Odds Makers Favor a Pacific Landing of the NASA Satellite

The top bookie in Ireland, Paddy Power, has opened a book on where the NASA satellite UARS will land when it comes blazing into our atmosphere and crashing to earth late Friday. So far, it appears the greatest odds, not surprising, are for a landing in the vast Pacific Ocean. Here are the odds for the landing of the satellite in various areas around the globe, proof that just about anything can be gambled on:

First ocean landing to be reported:

8/11 Pacific

2/1 Atlantic

6/1 Indian

10/1 Arctic

10/1 Southern

First continent landing to be reported:

9/4 Africa

11/4 South America

3/1 Asia

3/1 North America

6/1 Australia

8/1 Europe

16/1 Antarctica

66/1 Part of the satellite to land on Ireland (Must be confirmed by NASA)

-Zach

There was another aftershock Friday afternoon. It occurred at 12:17 pm, and was a magnitude 2.1

Location 37.937°N, 77.987°W
Depth 2.9 miles

6 miles south Louisa & Mineral
16 miles northeast of Columbia
19 miles east of Lake Monticello
40 miles northwest of Richmond
86 miles southwest of Washington, DC


Source: Southeast U.S. Seismic Network

Perfect pairing of the Moon and Jupiter this Friday morning!

The Moon and Jupiter are "hanging out" often lately in the night sky, and this Friday morning, they're perfectly paired closer to each other than most mornings so far this week. Visibility is great across the majority of central Virginia because of clearing skies overnight behind yesterday's strong cold front. If you can before sunrise at 6:52 a.m., look for the Moon and the bright, steady light just to its left. That light is the planet Jupiter!

Here is the sky-map looking Southwest from Richmond of the pairing shortly after 6:15, when I took the video below.

And here's that video I shot at the same time from outside the CBS 6 studios on West Broad Street:

If you missed this viewing opportunity this morning, don't worry, there will be other opportunities to see the two clearly in the night sky over the next week (just not this weekend because of cloud-cover). Learn more about this celestial pairing by clicking here.
--Meteorologist Carrie Rose