The Kamil Impact Crater in Egypt

An Italian-Egyptian team reported in July 22nd's edition of Sciencexpress, their detection in southern Egypt of an impact crater 45 meters in diameter and 16-meter-deep with a pristine rayed structure. Italian researcher V. De Michele, first found the crater in February 2009 during a Google Earth images survey. After that, an expedition was arranged to the area where this surprisingly "fresh" crater is located. In the area surrounding the crater the researchers found many tons of meteorites confirming the impact nature of this crater.

Newly discovered Kamil crater in Egypt

Largest recovered mass (ca. 80 kg!) at Kamil Crater

Including Kamil Crater, to date we know of only 176 impact craters on Earth's surface of which only 15 are less than 300 meters wide. This is due to erosion. The small craters lost their features and become unrecognizable. The Kamil crater is an exception because this is an extremely "fresh" impact crater and it escaped severe weathering (Italian-Egyptian researcher estimates the age at less than 5000 years). It is so well preserved that the radial streaks of ejecta thrown out during impact are still visible (usually these streaks are visible only on impact crater formed on body without an atmosphere and so with no weathering).

Due to its peculiarities this discovery is particularly important to better understand the impact science and to better assess the frequency of asteroid impacts on our Planet.

This is the official website of the Kamir Crater with more info and photos:

by Ernesto Guido

Remanzacco Observatory - Blog of Note

On July 20, 2010 our blog has been chosen by Blogger team as Blog of Note!!

We are happy for this award that arrive after 2 years and half (with 140 posts present at the moment, most with original material of our observations) from the creation of this blog devoted to Astronomy and in particular to Comets and Asteroids.

Thanks to Blogger and to everyone expressing their congratulations!!

Ernesto Guido

Rosetta flyby of asteroid (21) Lutetia

On July 10, 2010 ESA's Rosetta spacecraft imaged asteroid Lutetia within an estimated distance of 3170 kilometers. Lutetia (the largest asteroid yet visited by a spacecraft) was discovered in 1852 from the Paris balcony of French painter turned astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt. To honour his home city, he called it 'Lutetia', after the Roman name for Paris.

In 2008 Rosetta encountered the asteroid (2867) Steins at a distance of 802.6 km.

All images: CREDIT: (C) ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Pre-flyby image! View of Lutetia at a distance of 80,000 km.

Lutetia imaged just before its closest approach with Rosetta

At a distance of 36 000 km, Rosetta took this image of Lutetia with the planet Saturn in the background.

Lutetia close approach by Rosetta - Animation (click for a bigger version)

Next Rosetta rendezvous, scheduled for 2014, is with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This comet rendezvous is the ultimate goal of Rosetta in the attempt to try to solve some of the enigmas of our Solar System.

by Ernesto Guido

Impact Flash on Jupiter

Amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley (Australia) and Christopher Go (Philippines) have independently observed an impact flash on Jupiter. According to their images and videos, the impact flash happened at 20:31 UTC of June 3, 2010 and lasted only few seconds in Jupiter's faded south equatorial belt. The alert was first launched by Wesley and soon after confirmed by Go who happened to imaging the planet at the same time.

Credit: A. Wesley

Credit: Christopher Go

Wesley suggests that the impact "doesn't seem to have left any mark, so it probably burned up in the upper atmosphere before it reached the cloud deck. There were no visible remains at the impact point for the next half hour or so, until sunrise put an end to the imaging."

According to S&T website: "The flare occurred at longitude 248.8° in Jupiter's System I, 342.7° in System II, and 159.4° in System III. The latitude is 16° south. This region should be visible from about 4:00 to 6:30 June 4th UT, favoring observers in Europe and Africa when Jupiter is up before dawn. The impact site will return to good view about every 9 hours 56 minutes thereafter."

Major telescopes will be pointed on the area as soon as possible. So it's likely that we'll have more info available in the next few hours.

Link to Wesley webpage about this event (where you can download his 45MB video):

Link to download the video of this event by C. Go

Anthony Wesley was also the discoverer of the impact scar on Jupiter on July 2009.

For more info about the 2009 impact:

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2009/07/nasa-images-confirm-jupiter-impact.html

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-impact-on-jupiter.html

http://bit.ly/d6KuEM (Hubble Images of the scar)

http://bit.ly/cGOI1P (Published results on the Jupiter impact appeared in ApJ Letters)

UPDATE JUNE 16, 2010

Unlike previous impacts, Hubble imaging of the June 3rd impact site revealed no debris scar. The impact flash came from a giant meteor burning up high above Jupiter's cloud tops. The space visitor did not plunge deep enough into the atmosphere to explode and leave behind any telltale cloud of debris, as seen in previous Jupiter collisions.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), H.B. Hammel (Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.), A.A. Simon-Miller (Goddard Space Flight Center), and the Jupiter Impact Science Team.

"We suspected for this 2010 impact there might be no big explosion driving a giant plume, and hence no resulting debris field to be imaged. There was just the meteor, and Hubble confirmed this," adds Hammel, a veteran Jupiter observer of the 1994 string of impacts.

by E. Guido & G. Sostero

Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) - Animation & Images

Comet C/2009 R1 has been discovered in September 2009 by Robert H. McNaught in the course of Australia’s Siding Spring Survey.

For more information about the discovery of this comet, please see our previous post:
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-comet-discovery-c2009-r1-mcnaught.html

The comet is now around magnitude 7.5 and it will be a nice binocular object. Throughout this apparition it will be low in the east or northeast when dawn begins to brighten.

In our images, taken on May 26, is clearly visible a nice disconnection event (DE) in the plasma tail of the comet C/2009 R1. Occasionally due to comet-solar wind interaction, the entire plasma tail or part of it separates from the comet and drift away (antisunward), followed by simultaneous renewal of the plasma tail. This phenomena is called a disconnection event.




Here & here you can see bigger versions of this image:


Wide-field animation of comet C/2009 R1 (May 26, 2010), showing the DE event:

Wide-Field Image (May 26, 2010):

by Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero

Photos of MACE 2010

Photos from the MACE 2010 (Meeting on Asteroids and Comets in Europe) held in and around Višnjan/Tićan, Croatia, on the long weekend of May 21-23, 2010:

http://bit.ly/9hZyoH

New Comet: C/2010 J3 (MCMILLAN)

IAU circular No. 9146, issued on 2010, May 13, announces the discovery by R. S. McMillan of a new comet on May 12, 2010, with the Spacewatch 0.9-m f/3 reflector at Kitt Peak. After posting on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage, many observers have commented on the cometary appearance of this 17.5 magnitude object, designated C/2010 J3 (MCMILLAN).

We have been able to confirm this object remotely, through a 0.18-m refractor, f/7.3 + CCD at Tzec Maun Observatory near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A.: on 2010, May 12.4, co-adding of 10 unfiltered exposures, 180-seconds each, show a compact coma about 12" in diameter, with a sharp central condensation; broad tail nearly 20" long toward PA 265 deg.

Our confirming image:

The first and preliminary parabolic orbit for comet C/2010 J3 (MCMILLAN) indicates perihelion Sept. 28, 2010, at about 2.2 AU.

by G. Sostero, E. Guido, L. Donato