Meteoroid

Meteors, supermoons, a comet and more: your guide to the southern sky in 2024

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 2, 2024

What exciting events will we see in the southern sky in 2024? Meteor showers, Saturn covered by the Moon, close approaches of bright planets to each other, supermoons – and, if we’re lucky, a comet visible to the naked eye. Even if you live in a city surrounded by light pollution, these are all worth looking out for. Here are some of the highlights.May – the Eta Aquarid meteors The first of the two main Southern Hemisphere meteor showers during the year is the Eta Aquariid or Eta Aquarid shower.

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What exciting events will we see in the southern sky in 2024? Meteor showers, Saturn covered by the Moon, close approaches of bright planets to each other, supermoons – and, if we’re lucky, a comet visible to the naked eye. Even if you live in a city surrounded by light pollution, these are all worth looking out for. Here are some of the highlights.

May – the Eta Aquarid meteors

  • The first of the two main Southern Hemisphere meteor showers during the year is the Eta Aquariid or Eta Aquarid shower.
  • It’s named after a star in the constellation of Aquarius, the Water Carrier, as the meteors appear to originate from there.

December – the Geminid meteors


The second of the two main meteor showers is the Geminid shower. This originates in the direction of the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. Unusually, they are associated not with a comet but with a rocky asteroid named Phaeton. In 2024, they are likely to be best seen early on the morning of Saturday 14 December. The peak time to view is during the short interval between the setting of the Moon and the start of dawn.

March, June and August – the planets

  • On the evening of Friday 22 March, the brightest planet Venus is less than the width of the Moon away from the ringed planet Saturn.
  • For people in the eastern part of Australia, the Moon covers the planet Saturn low in the eastern sky on the night of Thursday 27 June.
  • From Sydney, Saturn disappears at the bright edge of the Moon at 10:55pm and reappears at its dark edge at 11:41pm.


Another close approach is in the early morning of Thursday 15 August, when the red planet Mars is less than a Moon-width from the giant planet Jupiter.

September and October – supermoons

  • It’s best to look at moonrise, as an illusion in our brains makes the Moon appear larger when it’s near the horizon.
  • The supermoons in 2024 are on Wednesday 18 September and Thursday 17 October.

October – Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

  • A comet with the impressive name of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), discovered in January 2023, is approaching the Sun and Earth, and may become bright enough to be easily seen.
  • Read more:
    Astronomers just discovered a comet that could be brighter than most stars when we see it next year.
  • At a distance of 71 million kilometres, the comet will be closest to Earth on Sunday 13 October.

January and May – constellations


Not only these highlighted events can be seen in the sky. There are star pictures or constellations that still stand out in the sky of bright cities. Orion, the Hunter, is a favourite Southern Hemisphere summer constellation, high in the northern sky on January evenings. It consists of four bright stars in a rectangle with a line of three stars, representing Orion’s belt, in the middle.
According to Greek legend, Orion was a great hunter who vowed to kill all animals. To stop him carrying out his threat, one of the gods sent a scorpion to kill him. This ancient story with Scorpius, the Scorpion chasing Orion takes place above our heads each night.

  • In January, people who are up at around 3 am can see Scorpius rising in the east, while its quarry Orion is sinking in the west.
  • Alternatively, if you don’t like early mornings you can see the same scene on May evenings after dusk.


Nick Lomb received author fees from Powerhouse Publishing for writing the 2024 Australasian Sky Guide.

Intel® Announces New Core Ultra™ Processors Designed to Deliver Enhanced Performance; YouTube First Look and Learn More Info at B&H Photo

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, December 14, 2023

NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- B&H is excited to announce a new family of Intel® Core Ultra™ processors, designed to enhance throughput and deliver enhanced performance suitable for work and play.

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  • NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- B&H is excited to announce a new family of Intel® Core Ultra™ processors, designed to enhance throughput and deliver enhanced performance suitable for work and play.
  • Leveraging a uniquely designed chiplet layout, the Meteor Lake™ family of Core Ultra™ processors utilize four segmented tiles that work in tandem to deliver greater power and efficiency across your system.
  • Watch and learn YouTube - Inside Intel's NEW Core Ultra Series Processors!
  • Intel® Core Ultra™ processors can be found in select laptops, which are now available listed here:

The Meteor Announces Meet the Moment Featuring Prominent Inspirational Voices, Nov. 11 at the Brooklyn Museum

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, November 2, 2023

NEW YORK, Nov. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Meteor—a media company focused on gender and racial justice— announced the second annual Meet the Moment, a powerful event of ideas and inspiration, on Saturday, November 11th at the Brooklyn Museum. Meet the Moment will feature talks, performances and interactive sessions on the biggest issues of the year for women and nonbinary people.

