io9: meteor

Eureka And Warehouse 13, Plus Another Meteor TV Movie

Meredith Woerner — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:00:00 PDT

Finally, some interesting new television! Syfy is premiering the new series Warehouse 13 (think of it as a G-rated X-Files) and Eureka is back for a new season. Also Jason Alexander and Christopher Lloyd team up for NBC's Meteor movie.

Monday:

Spectacular Spider-Man -
At the turn of the New Year, Spidey has to take the fight to the Planner's lair, revealing the Planner's true identity in the process. But not before teen aged superhero has to navigate the murky waters of love, when Gwen is kidnapped.

Spectacular Spider-Man Promo:

Movies:

It's end-of-the-world day over at the Syfy Channel. First there's Meltdown: Days of Destruction, where the Earth moves threateningly close to the Sun. After that, Asteroid threatens the world with, what else? Asteroids, in the two-part movie starring Annabella Sciorra. All of this airs on SciFi Channel, beginning at 9:30 AM.

Tuesday:

Warehouse 13 -
Two sexy Secret Service agents are put in charge of America's storage spot for weird crap. Even though the warehouse is stocked to the brim with time traveling and shape shifting whosits and what-nots, there's still plenty of unclaimed weird objects for this good looking duo to track down, in Warehouse 13. What will they fid next? My guess is, a big steaming pile of romantic tension. It's like a sugared-up X-Files, but with steampunky gadgets. The two-hour premiere airs on the newly christened SyFy Channel, at 9 PM.

Warehouse 13 Promo:

Better Off Ted - repeat on ABC at 9 PM.

Movies:

Nic Cage's rip-off of Indiana Jones, National Treasure, is on the SyFy Channel at 6 PM.

Adam Sandler is a pawn in the ultimate procrastinator's backlash that is Click, when his living Jiminy Cricket, Christopher Walken, hands over a real-life remote control, on FX at 8 PM.

Wednesday:

Time Team America -
The series premiere chronicles various archeological digs open with a trip to North Carolina's Roanoke Island, the first settlement in North America, which disappeared suddenly. Years later, the only remaining clue was the word "Croatoan" carved into a fencepost. The dig is on PBS at 8 PM.

Time Team Preview:

Monsters Inside Me -
The show that makes you scared to go anywhere, or do anything, returns with a new episode. Scientists rush to stave off what could become the worst parasitic outbreak in history, which may or may not already be eating away your intestines. Quick, stop drinking water — germs are EVERYWHERE, on Animal Planet at 9 PM.

Monsters Inside Me Promo:

MonsterQuest -
Adventurers hunt down the wily Sasquatch, on this new episode on the History Channel at 9 PM.

Movies:

Treasure Planet, an animated scifi update of Treasure Island featuring the voice of our favorite wrecked-faced Cobra Commander, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is on Disney XD at 5 PM.

Thursday:

Naked Science -
Scientists try to prove their hypothesis that about 500 years ago a large meteor caused a tsunami, severely changing Australia's coastline. The theories fly on National Geographic Channel at 10 PM.

Also, we'll probably get another clip from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when Daniel Radcliffe is on Letterman, on CBS at 11:30 PM.

Movies:

Contact, the movie that refuses be constricted by things like common sense, blasts Jodie Foster off to alien worlds... or does it? Join the confused alien-stalker and her long-haired boyfriend, Matthew McConaughey, on the look out for aliens and space-bound millionaires, in Contact on TNT at 10 PM.

Friday:

Eureka -
Sheriff-no-more Jack Carter and his sharp wit return for the second half of season three as he applies for a job with the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the new sheriff in town seems to have a very robotic personality. Carter has to deal with becoming Allison's pal, as our friends who became lovers who became friends deal with Allison's baby on the way. Season 3 and a half premieres tonight on SyFy, at 9 PM.

