Travelers In The Night

A huge Earth approaching asteroid is discovered right before the 2018 monsoon rains settled into the American Southwest. This weather imposed break from observing provides the opportunity for asteroid hunters to make major equipment upgrades and perform routine maintenance.

Most Astronomers find it hard to believe that given perhaps a trillion planets in the Milky Way alone that our Earth is the only one which hosts living organisms. It is both exciting and terrifying to realize we have no concept of what living forms may exist outside Earth in the Milky Way.

Asteroid hunters have discovered a strange asteroid pair. How they came to be together and what humans would do if such a large double trouble object is heading for us remains a mystery.

An object is tracked in outer space, seen to explode in our atmosphere, and had a fragment of it discovered on the ground. Its analysis will help humans to prepare for and defend against a much larger object with our number on it.

On July 8, 2018 a beautiful fireball Meteor was seen streaking across the sky in evening twilight. So far the American Meteor Society has received more than 700 reports of this event , from observers in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Statistically, asteroid hunters are thought to have discovered 90% of our potentially dangerous celestial neighbors greater than 1 KM in diameter. Thus my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was surprised to discover an unknown very large asteroid moving through the constellation of Persus.

Comet C/2018 M1 (Catalina) is eternal in the sense that it will likely wander the vast space between the stars in our Milky Way Galaxy until the end of time.

My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard knew he had bagged his third comet when he spotted an unknown fuzzy object with a broad tail moving through the constellation of Pieces. Eventually when it looses it's volatile materials Comet Leonard will become one of the countless millions of main belt asteroids circling our Sun.

Recently, my newest Catalina Sky Survey Teammate, Hannes Groeller, had an excellent training night, working with Greg Leonard, on our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona posting 14 new objects on the Near Earth Object Confirmation Page. One of his discoveries could be worth 26 billion dollars on the iron scrap metal market in China.

On July 1, 1770 Comet Lexell passed about 6 times the moon's distance from planet Earth, the closest a comet has ever come to humanity. After that it completely disappeared . After more than 200 years of searching, researchers have identified what may be a piece of long lost Comet Lexell.

A 2000 foot diameter space rock has stories to tell about violent events long ago. Asteroid hunters are eager to track this huge collision fragment and look for members of it's family as it passes near Earth in 2026.

A 100 foot diameter asteroid is spotted on one of it's regular trips between the orbits of Venus and Earth. It's ultimate fate is to collide with one of these planets producing a spectacular light show.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is conducting a six year flight from Earth to a potentially hazardous asteroid, Ryugu, and return a sample of it to Earth for study. Ryugu is likely to have under gone little change since the formation of the solar system and samples of it will provide unique clues about the composition of the small bodies which brought water and the chemicals needed for life to the young Earth.

Two exciting new scientific discoveries have ignited our curiosity and are guiding our search for evidence of past and/or present life on Mars.

A small space rock with a diameter less than the height of an NBA basketball player had just crossed the orbit of our Moon on a collision course with Earth when it was spotted streaking through the constellation of Scorpius by my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Richard Kowalski. 8 hours and 37 minutes after Richard's discovery observations, the space rock now known as 2018 LA was seen by security cameras to explode over Botswana in southern Africa just as NASA's scout system predicted.

The life of an asteroid hunter on Mars will be interesting and exciting. The double planet, our Earth and Moon, in the Martian night sky will be an unforgettable sight and well worth the trip.

My birthday present from outer space was the opportunity to use the Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Az to discover a tiny sofa couch sized asteroid as it was flying through the constellation of Bootes. Once every 6 months or so, lucky observers will witness a sofa sized space rock similar to 2018 KW1 entering the Earth's atmosphere creating a spectacular light show, and raining pieces to Earth for meteorite hunters to discover.

A strange asteroid plays hide and seek with frustrated astronomers.

Looking out into space takes you back in time. To experience time travel go to a natural night sky location like the Cosmic Campground International Dark Sky Sanctuary or another location on the darksky.org website.

Asteroid hunters have discovered more than 90% of the Earth approaching asteroids whose impact could cause global climate change. It was thus unusual when the Catalina Sky Survey found two, new, such giant space rocks in less than a week.