Fire in the SkyS


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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.''

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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:


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Fireball seen for the second day in a row over Nova Scotia, Canada

For the second day in a row, a large fireball has been seen in the sky over Nova Scotia.

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Wednesday's fireball, seen here as a streak of light in the top left corner, broke up into three or four pieces before hitting the horizon. (Nova Scotia Webcams)

CBC News reporter Phonse Jessome saw the colourful fireball in the northwestern sky above Fall River, 25 km north of Halifax, at 5:17 a.m. AT Wednesday.

He said he saw it make a long, slow entry before breaking up into three or four pieces as it reached the horizon.

"I see shooting stars on this shift [all the time]," Jessome tweeted. "This was no shooting star. Not sure what's going on up there but it looks cool."

Stephen Lukas, who lives in the Hammonds Plains area of Halifax, said he saw the light during his morning run.


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Bright fireball spotted in the sky over Atlantic Canada

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© NovaScotiaWebcams NovaScotiaWebcams.com caught this image of the fireball from Masstown, Nova Scotia.
A bright meteor 'fireball' flashed across the sky over Eastern Canada today, lighting up the pre-dawn sky and possibly even causing a sonic boom as it burned through the atmosphere.

Witnesses from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and even Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula reported seeing a bright light in the sky early this morning. From all accounts, along with the northwest-facing image captured by the Masstown, N.S. webcam, it would seem that this particular fireball was travelling from south to north.

"On my way home from a fire call in Chateau Heights around 5 a.m. this morning, I witnessed what I thought was an airplane falling from the sky," Captain Dan Roy of the Keswick Valley Fire Department, just northwest of Fredericton, N.B., told CBC News. "There were flames and sparks and then it just disappeared. Not like any [meteor] I've ever seen before."

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Second large fireball seen above Catalonia, Spain, in 2 weeks, this time on the Ides of March

Translated from Spanish by Sott.net
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The fireball was seen across the Catalan sky this last Friday.
A large fireball crossed the Catalan sky this last Friday, namely, a meteor apparently entered the atmosphere above Catalonia. Perhaps it was a harbinger of beatitudes or an ominous sign? We'll see. Let us not forget that today is the Ides of March, and that today, 2070 years ago, Julius Caesar was assassinated.

The sighting was made around 19:30 pm on Friday, especially in the lands of the Osona. Numerous observers have given their testimony, especially in social media, stating that it was a green fireball (though with a touch of red) and that it had a very intense light, crossing the sky from south to west.

This sighting is the second one of its kind recorded in Catalonia in just three weeks. On Saturday February 22, another fireball crossed the Catalan sky, as witnessed by different people who watched the meteor from different points of Gerona, Barcelona and Tarragona.

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Fireball seen across northern Italy, 13 March 2014

Translated from Italian by Sott.net

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© Mario Garberi
A green fireball crossed the skies of Northwest Italy last night, at a speed of 60,000 km per hour. Many have witnessed the passage of the "super shooting star" from Genoa to Milan, Turin and up to Parma. The sighting occurred around 10 pm local time. Scientists have reassured us that this is not a rare phenomenon.


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Photos of spectacular trail left by meteor fireball over Gloucester England, 9 March 2014

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© Sarah-Jane Stanley
Mystery objects have been seen high in the sky above Gloucester to put UFO spotters in the area on high alert.

Hucclecote mum Sarah-Jane Stanley was out walking in Churchdown on Sunday evening when she caught sight of a mysterious object plummeting towards earth.

Sarah quickly grabbed her camera to record the moment.

She said: "I didn't think anything of it and took the photo as a general sunset picture. Then my 11-year-old daughter and I realised it was moving."

"I looked through my camera lens on full zoom and it appeared to have something at the tip of it and it was clearly visible on a downward descent. The object is spinning and glowing.

"I took around 15 clear photos in all, with some exactly a minute apart, and you can see how fast it is travelling by the distance it falls on each picture.