Upcoming sky events include tonight’s passing of QE2, a nearly 2 mile meteor that is a binary system. It has its own moon. There are many places you can go online to watch it live. From slooh.com space camera to space.com courtesy of NASA.
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An explosion came from the dark side of the moon equal to one of 5 tons of TNT. An 80 pound meteor that if it had entered Earth’s atmosphere would have simply burned up while providing a fireball in the sky.
It is believed that the event was part of a larger one – space cameras caught a debris field that was believed to have been emanating from the asteroid belt.
This meteor was traveling at a speed near 56,000 miles per hour and further dented an already pox marked moon. The kinetic energy of this event caused a flash of light that lasted only a moment.
Scientists were intrigued by this event and will be watching the skies next March to see if the Earth & Moon pass through another cluster.
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Expect a meteor shower once thought defunct to display itself in June. The June Bootids have been showing themselves in recent years. But before that display expect the ETA Aquarids which appears in late May & June however in the daytime hours. Normally not visible unless a fireball appears which will be visible at any time. Still the skies are pretty calm until August.
In August the Perseid Meteor shower makes itself known. The peak is August 12th where close to 60 meteors per hour streak the night sky. Or perhaps one should say Falling Stars per hour. As one can imagine, ages ago when a visible streak of light from a meteorite heated and glowing from entering the atmosphere, was seen as a Falling Star. The sunset sky offers the dispersement of the planetary alignment that was forming. The show has not ended yet. Mercury, Venus and Saturn on June 5th offer a unity that’s quite spectacular.
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If you are seeking any additional info on QE2 check out the earlier post on NASA and the many Asteroids as there is a section on it there.
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