Saturday:

Kings -
Treasonous David is on trial, and Silas hands the reins over to his son Jack. Will the pretty prince show mercy to the doe-eyed country boy? Side note, this is actually the second to last week for Kings — next week there will be a two hour farewell. And I will weep big fat tears as this beautiful show sputters out its dying breath.

Kings You Tube Good Bye:

Primeval -
You'd think these accidents the Primeval people would figure out a way to close these space-time anomalies — but no, another week another problem causes chaos on Earth. Meanwhile, Abby's brother decides to find out what she does for a living, and accidentally passes through an anomaly. Whoops. Now the team has to chase him down too, on BBC America at 9 PM.

Movies:

An all-day Harry Potter marathon is in order, before the new movie is released July 15. Harry and the Sorcerer's Stone kicks off the first three movies as they play in order on ABC Family at 12:30 PM.

Sunday:

True Blood -
Will we find out what Daphne truly is? Probably not. At least not before Sookie endangers the lives of everyone on the show one more time, just for kicks! As everyone's favorite grown-up vamp show becomes more of an ensemble effort, Sookie, Bill and Jessica travel to Dallas. And Tara hopefully gets her head screwed on straight, and Jason continues his vampire purification process. Let's go to Dallas, on HBO at 9 PM.

True Blood Promo:

Movies:

Meteor -
A curious cast of prime time favorites from long ago gathers together, to stop a giant asteroid from careening to Earth. It's like the recent TV movie Impact, only with slightly more interesting actors. Jason Alexander and Christopher Lloyd put their minds together, to stop the meteor Kassandra. Part one of the miniseries airs tonight on NBC at 9 PM.

Additional reporting by Caitlin Petrakovitz.

Giant Fireball Blazes to Earth in Texas

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:00:00 PST

Experts have been scratching their heads over a huge, bright fireball that zoomed out of the sky over Texas yesterday. Reporters and the FAA claimed it was satellite debris, but astronomers say they're wrong.

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy has a terrific breakdown of events, explaining how rumors of satellite debris got started and the misinformation was passed around. Confusing matters was the fact that two satellites collided over Earth a couple of weeks ago, so it's possible we might see some junk hitting the planet after such an event. Plus, there was another fireball over Kentucky on Friday. This combination of factors had people believing a rain of satellite parts was falling over the American South.

But after watching the video and doing research on the event, Plait says definitively that it's not space junk:

The video shows the fireball to be moving very rapidly. Typically, meteors come into Earth's atmosphere at 20-50 km/sec (though they can be moving much faster), and burn up 50-100 km high. Man-made space debris re-entering is moving at slower than orbital speed so the max speed is about 8 km/sec. It also burns up lower, and generally you can see flames and whatnot coming off.
I've seen man-made debris re-enter, and it's very different than natural meteors. The difference in speed is very obvious. Right there, that's enough to make me think this was a single natural object.

It's possible to get collisional debris moving more rapidly, but it's difficult. The two satellites closed in on each other at about 10 km/sec, and any shrapnel from that event would most likely be moving at roughly that same speed. If one satellite slammed into, say, an antenna first, then the lower mass antenna might get a pretty hefty acceleration from it, but the amount of energy dumped into it would most likely turn it into a bunch of teeny pieces (remember, the energy of impact was like several tons of TNT). A small object would not have been as bright as the fireball seen.

Also, you'd have to have a pretty special set of circumstances to get any debris from the satellites to re-enter our atmosphere so soon after the collision. It's far more likely that it will be months before we see any of that shrapnel burning up.

So all in all, I am pretty sure what was seen was natural: a rock or a piece of metal from an asteroid.

