Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 4

Bright green fireball caught on video from UK and Holland, 18 January 2014

Image
© LunarMeteoriteHunter / Google EarthUK / Holland / Belgium Fireball Meteor/s, approx. 20:20 GMT, 18 January 2014
Initial Meteor Sighting Reports

18 January 2014 - Jim, Almere, The Netherlands 21:32 GMT
1, 2 seconds top to bottom. Quick drop, rainbow trail, bright flash. Exceptionally bright black trail in the sky after 3 minutes. White colour, impressive.
18 January 2014 - Tim North, Shields, UK 20:18 approx
2 seconds duration. Facing east, track Northwest to Southeast over sea, to right of Moon. Barium green, small amount white. Slightly brighter than the moon. No fragmentation, just one discontinuity. Have CCTV video available.
18 January 2014 - James Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, UK 20:00 UTC approx
2 seconds duration. Seen to the east of my location, falling to Earth in southerly direction. Green trail, twice as bright as Sirius.

All 43 meteor sighting reports can be seen here.

Fireball 3

Fifty injured as Norway heritage village burns

Image
Over 20 houses have been destroyed and 50 people injured after a fire broke out in the heritage village of Lærdalsøyri on the Sognefjord, north of Bergen.

"It is a disaster. For those who are there it is an inferno. There are flames and smoke everywhere and a powerful wind that makes the situation very difficult," Lærdal's deputy mayor and chief physician Geir Berge Overland told NRK.

According to a press release from Lærdal Municipality, at least 23 buildings had been destroyed by 7am on Sunday morning, three of which are in the historical conservation area, treasured for its unique wooden buildings.

Comment: Possibly related to?
Falling meteor spotted over the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, UK

Probably it is a small rock from space, says Alex Scholten of the Public Observatory in Gelderland Bussloo.

From virtually all over the country arrived Saturday in reports about the striking orb. Which was probably caused by a meteorite. "A boulder or rock block. An object the size of a football, or probably a little higher, "says Scholten.

According to the employee of the Public Observatory, they can light up as they enter the atmosphere. "They start at high altitude to burn. Sometimes all at 80 kilometers, "explains Scholten. Therefore, the orb was about a quarter past nine on Saturday's show, is probably little more about. "If a piece of rock is about, that's probably ended up in the North Sea."

A photo and a video of the alleged meteorite shows a bright ball of light with a long tail. Twitterers responded elated: "Unbelievable! Just for the first meteorite with a green tail seen on the A16 between Breda and Dordrecht. Pretty impressive! "Wrote a motorist.

Other twittering Dutch responded elated: "Cool enough, meteorite long green / blue tail of a second or 5. About Ketelbrug. "Others admitted to having the orb mistaken for fireworks. Some people also say to have heard. Two loud bangs.

Also in Germany, England and Scotland, the fireball was seen.
Video here

Reports here


Meteor

There is an undeniable and dramatic increase in meteor fireballs, but we're still being lied to: ISS delays planned orbit raise due to "space junk threat"

Image
© Reuters / NASA / Handout via ReutersInternational Space Station
The International Space Station's manoeuvre to raise orbit has been delayed by two days over the threat of collision with space junk that could severely damage the station.

The ISS orbit was scheduled to be raised by nearly two kilometers to ensure safe docking of the Russian Progress M-22M resupply spacecraft on February 6. The manoeuvre was to be carried out to compensate for Earth's gravity. The delay was the initiative of the United States.

The new date and time of the manoeuvre will be announced on Friday, while the preliminary date has been set for January 18, according to Moscow mission control center.

More than 800 pieces of space debris are situated on the same orbit with the ISS and are a potential threat to the station, according to NASA's data from October.

When the ISS faces the threat of a collision with a piece of space junk, the US, Russia and their partners usually order a debris avoidance manoeuvre. This occurs about once a year on average, according to NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office.

Comment: It would be really great, if NASA would stop insulting our intelligence by repeating the same ridiculous lies. The fact is, that
2013 saw a dramatic increase in meteor fireballs. More so, recently, USA and Canada experienced several meteor outbursts and fireballs raining down on their heads, with some of the falls probably resulting in wildfires. But NASA asks you to move along and not to pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

SOTT.net sez 'BS alert!'


Breaking: Meteor outburst over 6 Northeastern U.S. states - Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine (so far...)
'Fireball' seen streaking across sky over Northampton; reports from all over Northeastern U.S.
Take cover! Meteor fireballs rain down across U.S. - Outbreaks of wildfires reported




Fireball 5

What was that loud boom that shook homes in Rock Island, Illinois?

Rock Island
© Wikimedia Commons
What was that boom? That's what many people in Rock Island were saying Tuesday morning, January 14, 2014.

People from all over Rock Island, as well as Milan and Moline, say they heard it around 6:50 a.m.

Questions came in from Twitter, Facebook as well as phone calls.

Did you hear that? They said they heard a loud boom sound that shook their house and rattled things hanging on the walls.

What made the sound?

We made a lot of calls to try to track down its origin.

We called the Rock Island Arsenal, fire departments, quarries and anyone we could think of who may have the answer.

Comment: Nope, it was probably yet another overhead meteor explosion.


Fireball

'Fireball' seen streaking across sky over Northampton; reports from all over Northeastern U.S.

Image
© Sott.net
John and Marianna Connolly of Williamsburg were going on a stroll in Look Park at dusk when they were shocked to see a "fireball" streak across the sky overhead.

"I thought it was fireworks at first, but it was way up there," John Connolly said Sunday, soon after seeing the object at about 5:10 p.m. "It was way brighter than any meteorite I've seen."

