Saturday, September 7, 2024, that the mysterious bright light seen over the skies of Iraq on Friday, September 6 was caused by a meteor burning up in the atmosphere, denying the earlier speculation that it might have been earthquake lightning.
After 24 years of studying Earth’s magnetosphere, the ESA’s Salsa satellite from the Cluster mission is on course to reenter the atmosphere in a controlled descent. The reentry, scheduled for 18:48 UTC, on September 8, 2024, is part of a broader effort by the ESA to mitigate space debris risks by ensuring the satellite disintegrates safely over the South Pacific.
