Starship Asterisk*

Boomer12k wrote:It is bright, but it is not an explosion. You can see it continues on after its brightest part. It is like a light filament, as it dims, the meteor continues. Did not explode.

:---[===] *

13 On Feb 17, 2013 05:18:41 AM  PKthinks  added a comment on your blog post. 
Is it possible the Russian meteoroid did not actually impact the surface?
Given the angle of approach and the aiburst could the main portion have left without ground impact?
The videos seem to show a fairly significant object continuing onwards after the main explosion

Brem2 wrote:
Does anybody have an explanation for the shape of the smoke trail?
Clearly two separate trails, but mirror images of each other.

http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/5013/20130217/nasa-funds-5m-meteor-tracking-system-atlas.htm wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF](Photo : UH/IfA) Conceptual drawing for an ATLAS telescope. The project would use two of these 20-inch telescopes. [/color][/b]

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• Science World Reports, 2/17/2013

<<After the a huge meteor recently hit the ground of Chelyabinsk (population 1,130,132), Russia, NASA has approved $5 million of funding for ATLAS project (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System).

Almost 1,100 people was hurt as aftershock damages buildings and disconnected mobile networks which spread the panic across the nation. The most recent such impact occurred about 103 years ago, the Tunguska impact, in Siberia. This new system will allow a one-week warning for a 50-yard diameter asteroid or “city killer” and three weeks for a 150 yard-diameter “county killer.”

The system is being developed by Dr. John Tonry at the University of Hawaii Institute of Astronomy. “That’s enough time to evacuate the area of people, take measures to protect buildings and other infrastructure, and be alert to a tsunami danger generated by ocean impacts,” Tonry said. "It's gonna involve small telescopes about the size of a good garbage can, but very wide fields of view and the intent is to basically scan the whole sky a couple times a night and that makes it possible for things to sneak through," Tonry added.

The team is on its way to set up and operate an asteroid detection system that will monitor the visible sky twice a night looking for faint objects moving through space. ATLAS can operate up to 8 small telescopes, each equipped with cameras of up to 100 megapixels, on mounts housed at one or two locations in the Hawaiian Islands. The system is to be fully operational by the end of 2015.

If the meteorite that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia, recently reached on Earth at a different time of day, it could have landed on Moscow, Belfast, Dublin or any number of other cities with a latitude close to that of Chelyabinsk. Had the much bigger asteroid 2012 DA14 that coincidentally passed by Earth on the same day been the one that hit Chelyabinsk, the whole city would have been completely wiped out. The Chelyabinsk meteor was flying at approximately 33,000 miles per hour (53,000 kilometers per hour) and exploded with the power of an atomic bomb - though it was at least 29 kilometers off the ground.

Funding from NASA’s Near Earth Observation Program will provide $5 million over five years with $3.5 million designated for design and construction in the first three years and the remainder for operating the system in the following two years.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]Huginn and Muninn sit on Odin's shoulders in an illustration from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript[/color][/b]

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<<In Norse mythology, Huginn (from Old Norse "thought") and Muninn (Old Norse "memory" or "mind") are a pair of ravens that fly all over the world, Midgard, and bring information to the god Odin.

In the Poetic Edda, a disguised Odin expresses that he fears that they may not return from their daily flights. The Prose Edda explains that Odin is referred to as "raven-god" due to his association with Huginn and Muninn. In the Prose Edda and the Third Grammatical Treatise, the two ravens are described as perching on Odin's shoulders. Heimskringla details that Odin gave Huginn and Muninn the ability to speak.

• Hugin and Munin fly each day
  over the spacious earth.
  I fear for Hugin, that he come not back,
  yet more anxious am I for Munin.

In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning (chapter 38), the enthroned figure of High tells Gangleri (king Gylfi in disguise) that two ravens named Huginn and Muninn sit on Odin's shoulders. The ravens tell Odin everything they see and hear. Odin sends Huginn and Muninn out at dawn, and the birds fly all over the world before returning at dinner-time. As a result, Odin is kept informed of many events. High adds that it is from this association that Odin is referred to as "raven-god". In the Heimskringla book Ynglinga saga, an Euhemerized account of the life of Odin is provided. Chapter 7 describes that Odin had two ravens, and upon these ravens he bestowed the gift of speech. These ravens flew all over the land and brought him information, causing Odin to become "very wise in his lore." In the Third Grammatical Treatise an anonymous verse is recorded that mentions the ravens flying from Odin's shoulders; Huginn seeking hanged men, and Muninn slain bodies. The verse reads:

• Two ravens flew from Hnikar’s [Óðinn’s]
  shoulders; Huginn to the hanged and
  Muninn to the slain [lit. corpses].

