Nationalgeographic, By: Andrew Fazekas, 05/17/2013
A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at the right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday. NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program.
Some 300 lunar impact events have been logged over the years but this latest impact, from March 17, is considered many orders of magnitude brighter than anything else observed. “We have seen a couple of others in the ‘wow’ category but not this bright,” said Robert Suggs, manager of NASA’s Lunar Impact Monitoring Program at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The blast lasted only about a single second and shone like a 4th magnitude star—making it bright enough to see with just the unaided eye.
A delightful look at children taking their first taste of some challenging foods. Filmed in high speed, stunning clarity, this film allows us to almost see the thoughts of these children on their faces.
17MAY2013 Karmen Franklin Westminster, CO 21:45 MST appx 4 seconds United States, E-W, seemed to fade over the Rocky Mountains very bright white, almost yellow brighter than Venus, like a small sun just faded slowly seemed to have a tail
17MAY2013 van hecke castle rock,co. 2155 10 seconds right to left north white moon no no. 17MAY2013 Ellen Fort Collins, CO, USA 21:45 MDST 3-4 with a short break E-W Bright white with colored tail moon Don't think so bright ball of reasonable size with short tail.
Nationalgeographic, By: Andrew Fazekas, 05/15/2013
The Orion nebula is one of the most favorite spots for stargazers to explore in the heavens, but this week astronomers are releasing a stunning new look to this giant stellar nursery 1300 light years from Earth.
A fiery cosmic ribbon glows with orange colors as grains of cold interstellar dust light up like a neon sign, shining bright in the far infrared part of the spectrum which is invisible to the human eye. This new image released by the European Southern observatory (ESO) shows this ribbon-like feature superimposed on a more familiar view of the cosmic clouds of dust visible in optical wavelengths.
Widespread rain is due to impact South Australia, New South Wales, northern Victoria and southern Queensland as a low pressure system and trough move east next week. The trough is expected to deepen over the WA Pilbara on Sunday, beginning an almost nation-wide rain event. Rain will spread into the WA Interior and then reach western parts of South Australia on Monday morning.
South Australia can expect widespread rain due to the broad trough and a developing low pressure system in the Bight. The heaviest rain should impact the Eyre Peninsula, with 20-40mm likely to fall. Most of the state will gain more than 10mm with large portions likely to gain around 20mm.
At least six people have been killed and about 100 injured after several tornadoes ripped through northern Texas, local media reports. The main scene of destruction is Granbury, south-west of Dallas, NBC reports.
Hood County sheriff Roger Deeds has warned the death toll could rise as 14 people remain unaccounted for.
The Victorian and New South Wales Alps have gained their heaviest snowfall so far this year. Overnight the temperature dropped below freezing at times across the NSW and VIC resorts with snow below 1500 metres in some places. There are reports that over 20cm of snow fell at Falls Creek, Thredbo and Perisher.
The snow has arrived due to a low pressure system in the Tasman Sea. The low has brought a cold airmass and enough moisture for a significant pre-season dumping.
The glacial regions around the highest peak in the world are melting and researchers report the melt has been happening for decades, with temperatures rising and snowfall declining since the 1990s. Glaciers in the Mount Everest religion have shrunk by 13 percent in the last 50 years and the snowline has shifted upwards by 180 meters (590 feet) according to the study's lead author, Sudeep Thakuri.
Since the 1960s, small glaciers of less than one square kilometer have been disappearing most rapidly, with a 43 percent surface decline. The receding ice and snow is melting faster than it can be replaced, researchers report, revealing rocks and debris that were previously hidden under thick layers of ice.
After not producing any X-class eruptions all year, the Sun has roared to life this week, producing its fourth X-class solar flare of the week on Tuesday. Tuesday's flare came from the same region as the previous X-class flares this week, an active sunspot region known as AR1748. Prior to this week the sunspot region did not even have a name and was difficult to see, but as the region continues to rotate towards Earth, scientists will be able to observe it more clearly.
Registering at X1.2, Tuesday's flare was the weakest of this week's X-class flares, which are the most powerful type of flares that the Sun can unleash. Monday night's X3.2 flare was the strongest of the year. The numbers the flares are assigned correlate to their strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1; an X3 is three times as intense, and so on.
The Alaskan Volcano Observatory (AVO) reported lava flowing from two of the state's volcanoes Tuesday, placing the mountains on the second-highest alert status and prompting concerns that air travel may be affected by volcanic ash. The volcanoes Cleveland and Pavlof are both along the Aleutian Island chain, where a significant volume of air traffic flies overhead. There is a code Orange aviation warning at both volcanoes, the AVO reported.
Cleveland Volcano has been erupting for nearly three weeks and was placed on a code Orange alert earlier this month after gas and volcanic ash began billowing from the summit. However, Tuesday's report of a 32-foot-wide (100 meter) lava flow extending about a mile (1.5 kilometers) down the mountain's southern flank was the first report of lava from Cleveland since the volcano began erupting May 4.