Dawn has entered the LAMO phase of the mission at Vesta. During LAMO, gravitational measurements are made and the GRaND instrument is used to collect high energy neutrons. Together, these observations will help identify what Vesta is made of. This could identify if Vesta contains large amounts of water or other materials.
The Dawn mission team has release amazing new images of Vesta. They have recently begun science orbits and are now capturing images with the framing camera. The new images are just fantastic.
NASA has released new images captured by the Dawn spacecraft as it approaches the minor planet Vesta. The dawn images now exceed the resolution of the images captured by Hubble, which up till now were the best images of Vesta available.
The Vesta images will continue to improve dramatically as Dawn approaches Vesta. Dawn will enter orbit around Vesta on 7/16.
NASA’s Dawn mission has captured it’s first image of the minor planet Vesta. Dawn is expected to enter orbit around Vesta in late July, where it will remain for approximately one year before leaving Vesta and continuing to it’s second target, Ceres.
The Dawn mission is the first NASA mission to enter orbit around two different celestial bodies. To achieve this amazing feat, Dawn uses a xenon ion motor. This rocket motor uses electric fields to accelerate xenon ions to high velocity, which is much more efficient than traditional rocket motors. Although much more efficient, ion motors produce very low thrust, gently accelerating the spacecraft over a period of months and years.
Dawn has been en route to Vesta for nearly 4 years. The most exciting thing about Dawn is it will also be the first spacecraft to visit the asteroid belt’s two largest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta. Ceres, discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, was the first asteroid ever discovered. Vesta, discovered 6 years later, was only the 4th asteroid discovered, although it was later proven to be the second largest. Both minor planets will eventually become important resources for humans in space. Vesta is though to have a differentiated nickel iron core, similar to the earth and other terrestrial planets. Ceres appears to be an icy body, possibly with a sub surface ocean of liquid water. It is thought that there is more water on Ceres than all the fresh water on earth, approximately 200 million cubic kilometers. The mineral resources of Ceres and Vesta, combined with a low escape velocity, could supply valuable materials to be used in the future human colonization and exploitation of the solar system.
DAWN, NASA's mission to Vesta and Ceres, will enter the asteroid belt on November 13th.
DAWN is currently 10 light minutes, or 1.25 AU, away from earth, and is scheduled to arrive at Vesta in just 629 days. Mark your calendars!
The big news this week is the discovery that Theta 1 Orions C, a bright star in the Trapezium in Orion (that is a collection of bright stars in the Orion nebula, just below his belt) is actually a binary star. 
What’s more exciting is the discovery was made by the VLTI in Chile, an optical interferometer with amazing resolving power. Light from the 4 telescopes can be combined in a way to increase the resolving power to be equivalent to a single telescope with a much larger mirror. 
In other space imaging news, an images of exoplanet HR 8799b was found in 10 year old images collected by the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) instrument on Hubble. It turns out the image had been collected many years ago, but the existence of the planet was not known at the time. HR 8799b was officially “discovered” at the Gemini North observatory in 2007. Later examination of the NICMOS images revealed the planet actually was imaged much earlier. In astronomy, it’s actually fairly common for some celestial object to be “discovered” and then later found in much earlier images. The star HR 8799 has 3 known planets, each with 7-10 time the mass of Jupiter orbiting far from their sun. HR 8799 is about 1.5 times the size of our sun. The inner planet has a nearly circular orbit, and although the shapes of the orbits of the other planets are not known, they most likely orbit in a roughly 1:2:4 resonance. Although the planets are much larger than the gas giants of our solar system, there are many striking similarities between HR 8799 and our own solar system, including the possibility of undiscovered terrestrial planets in the inner solar system. 
Meanwhile, on Mars, Spirit set a new driving record (for 5 wheel driving) and Opportunity is using the RAT, MI, Mossbauer Spectrometer, and X-Ray spectrometer on a new target found on Meridiani. Some of these instruments have not been used in years. As usual, HortonHeardaWho has posted some terrific images on his flickr photo stream, it is definitely worth taking a look.  In other news, LISA, an spacecraft designed to detect gravity waves scheduled for launch in 2018, should also be able to detect and measure the mass of near earth asteroids as they pass by. They are predicting they will be able to measure 1 or 2 NEAs per year. Also, Paragon Space Development Corporation plans to grow plants on the moon DSR 2.7
Although there wasn’t much happening in space last week, what there was was pretty cool. You may remember Asteroid 2008 TC3 which was detected by NASA shortly before it impacted Earth in Sudan last October. Well, now they have recovered actual fragments of this asteroid. 
