October 2010 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Comet Hartley Imaged by Arecibo Planetary Radar in Puerto Rico
by Jay Eads 30 Oct '10

30 Oct '10

A different view of Comet Hartley: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-358 ""It kind of looks like a cross between a bowling pin and a pickle," Thought this was interesting: "Observing comet Hartley 2 from the Earth with radar was like imaging a 6-inch spinning cucumber from 836 miles away," said Jon Giorgini, a scientist at JPL -- Jay Eads

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2003 UV11 What if it hit Salt Lake City
by Canopus56 30 Oct '10

30 Oct '10

Although there is absolutely no chance that the 500 meter diameter NEO asteroid 2003 UV11 will hit the earth (the asteroid is now inside the Earth's orbit and on its way Venus), just for a hoot I ran it through the Earth Impacts Program online calculator for effects at 100km distant from the point of impact. While this asteroid has a period of about 625 days, it will not be this close to the earth again until after 2170. Clear Skies - Kurt ----------------- Earth Impacts Effect Calculator http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/ Your Inputs: Distance from Impact: 100.00 km ( = 62.10 miles ) Projectile diameter: 500.00 meters ( = 1640.00 feet ) Projectile Density: 1500 kg/m3 Impact Velocity: 20.00 km per second ( = 12.40 miles per second ) Impact Angle: 45 degrees Target Density: 2500 kg/m3 Target Type: Sedimentary Rock Energy: Energy before atmospheric entry: 1.96 x 1019 Joules = 4.69 x 103 MegaTons TNT The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 1.1 x 105years Major Global Changes: The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass. The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth's axis (< 5 hundreths of a degree). The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably. Atmospheric Entry: The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 75100 meters = 246000 ft The projectile reaches the ground in a broken condition. The mass of projectile strikes the surface at velocity 19 km/s = 11.8 miles/s The impact energy is 1.77 x 1019 Joules = 4.22 x 103MegaTons. The broken projectile fragments strike the ground in an ellipse of dimension 1.36 km by 0.959 km Crater Dimensions: What does this mean? Crater shape is normal in spite of atmospheric crushing; fragments are not significantly dispersed. Transient Crater Diameter: 5.13 km ( = 3.19 miles ) Transient Crater Depth: 1.81 km ( = 1.13 miles ) Final Crater Diameter: 6.39 km ( = 3.97 miles ) Final Crater Depth: 517 meters ( = 1700 feet ) The crater formed is a complex crater. The volume of the target melted or vaporized is 0.111 km3 = 0.0267 miles3 Roughly half the melt remains in the crater, where its average thickness is 5.37 meters ( = 17.6 feet ). Thermal Radiation: What does this mean? Time for maximum radiation: 275 milliseconds after impact Visible fireball radius: 4.42 km ( = 2.75 miles ) The fireball appears 10.1 times larger than the sun Thermal Exposure: 6.82 x 105 Joules/m2 Duration of Irradiation: 1.13 minutes Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 10.1 Effects of Thermal Radiation: Much of the body suffers first degree burns Seismic Effects: What does this mean? The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 20 seconds after impact. Richter Scale Magnitude: 7.0 Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 100 km: VI. Felt by all, many frightened. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of fallen plaster. Damage slight. VII. Damage negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary structures; considerable damage in poorly built or badly designed structures; some chimneys broken. Ejecta: What does this mean? The ejecta will arrive approximately 2.4 minutes after the impact. At your position there is a fine dusting of ejecta with occasional larger fragments Average Ejecta Thickness: 6.2 mm ( = 2.44 tenths of an inch ) Mean Fragment Diameter: 3.98 cm ( = 1.57 inches ) Air Blast: What does this mean? The air blast will arrive approximately 5.05 minutes after impact. Peak Overpressure: 18600 Pa = 0.186 bars = 2.65 psi Max wind velocity: 40.8 m/s = 91.2 mph Sound Intensity: 85 dB (Loud as heavy traffic) Damage Description: Glass windows will shatter. About 30 percent of trees blown down; remainder have some branches and leaves blown off.