Science World Reports 2/17/2013 After <the meteor over Chelyabinsk > NASA has approved $5 million of funding for ATLAS project

Press release, University of Hawaii, February 15th, 2013 In the realm of potential planetary disasters, asteroids are among the ones to fear—like the meteorite that hit Russia today, they can inflict serious damage on Earth.
With the aid of a $5-million grant from NASA, a University of Hawaii team of astronomers is developing ATLAS, a system to identify dangerous asteroids before their final plunge to Earth.
The team is on track to build and operate an asteroid detection system that will patrol the visible sky twice a night looking for faint objects moving through space.
ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System) will operate up to 8 small telescopes, each fitted with cameras of up to 100 megapixels, on mounts housed at one or two locations in the Hawaiian Islands.
Astronomers expect the system to be fully operational by the end of 2015.
Astronomer John Tonry compared ATLAS’s sensitivity to detecting a match flame in New York City when viewed from San Francisco.  
The team predicts the system will offer a one-week warning for a 50-yard diameter asteroid or “city killer” and three weeks for a 150 yard-diameter “county killer.”
“That’s enough time to evacuate the area of people, take measures to protect buildings and other infrastructure, and be alert to a tsunami danger generated by ocean impacts,” Tonry said.
The typical asteroid is a “rubble pile”—a large collection of rocks and dust.
Most asteroids reside in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, though some, called near-Earth objects, can orbit much closer to Earth.
Sometimes the gravitational tugs from the planets in the solar system send one of the asteroids on a collision course with Earth.
Had the meteorite that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia today arrived at Earth at a different time of day, it could have hit Moscow, Belfast, Dublin or any number of other cities with a latitude similar to that of Chelyabinsk.
Had the much larger asteroid 2012 DA14 that coincidentally passed by Earth on the same day been the one that hit Chelyabinsk, the entire city would have been completely destroyed.
Scientists estimate that such a “city killer” impacts Earth about once every few hundred years.
The most recent such impact occurred about 103 years ago—the Tunguska impact—in Siberia.
ATLAS will complement the Institute for Astronomy’s Pan-STARRS project, a system that searches for large “killer asteroids” years, decades, and even centuries before impact with Earth. Whereas Pan-STARRS takes a month to complete one sweep of the sky in a deep but narrow survey, ATLAS will search the sky in a closer and wider path to help identify the smaller asteroids that hit Earth much more frequently.
Funding from NASA’s Near Earth Observation Program will provide $5 million over five years with $3.5 million designated for design and construction in the first three years and the remainder for operating the system in the following two years.
As well as searching for asteroids, ATLAS will also look for dwarf planets, supernova explosions, and flashes of light that occur when a star is gobbled up by a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy.

K1NS wrote:
Yes, yes, I realize that everyone says the 2013 Russian event has nothing to do with 2012 DA14, but what a coincidence! You might even say the odds against it are astronomical. Is it possible that the two events are related after all? On a previous pass of Earth, couldn't tidal forces broken off a chunk of DA14 which then struck Earth on this month's later pass? I am just searching for an explanation of two events of such enormous rarity happening on the same day.

Alastro wrote:
How small can an asteroid be before it's called a meteoroid?

• A meter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid#Meteoroids wrote:
<<In 1961, the International Astronomical Union defined a meteoroid as "a solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than an asteroid and considerably larger than an atom". In 1995, Beech and Steel, writing in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, proposed a new definition where a meteoroid would be between 100 µm and 10 meters across. Following the discovery of asteroids below 10 m in size, Rubin and Grossman refined the Beech and Steel definition of meteoroid to objects between 10 µm and 1 m in diameter. The smallest asteroid (based on absolute magnitude) is 2008 TS26 with an absolute magnitude of 33.2, and an estimated size of 1-meter. Objects smaller than meteoroids are classified as micrometeoroids and cosmic dust. The Minor Planet Center does not use the term "meteoroid".>>

Brem2 wrote:Does anybody have an explanation for the shape of the smoke trail? Clearly two separate trails, but mirror images of each other.

Boomer12k wrote:It is bright, but it is not an explosion. You can see it continues on after its brightest part. It is like a light filament, as it dims, the meteor continues. Did not explode.

neufer wrote:Possibly the two separate asteroids conspired like a pair of velociraptors:

DA14 distracted everyone's attention while
the Chelyabinsk meteor snuck in with the sun at its back so that it wouldn't be detected.

K1NS wrote:Yes, yes, I realize that everyone says the 2013 Russian event has nothing to do with 2012 DA14, but what a coincidence! You might even say the odds against it are astronomical. 8-)

Is it possible that the two events are related after all? On a previous pass of Earth, couldn't tidal forces broken off a chunk of DA14 which then struck Earth on this month's later pass? I am just searching for an explanation of two events of such enormous rarity happening on the same day.

MargaritaMc wrote:This is a comment from the blog post ("the meteor's trajectory") linked from today's Apod
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/Watch%20t ... 85055.html

13 On Feb 17, 2013 05:18:41 AM  PKthinks  added a comment on your blog post. 
Is it possible the Russian meteoroid did not actually impact the surface?
Given the angle of approach and the aiburst could the main portion have left without ground impact?
The videos seem to show a fairly significant object continuing onwards after the main explosion

Alastro wrote:How small can an asteroid be before it's called a meteoroid?

car-sized chunk of ice and rock