Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 59 & 60: Spotting Travelers In The Night & A Close Visit With A Message
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- Meteors are traveling at between 7 and 44 miles per second when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Most of them range in size from a grain of sand to a piece of driveway gravel.
- Eric Christensen was observing with the Catalina Sky Survey Telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he discovered 2014 MH6.
Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona. This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.
He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.
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Transcript:
45E – 59 – Spotting Travelers In The Night
Travelers In The Night from outer space are closer than you may imagine. If you were to go straight up more than 4 miles you would need supplementary oxygen to stay conscious. At 50 – 70 miles, the realm of meteors, humans require a full space suit to survive.
Meteors, shooting stars, or falling stars are small asteroids called meteoroids. They are traveling at between 7 and 44 miles per second when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Most of them range in size from a grain of sand to a piece of driveway gravel. Large ones can produce fireballs which are brighter than the planet Venus. Most of them will burn up miles above you, however, a very few of them produce fragments which survive to arrive on the Earth’s surface. We call these objects meteorites.
During the year, there are a dozen major meteor showers. Check out the American Meteor Society website for a complete listing.
The best time to view meteors is generally after midnight on a clear, moonless night. You will see many more in a rural area than under city lights. On nights not during a meteor shower, you may expect to view sporadic meteors at the rate of between 2-4 and 8-16 per hour. Some meteor showers produce more than 100 events per hour. Rarely you will have a chance to view a meteor storm which will give you the feeling that you are seeing the Earth move through space. In 1966 one of these storms produced a WOW inspiring 40 meteors per second.
46E – 60- A Close Visit With A Message
Eric Christensen was observing with the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey Telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he discovered a bright fast moving object in the night sky. During the next 25 hours it was observed by telescopes in Arizona and France and given the name 2014 MH6. It orbits the Sun in a bit over 16 months on a path which goes from closer than Venus to out past Mars.
Four days before its discovery 2014 MH6 was so faint that it was completely invisible to humans. Its undetectability was caused both by its distance from us and the fact that its lighted side faced away from Earth.
Forty one and a half hours before humans spotted it, this asteroid was less than 2/3 of the distance to the Moon from us and was moving away from Earth at 10 miles per second. Shortly after this time it was as its brightest relative to our planet.
When discovered 2014 MH6 was almost 6 Lunar distances from our planet as it continued to head away from the both the Earth and the Sun. Less than 10 days after discovery this asteroid was once again invisible to humans.
2014 MH6 is slightly smaller than the asteroid whose airburst caused more than 1000 flying glass injuries in Russia in February of 2013.
Six hours before it made its closest approach to Earth, 2014 MH6 was bright enough to be detected if we had the telescopes to cover the sky. Providing a warning before an asteroid this size impacts the Earth is challenging but doable.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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