Meteor Scientist; Planetary Astronomer, #westernu, @westernuscience
London, Ontario
Joined January 2009
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Peter Brown retweeted
ISED as of about an hour ago released its decision about space debris mitigation. This is a disaster for the Canadian space industry.
Propulsion mandatory for satellites >600 km and collision avoidance maneuvers are mandatory for all satellites above crewed missions, which considering Tiangong flies as low as 340 km, is every satellite.
ised-isde.canada.ca/site/spe…
Peter Brown retweeted
The crew of Artemis 2 reported six flashes of light while passing behind the Moon. We've seen those kinds of flashes before.
Read more: buff.ly/r0WEd6K
Peter Brown retweeted
#MeteorSighting: A fireball was observed by witnesses in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the Canadian province of Ontario on the night of March 23. The meteor was first detected over the Michigan town of Hope. It traveled northeast and disintegrated above Saginaw Bay. At its peak, the fireball was 40 times brighter than the planet Venus.
🔗 go.nasa.gov/4bGgIhF
Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
Peter Brown retweeted
☄️ CONFIRMED BY NASA: Eyewitnesses in Texas observed a bright fireball Saturday, March 21, at 4:40 p.m. CDT.
Current data indicates that the meteor became visible at 49 miles above Stagecoach, TX northwest of Houston.
It moved southeast at 35,000 mph, breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel, just west of Cypress Station.
The fragmentation of the meteor - which weighed about a ton with a diameter of 3 feet - created a pressure wave that caused booms heard by some in the area. Doppler weather radar also showed meteorites produced between Willowbrook and Northgate Crossing.
Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
Peter Brown retweeted
A meteor - nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighing about 7 tons - entered Earth’s atmosphere near Cleveland, Ohio, on March 17, 2026, creating a light show in the sky and the opportunity to find pieces of the space rock on Earth.
The meteorites are suspected to be Eucrites, many of which come from the asteroid 4 Vesta. Watch to learn more about this fireball and how to find and care for meteorites!
Learn more at ares.jsc.nasa.gov/meteorite-…
Peter Brown retweeted
Here it is! FIRST CONFIRMED METEORITE. Roberto Vargas, a Meteorite Hunter from Connecticut was the first to find an official fragment from the St. Patrick's Day Asteroid Explosion in Medina County Ohio. It weighs 10 grams. Officials from the American Meteor Society also confirmed 2 other 5 gram fragments were found nearby today. All are rare fragments known as "achondrites," formed by the melting and re-crystallization on larger asteroids. No meteorite of any kind has been found in Ohio since the 1990s...until today. Truly historic! Show this to you friends and family.
Peter Brown retweeted
THE SEARCH IS ON! Today's asteroid explosion was captured on local doppler radar just before 9am. Scientists have already narrowed down WHERE fragments from today's event likely landed! The debris area where a search for meteorites will likely commence is between Medina, OH and Wadsworth, Ohio along Wadsworth Rd. Also could be some fragments between Chippewa Lake and Ganger... all in Medina County, Ohio. Are you ready to search?
Peter Brown retweeted
#MeteorSighting: A very bright daylight fireball was observed by witnesses from the northeast U.S. and Canada this morning, March 17. An analysis of currently available data places first visibility of the meteor above Lake Erie. The fireball - caused by a small asteroid nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighing about 7 tons - moved southeast at 45,000 mph before fragmenting over Valley City. The fragments continued on to the south, producing meteorites in the vicinity of Medina County, Ohio.
🔗 go.nasa.gov/4bcMwMg
Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
ALT This graphic reads, Meteor Sighting Ohio, at the bottom. It features an outline of the state with an illustrated meteor traveling southeast in the top righthand side of the state from Lake Erie to Valley City. Credit: NASA/Alyssa Lee
Peter Brown retweeted
#MeteorSighting: A fireball was observed by witnesses early this morning, March 11. The meteor became visible over Rathbone, New York, moving northwest at 46,000 mph before disintegrating above the town of West Almond on Interstate 86.