Key Points: 
  • Meet the Moment will feature talks, performances and interactive sessions on the biggest issues of the year for women and nonbinary people.
  • The format of this gathering is unique: Meet the Moment will pair voices across generations, featuring those who have been working on issues for decades alongside new leaders.
  • Topics will include reproductive freedom, sports & culture, LGBTQ+ rights, AI, labor, our democracy and more.
  • "The Meteor couldn't be prouder to bring Meet the Moment back to the Brooklyn Museum for a second year, " says Cindi Leive, The Meteor co-founder and CEO.

PhenomeX Unveils Meteor™ Chips For Quantitative Bulk Analysis On The IsoSpark™ Platform To Revolutionize High Throughput Multiplexed Hands-Free Proteomics

Retrieved on: 
Friday, September 15, 2023

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Sept. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- PhenomeX Inc. (Nasdaq: CELL), the functional cell biology company, today announced the launch of Meteor™ chips on the IsoSpark™ platform, providing a significant advancement in high throughput, quantitative, fully automated, multiplexed bulk proteomics. ™

Key Points: 

  • The Meteor chip solution enables researchers to conduct high throughput proteomic analysis with unmatched efficiency.
  • Quantitative analysis: Each run incorporates recombinant standards run in triplicate, enabling quantitative analysis per chip on-site.
  • PhenomeX representatives will be available to provide demonstrations and discuss how the Meteor solution can revolutionize proteomics research and accelerate scientific advancements.
  • For more information about the Meteor solution on the IsoSpark platform, please visit the PhenomeX website at https://phenomex.com/products/chips/meteor/ .

The Ford Foundation to Host Inaugural Free Future 2023 Forum on Preventing Gender-based Violence

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 13, 2023

NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, the Ford Foundation's International Program on Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice (GREJ-I) will host their inaugural forum, Free Future 2023: Preventing Gender Violence Around the World. The exciting event, presented in partnership with The Meteor and the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, will bring together prominent activists and leaders in the feminist movement to engage in disruptive conversations around combating gender-based violence on a global scale. The forum will be hosted at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York City.

Key Points: 
  • Tune into the first-ever Free Future forum here: https://www.ourfreefuture.org/livestream
    NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, the Ford Foundation's International Program on Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice (GREJ-I) will host their inaugural forum, Free Future 2023: Preventing Gender Violence Around the World.
  • The forum will be hosted at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York City.
  • Recent data has shown that gender-based violence remains a persistent and alarming issue, affecting countless women and girls worldwide.
  • The full list of confirmed speakers includes:
    Martín Abregu, Vice President of International Programs, Ford Foundation
    Hilary Pennington, Executive Vice President of Programs, Ford Foundation

Noodle Acquires Meteor Learning, Strengthening Noodle's Consulting Practice

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Noodle, also a Certified B corporation, welcomes Meteor Learning's higher education and employer partners into its network.

Key Points: 
  • Noodle, also a Certified B corporation, welcomes Meteor Learning's higher education and employer partners into its network.
  • William Rieders and Donna Ritchie, Meteor's founders, will join the Noodle leadership team and will head Noodle's consulting practice, driving strategic insights and operational effectiveness for Noodle partners.
  • With this acquisition, Noodle now supports more than 65 top US and UK universities through aligned learning design, marketing, recruiting, support, strategy and technology services.
  • Noodle provides these services, along with internal resources at its partner universities, to address challenges and opportunities that higher ed faces.

Meteor showers – it's worth looking out for 'shooting stars' all year round

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, July 26, 2023

If you have ever seen a shooting star on a clear night, surely someone has invited you to make a wish. Nevertheless, this is a natural phenomenon without any magical connotation – beyond its great beauty, of course. What is a shooting star, really? Where do these glowing, moving bodies come from?

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If you have ever seen a shooting star on a clear night, surely someone has invited you to make a wish. Nevertheless, this is a natural phenomenon without any magical connotation – beyond its great beauty, of course. What is a shooting star, really? Where do these glowing, moving bodies come from?
How and when can we observe this astronomical phenomenon?

Meteor shower or shooting stars?

    • Although we popularly call them shooting stars, they are not really stars but glowing dust particles.
    • To understand why, it is a good idea to first distinguish between a meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite.
    • The word meteor refers to the astronomical phenomenon that occurs when one or more particles of matter (meteoroids) enter the atmosphere at high speed.
    • Therefore, since they are not really stars, it would be more appropriate –although less romantic– to call them meteor showers instead of shooting stars.

What is the origin of meteor showers?

    • Some of these particles have existed since the formation of the solar system, but most are produced during the journey of certain comets around the Sun.
    • Thus, each comet forms a kind of ring with the fragments that it releases after each step as it moves.

When can we see meteor showers?

    • In fact, 14 meteor showers take place throughout the year every year, ten of which can be seen at night.
    • The maximum meteor shower rate usually occurs on August 13 (it can vary), with an average fall of about 100 meteors per hour.
    • This meteor shower rate is what would be observed with the naked eye in a place where the radiant is directly overhead (at the zenith) and visibility conditions are optimal.
    • So, if we go out to observe a meteor shower, we must be moderate with our expectations and not be disappointed if we see less than we thought.

