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Meteor streaks over Northern Russian skies

Video

Last February we saw a large meteor streak over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. Reports are now coming in that a similar, massive meteor was seen over the Murmansk region of Northern Russia late at night. The phenomenon is visible about 18 seconds into this video:

There haven’t been any indications of military tests planned for that area, which has borders with Finland and is home to the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet in Severomorsk. But there aren’t any astronomical details or news reports available either at this time on the nature of this celestial body. So we don’t know if it fully combusted in the atmosphere, landed in the sea or if any damage was done on the ground. Given Russia’s extremely large landmass, it would naturally see more than its share of meteors, meteorites and other similar natural phenomenon. Good thing so many Russians install dashcams and are able to provide these interesting videos.

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Pictures

Kuiper crater on planet Mercury

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Kuiper crater - NASA
NASA’s Messenger space probe photographed the Kuiper crater on planet Mercury

NASA in collaboration with CalTech, University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins University, manages the Messenger spacecraft whose mission was to be the first to orbit, explorer and study the innermost planet of our solar system, Mercury. This picture shows the 62 km wide crater Kuiper, photographed by Messenger’s wide angle camera. This is an important stratigraphic marker in Mercury’s geologic history as Kuiper and the surrounding area consists of rock that was melted by the impact with whatever it was, that created this crater.

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Pictures

Pulsar wind nebula called the “Hand of God”

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Pulsar wind nebula - NASA
X-ray image of a pulsar wind nebula called the “Hand of God”

This dramatic x-ray image is of a pulsar wind nebula, which is  powered by the leftover, dense core of a star that blew up in a supernova explosion. Electromagnetic radiation is being expelled and the interaction with magnetic fields creates a cloud that looks like an open hand. The actual pulsar is the smaller, highly magnetized white area in the picture  while the blueish portion is the structure of the high energy x-rays.  The red cloud at the end of the finger region is referred to as  RCW 89. NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, was used along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory to compile this image.

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What is the International Space Station (ISS)?

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The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit, whose first components were launched into space in 1998.

ISS Construction - NASA
Astronauts work on the ISS’ construction

The International Space Station is composed of 15 different modules – seven that are American, five Russian, two Japanese and one European. The ISS provides a unique 800+ cubic meter platform for experiments that cannot be performed anywhere else. With call-sign Alpha, the ISS orbits Earth every 92.85 minutes travelling at a speed of 27,600 km/h. The maximum crew capacity of the International Space Station is 6 with a typical astronaut load of 3. The ISS includes an amateur radio (Ham radio) on board and astronauts use it to communicate on 145.80 (downlink) and 144.49 / 145.20 Mhz (uplink) frequencies with other Hams.

ISS - NASA
International Space Station (ISS)
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Pictures

Jupiter’s North Pole

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Jupiter North Pole - NASA
Composite picture of Jupiter’s north pole, compiled by the Cassini-Huygens mission

Cassini Orbiter spacecraft, which is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and Italian Space agency’s Cassini-Huygens mission, was used to come up with this composite view of Jupiter’s North Pole – while on its way to explore the planet Saturn and its moons. The onboard narrow-angle camera took numerous pictures over a period of two days in December 2000 and 36 of them were used to create this view, with a grid overlayed to divide the planet. The smallest visible features on this map are about 120 kilometers across and show a variety of colorful cloud features. The Great Red spot, the multi-coloured (red, brown and white) bands, and some small vortices are visible in this unique picture “looking down” on Jupiter.

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