Other than that, not much is going on. The Cassini program has created a virtual flyover of Titan, which is cool but just assembled form old data. And, New Horizons has detected Neptune’s moon Triton DSR 2.6
Mars Most of the action is on Mars this week. The Phoenix science team have confirmed the presence of droplets of liquid water, most likely a brine, on the legs of the Phoenix lander. Also both rovers have now upgraded to version R9.3 of the flight software and are doing fine, and Opportunity has now logged more than 9 miles of driving. And, finally, HiRISE has acquired some spectacular images of Deimos. 
Deep Space The Dawn spacecraft has successfully completed a gravitational boost maneuver on its way to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres. Also, a minor bug caused the spacecraft to enter safemode, at least they call it a “minor” bug. Actually, if it had been only a little worse it would have ended the mission, and it was a pretty stupid bug too. But, alls well that ends well. DSR 2.4
Deep Space I’m putting this first because this is the coolest news. COROT has discovered the smallest exoplanet yet, COROT-Exo-7b. The planet is just 2x earth’s diameter, orbiting very close to a sun like star once every 20 hours. The surface temperature is predicted to reach 1000-1500 C. Also, the Kepler mission, which is designed to search for earth like planets around other stars, is more or less ready for launch on 3/6/09 Near Earth Space You’ve probably already heard about the spectacular collision of two satellites last week. But you might not have heard about the 35 m asteroid 2009 DD45 which passed within 72,000 km of the earth on 3/2/09. That's less than twice the distance of a geosynchronous communication satellite. And finally, Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft, an asteroid sample return mission, has managed to restart engines after 16 months. It is now expected to return to earth with a sample of the surface of asteroid Itokawa some time in 2010, after traveling 4.5 billion kilometers. The Moon A quick summary of the news form our nearest neighbor: Mars Spirit has recovered recovered from it’s fault . Most likely explanation of earlier fault was a cosmic ray hit. Also, it seems another cleaning event has occurred, increasing total output of the solar panels by 15%. However, this increases the discretionary power budget from from 30 to 60 watt hours per day. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has entered safe mode. And, Phoneix data finds possibility of thin films of liquid water on Mars. In similar environments on earth, in particular the dry valleys in Antarctica, microorganisms survive using these thin films of water, sometimes only nanometers thick. The possibility of life on Mars surviving under these conditions is tantalizing.
Deep space Report 2.2
In the spirit of the new year, I have compiled a list of the 10 coolest topics covered last year in the Deep Space Report - 3 planets orbiting other stars were imaged, Fomalhaut, HR8799, and beta pictoris, in that order.
- The discovery of an ancient shoreline provided proof that Mars once had an ocean of liquid water in the northern hemisphere.
- Phoenix detected actual snow falling from the sky on Mars.
- Armadillo Aerospace wins Lunar Lander Challenge level 1, and also announces partnerships with the Rocket Racing League to provide rocket motors for their racers, and also work on a joint venture to provide commercial space tourism flights.
- India successfully sends Chandrayaan-1 to the moon.
- China send's it's first moon probe too, Chang'e-1
- Catalina Sky Survey program detected a meteorite before impact.
- A spectacular fireball meteorite was seen over Alberta, Canada.
- Cassinni makes 2 flybys of Encleadus, the first passing within just 16 miles of the tiny moon.
