Red, purple and green streamers of the aurora borealis dazzled viewers in North America on Friday and were seen much farther south than normal, with people in California, Arizona and Texas reporting they could see it, according to AccuWeather, Inc. Typically, the spectacular display is only visible in northern locales like Alaska, North Dakota, Canada and Iceland.
Science
Watch Perseids meteor shower this weekend: Weather Network – CTV News
While the peak of the Perseids meteor shower — one of the brightest of the year — may be next week, now may be the best time to see the astronomical event, according to The Weather Network.
Considered one of the strongest and brightest meteor showers, the Perseids occur from mid-July to late August as the Earth passes through a trail of icy debris left behind by a comet, Weather Network meteorologist Scott Sutherland wrote on Friday.
While the meteor shower is expected to peak on the nights of Aug. 12 and 13, Sutherland says light from the nearly full moon on Aug. 11 “will still wash out all but the brightest meteors.”
“Instead, go out this weekend to see the meteor shower because the view will get worse and worse throughout next week due to the moon,” he said.
The meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Perseus that the meteors appear to be falling from.
The Canadian Space Agency says as many as 50 to 80 meteors can pass by the night sky per hour during the peak of the Perseids.
But right now, Sutherland says the meteor shower can produce between 20 and 30 meteors per hour.
He says, along with the full moon, artificial light from streetlights, signs and vehicles can also make it difficult to see the meteor shower.
The moon will set later each night, meaning viewers will have to stay up later and later to catch the moonless points of the evening as each day passes, Sutherland says.
He advises stargazers to get away from nearby cities to find the best viewing spots away from any light pollution.
How well you can see the meteor shower also will depend on whether the skies are clear, he says, adding viewers should give themselves at least 20 minutes for their eyes to adjust to the dark for the best meteor viewing. It also helps to avoid looking at your phone.
“Once you’ve verified you have clear skies and limited your exposure to light pollution, this is where being patient comes in,” Sutherland said.
“Note that this — more than anything else — is likely the one thing that causes the most disappointment when it comes to watching a meteor shower.”
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A coronal mass ejection, an explosion of magnetic fields and plasma from the sun’s atmosphere, hit Earth early Friday with more force than initially forecast. These events can disrupt Earth’s magnetic field causing auroral displays, as well as disrupting satellites, communication and electric grids.
Read more: A Swedish Resort Lets You See the Northern Lights From Your Room
The US Space Weather Prediction Center had originally expected a G2 level storm Friday on its five-step scale, the event measured in at G4, one of the strongest triggered on Earth since 2017.
The impacts from the coronal mass ejection have trailed off, but energy coming from what scientists call a “coronal hole” will continue at least through Saturday and that could mean the aurora could be seen by viewers across Europe, Asia and North America through Sunday, the UK Met Office said on its website.
There are currently eight sunspot clusters visible on the side of the sun facing Earth, however another coronal mass ejection blasting toward us isn’t forecast, the UK Met Office said.
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An asteroid dubbed “city killer” for its size will pass harmlessly between the moon and the Earth Saturday evening.
The asteroid 2023 DZ2 will pass at a distance of over 100,000 miles, less than half the distance between the Earth and the moon. It’s about 160 feet long — about the size of an airliner. An asteroid that size could cause significant damage if it hit a populated area, hence its nickname.
“While close approaches are a regular occurrence, one by an asteroid of this size (140-310 ft) happens only about once per decade, providing a unique opportunity for science,” NASA Asteroid Watch tweeted.
Astronomers from the International Asteroid Warning Network, established about 10 years ago to coordinate international responses to potential near-Earth object impact threats, will be monitoring and learning from this asteroid.
NASA Asteroid Watch called the opportunity “good practice” in case “a potential asteroid threat were ever discovered.”
Near-Earth objects are asteroids or comets that pass close to the Earth’s orbit, and they generally come from objects that are affected by other planets’ gravity, moving them into orbits that push them close to Earth, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
The European Space Agency maintains a risk list of 1,460 objects, which catalogs every object with a non-zero chance of hitting Earth over the next 100 years. Asteroid 2023 DZ2, which is in orbit around the sun, is not on the risk list.
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On Saturday, the 2023DZ2 will come within a third of the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
A large asteroid will safely zoom between Earth and the Moon on Saturday, a once-in-a-decade event that will be used as a training exercise for planetary defence efforts, according to the European Space Agency.
The asteroid, named 2023 DZ2, is estimated to be 40 to 70 metres (130 to 230 feet) wide, roughly the size of the Parthenon, and big enough to wipe out a large city if it hit our planet.
At 19:49 GMT on Saturday, it will come within a third of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, said Richard Moissl, the head of the ESA’s planetary defence office.
Though that is “very close”, there is nothing to worry about, he told AFP news agency.
Small asteroids fly past every day, but one of this size coming so close to Earth only happens about once every 10 years, he added.
The asteroid will pass 175,000km (109,000 miles) from Earth at a speed of 28,000 kilometres per hour (17,400 miles per hour). The Moon is roughly 385,000km (239,228 miles) away.
An observatory in La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, first spotted the asteroid on February 27.
Last week, the United Nations-endorsed International Asteroid Warning Network decided it would take advantage of the close look, carrying out a “rapid characterisation” of 2023 DZ2, Moissl said. That means astronomers around the world will analyse the asteroid with a range of instruments such as spectrometers and radars.
The goal is to find out just how much we can learn about such an asteroid in only a week, Moissl said. It will also serve as training for how the network “would react to a threat” possibly heading our way in the future, he added.
The asteroid will again swing past Earth in 2026, but poses no threat of impact for at least the next 100 years – which is how far out its trajectory has been calculated.
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