Firey Scandinavian Meteor "Turned the Sky Blue"

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:37:23 PST

Last weekend, a meteor hit the atmosphere over Scandinavia with a huge boom, filling the sky with blue light. Hundreds of Danish and Swedish people saw it, many of them from their cars as they drove home in the early evening. No one was hurt, and the video footage is amazing. Using eyewitness reports and satellite photos, Dutch meteorologist Jacob Kuiper created this map of the fireball's trajectory through the atmosphere. Eyewitness Toby Rutland summed up the experience:

I'm about 50km north of Gothenburg and saw the bright blue flash through the living room window. It was almost definitely to the south and was at least as bright as close lightning but I didn't notice any sound. Wish I'd seen more!

Wish I'd seen more too! See a full report with videos at Space Weather.

Watch a Fiery Meteorite Burn Up the Sky

Lauren Davis — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:00:00 PST

Thursday night, a meteorite fell in Western Canada, burning up as hit the Earth’s atmosphere and creating a brilliant flash over Alberta and Saskatchewan. Witnesses got to experience the brightest fireball the country has seen in over a decade. Fortunately for us non-Canadians, several video cameras captured the meteorite’s luminous fall.

The meteorite appeared in the sky around 5pm MT, and Alan Hildebrand, a planetary scientist said it was probably the largest to land in Canada in 12 years. And the object’s entry into the Earth’s atmosphere created an impressive display. According to the Globe and Mail:

Hildebrand says the meteor could likely be seen up to 700 kilometres away, into the northern United States. It contained about a tenth of a kiloton of energy when it entered the earth's atmosphere, equal to 100 tons of the chemical explosive TNT.

“It would be something like a billion-watt light bulb.”

Besides sonic boom sounds, he said witnesses also reported hearing hissing or crackling noises like frying bacon. Fireballs can act as radio transmitters, Mr. Hildebrand said, causing odd sounds.

The video below shows the fall as captured by a police dashboard camera in Edmonton, Alberta. The next step is for astronomers to search the region for the meteorite fragments, which are billions of years old and valuable for study.

Pieces of large meteor may have landed in Saskatchewan [Globe and Mail]
[Videos via Metafilter]

The Earth-Bashers

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT

Mars isn't the only planet with awe-inspiring craters. Here on Earth, we've been pummeled by space rocks in the not-so-distant past, and our planet has the scars to prove it. A new photo essay in National Geographic by Stephen Alvarez tells the story of planetary impacts like this one (above) in Arizona, U.S., called simply Meteor Crater. It's almost a mile wide. Check out an even more awesome one below.

Located in the Australian outback, this 14-mile long crater was created about 140 million years ago. Today it's called Gosses Bluff and this hilly area pictured is the 2-mile-wide center of the impact.

Check out more planet-smashing goodness in the full photo essay.

Target Earth [via National Geographic] (Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!)

Meteor Man: Biggest Waste Of Talent Ever

Kevin Kelly — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:30:00 PDT

If you've been browsing the cable airwaves, you might have noticed the 1993 film The Meteor Man has been playing on Showtime, usually as late-night filler material. Although it's 15 years old, it didn't even stand up for 15 minutes at the box office, grossing only $8 million dollars despite a wealth of talented actors. If you really want to torture yourself, strap yourself in Clockwork Orange-style and try watching it. We dare you. Or just check out the full story behind the movie that makes Blankman seem bearable by comparison.

Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle) both wrote and directed this movie, although he faded from the limelight once it tanked. He went on to direct a Disney Channel movie called Up, Up and Away, which was also about superheroes.
The plot follows a fairly straightforward comic book route, having mild mannered Jefferson Reed Jefferson Reed gain powers after he gets hit by a meteor. However, they went a bit overboard with his powers.
The meteor gave Jefferson the following powers: super strength, super speed, the ability to fly, telekinesis, laser vision, x-ray vision, freezing breath, the ability to heal quickly, the power to talk to animals, and the power to make plants grow quickly. Oh, and he can also absorb everything in a book by touching it, but only for 30 seconds, which is probably one of the lamest powers ever created.
There's actually a scene where Meteor Man clears out a vacant lot, plants grass seeds, using his meteor powers to make it rain, and grows a field of giant vegetables and tomatoes. All to the tunes of cool, light jazz. Ouch.
There's also a scene where the lead villain and the Meteor Man both absorb a book about "ladies modeling" and they have a vogue-off. Yes, you can't make this stuff up.
This was Don Cheadle's fifth movie, and isn't usually listed in his filmographies or bios. He sports a blond hairdo throughout the film, and chews up a fair amount of scenery.
James Earl Jones stars as Earnest Moses, and is dressed in an oversized baseball jersey for the whole movie, and check out his high fade haircut. It's pretty embarrassing to watch the voice of Darth Vader try and imitate Radio Raheem from Do The Right Thing.
Not that Bill Cosby was the greatest actor to grace the silver screen, but in this film he stars as a mostly mute homeless man (he barks at dogs near the end) who gets the same powers as Meteor Man, and comes to the triumphant rescue at the end of the flick.
Robert Guillaume of Benson fame also stars as Jefferson's dad Ted, and Marla Gibbs, better known as Florence from The Jeffersons stars as his mom. In Up, Up, and Away, Marla stars again as his mom, and Sherman Helmsley (Mr. Jefferson) stars as his dad.
Even LaWanda Page, better known as Aunt Esther from Sanford & Son makes an appearance as a sassy nurse. Townsend really enjoyed mining older TV shows to fill the roles in his projects.
Eddie Griffin plays Jefferson's best friend Michael, although he actually chews up less scenery than usual. Since it was only his fifth film, he hadn't hit his wisecracking stride yet.
Frank Gorshin, who played The Riddler on the old Batman tv show and Bele on Star Trek: The Original Series, portrays big baddie Byers, in probably one of the worst roles of his life. Sometimes, there is shame in taking a job for the paycheck.
Sinbad and Luther Vandross both have small roles in the film, and you can imagine what the combined box office power of a comedian and a classic singer would have done, if only it had been marketed properly.
Marvel Comics produced a six-issue limited series based on the movie, where Meteor Man encounter Spider-Man. Seriously, Meteor Man meets Spidey.
Meteor Man could see through walls with his X-Ray vision, but for some reason when he looked at people, he could see through their clothes, but not their underwear. Behold the power of a PG rating! In the scene below, you can watch as Meteor Man battles a crackhouse full of underwear clad workers, unites the Crips and the Bloods, and grows the magic field. Endure it if you can.

James Bond Fails To Stop New York From Getting Atomized

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:30:42 PST

Long before there was Armageddon or Deep Impact, or even the fear of our own falling spy satellites, there was Meteor. Sean Connery goes into full science mode as he tries to stop a huge meteor named Orpheus from crashing into the Earth. The good news: he's partially successful. The bad news: Oops, sorry about that Hong Kong and New York. The opening scene, where astronauts watch the cosmic ballet of a comet striking an asteroid just before it obliterates them and their ship, is worth the price of admission alone.

The 1970s were obsessed with large-scale disaster movies, offering audiences everything from Earthquake to Airport were all about massive mayhem and destruction with massive casts featuring top stars of the day, and Meteor stands as the bookend to that obsession. What's really impressive about the movie (besides the cast, which also included Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Henry Fonda) was that it was based on an M.I.T. student science project called Project Icarus. If you've ever wondered how to stop a four-billion ton rock from hitting the Earth, then you might want to rent the movie, and pick up the book of the science project. Oh, and keep Sean Connery on your speed dial.

Siberian Doomsday Supercrater Finally Located

Kevin Kelly — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:20:34 PST

A team of scientists has finally located the impact crater from a "Doomsday" 1908 meteor strike that was one thousand times more powerful than the blast that leveled Hiroshima. You wouldn't think looking for something that size would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but it's gone undetected for nearly 100 years. Mainly because it was sneaky and hiding under a lake.

Crater From 1908 Russian Space Strike Found, Says Team [National Geographic]