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2003 UV11 tonight (Friday)
by Patrick Wiggins 30 Oct '10

30 Oct '10

Provided the clouds cooperate we've a chance to see a tiny minor planet whiz past Earth tonight (Friday) and into tomorrow morning. Transiting high in the south about 8 pm and shining at about mag 12 it'll be scooting across the sky at about 160 arc seconds per minute and located only 0.013 AU away (just under 2 million km). For specifics for your area go to the Minor Planet Ephemeris Service at: http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html patrick

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New Images from Tyler Allred
by Tyler Allred 29 Oct '10

29 Oct '10

Hi all. I have been very busy (with everything but astronomy) since returning from my recent trip to Kanab to spend time with Jerry and Cindy Foote, Don Colton, and Joe Bauman. That was a really fun trip. I have just added seven new images to my gallery. In the interest of time, I just decided to do a mass dump of recent images, rather than posting them individually. The images include: IC63 and IC59 near Gamma Cas Sharpless 140 in Cepheus (Sh2-140) M33 Galaxy in Triangulum van den Berg 152 in Cepheus (vdB152) M42 area mosaic with Running Man Nebula in Orion Propeller Nebula in Cygnus (DWB111) Cocoon Nebula in Cygnus (IC5146) The new images should be the first seven on the link page (I hope). Please take a look at my gallery at the following link: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=122 Please take a look if you get a moment. I always appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have regarding my images. Thanks, Tyler

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Inside the Milky Way
by Nate Jackson 28 Oct '10

28 Oct '10

Ancient Aliens and UFO files marathon here. From: Jay Eads <jayleads(a)gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Cc: Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 10:55:13 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Inside the Milky Way Cloudy tonight so I'm watching the National Geographic's Inside the Milky Way right now. Not bad, the focus tonight is on galaxies and how our galaxy came to be and how it is comprised. Nothing really new but not bad in its presentation. Anyone else catch it and what did you think? -- Jay Eads _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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16" Meade LightBridge for sale
by Debbie 28 Oct '10

28 Oct '10

I thought I would pass this along for my friend Dave. Debbie http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=12983926&cat=&lpid=&search=

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Inside the Milky Way
by Jay Eads 28 Oct '10

28 Oct '10

Cloudy tonight so I'm watching the National Geographic's Inside the Milky Way right now. Not bad, the focus tonight is on galaxies and how our galaxy came to be and how it is comprised. Nothing really new but not bad in its presentation. Anyone else catch it and what did you think? -- Jay Eads

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] 16' Meade LightBridge for sale
by Debbie 28 Oct '10

28 Oct '10

oops, I mean 16". On Thu Oct 28 19:09 , Debbie <astrodeb(a)beyondbb.com> sent: >I thought I would pass this along for my friend Dave. > >Debbie > > > > >http://www.ksl.com/index.php\?nid=218&ad=12983926&cat=&lpid=&search= > >_______________________________________________ >Utah-Astronomy mailing list >Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php >Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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2003 UV 11 tonight 10:27 now 11pm donot wait
by Canopus56 28 Oct '10

28 Oct '10

At 9:30pm tonight, I observed 400-500 meter diameter 2003 UV 11 moving at the astonishing rate of 1/2 deg per hour near. It appeared to be near mag 6-7. You could take a break from the eyepiece for 2 minutes and then easily see its motion on rechecking the eyepiece. This is a great opporunity to see a large visual NEO asteriod, if you want to brave the cold tonight with a GOTO scope. A large storm front is approaching Salt Lake and will be here in few hours, so if you do not look now, you probably will not see this asteriod tomorrow night. At 10:45pm the asteriod will be within 1 deg celestial south of 109 Psc, HD 10697, SAO 92611, v6.29 At 00:45am the asertiod will transit and be within 1 deg celesital south of 107 Psc, HD 10476, SAO 74883, v5.25 Both 109 and 107 are within 4 1/2 degs of beta Ari and gam01-02 Ari. Asteriod 2003 UV 11 will be at its closest distance of 5 lunar distances on Oct. 30. - Clear Skies - Kurt

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Weird prominence
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Oct '10

26 Oct '10

Had a look at our local star through a sucker hole a few minutes ago and was surprised to see a prominence unlike any I've seen before. Thin, very long and sticking straight out from the Sun. I've seen prominences of many shapes and sizes before but this is a first for me. patrick

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