Free Republic

A photo of the suspected meteorite that hit a home in New Jersey on May 8, 2023. Photo courtesy Hopewell Township Police Department/Facebook The week started with a bang for a homeowner in New Jersey after a likely meteorite blasted a hole through a house early Monday afternoon. A metallic rock fell out of the sky and hit a house in Hopewell Township, N.J., located approximately 10 miles north of Trenton. The Hopewell Township Police Department responded to the incident and confirmed that the oblong-shaped rock damaged the building. "It penetrated the roof, the ceiling and then impacted the hardwood...

It’s almost time to look up, because the Orionids are coming to the Northern Hemisphere from October 16-24. You’ll be able to see the shooting stars without the need for a telescope or binoculars. But to see them at their very best, you’ll want to wake up early: from 4:00-5:00 A.M Daylight Savings Time, according to Farmer’s Almanac, you should be able to see anything from 10 to over 30 meteors each hour. What is it, precisely, that you’re watching in the night sky? That’d be trails of cosmic dust from Halley’s Comet sparking up against Earth’s atmosphere at speeds...

This year, the Eta Aquarids meteor shower runs April 19th to May 28th, peaking May 5th just before morning twilight. The Eta Aquarids are visible all across the globe but are more pronounced in the Southern Hemisphere sky. It is there that the Eta Aquarids can produce up to 20 to 40 meteors per hour. In the mid-northern latitudes, the count is closer to 10 meteors per hour. There is an opportunity to see a few meteors late evening (post-sunset on May 4th) as this is when “earthgrazers” are best seen. Earthgrazers tend to be fewer in quantity but are...

Eta Aquarids have a most interesting lineage. Unlike some of the other annual meteor displays whose history can be traced back for many centuries, the Eta Aquarids were not "officially" discovered until the late 19th century. In 1870, while sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, Lt. Col. G.L. Tupman sighted 15 meteors on the morning of April 30, and another 13 a few mornings later. All the meteors Tupman sighted appeared to emanate from the constellation of Aquarius. Then in 1876, professor Alexander Stewart Herschel pointed out that the orbit of Halley’s comet nearly coincided with Earth's orbit around May 4,...

What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower? The 2021 Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak on the evening of Tuesday, May 4, through the early morning of Wednesday, May 5, according to AccuWeather. The month of May starts off with the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Mercury will be visible in the middle of the month, and some parts of the U.S. will see a super total lunar eclipse on the 26th. What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower?...

A meteor lit up the night sky over Tennessee and neighboring states late Sunday (June 7), sparking 120 fireball sightings across 12 different states and Canada. The fireball occurred at 9:42 p.m. EDT (0142 GMT) and blazed a trail over southern Ohio, according to a ground track by the American Meteor Society. It was visible for up to 3.5 seconds from as far south as South Carolina and as far north as Ontario, Canada, AMS reported. One witness video shows the fireball from Knoxville, Tennessee, as the meteor flares up in a dazzling streak and disappear seconds later. The video,...