Source: APOD: 2021 August 29 – Orbits of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (nasa.gov)

Bandar Seri Begawan – The Astronomical Society of Brunei Darussalam (PABD) is still investigating after sightings of a mysterious fireball accompanied with a loud bang was reported falling to earth in broad daylight last week, January 31, 2021.

On Sunday (February 7, 2021), a team of members of the PABD conducted further examination at the locations based on firsthand sighting video and photograph of the meteor event.

PABD is also working closely with the Sabah Stargazers with the support by a group of 4×4 off-road enthusiasts known as Jimmy Sierra Brunei Community by exchanging information on the coordinates in the sky of the reported meteor.

Currently, there are two key sources of evidence based on two dashcam-footage that accidentally caught the meteor at the same time – from Kampong Kulapis, Brunei Darussalam and Penampang, Sabah. These useful information were solid proof to determine the approximate physical characteristics of the meteor and its location, which were later triangulated by statistics from another eyewitness.

The fireball brightness is difficult to estimate due to bright sunlight, but usually ranges from magnitude -5 (equivalent to the planet Venus) to magnitude -10 (light produced by a half-illuminated moon). Based on the video recording by Abd Wafiy bin Hj Rudzi, the light from a fireball was estimated to be at magnitude -13 which is equivalent to the light produced by a full moon. This makes the event exceedingly rare and special.

Most ordinary meteors with diameter 1 millimeter or about the size of a grain of sand have the capability to produce a rapid flash as they streak the sky. But bright fireball that was seen easily in the daytime last week are many times that size – anywhere from a baseball-sized object to something as big as a small car.

Preliminary analysis by PABD has pinpointed the estimated location of the meteor explosion which occurred in the airspace of South China Sea, about 30 kilometers away from Bandar Seri Begawan, near the Brunei Bay and Southwest of Labuan Island.

Based on the elevation angles, the position of the fireball when the intense explosion occurred was computed about 35 km high above the ground.

When a meteor traveling at tremendous velocities penetrates to the Earth’s stratosphere, at an altitude of below 60 kilometers and explodes as a bolide, there is a high chance that the meteor triggers sonic boom which can be heard on the ground below.

NASA’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments on GOES weather satellites has detected the fireball travelling at velocity of 14 km/s, about 40 times the speed of sound with radiated energy impact in the atmosphere of equivalent to 720 tons of TNT above Brunei Darussalam. This information was reported by the Centre of Near-Earth Object Studies, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.

The International Meteor Organization (IMO) has also verified and catalogued last week’s incident as Event 632-2021 on their website. In addition to the sonic boom heard by hundreds of netizens over social media, there were 11 confirmed reports about a fireball was seen over Belait District, Brunei-Muara District and Sabah on Sunday, January 31, 2021 around 03:02 UT or 11:02 am local time. However, the meteor trajectory and impact status has not yet been established due to missing reliable and accurate data.

The IMO’s International Fireball Program analyses meteor information provided by public eyewitness online which can be combined with other eye-witnesses to give a good estimate of the trajectory of the fireball, to help determine if a ground fall occurred and perhaps if the meteorite can be recovered.

Since 2005, the IMO had received about 224,000 fireballs reports from around the world, or an average of 15,000 reports every year.  Only a very few fireballs relate to meteorite falls.

PABD is keen to share the data and findings to the international and regional scientific community to further conduct a research on the meteor.

The Astronomical Society of Brunei (PABD) on Saturday night gathered night sky enthusiasts at Warisan Puk Belalan in Kampong Bukit Udal, Tutong District to catch a glimpse of our nearest neighbour in space – the moon.

The gathering was the society’s first participation in the International Observe the Moon Night celebration that has been held annually around the world since 2010 as a global community outreach initiative to encourage the observation, appreciation and understanding of the moon.

The yearly event, officially registered with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), brings together amateur astronomers, educators and lunar enthusiasts to either gaze at the moon with the naked eye or observe the night wonder through powerful telescopes.

The Saturday’s event in Brunei, organised by the PABD and the management of Warisan Puk Balaban, was attended by PABD Vice President Haji Abdul Aziz bin Haji Akop as the guest of honour.

