Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

ANOTHER meteor explodes above home of Star Wars, just 6 months after the first fireball event hit Tataouine, Tunisia

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The Tatahouine meteorite which fell on June 27, 1931 at 1:30 am in Foum Tatahouine, Tunisia.
Translated from Italian by Sott.net

As reported by ANSA, a meteorite crashed in Tunisia causing a strong acoustic phenomenon (bang) experienced especially by the population in the south. It hit the town of Remada, located in Tataouine. At the moment scientists have not specified what triggered it or where the meteorite came from, but research is ongoing. In all probability, the crater formed by the impact occurred in the desert area, where soldiers were headed for verification.

This is yet another episode of meteors and meteorites all over the world that are occurring in a short span of time. The media coverage of these type of events gives the impression that they are on sharp increase.

Comment: It's interesting to note that this is not the first time a loud meteor explosion has been felt in Tataouine, Tunisia: Meteor strikes Tatouine, home of Star Wars


Meteor

Meet the Norwegian skydiver who was meters away from being struck by a meteorite in 2012

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© Roger Myren/NRKAnders Helstrup in his wing suit.
One summer day in 2012, Anders Helstrup and several other members of Oslo Parachute Club jumped from a small plane that had taken off from Østre Æra Airport in Hedmark.

Helstrup, wearing a wing suit and with two cameras fixed to his helmet, released his parachute. On the way down he realised something was happening.

"I got the feeling that there was something, but I didn't register what was happening," Helstrup explained to NRK.no.

Immediately after landing, he looked through the film from the jump, which clearly showed that something did happen.Something that looks like a stone hurtles past Helstrup - clearing him by only a few metres.

Search party in the forest

Later that day, Helstrup returned to Oslo. But he could not stop thinking about his strange experience, so he took time off from work to go back to the Rena area for a couple of days to look for the stone - but with no luck.

"We continued the search during the summer. I got my girlfriend, family and friends to join the project. We searched the forest and kept looking."

Fireball 4

Big fireball seen over Germany, France and Switzerland

Fireball over Central Western Europe
© GoogleSightings of the fireball on the evening of the 31st of March 2014
25 Reports! Long Duration! Perhaps Meteorites???

Initial Meteor Sighting Reports-
31MAR2014 John Stuttgart, Germany 2235 5sec N-S Green Very bright None Never seen anything like it

31MAR2014 Saimonas Germany , Hüttenfeld 22:34 pm 3-4 secs I was directing the W side. The object was falling of right to left. Very bright , a little bit blue colour around the falling object. brighter than the moon. Yes. At the end of the falling the light blurred away , and i could see a black object for a second nope

31MAR2014 Richard & Ann Spence Bernstadt, Baden Württemberg, Germany 22:33 CEST 10 seconds West-East Greenish, two flaming trails, whooshing sound Bright as full moon None Faded completely

31MAR2014 Betsy Belfort, France 22:32/UTC+01:00/PM Around 10 seconds I was facing east, it was falling from left to right (north to south east?) Colors: white. No sound, windows closed. Bright as moon. None that I saw. N/A

31MAR2014 Pablo Narvaez Basel, Switzerland 22:30:00 10 sec Left to right White light with gren tail Bigger thanVenus No N.a
--
My wife came home at about 23:10 CEDST from playing cards
with her "girls" and this is what she told me ... and she was very
excited: "I was on my way to our car when something suddenly lit up the
Eastern sky. It was dazzling bright, had a greenish color, apparent
diameter ca. 2 inches, color greenish, duration seveal seconds, length
of luminous train (apparently 50-60 cm). She and her "girls" heard no
sonic boom." Location: Mannheim - Rheinau (Rheinau is a place about 10 km east
of Mannheim). Best wishes, Bernd Thanks Bernd!

All 25 meteor sighting reports can be seen here
http://thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.com/

Fireball

Fireball seen over Jutland, Denmark

A powerful fireball was observed over Denmark at around 1 am on Sunday morning (30th of March 2014). The fireball has perhaps let to the fall of meteorites in the Western parts of Jutland.

The fireball was observed by several witnesses. The fireball was captured on cameras, that watch the nights sky in order to register possible meteorite falls.

Fireball over Jutland, Denmark
© Anton N. Sørensen/Orion PlanetariumThe fireball captured by a camera from the Orion Planeteriet at Jels in Jutland.
A couple of people have also heard a sonic boom in connection with the fireball. Sonic booms are rather special and unusual which makes this fireball somewhat special.

The thought that there might be recoverable meteorites is based on these sonic booms. Earlier cases of recovered meteorites have almost always been connected with the sonic booms.

The sonic booms are interesting as they can be used to narrow down where a possible meteor might have fallen. We would therefore like to hear from people, who might have heard the sonic booms over the western parts of Jutland in the night between Saturday and Sunday, says Henning Haack, lecturer at the State Museum for Natural Sciences.