- NASA tests out several new lunar rover designs, including ATHLETE and PILOT
Luna China's Chang'e-1 space probe has adjusted its orbit to just 200 km above the surface of the moon. Mars After last week's discussion of the possibility of long term climate cycles, and maybe even life on Mars, this week researchers at Cal Tech published a new study indicating that Mars' axial tilt could produce climate cycles on the order of 100,000 years in length, that's just under 50,000 mars years, by the way. Glad to see great minds think alike. Asteroids Bulgarian astronomers have discovered a new asteroid this week, 2008 WN96. The asteroid is estimated to be 2 km diameter, which is pretty large for an asteroid discovered so recently, with an orbital period of 3.2 years. Jupiter In a new report, University of Washington oceanographer Robert Tyler has calculated the heat required to maintain a liquid ocean on Europa could come from waves generated from the ocean itself. An axial tilt of less than one degree would be sufficient to produce enough heat to keep the ocean liquid. Deep Space CO2 has been discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, HD 189733b, 63 light years away. Deep Space Report 1.11
Mars Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Russian Space Agency have announced plans to develop a joint mission to Mars. The mission plans to land a spacecraft on Phobos and sample the surface material directly. This may confirm the presence of water ice on Phobos. Jupiter A sophisticated computer simulation has predicted that Jupiter may have solid core of water ice and other rocky materials. NASA and ESA have also announced plans to work on a joint mission to Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede, the Europa-Jupiter System Mission (EJSM). Saturn Measurements of Encleadus' mysterious plumes have shown the material is moving at 1360 mph. It is difficult to imagine how to achieve this velocity without liquid water near the surface of the tiny moon. Alberta Meteorite Update The spectacular fireball seen last week over Alberta, Canada has now been estimated to have been an approximately 10 ton asteroid which entered the atmosphere at approximately 14 km/s. This is relatively slow, compared to an average velocity of around 20 km/s. Several security cameras recorded the event. Dr. Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario hopes to find as many video recordings as possible, as this will help to determine the original orbit of the asteroid. Although no fragments of the actual meteorite have yet been recovered, it is likely that some will be found. Only 9 other meteorites have been associated with a known orbit prior to impact. With any luck this will be the tenth. Noting that meteorites have substantial commercial value, under Canadian law, meteorites are the property of the landowner of the property on which they are found. Deep Space Report 1.09
News report: Meteor lights Sask. sky
And for a little bit of contextual reading: Asteroid Deflection Strategies
An impact occurs when both reach the same point in space at the same time, or more correctly when some point on Earth's surface intersects the impactor's orbit when the impactor arrives.
That must be the most precise description of Armageddon I've ever read.
Luna Britain is now planning it's own moon mission, MoonLITE, focusing on studying moon quakes. Water on Mars There were two exciting discoveries this week related to water on mars. First, they have identified what seems to be an ancient shoreline, indicating an ocean once existed that would have been as large as the Mediterranean, and possibly even larger. The other, perhaps more exciting, discovery is buried glacial ice in Hellas basin, between 35 and 60 degrees latitude. The ice is buried by less than a meter of rock and debris, which acts as an insulating blanket, otherwise the ice would have sublimated long ago. The ice containing deposits, which appear as gently sloping aprons at the bases of taller features, have puzzled NASA scientists since they were first observed in the early 70s. Conclusive evidence from the ground penetrating radar from MRO show these aprons are in fact made of ice. Opportunity Continues on to Endeavour Hortonheardawho has posted some awesome new color panoramas from Oppy's journey to Endeavour. They've set several new daily records, But what's amazing is the consistent distance they are putting on. Sol 1704 
Sol 1707 
JPL has also published an updated an updated traverse map from sol 1713. Be sure to check it out at full res. This is a terrific example or MRO's MOC capabilities. Image resolution could easily pick out even smaller boulders or ejecta debris, although I haven't spotted any. I think the JPL page links to the source image from MRO. 
MSL site list narrowed NASA has narrowed down the list of candidates for the MSL landing site to 4: 
- Holden Crater - another crater, similar to Gusev Crater, with and outflow channel, containing alluvial fans, flood deposits, possible lake beds and clay-rich deposits.
- Mawrth Vallis - contains exposed layers containing at least two types of clay.