Similar reports from people all over New England, New York and New Jersey flooded Twitter and the website of the National Meteor Society soon afterward. Of the 90 reports of the bright object on the website, called a meteorite or fireball by many, 17 were from Massachusetts, including one from Amherst.

Connolly said the fireball was about five times bigger and hundreds of times brighter than most meteorites he has seen. He said it glowed blue and orange as it traveled for three or four seconds northeast across the sky before disappearing behind clouds.

Whatever it was, he said, "it was in the atmosphere for sure, it was burning up."

'Fireball' seen streaking across sky over Northampton; reports from all over Northeast

He noted that it was not completely dark out at the time, and usually meteors are only visible when it is completely dark. "This was very bright, as bright as the moon," he said.

Neither he or his wife heard any noise when they saw the fireball, he said.

A report from Rollingsford, N.H., said the fireball appeared to be about the size of a quarter when held at arm's length and had a trail of sparks. Others commented that it left a green trail and appeared low in the sky.

Fireball 5

SOTT Focus: 2013 saw a dramatic increase in meteor fireballs - What does 2014 have in store?

Fireball City
So many new comets were discovered last year that astronomers named 2013 the 'Year of the Comet'. Less popularlized was the noticeable increase in fireball meteors observed in the Earth's atmosphere. Another year has passed and fireballs are still raining down like never before, with their rate apparently increasing exponentially.

SOTT.net has been cataloguing fireball events since 2002, and a couple of other websites have sprung up since then, but in general the lack of record-keeping and media coverage of this phenomenon is shocking, especially given how extraordinary the phenomenon is (or rather, was - apparently it's 'normal' now!) and whatever it may portend for civilization, sometime in the future, if not immediately.

One relatively new resource is the American Meteor Society's 'Fireball Logs', a database where eyewitnesses have been submitting reports of fireball events in the U.S. The AMS does subsequent checks to verify events with the All-Sky Fireball Camera Network set up by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) and other observation networks. Their stats are remarkable, yet they do fit with what we've noticed at SOTT.net in recent years: the numbers just keep going up and up, and at an ever increasing rate!

Using the AMS data, which begins in 2005, I've created the following tables to give readers a visual for what's going on. Check this out:

Fireball Increase 3.0
© SOTT

Comment: See also:




Fireball 2

SOTT Focus: Take cover! Meteor fireballs rain down across U.S. - Outbreaks of wildfires reported

Reports are pouring in from across the United States of multiple meteor fireballs streaking across the sky yesterday evening, January 12th, 2014, from approximately 5pm through 7pm, Eastern Standard Time. Over 170 observation reports were submitted to the American Meteor Society website, in addition to dozens of reports submitted on the Lunar Meteorite Hunters website, from eyewitnesses in northeastern and western states.

Streaks appearing on NOAA's online radar service apparently indicate that the fireballs came in from a northeast-southwest direction:

Image
© NOAAThe Pacific coast of the US earlier today. Note the blue streak over Washington state and similar on the Nevada-Utah border.

Image
© NOAANote the streaks over the ocean west of Washington state and Oregon.

Comment: Update 16 January 2014

A reader sent us the link to this video report from 'Fire in the Sky News' on the above meteor 'outburst':




Fireball 4

Breaking: Meteor outburst over 6 Northeastern U.S. states - Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine (so far...)

Image
Report your meteor sightings please. Please help get the word about this event so that we might recover security camera video or cell phone captures; spread the word about this website via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, GLP, SOTT and your favorite forums; contact your local news outlets; thank you!

If you have video or photo captures please email me.

Initial Meteor Sighting Reports


12JAN2014 NorMya North Haven Connecticut 19:00:00 5 secs W-E facing North green orange white moon trail of sparks long tail of white sparks which flowed into rings of green orange into a dark ball and dissappeared

12JAN2014 Jenn New York, NY 18:45:00 4 seconds Driving easy, it was going southwest Orange Same as venus Yes, broke into 4 pieces after 3 seconds of viewing Amazing experience ... And it feel it was bigger than I expected one to be. It looked as big as a street light going pretty fast

12JAN2014 James Keene N.H 18:30 pm/eastern 3 Hrs East,continuous,West,Facing the east Large brightly glowing sporadically,traveling slowly to the west, Would shine Brighter then the stars Possible tailing You tell me what it is

12JAN2014 Suzanna Barrett Durham ct USA 17:50:00 30 sec? Left to right and down , we were facing east Orange Size and brightness of 7-8 stars together, and orange Yes Have seen tons of meteor showre before, nothing like this before

12JAN2014 Geoff Mount Vernon, NY, USA 1745H EST approx. 3-5 secs Start NNE-E Observer facing east Steady, light blue object appeared on a descending slope. No sound detected (observed from inside car with radio playing), observed an aircraft in the same line of sight heading in a northerly direction brightness comparable to Sirius No disintegration observed My heading was approx.050 degrees. Object relative bearing was approx. 300 degrees at approx. 30-degree elevation

Fireball 3

Best of the Web: Coming to a city near you soon? Chelyabinsk meteor shockwave compilation

Image
It looks like a movie, but it's not

This footage is compiled from multiple locations in Chelyabinsk, Russia when it was hit by the shockwave from an enormous overhead meteor explosion on February 15th 2013. The blast caught up with people in their offices, schools, workshops... one moment they were going about their normal day, the next...


Fireball 2

Four meteor fireball events caught on video in Japan in first week of 2014

The trend of increasing meteor fireball events continues into 2014,with 4 separate fireball events - including one daytime fireball -caught on camera by Japan's equivalent to NASA's All-Sky Camera Network.


Source: Sonotaco.jp