Category Archives: meteorites

Large new crater spotted on Mars

An announcement from NASA JPL:

NASA Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big New Crater

Researchers have discovered on the Red Planet the largest fresh meteor-impact crater ever firmly documented with before-and-after images. The images were captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The crater spans half the length of a football field and first appeared in March 2012. The impact that created it likely was preceded by an explosion in the Martian sky caused by intense friction between an incoming asteroid and the planet’s atmosphere. This series of events can be likened to the meteor blast that shattered windows in Chelyabinsk, Russia, last year. The air burst and ground impact darkened an area of the Martian surface about 5 miles (8 kilometers) across.

Best-Ever Pinning Down When a Space Rock Hit Mars
Best-Ever Pinning Down When a Space Rock Hit Mars

The darkened spot appears in images taken by the orbiter’s weather-monitoring camera, the Mars Color Imager (MARCI). Images of the site from MARCI and from the two telescopic cameras on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are at: http://go.usa.gov/8KgJ

Large, Fresh Crater Surrounded by Smaller Craters
Large, Fresh Crater Surrounded by Smaller Craters

Since the orbiter began its systematic observation of Mars in 2006, scientist Bruce Cantor has examined MARCI’s daily global coverage, looking for evidence of dust storms and other observable weather events in the images. Cantor is this camera’s deputy principal investigator at Malin Space Science Systems, the San Diego company that built and operates MARCI and the orbiter’s telescopic Context Camera (CTX). Through his careful review of the images, he helps operators of NASA’s solar-powered Mars rover, Opportunity, plan for weather events that may diminish the rover’s energy. He also posts weekly Mars weather reports.

Continue…

Before-and-After Views Confirm Fresh Craters
Before-and-After Views Confirm Fresh Craters
Fresh Mars Crater Confirmed Within Impact Scar
Fresh Mars Crater Confirmed Within Impact Scar

Update on the mystery of the skydiver and the meteorite

Earlier in the month I posted about a Skydiver imaging a meteoroid flying past him during jump. However, analysis of the images by astronomer Phil Plait made it more likely it was just a rock that had gotten bound up in the parachute during its packing and had fallen out when the chute unfurled.

Now comes a much more detailed study that confirms the latter conclusion: Forensic Ballistics: How Apollo 12 Helped Solve the Skydiver Meteorite Mystery – The Planetary Society

Skydiver images meteoroid flying past him during jump

A reader points me to this unusual story of a near-miss in the sky: Skydiver nearly struck by meteorite – NRK/Viten

[ Update Apr.8: Phil Plait now think it was just a rock bound up inside the parachute of the other skydiver : Skydiving meteorite: It was a rock. – Bad Astronomy/Slate.com. ]

Update Apr.22.14: Analysis with software designed to study ballistic debris indicates that it was in fact just a rock falling out of the chute: Forensic Ballistics: How Apollo 12 Helped Solve the Skydiver Meteorite Mystery – The Planetary Society

Meteor watching: Bright fireball seen over New Mexico

An entry at Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News reports on a big fireball over New Mexico. They are looking for security camera and cell phone captures of the event:

NM Large Fireball Meteor 06MAR2014 with video capture / coming soon

Breaking News -NM Large Fireball Meteor 00:29:19 am MST 06MAR2014 — video coming soon.

Report your meteor sightings please-

http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.jp/2000/11/meteor-fireball-report-form.html
Please help get the word about this event so that we might recover security camera video or cell phone captures; spread the word about this website via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, GLP, SOTT and your favorite forums; contact your local news outlets; thank you!
http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com

Initial Meteor Sighting Reports-
On 3/6/14 1:43 27000, Thomas Ashcraft wrote:
March 06 2014 I captured a large fireball over north central New Mexico at 0729:19 UT +/- 2 seconds. (00:29:19 am MST). As bright or brighter than the full Moon. Possibly brighter. I will process it in the morning and post the movie. This one should have been captured well on Albuquerque cameras and might have been right over Albuquerque heading westerlyEnd point might have been western New Mexico or it might have crossed over the Arizona border. Hard to say from one camera view. Big one at least.

Thomas Ashcraft