Deep space The Dawn spacecraft has shut down its ion motor and will cruise unpowered until February next year, when it will have an encounter with Mars. Dawn is on schedule for an encounter with Vesta in 2011 and Ceres in 2015. French astronomers have used the ESO' Very Large Telescope to image yet another extra solar planet, beta pictoris. Beta Pictoris is a very young star, about 12 million years old, about 70 light years away. The planet has approximately 8 times the mass of Jupiter and orbits at the distance Saturn orbits our sun. I think this is perhaps the most earth like solar system yet imaged. A recent study has detected cosmic rays which appear to be originating from a nearby source, perhaps 300 light years away or less. The high energy electrons are encountering the earth at such high velocity that they could not have traveled much further than that without losing more velocity. However, the detector is not capable of accurately determining what direction the electrons are coming from, so we really have no idea where the source is, just that it must be relatively nearby. China as a space threat The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued a report to congress which, among other things, warns of China's space program as a potential military threat. What does this have to do with deep space? Well, the biggest space program in US history, Apollo, was a military program. It was a response to a perceived threat by the USSR, and a demonstration of the US space capability. In particular it was a demonstration of the US ICBM capability. What, Saturn V was just a giant ICBM? Yes it was, why do you think NASA built a disposable launch vehicle? You don't reuse ICBMs. And, China has stated that there long term goal is to establish a permanent base on the moon. Now, if this is seen as a potential military threat, we must follow suit and build our own moon base with equal or greater capability. Of course we also have plans for a permanent moon base, but the plans of NASA can shift from year to year. With out a "guns and butter" justification for the expense of such a program, it would be likely to lose support eventually, especially when the enormous cost of a moon base turns into a line item on this year's congressional budget talks. Whether or not there is a real military threat isn't really the point. The point is there is a congressional report which at least mentions this as a possibility, and that should be all the support we need. Deep Space Report 1.8
What is a Guelph? Is that the sort-of mediocre evil elf. Half as evil as a Drow? 
"This event was a relatively slow fireball that made it far into the Earth's atmosphere," said Phil McCausland, a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science at Western. "Most meteoroids burn up by the time they hit an altitude of 60 or 70 kilometers (37 to 44 miles) from the ground." - LiveScience.com ...and because you asked for it, here is where Guelph is. 
Hat Tip: Scooter over at GadgetGrid.com
Pretty cool animation of the orbits of the planets and the major asteroids. I'd like to point out one of the more interesting things to take a look at, find the asteroid Ceres. Look at the nice circular orbit. Ceres is the largest asteroid, has a stable orbit, it's a sphere, it has a lot of water...can you say "planet".
There is not much to report form Luna and beyond this week. The big news was really Chandayaan-1. Other than that, the ESA announced they are delaying ExoMars again, Iowa State Research Center sponsored a symposium for asteroid deflection, and there was some interesting news on using a form of waterless concrete (made largely from lunar regolith) for construction on the moon. And, of course, Armadillo Aerospace won the LLC level 1.
There was also a NY times article on the possibility of ice on the moon. In a new study published in Science, infrared images of permanently shaded areas inside Shakleton crater taken by the Japanese SELENE spacecraft were analyzed. Although the temperature of these areas were found to be cold enough for water ice to be stable, infrared spectra of surface material in these areas did not include any ice. However, this does not preclude subsurface ice, even if it is only covered by a few centimeters of dust. In fact, if ice were present, one would expect to find at least a thin covering of moon dust, the moon being an extraordinarily dusty place. So, although ice was not detected directly, I would say the confirmation of the temperature being cold enough for ice to be stable is more of a positive sign than the lack of direct evidence for ice on the surface, which would not be expected anyway.
Here are some gratuitous video links 
Near Earth Space
For the very first time, our extensive near earth object tracking program has detected an impactor before it hit the earth. Well, not long before it hit the earth, and it wasn't much of an impactor. Asteroid 2008 TC3, estimated to measure between 3 and 15 feet in diameter, burned up in the atmosphere over Sudan on 10/7 at 2:46am GMT. The really cool part is the asteroid actually was detected prior to impact, and being a relatively small chunk of rock, this was quite a feat!
Image Credit: Richard Kowalski and Ed Beshore, Catalina Sky Survey
The asteroid was initially discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson Arizona. The final orbit shows 2008 TC3 was both a Mars crosser and also (obviously) and earth crosser.
But, can anyone say invasion from Mars? Maybe, just as a precaution, we should send a team of international investigators to the impact location to check things out. Anyone exhibiting curious behavior or extra limbs should be detained ;-0
But seriously, JPL's Near Earth Object Program posted some nice data on this event:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news159.html
Mercury
On 10/6 Messenger successfully completed the second flyby of Mercury this year. The spacecraft passed within 125 miles of the planet.