Following the officially opening of the event, a recitation of Surah Al-Fatihah and Doa Selamat was carried out, led by PABD Treasurer Ustaz Shaifulbahri bin Haji Ahmad.

Telescopes and binoculars were set up at the premises to provide all-night stargazing and guided tours of the moon, planets and other celestial objects.

The event also offered members and other participants an opportunity to view the landscape of lunar mountains and craters along the line between light and dark.

There were also exciting hands-on activities, such as a mini craters experiment, a touch-the-lunar topography, a make-and-admire moon art competition for children and an astronomy quiz.

Participants were briefed on the exploration of the moon as well as cultural experiences influenced by the moon.

Meanwhile, there are more than 1,800 virtual and in-person events around the world this year in honour of the International Observe the Moon Night. The celebration falls in September and October when the moon is in the first quarter, providing a great phase for evening examination of the lunar terrain.

Brunei Darussalam joined it’s first global InOMN moon observation which was organised by the Astronomical Society of Brunei Darussalam and Warisan Puk Balaban management on September 26, 2020. More than 100 lunar observers participated in the public outreach event at Warisan Puk Balaban in Tutong. Here are some of the scenes in action at InOMN.

International Observe the Moon Night (IoMN) is a time to come together with fellow Moon enthusiasts and curious people worldwide on Saturday, September 26, 2020. Everyone on Earth is invited to learn about lunar science and exploration, take part in celestial observations, and honor cultural and personal connections to the Moon.

More info: https://bruneiastronomy.org/web/iomn/

The rover, a robotic scientist weighing more than 2,300 pounds (1,000 kilograms), will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

“As we get ready to launch this historic Mars mission, we want everyone to share in this journey of exploration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in Washington. “It’s an exciting time for NASA, as we embark on this voyage to answer profound questions about our neighboring planet, and even the origins of life itself.”

The opportunity to send your name to Mars comes with a souvenir boarding pass and “frequent flyer” points. This is part of a public engagement campaign to highlight missions involved with NASA’s journey from the Moon to Mars. Miles (or kilometers) are awarded for each “flight,” with corresponding digital mission patches available for download. More than 2 million names flew on NASA’s InSight mission to Mars, giving each “flyer” about 300 million frequent flyer miles (nearly 500 million frequent flier kilometers).

From now until Sept. 30, 2019, you can add your name to the list and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to Mars here:
https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass

The Microdevices Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, will use an electron beam to stencil the submitted names onto a silicon chip with lines of text smaller than one-thousandth the width of a human hair (75 nanometers). At that size, more than a million names can be written on a single dime-sized microchip. The chip (or chips) will ride on the rover under a glass cover.

NASA will use Mars 2020 and other missions to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. As another step toward that goal, NASA is returning American astronauts to the Moon in 2024. Government, industry and international partners will join NASA in a global effort to build and test the systems needed for human missions to Mars and beyond.

The Mars 2020 Project at JPL manages rover development for SMD. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management. Mars 2020 will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

For more information on Mars 2020, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mars2020 and https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020

For more about NASA’s Moon to Mars plans, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars

News Media Contacts

Dwayne Brown / Alana Johnson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1501
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

Jia-Rui Cook / DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0724 / 818-393-9011
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Skyandtelescope.com –  April 22, 2015. Walk in the astronauts’ footsteps as you explore the places they visited in the heyday of Apollo program. Use these helpful maps to start you on your way.

We all love dark moonless skies, but let’s face it, the Moon’s out two weeks a month. How can you ignore it? You’ve doubtless observed craters and mountain ranges and probed for volcanic features like rills and domes. But here and there among the nooks and crannies, you’ll find six of the most remarkable locales on the Moon — the Apollo landing sites. They’re the only places where humanity has achieved one of its oldest dreams and “touched the stars”.

As you’re well aware, no telescope on Earth can see the leftover descent stages of the Apollo Lunar Modules or anything else Apollo-related. Not even the Hubble Space Telescope can discern evidence of the Apollo landings. The laws of optics define its limits.

