Archive
09/09/2019 – Ephemeris – Looking for interstellar meteoroids hitting the Moon
Ephemeris for Monday, September 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 8:05, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:15. The Moon, 4 days past first quarter, will set at 3:29 tomorrow morning.
Two Harvard University astronomers who have studied the interstellar asteroid or comet that was discovered last year ‘Oumuamua are proposing to observe small interstellar meteoroids with a lunar orbiting satellite when they hit the Moon. A spectrum of the flash they make when they hit the Moon will allow the constituent elements and isotopes to be discovered. These values have been studied for a long time from meteorites in our solar system. So a body from another solar system born of material from a different supernova and hypernova than our solar system may show different isotope ratios of its elements. A hypernova is a newly discovered event, when two neutron stars collide, and are the main source of heavy elements like gold.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Artist visualization of ‘Oumuamua. Credit Credit: European Southern Observatory / M. Kornmesser.
There’s the article about it on Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/143234/by-continuously-watching-the-moon-we-could-detect-interstellar-meteorites/
11/15/2018 – Ephemeris – Last year’s interstellar visitor was acting funny
Ephemeris for Thursday, November 15th. The Sun will rise at 7:39. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 5:14. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 12:18 tomorrow morning.
Last year about this time a fast moving asteroid with an odd cigar shape passed through the inner solar system. It’s velocity was such that it didn’t come from around here, meaning our solar system. It was named ‘Oumuamua by its discoverers in Hawai’i. It was spotted as it was heading out, away from the Sun. As it does so, it decelerates as the Sun’s gravitational pull tries to pull it back in. After studying its motion, astronomers noticed that it wasn’t decelerating as fast as it should if it was on a simple ballistic trajectory. Something about it was accelerating it, or causing it to not decelerate as fast as it should. Despite rampant speculation that it’s an interstellar craft on social media ‘Omuamua’s acceleration is well within that possible for comets.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
11/02/2017 – Ephemeris – Interstellar asteroid discovered passing through the solar system
Ephemeris for Thursday, November 2nd. The Sun will rise at 8:21. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 6:29. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 7:21 tomorrow morning.
Apparently an interloper has entered the solar system. No, it’s not Nibiru, unless Nibiru is only 525 feet (160 meters) across. It’s name, for now, is A/2017 U1. It’s official name, when it gets one, will be given to this new class of asteroids.. It’s on a hyperbolic trajectory, meaning it won’t be back. We know there are rogue planets, kicked out of their star systems, so why not asteroids and comets? It had an interstellar space velocity relative to the Sun of 15.8 miles per second (25.5 km/s) coming from the direction of the constellation of Lyra. Interestingly that’s the direction the Sun is traveling toward relative to our neighboring stars at nearly the same speed. Maybe it didn’t so much as to run into us, but the Sun and our solar system ran into it!
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Asteroid A/2017 U1 orbit animation. Click to enlarge. Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech.
This body was discovered because it came close to the Earth. There are probably many of them passing through the solar system that never come close enough to be found.
Here’s a link: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/small-asteroid-or-comet-visits-from-beyond-the-solar-system
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 