Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 5

Weird fireball falls from the sky in Yucatan, Mexico

Eduardo Cabrera
brazilweirdnews.blogspot.com
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 13:19 UTC
Image
© Eduardo Cabrera
September, 22 - 2013. Sunday, 8:30 pm. At Ichmul, Chikindzonot city, south of Yucatan peninsula - Merida's state, in a poor community where live some remnants of mayas, the fall of a fireball that came from the sky, scared and still is scaring the dwellers of the place.

The locals were waiting to see a show of small circus in the center of the community, when they suddenly, all saw an object in flames falling at high speed.

Image
© Eduardo Cabrera
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Fireball 4

Large fireball seen streaking over Delaware

Terri Sanginiti
Delaware Online
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:06 UTC
A large fireball was seen streaking through the night sky by at least 21 people - three of them from Delaware - about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses reported the sighting on the American Meteor Society's website.

Middletown-area resident Dan Foraker said he also spotted it, and described the meteor as a "perfectly round ball of fire."

Foraker, who lives near Drawyers Creek off Shallcross Lake Road, said he was sitting outside talking on the phone with his son about the Redskins game, when all of a sudden a ball of fire appeared over the line of trees.

"I've never seen anything that big. I didn't know if there was a plane going down," he said. "It lasted for about six seconds and went down behind the trees. I didn't hear a sound, but I was waiting to hear a loud boom."

Foraker said he called police and a county officer showed up later and said that the state police helicopter was the only aircraft that had been up in the air about that time.

A supervisor with the New Castle County fire board today said no calls were received about that time and no one was dispatched on any calls for a plane down.
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Fireball

Another meteor "fireball" Saturday night over Indiana

Davis Nolan, Meteorologist
WKRN.com
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 08:30 UTC
Image
The picture you see is of a meteor "Fireball" over Indiana on Friday night. You might remember that just last week there was one seen over Canada. And then, just last night (Saturday), many News 2 viewers in Middle Tennessee saw another one. This one was also seen over Alabama according to Twitter posts I have seen.

My good friend James Spann in Birmingham says that Bill Cook from NASA says that this was the 15th significant one this month and that is "very unusual". It's hard to catch video like this on your phone because the meteor goes by too fast. The pictures of the Indiana and Canada meteors were taken by police "dash board cams".

A video of Saturday night's from James Spann's Google+ page:
Another video of the fireball over Alabama last night... captured by Melanie Witt... who writes...

"I am a band parent of the Cleveland High School Golden Force Marching Band and videoed the meteor at the band competition in Weaver, Al. We first thought the band playing on the field had shot something into the sky as part of their show but everyone decided it was a meteor. It was an amazing sight!!!"

UPDATE:

A video of last night's "fireball" taken over Alabama and relayed by James Spann of ABC 33/40 Birmingham. He also got some more comments from Bill Cooke, of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville:
"I would say the fireball originated in North Alabama and moved east-southeast, finally burning up over Atlanta (we had a bright one over that city 7 days ago!). The video shows that it was about the brightness of the crescent Moon, which means we are talking about a meteoroid a few inches in diameter. hard to be more precise without a speed measurement."
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Fireball 5

Russian scientists report asteroid near-miss


RIA Novosti
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 22:56 UTC
Asteroid
© Moscow State University/MASTER/Vladimir LipunovAsteroid detected by Sternberg Astronomical Institute.
Moscow - A 15-meter (approximately 50 feet) asteroid, similar to the one that exploded above Russia in February, was detected hours before it nearly missed the Earth over the weekend, Russian scientists said.

Vladimir Lipunov of the Moscow State University and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute said on Sunday a network of telescopes operated by his team recorded a celestial body approaching the planet.

"[The asteroid] was discovered on Friday night by our station near Lake Baikal and nine hours later it flew within 11,300 kilometers of the Earth surface, below the orbit of geostationary satellites. It was about 15 meters in size," he said.

The scientists originally thought that it could be a man-made object, such as a spent rocket booster, but rejected the idea when they couldn't find a match in the space junk catalogue.

Lipunov said his team had notified the International Astronomical Union of their discovery, but it is yet to be confirmed.

A meteorite exploded on February 15 above the Urals city of Chelyabinsk. The meteorite weighed 10,000 tons prior to the explosion, according to expert estimates. About 1,500 people were injured in the blast, most of them by glass shattered by the shockwave.
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Fireball 3

"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013


Associated Press
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 17:02 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/The Stamford Advocate, Lindsay PerryA firefighter walks through the burning rubble of a six-bedroom house on Webbs Hill Road in Stamford, Conn. that exploded on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013.
Stamford, Connecticut - An explosion leveled a six-bedroom house on Tuesday, scattering debris hundreds of feet away, but nobody was inside and there were no serious injuries, authorities said.

The homeowner was outside near a pool house on the property in Stamford, about 35 miles northeast of New York City, at the time of the explosion, said the town's director of public safety, Ted Jankowski. The homeowner was alert and conscious when emergency crews arrived, and he was taken to a hospital for observation.

Next-door neighbor Charlene Heffernan said she heard the blast.

"I thought a plane hit my house," Heffernan told The Stamford Advocate. "I have never heard anything so loud. My house shook from the top down."

Mayor Michael Pavia said the cause of the blast was under investigation but authorities suspected gas was involved. He said a 500-gallon propane gas tank on site was under a controlled burn Tuesday afternoon.

Comment: Reported on the same day:

Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013

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Fireball 2

Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013


Associated Press
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 16:54 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/The Blade, Dave ZapotoskyFirefighters douse hotspots following a house explosion Tuesday, Sept.17, 2013 in Stony Ridge, Ohio. Neighbors said the blast woke them up around 5 a.m. and that they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo. The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard. The explosion left one person dead and three injured.
Stony Ridge, Ohio - An explosion leveled a home in northwest Ohio Tuesday morning, killing two people, injuring three and scattering debris up to a quarter-mile.

Investigators were looking into whether a leaking liquid propane tank near the home's attached garage sparked the blast, said Troy Township Fire Chief Randy Woodruff.

The tank was toppled over, and Woodruff said it was too soon to pinpoint the cause of the explosion.

Neighbors said the explosion woke them up around 5 a.m. and they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo.

One man died after being taken to a hospital, and the body of a woman was found in the rubble about six hours after the explosion.

When emergency responders arrived, four people were found outside the house, the Wood County Sheriff's Office said. Five people - all of them adults - lived in the home. Neighbors said they were a man, his wife, their two sons and a fiance.

Names of the victims were not released.

The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard and across farm fields. Piles of insulation, mattresses, window screens and a door littered the yard. All that was left standing was a basketball hoop along the driveway.

Comment: Reported on the same day:

"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013

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Fireball 4

Multiple fireballs over U.S.: Hundreds of witnesses report fireball events from 30 states, September 22-23

Fire In The Sky News
YouTube
Mon, 23 Sep 2013 00:00 UTC
Hundreds of reports of fireballs from 30 states! Also, Japan had a fireball flurry on September 18th, 19th and 20th. Truly amazing things are happening in our skies!

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Fireball 2

Meteor that exploded over Ohio was accompanied by loud sounds


WKYC.com
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 18:38 UTC
The skies over Ohio lit up late Friday night when a meteor exploded over Columbus.


Comment: In fact, there may very well have been some damage, damage that, if connected, resulted in two fatalities:

Elderly couple dies in Ohio house fire
Peebles - A fire at a southern Ohio farmhouse has claimed the lives of an elderly couple.

Authorities say the fire broke out late Friday in Peebles, Adams County. That's about 60 miles south of Columbus.

Family members say 82-year-old Lyle Lambert and 79-year-old Jayne Lambert were killed in the fire. Their daughter Karen Lambert tells WLWT-TV the couple was married 53 years.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating.


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Fireball 2

U.S. sees another bright fireball on September 27

Deborah Byrd
EarthSky Org
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 15:44 UTC
Meteor Sightings
© American Meteor Society“Heat map” September 27, 2013 fireball sightings.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has reported at least 373 reports of another bright fireball - a very bright meteor, likely a small chunk of natural incoming space debris - over the U.S. last night (September 27, 2013). These reports followed a similar event over approximately the same area the day before (September 26).

The AMS called the coincidence of two bright fireballs, or bright meteors, spotted over approximately the same region on consecutive days "surprising." Witnesses from Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia reported a bright light moving across the night sky on September 27 at around 11:33 p.m. local time, according to the AMS.

Fireball might sound ominous, but it is just the word astronomers use to mean bright meteor. As seen from a whole-Earth perspective, fireballs are seen often. It's unusual to have two appear on consecutive nights over the same region, however.
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Fireball 5

Friday night sky lights up with possible meteor over Ohio

Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 23:19 UTC
The Columbus area was bathed in the eerie light of an apparent exploding meteor that streaked through the sky late Friday night.

A brilliant flash of light about 11:30 p.m. prompted some people to call Columbus police to ask about its origin while officers chatted about the event over their radios. Employees at WBNS-TV (Channel 10) said they couldn't keep up with the phone calls they were getting from people who had spotted the streaking light.

Dozens of people took to Twitter to report they had seen a brilliant meteor tracing across the night sky. "Like a shooting star, but 500x brighter," one person wrote.

"I saw it in Hilliard. Sky lit up like lightning and then saw the vapor trail change from blue to purple to orange for 20 to 30 seconds," wrote another.

Others reported that the meteor and its accompanying flash of light were seen over a wide area, including south of Columbus in Hocking and Ross counties.

There also were reports of it being seen in other states in the Midwest, the East and parts of Canada.
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