INCOMING!, Detection and observation of Earth-approaching asteroids. Options

[centsworth_II]

Seriously? Why would any scientist publish an article in ComicSans?

So that someone could incorporate an actual screen capture of their text into a cartoon.

[PDP8E]

I see your logic centsworth the 2nd!

[Paolo]

the paper is making some buzz on the internet: Was the “First Photographed UFO” a Comet?

[ilbasso]

Fireball reported over the Washington DC area Friday night per this news report. Also an interesting video linked on that page - a bolide over Texas/Oklahoma as seen by a police cruiser camera during a traffic stop.

[CosmicRocker]

Both my wife and I saw that Texas-Oklahoma bolide from our place near Marble Falls, Texas. It was amazingly bright and appeared to move surprisingly slowly across the sky. I caught it out of the corner of my eye as I walked between two buildings. At first I thought, "That's the moon," but then I realized that the moon couldn't be north of me. I turned around and walked back to the view between my house and the garage for a second look to see the fireball die out on the horizon.

My wife jumped up from her seat in our living room when she saw it through the window. She ran out onto the back deck, initially thinking it was an airplane in flames. She watched it disappear as it descended toward the horizon. Her recollection was that its color was distinctly green. We both thought that it fell within a few miles of our house, but apparently it fell near Dallas, about 200 miles north of here.

I hope someone is able to collect some fragments from this one.

[tty]

Sci-Fi enthusiasts will note that if those observations in Zacatecas were really a fragmented comet it means that the scenario in S. M. Stirling's "The Peshawar Lancers" very, very nearly came true.

[ngunn]

A British meteor: http://www.meteorwatch.org/2012/03/04/fire...3rd-march-2012/

Did anybody here see it? (No such luck in my case, though I have enjoyed best-ever views of Mercury these last two evenings.)

[Rob Pinnegar]

Apparently a good sized bolide (~100 kg) came down over Saskatchewan several days back as well. Oddly enough it landed in the same part of the province that experienced a good sized fall about three or four years ago.

This latest one was visible from Calgary. I'd have liked to have seen it, but unfortunately I wasn't outside at the time. Pity.

[jasedm]

I've never seen a decent long-lived meteor despite living in an area with little light-pollution. I've seen meteors many times whilst on holiday in Wales in the 70's with my parents but they were always a few seconds duration, and by the time I zeroed in on them they'd gone. Disappointing.

[nprev]

In addition to the 10 Aug 72 daylight fireball over the western US, I saw a terrific Perseid in the 70s. Around mag -6, and it exploded right in the bowl of the Big Dipper...orange glow remained for at least 2 min. Unforgettable.

[ngunn]

I've seen one. It was sometime in the 1980s and I was on a city street whilst on holiday in Ireland. I reported the observation with a sketch of the trajectory relative to the buildings.

It's a shame that we spend so little time in sight of the sky the way we live now. On the other hand the lucky few are increasingly likely to carry recording devices, so it's not all bad.

[tedstryk]

Looks like we got a nifty visitor! http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/sto...d-in-deep-space

[Phil Stooke]

This is a composite of the three images giving a rough idea of the overall shape - the caption says it's a roughly pole-on view.

Phil

[Paolo]

info on "two independent but mutually supporting" asteroid deflection missions, one by the APL, the other by ESA
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technolo...xperiment_Ideas

[Astro0]

I found this asteroid infographic both useful and amusing.