Astronomy Picture of the Day

[Nicktalopia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q3qWV4Ks3E


Fireball Over Edmonton
Credit & Copyright Global Television Edmonton, YouTube

Explanation: What if you're driving down the street and an object from space shoots across the sky right in front of you? Such was the case last week for many people in south central Canada. Specifically, an extremely bright fireball, presumably a desk-sized meteor from deep space, flashed across the sky just after sunset on 2008 November 20. The bright fireball was recorded on many images and movies, including the spectacular video shown above that was captured by a dashboard camera of a police cruiser in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Because at least two streaks appear to be visible, the falling object likely broke up into pieces as it fell deep into Earth's atmosphere. By triangulating fireball images from several simultaneously recorded sources, astronomers hope to find an approximate orbit from whence the object came, as well as the likely place(s) on Earth where large pieces would have impacted, were they to have survived entry. In the best case scenario, pieces would be recovered from a known deep space comet or asteroid, giving humanity an unprecedented look at an ancient object that likely holds clues to the early years of our Earth and the Solar System.

[TranceFusion]

OMG!!! that's something that i will probably never witness! This video must be the winner of the video of the year contest.

It looks like the fireball will hit the city. Damn it's so bright!

[Raneem]

My brother, my father, and I were together once at the balcony at our house, and saw something close to a fireball in the sky, but was fastest with a smaller explosion...It all happened within less than 2 seconds!

[rob]

[Genesis]

[crow]

[Proof]

[crow]

[Proof]

A table wont save you man.

Hide behind Johnny.

[Qulture]

[[IN]Head-Kay]

[TranceFusion]

[A-Cube]

[Genesis]

Four things I want to see before I die -

1) See a meteor shower
2) See the Northern Lights
3) See the centre of our galaxy without any visual aid from a dark enough spot on Earth.
4) Stand at the foot of a space shuttle launch pad and look up at the multi-ton structure before it jets into space. (and obviously walk away from it before it ignites and burn me alive)


PS - seeing the milky way is the easiest and most spectacular thing in the summer night sky. Unaided, you can see the whole haze of the galaxy's centre (but not the millions of stars as the Arm of Orion would block our view - Earth is located at the further edge of the arm and therefore the view is blocked)

It'll look like that -















Remember, this is UNAIDED!!

[TranceFusion]

I LOVE looking at the Milky Way! It's really fascinating to look at our galaxy and wonder what's going on there.