Following are maps for pinpointing each Apollo location. South is up, and clicking on the images will link you to higher resolution versions. Time to strap on your boots and follow in the footsteps of the first people to walk on the Moon.

Hubble’s 94.5-inch mirror has a resolution of 0.024″ in ultraviolet light, which translates to 141 feet (43 meters) at the Moon’s distance. In visible light, it’s 0.05″, or closer to 300 feet. Given that the largest piece of equipment left on the Moon after each mission was the 17.9-foot-high by 14-foot-wide Lunar Module, you can see the problem.

Did I say problem? No problem for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which can dip as low as 31 miles (50 km) from the lunar surface, close enough to image each landing site in remarkable detail.

LRO’s orbital imagery and photos taken in situ by the Apollo astronauts will serve to illuminate our ramblings from one Apollo site to the next. All the landing sites lie on the near side of the Moon and were chosen to explore different geologic terrains. Astronauts bagged 842 pounds (382 kg) of Moon rocks, which represented everything from mare basalts to ancient highland rocks to impact-shattered rocks called breccias. Apollo 12 astronauts even found the first meteorite ever discovered on another world, the Bench Crater carbonaceous chondrite. – See more at:

With the Moon waxing this week and next, the advancing line of lunar sunrise will expose one site after another beginning with Apollo 17 in the Moon’s eastern hemisphere and finishing with Apollos 12 and 14 in the western. To see each locale, a 4-inch or larger telescope magnifying 75× or higher will get the job done. But the larger the scope and higher the power, the closer you’ll be able to pinpoint each landing site and better able to visualize the scene.

The base images for all the sites are photographs taken by the LRO. I encourage you to drop by the ACT-REACT QuickMap site, which features a zoomable lunar map of LRO photos that will practically take you down to the lunar surface. Click the “paper stack” icon and uncheck Sunlit Region to see a fully-illuminated Moon, no matter the current phase. Checking the Nomenclature box will bring up the names of craters, rills and many other features. More details about each of the LRO Apollo photos can be found here.

Source: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/how-to-see-all-six-apollo-moon-landing-sites/

NASA Science – April 21, 2015:  When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flies by Pluto this July, the spacecraft’s high-resolution cameras will spot many new landforms on the dwarf planet’s unexplored surface.  There could be mountains, craters, rilles, valleys and, of course, the unknown.

They are all going to need names—and NASA wants you to help.

The public has until Friday, April 24 to help name new features on Pluto and its moons.  The naming campaign was announced in March, and now it is being extended because of widespread interest.

CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE AND VOTE A NAME! (http://www.ourpluto.org/)

The campaign not only expresses public interest in Pluto but also helps the busy New Horizons science team.

“[The team] will not have time to come up with names during the flyby,” explains Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “So it helps to have a ready-made library of names in advance to officially submit to the IAU.”

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Paris is the formal authority for naming celestial bodies. Submissions must follow a set of accepted themes and guidelines set out by the IAU’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.

Auroras Underfoot (signup)According to the IAU, Pluto is a “dwarf planet”—that is, a planetary-mass object orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity but is not a planet or satellite. Unlike planets, these bodies have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbits, and their paths sometimes cross with other, often similar, objects. There are currently five identified dwarf planets in our Solar System, each named after a God from Greek, Polynesian, or Roman mythologies. These five bodies are Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.

The names of features on the bodies in the Pluto system are related to mythology and the literature and history of exploration. Listed below are IAU-approved naming themes for Pluto and its largest moon Charon:

Pluto: Names for the Underworld from the world’s mythologies; gods, goddesses, and dwarfs associated with the Underworld; Heroes and other explorers of the Underworld; writers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt; and scientists and engineers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Charon: Destinations and milestones of fictional space and other exploration; fictional and mythological vessels of space and other exploration; fictional and mythological voyagers, travelers and explorers.
A complete explanation of naming conventions may be found on the IAU website.

After the naming campaign concludes, NASA’s New Horizons team will sort through the names and submit its recommendations to the IAU. The IAU will decide whether and how the names will be used.

Ready to pick names? Members of the public from around the world, of all ages and walks of life, are allowed to participate. Learn more at http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons.

Credits:
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Source: http://science.nasa.gov/