Below is a video of the fireball:


Read more here

Translated by Sott

Fireball 4

Thundering boom and flash of light heard in Norfolk, England - Another overhead meteor explosion?

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File photo of a meteor fireball

Reports began coming in around 8pm after people in the Cromer and Sheringham areas took to social networks to find the cause of a number of loud bangs.

People suggested that it could have been a sonic boom or even a meteor fireball. However, many north Norfolk residents confirmed later that it was a thunder and lightning storm.

Chris Bell, of the University of East Anglia-based Weatherquest, said on Twitter at 8.40pm: "I can confirm...thunderstorms on-going across Norfolk at the moment."

Jono Read, of Holt, on Twitter added: "We had one large flash of lightning followed by an unusually loud bang of thunder. Bit of rain and all is quiet again."

Coral Lewis added: "It's thundering really loudly here in Cromer. I've got a perfect view! It lasted for ages! Shook our flat. It's gone out to sea now."

Kate Royall, from Cromer, added: "I only heard it once, it was really bizarre, like a low lying boom!"

Fireball 5

Mysterious booms worry Florida residents

Mystery Boom
© Bay News 9The mysterious booms have been heard in Kissimmee, St. Cloud and as far away as Haines City in Polk County.

Osceola County -- It's the bump in the night that has Osceola County residents asking each other "Did you hear that?"

We've gotten email after email, not to mention Facebook posts, from people who say they're hearing a boom around the same time every night. Not even the Osceola County Sheriff's Office has an answer.

"It was like a 'BOOM!' Then, the windows kinda shook," said Kissimmee resident Daryl Mercado.

"A loud BOOM sound...like they throwed a bomb," explained young AJ.

His mother, Lori Chezem, said, "Loud booms. It reminds me of when the space shuttle used to come in -- the Sonic Boom."

Kids and adults alike are talking about it. But what exactly is it?

Chezem is in St. Cloud and was one of the people who emailed us about these mysterious booms. We're also hearing from people in Kissimmee and even as far away as Haines City in Polk County.

Fireball 5

Meteoites touch down in South Korea: 9kg rock hits greenhouse

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© Reuters
A corner of South Korea is in the grip of a frenzied hunt for valuable space souvenirs, following a rare meteor shower there last week.

Hundreds of people have been scouring hills and rice paddies for meteorites near the southeastern city of Jinju after the shower on March 9, some of them armed with GPS devices and metal detectors, according to media reports.

"Media hype claiming that chondrites (a type of meteorite) could bring you a bonanza sparked the fever for space rocks," an official from the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea (CHAK) told AFP.

Local greenhouse owners have put up signs warning off trespassers after the first large chunk of rock, weighing around nine kilograms (20 pounds), was found in a greenhouse near Jinju.

Fireball 3

Raining Fireballs: Ontario residents asked to check their backyard for space rocks after meteorite crashes down near St. Thomas

Ontario fireball
© Western University, the Physics and Astronomy Department The space event near St. Thomas captured by Western University
University researchers say at least one chunk of a meteorite may have landed in southwestern Ontario this week - and more rocks may also be waiting to be found.

Astronomers from Western University are asking people to check their properties for any remnants of the basketball-sized meteor they say likely came down near St. Thomas, Ont.

In Canada, landowners who find a meteorite on their property own it - but the researchers say they'd love to have a look at what they call a "Rosetta Stone" of scientific information.

Peter Brown, who specializes in the study of meteors and meteorites, says a "fairly bright" fireball was detected March 18 by Western's network of all-sky cameras as it passed over southern Ontario.

Researcher Phil McCausland says any pieces will likely be the size of a golf ball or a baseball and probably came down somewhere to the north or west of St. Thomas.

Fireball 4

Meteor blazes across New Zealand's sky, 19 March 2014

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File photo of a meteor fireball

A man who saw a meteor blazing across the New Plymouth sky last night was about to ''fall to his knees and pray'' that it wasn't the end of the world.

Anthony Warren said he was standing outside his David St home smoking a cigarette when he saw the fiery ball with a long trail light up the city sky at 1.28am.

''It was pretty scary. I was hoping no more were going to fall.''

He said he had seen it begin in the south near Paritutu and travel north before it burned out.

''I ran out onto the field to try and see where it went.''

Thinking it was a comet, he looked in the phone book for the number for the observatory because he wanted to name it.

''I would've called it Zykodia, which is my daughter's name.''

Fireball 5

Spectacular meteor fireball turns night into day in southern France, northwestern Italy, western Switzerland - 13 March 2014 [VIDEO]

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© LunarMeteoriteHunter / Google EarthSwitzerland/Italy/France meteor, approx. 22:00, 13 March 2014
SOTT.net received several reports of this meteor event from eyewitnesses in southern France and Switzerland. In addition, the following security camera video footage confirms the time reported by the eyewitnesses.

As seen from southern France, filmed over St Laurent du var (next to Cannes) at 10pm: