Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft is set to return to Earth on December 6, 2020, after a yearlong journey to collect soil samples of asteroid Ryugu. These valuable samples could provide scientists with more clues to the origins of…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 WY4 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.29 LD / 0.00075 AU (112 198 km / 69 716 miles) at 03:19 UTC on November 24, 2020. This is the 93rd known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year,…
Three bright meteors were recorded over Spain on November 21 – at 01:32, 01:47 UTC, and 02:21 UTC. The first was generated by a meteoroid produced by Comet Encke that hit the atmosphere at around 101 000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 105 km (65 miles) over…
A bright fireball exploded over southern Texas, U.S. at around 02:58 UTC on November 20, 2020. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 50 reports from Texas, U.S., and Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Fireball over southern Texas on November 3, 2020 – heatmap. Credit: AMS…
A very bright, slow-moving fireball was recorded over central Europe at 03:46 UTC on November 19, 2020. The event lasted some 18 seconds before the object disintegrated. The American Meteor Society (AMS) has so far received 34 reports from witnesses in Germany,…
A bright green meteor was spotted by the crew of the research vessel Investigator, operated by Australia's national science agency — CSIRO — at 10:21 UTC on November 18, 2020. The vessel was located off the southern coast of Tasmania, Australia at the time of…
Based on images of Mars taken during 6 nights in October and November 2020 with the 1-meter telescope at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees, astronomers led by Francois Colas built a complete planisphere of Mars and generated hundreds of images to…
A bright Leonid fireball exploded over Missouri, U.S. at around 11:24 UTC on November 18, 2020 (05:24 CST). The event was so bright that it cast shadows and momentarily blinded the Missouri Skies Observatory camera located in Albany, Missouri. The American Meteor…
A very bright fireball exploded over southern Spain, on Monday, November 16, 2020. The object entered the atmosphere at an altitude of about 132 km (82 miles) over Andalucia and ended at a height of about 61 km (38 mph) over southern Portugal. The fireball was…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 VT4 flew past Earth at a very close distance of just 0.02 LD / 0.0000451 AU (6 746 km / 4 192 miles) from the center of our planet at 17:20 UTC on November 13, 2020. This makes it the closest known asteroid to flyby Earth,…
