A very bright fireball was sighted over multiple U.S. states, including North Carolina and Tennessee, at around 05:15 UTC (00:15 LT) on Friday, August 30, 2024. The object broke up above the town of Altapass, North Carolina, producing energy equivalent to 10 tons of TNT. It is likely that meteorites have fallen in the Spruce Pine, Ingalls, and Altapass area.
An unexpected atmospheric re-entry of the Starlink 2382 satellite at 19:29 UTC on August 27, 2024, created a stunning fireball over France, Switzerland, and northern Italy.
An amazing dayling fireball was seen and heard over Eastern Cape, South Africa on Sunday, August 25, 2024. Initially thought of as space junk, it was later confirmed to be a car-sized meteor that entered the atmosphere between 06:30 and 07:00 UTC (08:30 and 09:00 LT). Reports of the following sonic boom were heard more than 200 km (124 miles) away from the site of the original sighting.
NASA has postponed the return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) due to safety concerns over Boeing’s Starliner aircraft. The mission, originally planned for September 2024, has been postponed to February 2025.
A bright fireball streaked through the night sky over Michigan at around 04:15 UTC on August 23, 2024 (23:15 LT, August 22), and was witnessed by residents across the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and New York, along with those in Ontario, Canada.
A bright daylight fireball streaked across the sky over Wisconsin at around 11:13 UTC (06:13 CDT) on August 23, 2024, capturing the attention of many people. The event took place some 10 hours after a very bright fireball exploded over Kentucky.
A very bright fireball streaked through the night sky over Kentucky at 01:43 UTC on Friday, August 23, 2024 (21:43 LT, August 22). The breakup unleashed an energy of about 10 tons of TNT, which generated a pressure wave that traveled to the ground.
The European Space Agency’s JUICE mission successfully completed the world’s first lunar-Earth flyby on August 20, 2024, a vital maneuver that used the gravitational forces of the Moon and Earth to send the spacecraft toward Venus. This accomplishment is critical for saving fuel and modifying the spacecraft’s trajectory as it travels to Jupiter.
A new study discovered that galaxies in denser astronomical surroundings are up to 25% larger than those in less crowded locations. This study, published on August 14, 2024, in The Astrophysical Journal, stressed the importance of ambient density in galaxy size, refuting prior theories that focused solely on internal processes.
Scientists discovered that Mercury may have a 16 km (10-mile) thick diamond layer at its core-mantle barrier. This revelation, based on NASA’s MESSENGER mission data and high-pressure laboratory experiments, shed new light on the planet’s complicated interior structure and thermal development. The team was led by Yongjiang Xu and Yanhao Lin of the Center for…