Observation tips


    And remember, even if you do not manage to see a meteor, you will still enjoy the wonderful experience of observing the heavens.

Astro-tourism – chasing eclipses, meteor showers and elusive dark skies from Earth

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, July 5, 2023

For years, small groups of astronomy enthusiasts have traveled the globe chasing the rare solar eclipse.

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  • For years, small groups of astronomy enthusiasts have traveled the globe chasing the rare solar eclipse.
  • They have embarked on cruises to the middle of the ocean, taken flights into the eclipse’s path and even traveled to Antarctica.
  • But astro-tourism – traveling to national parks, observatories or other natural, dark-sky locations to view astronomical events – isn’t limited just to chasing eclipses.
  • As a consequence, most people have to travel to witness meteor showers and other common astronomical events.

Can’t miss astronomical events

    • During totality, those in the path of the eclipse will see the Sun’s corona, or its outer atmosphere, behind the Moon’s silhouette.
    • Finally, a partial eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks only a part of the Sun’s disk, as the name implies.
    • Meteor showers are a far more common astronomical event than eclipses, and they are visible from any dark-sky location on Earth.
    • Meteor showers occur when Earth’s orbit around the Sun takes it through the dust left behind by a comet.

Tips for aspiring astro-tourists

    • The full moon rises at about 6 p.m. and sets at 6 a.m., making stargazing all but impossible because of its brightness.
    • For ideal stargazing conditions, the Moon should be below the horizon, and the best viewing conditions are during new moon.
    • You can use a moonrise/moonset calculator to determine the phase of the Moon and its rise and set times for any location on Earth.
    • Amateur astronomers always joke that the sky is cloudy during the most interesting astronomical events.
    • Though you may still see the brightest meteors from city suburbs, the darker your sky, the more meteors you’ll see.

Cuprum Coin and Meteor Minerals Group, owner of copper mines and producer of nano copper powder, joined forces through a strategic partnership.

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, May 23, 2023

DUBROVNIK, Croatia, May 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuprum Coin sllc and Meteor Minerals Group signed a strategic partnership agreemeent with a goal to offer together an excpetional commodity crypto asset – Cuprum Coin (ticker: CUC). Each issued Cuprum Coin will be backed with the all-time secured extremely rare high purity nano copper powder, and in addition purchased Cuprum coins are used as the medium of exchange for Meteor`s nano copper powder. According to the agreement a significant portion of the funds obtained from coin sales will be re-invested into the new Meteor Minerals mines, nano copper powder production, and R&D capabilities.

Key Points: 
  • DUBROVNIK, Croatia, May 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuprum Coin sllc and Meteor Minerals Group signed a strategic partnership agreemeent with a goal to offer together an excpetional commodity crypto asset – Cuprum Coin (ticker: CUC ).
  • Each issued Cuprum Coin will be backed with the all-time secured extremely rare high purity nano copper powder, and in addition purchased Cuprum coins are used as the medium of exchange for Meteor`s nano copper powder.
  • According to the agreement a significant portion of the funds obtained from coin sales will be re-invested into the new Meteor Minerals mines, nano copper powder production, and R&D capabilities.
  • In April this year company decided to change its underlying asset in favor of more prominent nano copper powder.

Cuprum Coin and Meteor Minerals Group, owner of copper mines and producer of nano copper powder, joined forces through a strategic partnership.

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, May 23, 2023

DUBROVNIK, Croatia, May 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuprum Coin sllc and Meteor Minerals Group signed a strategic partnership agreemeent with a goal to offer together an excpetional commodity crypto asset – Cuprum Coin (ticker: CUC). Each issued Cuprum Coin will be backed with the all-time secured extremely rare high purity nano copper powder, and in addition purchased Cuprum coins are used as the medium of exchange for Meteor`s nano copper powder. According to the agreement a significant portion of the funds obtained from coin sales will be re-invested into the new Meteor Minerals mines, nano copper powder production, and R&D capabilities.

Key Points: 
  • DUBROVNIK, Croatia, May 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuprum Coin sllc and Meteor Minerals Group signed a strategic partnership agreemeent with a goal to offer together an excpetional commodity crypto asset – Cuprum Coin (ticker: CUC ).
  • Each issued Cuprum Coin will be backed with the all-time secured extremely rare high purity nano copper powder, and in addition purchased Cuprum coins are used as the medium of exchange for Meteor`s nano copper powder.
  • According to the agreement a significant portion of the funds obtained from coin sales will be re-invested into the new Meteor Minerals mines, nano copper powder production, and R&D capabilities.
  • In April this year company decided to change its underlying asset in favor of more prominent nano copper powder.