🔗 go.nasa.gov/47qniYk
Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
ALT This graphic reads, Meteor Sighting New York, at the bottom. It features an outline of the state with an illustrated meteor traveling northwest in the bottom lefthand side of the state from Rathbone to West Almond. Credit: NASA/Alyssa Lee
Peter Brown retweeted
The 8 March 2026 #fireball was seen across a wide area and produced sound waves detected by seismic and #infrasound stations, including those from @KNMI and @CTBTO. Two arrivals at De Bilt are due to direct and indirect paths (reflecting from ~110 km) through the atmosphere
Peter Brown retweeted
#MeteorSighting: A fireball was observed by witnesses in several northeastern states and Canada on the night of March 8. It was also confirmed by numerous meteor cameras in our NASA Fireball Network. The meteor became visible over Paw Paw, Maryland, moving northwest at 62,000 mph before disintegrating above Point Marion, Pennsylvania.
🔗go.nasa.gov/4cCMWwA
Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
ALT This graphic reads, Meteor Sighting Maryland/Pennsylvania, at the bottom. It features an outline of the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania where they border with an illustrated meteor traveling a bit west of north over the border. Starting at Paw Paw, MD, and ending over Point Marion, PA. Credit: NASA/Alyssa Lee
Peter Brown retweeted
A reentry observed at 0255 UTC over Calgary was likely Starlink-1723 (object 46333)
Peter Brown retweeted
☄️We're happy to announce that on Dec. 22, 2032, asteroid 2024 YR4 will sail by the Moon at a distance of 13,200 miles based on new data from @NASAWebb. Our Planetary Defense Program has tracked this potentially hazardous asteroid since late 2024. go.nasa.gov/4bcbfz5
Peter Brown retweeted
#MeteorSighting: A fireball was observed by witnesses in Washington and the British Columbia, Canada, on the night of March 3. The meteor became visible over Coquitlam, BC, moving northeast at 75,000 mph before disintegrating above Greenmantle Mountain.
🔗go.nasa.gov/4u7Ms7M
Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
ALT This graphic reads, Meteor Sighting Washington/Canada, at the bottom. It features an outline of the state of Washington and Canada where they border with an illustrated meteor traveling a bit east of north over British Columbia. Credit: NASA/Alyssa Lee
Peter Brown retweeted
Only *three* Kreutz sungrazers have been found by Earth-based observatories in the last 56 years. 6AC4721 is the latest. C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was seen in September-October 2024. It was small and intrinsically faint. It failed to brighten rapidly and showed volatile brightness behaviour with outbursts. It fell apart shortly before perihelion on Oct 28th. The brightest was C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), which survived perihelion, becoming exceptionally bright around magnitude -4. It then disintegrated soon after perihelion, emerging from twilight as a 'Headless comet'.
The ground-based discovery of a new Kreutz comet is very significant. Kreutz sungrazing comets arrive in groups, the product of fragmentations of the parent comet during successive perihelion passages. The groups are separated by about 60-90 years. The last one arrived in mid-20th century. It started with the faint comet du Toit in 1945, followed by comet Pereyra in 1963, the exceptionally bright comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965 and ended with comet White-Ortiz-Bolelli in 1970. It is likely that more comets were missed (small comets, disintegrating before perihelion and/or major comets arriving to perihelion in June-August). About 60 years have passed since that group and we may be seeing the first comets of a new group. If this is true, we may be in for much bigger and brighter comets in the coming years and decades.
BREAKING! Kind of :) A new Kreutz sungrazer comet has been found - one of very few found before they enter LASCO C3 field of view. Currently designated 6AC4721 it will likely get a proper comet designation soon. It is likely a very small and faint comet (Kreutz fragment) that is unlikely to survive perihelion (around April 10th). Perhaps similar to C/2024 S1 (ATLAS). More soon!
Peter Brown retweeted
ICYMI, this preprint from Western U group takes comprehensive look at interstellar meteoroid rate for mm size objects. arxiv.org/pdf/2503.19042 #meteoroid #hyperbolic #interstellar
Peter Brown retweeted
@b612foundation has taken the orbit and uncertainty of asteroid 2024YR4, sampled 10K trajectories from the current uncertainty, and propagated them forward. 2.3% of those hit the Earth on Dec.22, 2032. Here is where they hit.