NASA update
Latest images
Mars
MSL was nearly cut this week, but then it wasn't. It's gone over budget of course. they've already spent $1.5 billion on the program. I think the real issue is if they do not get enough funding to keep the program on schedule, it will have to slip to the next launch opportunity for Mars, which come about 18 months apart. That would add even more cost which would suck even worse. The project is expected to run at least 30% over budget as is. Status quo really.
Phoenix is desperately trying to get in some more science before the mission ends from lack of sunlight. I have to say that compared to MER, Phoenix hasn't delivered much.
MER continues to be the poster child for the Energizer Bunny on Mars. If they keep going they may have to pick up Energizer as a sponsor because NASA is going to get tired of funding the mission that refused to die.
Saturn
10/9 was a busy busy day for Cassini. The big news was a very close flyby of Enceladus, at a distance of less than 16 miles. But along the way they also passed through the rings and had encounters with Telesto and Janus at 42,000 and 56,000 miles respectively. The encounter was a success. Apparently they have sent back data from the encounter, but none of the really close up images have been posted yet. In addition to acquiring phenomenally high res images of the vents near the south pole, Cassini flew directly through the plumes and sampled them.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=874
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/index.cfm
Pluto
Almost forgot, 10/15 is going to be the 1000 day aniversary for New Horizons mission to Pluto. Everyone put on a party hat and sing happy birthday new horizons or something like that
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspective.php
Deep space Report 1.2
All the news that's fit to print from Luna and beyond!
Luna
Carnegie Mellon University has decided to pursue the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize. http://www.space.com/spacenews/071001_businessmonday_lunarprize.html
The UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has developed a sophisticated x-ray camera for lunar observation. The camera is scheduled to be launched 10/22/08 on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft - India's first mission to the Moon.
http://www.moondaily.com/reports/X_Ray_Specs_Ready_To_Eye_The_Moon_999.html
Mercury
MESSENGER's second pass by Mercury, a gravitational boost maneuver, is scheduled for 1/14/09. MESSENGER sill pass within 125 miles of the surface, snapping pictures as it goes. Although they are planning to eventually orbit Mercury, the planned trajectory uses many gravitational boost maneuvers to save fuel. They should achieve capture by Mercury in March 2011
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/081001-mercury-flyby-preview.html
Mars
Phoenix
The Phoenix science team held a press conference last Monday. They have discovered calcium carbonate and sheet silicates. These two minerals don't usually form without the presence of liquid water. Calcium carbonate was detected by both TEGA and MECA at 7% or more. In general, evidence of phyllosilicate clays are abundant. MECA lead scientist Michael Hecht commented, "We are seeing smooth-surfaced, platy particles with the atomic-force microscope, not inconsistent with the appearance of clay particles." Extreme dryness of soil might be related to perchlorate prevalence. So far the science team has not detected organics.
Perhaps more exciting, a laser instrument designed to measure the atmosphere has detected actual snow falling on Mars. The snow was detected high in the atmosphere. Similar to dry deserts on earth, This was a "ghost" snow since it evaporated before it reached the ground.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080930/ts_alt_afp/usscienceastronomyspacemars;_ylt=Aq1nxcED8qVFptS5WZdCAfwPLBIF
http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2890&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Other Mars news
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered hundreds of small fractures on the surface of Mars which may have served to direct the flow of water through Martian sandstone billions of years ago.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080926-fracture-mars.html
http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/MRO_Reveals_Rock_Fracture_Plumbing_On_Mars_999.html
A new study based on information collected by the ESA's Mars Express Planetary Fourier Spectrometer has come up with an explanation for why Mars' ice caps are slightly offset. Detailed, accurate measurements of wind flow patterns have revealed that the Hellas Basin reroute high altitude winds and force weather systems towards the south pole. This creates a strong low-pressure system in the western hemisphere of Mars, which is responsible for the asymmetry of the southern polar cap.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080929-mm-mars-ice.html
Researchers at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin have analyzed images of the Xanthe Terra region of Mars. "For years scientists have been suspecting that the current appearance of the landscape has, in part, been shaped by rivers that cut into the surface," comments Ernst Hauber of the German Aerospace Center. They have concluded that fan shaped sedimentary deposits are the result of flowing and standing water in Mars' ancient past.
