Where Have Meteors Fallen on Earth and What Are the Differences?

By on Feb 18, 2013 in Pictures | 0 comments

 A very common question we all ask is where have meteors fallen on Earth? Also how big are these rocks or how heavy are they? These are good questions to ask to know the real danger of these space travellers. Well I took this first image from a cool facebook page called The Earth Story, check them out if you have time.   VERY KNOWN METEORITE FALL ON EARTH This map shows every meteorite fall on Earth that we know about; where scientists have found either meteorites or impact craters. Some of these craters and meteorite fragments date as far back as the year 2,300 BCE. The data for the image is from the US Meteorological Society and does not show places where meteorites might have fallen but no trace has yet been found.To view the interactive map, where you can click on each meteorite spot to learn more, go here: http://bit.ly/Xmuvy5   The data used for the image is available...

The Four Armed Spiral Galaxy M106

By on Feb 17, 2013 in Pictures | 0 comments

  This is the gorgeous spiral galaxy M106 or also known as NGC 4258. It is located 23.5 million light years away and it would take you 80,000 light years to cross from one end of the galaxy to the other. What is interesting about this particular galaxy is the fact that it has an unusual amount of arms. It has 4 arms that are in spiral formation and the two arms that are mostly red (known as anomalous arms, because they don’t line up well with the other arms) is hydrogen that is spewing out from the supermassive black hole. That red color is also an indicator to astronomers that the hydrogen is excited. So what is causing all this excitement? The jets coming from the supermassive black hole are likely to be caused by matter falling into it then the beam of cosmic death rays shoot out and excite the material around it. This is not a galaxy you would want to fly anywhere near because...

Deadly Meteor Hits Russia Shocks World

By on Feb 15, 2013 in Breaking News | 0 comments

  Deadly Meteor Hits Russia Injures 750+ People   Wow what a day! While everyone’s eyes were on 2012DA14 this surprise meteor comes out of nowhere over Russia. Not only that but there are tons of photos and footage on this! Sadly there have been at least 750 people reported injured. I first heard news from my main guy Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy and the story goes that at 9:30 a.m a meteor broke over Russia or 1500 km east of Moscow. It was in broad daylight and was even brighter than the sun! There was a sonic boom from the explosion which blew out most of the windows. This event shocks us in a way that no one had expected. The whole world was watching Russia and wondering what it looked like. Here is some of the Russian citizens saw.               More on this:http://chelyabinsk.ru/text/news/621775.html...

How Asteroid 2012DA14 Could Potentially Wipe Out a Major City

By on Feb 15, 2013 in Breaking News | 0 comments

credit: NASA 2012DA14 Killer Asteroid or Just Passing Neighbor?   You may have already heard something about an asteroid passing by Earth today. Even more so, the closest predicted fly by on record. Well one question a lot of people have asked is if this asteroid will come swoop down and hit us. Well let’s take a closer look at the details of this asteroid. First off the size of the asteroid is about 50m (160 ft) which doesn’t sound like a whole lot because whenever a meteor or asteroid enters our atmosphere it burns up on entry. Furthermore, the burn up causes the size to diminish or even break up into even smaller meteors and give nothing more than a great display. However that’s not the full story. 50m asteroids are no joking matter at all. In fact if this asteroid did come down and hit Earth it could easily wipe out a major city like Atlanta or Chicago. You...

Coolest Animation of a Variable Red Star in Action (V838 Monocerotis)

By on Jan 29, 2013 in Pictures | 0 comments

V838 Monocerotis is located 20,000 light years away in the constellation Monoceros. It’s one of the most interesting red variable stars (variable star is a star whose brightness fluctuates as seen from Earth) because at first astronomers thought this was a classic case of a nova but in fact it’s something completely different and to make matters even juicier, they aren’t even sure why! This red star is 5-10 times the mass of our own Sun and has been seen rapidly heating up and expanding in matter of months! This is rarely seen with stars and is telling about how fast this is all happening.   Source: http://observatory.open.ac.uk/data_store/fun_stuff/v838_monocerotis.html Make sure to check out the smoother animation in the source link! It’s even better!