http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/The_Ancient_Rains_Of_Mars_999.html
Deep Space
The Dawn mission to Ceres and other minor planets has reached it's first anniversary. Using an advanced ion propulsion system, Dawn has used 67 kg of propellant to produce 1.68 km/s delta V. It is difficult to put this amount of thrust in perspective, but it is a huge improvement over less efficient chemical rockets, and is only the beginning of Dawn's mission.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Dawn_Reaches_It_First_Anniversary_999.html
F. Marchis, PI, at the SETI Institute and at UC-Berkeley, and P. Descamps from Paris Observatory announced recently the discovery of two moons around the M-type asteroid 216 Kleopatra, the so called "dog bone" asteroid.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081002/sc_space/twocompanionsfoundneardogboneasteroid;_ylt=AokvI8HNSM.FpcO.QTvy4KqHgsgF
The Kepler planet hunting telescope mission has managed to cut costs and avoid cancellation. The nearly 1 meter Schmidt telescope was designed to scan a large field of stars, searching for earth size planets in potential habitable orbits. The new plan would launch the mission in 2009.
http://www.space.com/spacenews/070716_businessmonday_kepler.html
ESA's Stone-6 artificial meteorite tests if a Martian meteorite could transport living organisms to Earth.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Stone_6_Artificial_Meteorite_Shows_Martian_Impactors_Could_Carry_Traces_Of_Life_999.html
Deep Space Report 1.1
 I bet you didn't even know it had one did you.
...well to be honest it isn't much of a moon. In fact, technically, it isn't a moon of Earth at all (that was just a catchy title to GRAB your attention), but instead it is what is called a a periodic inclusion planetoid. (sounds like something you treat with antibiotics) Essentially it orbits the sun with a orbital frequency that is 1:1 with the Earth's. It passes within 12 million kilometers of Earth which is only 30 times the distance to the moon. Wikipedia entry: 3753 Cruithne ...but wait, there really is a Second Moon On another note there is another type of "moonlet" that might fit the description of the Earth's second moon a bit better. Apparently there is a set of asteroids that are co-orbital satellites. Meaning they share (or virtually share) the Earth's orbit but not with the same exact frequency. Therefore they occasionally get captured by the Earth's gravity. This is the case with asteroid YN107. It is just now exiting a corkscrew orbit around Earth. It has been circling the Earth for 9 years now and will soon go on about its solitary orbit of the Sun only to get recaptured by the Earth in approximately 60 years. Nasa article: Corkscrew Asteroid So once again I lied it isn't a second moon either, but it's still cool.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska explosion. ...just thought you'd like to know. Good link here: Science News - Tunguska, A Century Later Wikipedia link: Tunguska event Testimony of S. Semenov, as recorded by Leonid Kulik's expedition in 1930.[9]
"At breakfast time I was sitting by the house at Vanavara trading post (65 kilometres/40 miles south of the explosion), facing North. [...] I suddenly saw that directly to the North, over Onkoul's Tunguska road, the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest (as Semenov showed, about 50 degrees up - expedition note). The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards. I lost my senses for a moment, but then my wife ran out and led me to the house. After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered, and in the barn a part of the iron lock snapped." 
Would you like to see the size of an impact crater depending on the size and make-up of an asteroid? Yes? I knew you would. Go over here and check it out: [Impact Calculator] 
An interesting read here from Gregg Easterbrook regarding the risks from a major asteroid strike on the Earth. Once thought to be a terribly remote occurrence, it seems the more the astronomers look at the issue the less rare it appears to be. The Sky Is Falling A generation ago, the standard assumption was that a dangerous object would strike Earth perhaps once in a million years. By the mid-1990s, researchers began to say that the threat was greater: perhaps a strike every 300,000 years. This winter, I asked William Ailor, an asteroid specialist at The Aerospace Corporation, a think tank for the Air Force, what he thought the risk was. Ailor’s answer: a one-in-10 chance per century of a dangerous space-object strike. Although from what I can glean from this table: Sentry Risk Table [NASA], there appears to be only one rock that is of any concern at this time. [this one - 2007 VK184] and that will happen June 3rd...2048. The whole point of the first article seems to be that we may be more at risk than we had previously thought and spending some money on asteroid defense systems may be prudent.
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