Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 2

Bolide streaks over western France


Sott.net
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 06:51 UTC
Bolide captured over western France
© Tioga Gulon, Boam Meteore, AstroChinonBolide captured over western France on October 5, 2017.
A very bright meteor fireball, known as a bolide, steaked over the night sky of Indre-et-Loire in western France on October 5, 2017 reports REFORME (Réseau Français d'ObseRvation de Météores).

The bolide, which was as bright as the full moon, was recorded by REFORME's all-sky camera..
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Fireball

South Carolina home hit by meteorite

Carla Field
WYFF NBC
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 10:23 UTC
Meteorite
© Melanie Casselman
Clemson astrophysicists have visually confirmed that an unusual rock that hit a Pawley Island home and ended up in a yard is meteorite from outer space.

"I looked at my house and my windows, and everything looked fine, so I just walked right on by," Casselman said. "I didn't even pick it up."

The next day, Casselman's partner, Dennis Suszko, found a strange piece of rock in the front yard, and she remembered seeing a similar rock in the side yard.

"These were odd-looking rocks," Casselman said. "It wasn't like anything around it, and I jokingly said, 'We must've had a meteor shower last night.'"

As they looked for more pieces of rock, they noticed a chunk of shingles missing from the eaves of their roof.

"We're not positive, but we believe that's where the meteorite first struck before landing in the yard," Casselman said.
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Meteor

Meteor fireball seen in sky before fire breaks out in New Hampshire mountains

Ray Brewer
WMUR
Wed, 04 Oct 2017 09:19 UTC
New Hampshire fire
© Notch HostelThis photo from Tuesday night, Oct. 3, 2017, shows the fire burning on the Dilly Cliffs near Woodstock.
A major forest fire continued to burn Wednesday morning in the White Mountains.

The fire has been burning for more than 24 hours near Lost River Gorge in Woodstock.

The fire was first reported about 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Woodstock's fire chief said the night before, a man said he was driving in the area when he spotted a meteor streaking across the sky.

Officials are not sure if the meteor, which is referred to as a meteorite if it reaches the ground and survives the impact, caused the fire. They said they have found no evidence of a meteorite, but they said it is considered a possible cause.

Comment: See also: Did a meteorite cause a brush fire in New Hampshire?

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Fireball 2

Three meteor fireballs explode in the night sky over China

Tracy You
Daily Mail
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:16 UTC
Fast and powerful: The fireball apparently overpowered the brightness of the full moon as it travelled across the sky over Yunnan Province, south-west China, at a great speed
Fast and powerful: The fireball apparently overpowered the brightness of the full moon as it travelled across the sky over Yunnan Province, south-west China, at a great speed
Residents observing the full moon in China yesterday were stunned to see three meteorites exploding in the night sky.

The giant fireballs were said to flash across the sky over Shangri-La County in Yunnan Province, south-west China.

An eyewitness told MailOnline that two of the meteorites were small and one was large. Together, they lit up the sky for around five seconds.

Various clips on the Chinese social media, including one posted by Sina, show one meteorite turning into a great ball of fire as it quickly moved across the sky.

A worker at the Desti Youth Park Hostel in Shangri-La said he and many guests at the hostel saw the burning rocks last night at around 8pm.

The worker said they were sitting in the backyard of the hostel observing the full moon to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional festival in China symbolised by the round, full moon.

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Fireball

NASA captures meteor fireball over Arizona, sonic boom picked up by seismometer

NASA Meteor Watch
Facebook
Tue, 26 Sep 2017 17:12 UTC
Fireball over Tucson, AZ
© NASA Meteor Watch
Our all sky cameras at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Mount Lemmon Observatory, and the MMT Observatory captured footage of a brilliant fireball that occurred over southern Arizona at 8:32 PM Mountain Daylight Time on September 23rd (2017 September 24 03:27 UTC).

The meteor originated 49 miles above the desert southwest of Tucson, Arizona. It travelled at about 29,300 miles per hour for 12 seconds, passing almost directly over the Tortolita suburb of Tucson, before disrupting 20 miles above the desert approximately 8 miles north of the town of Oracle, Arizona.

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Fireball 2

Fragmenting meteor fireball observed over the Netherlands


Sott.net
Fri, 22 Sep 2017 07:46 UTC
Netherlands meteor map
© AMS/google (screen capture)Observers map - Event 3301-2017
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received over 400 reports about a fireball seen over the Netherlands as well as neighbouring Belgium, France and Germany (Grand Est, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Limburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Groningen, Gelderland, Vlaanderen, Zeeland, Zuid-Holland, Friesland, Flanders, Utrecht, England, Drenthe, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bruxelles, Overijssel, Niedersachsen, North Holland, Bayern, Flevoland and Île) on Thursday, September 21st 2017 around 19:01 UT.

From De Limburger, "Just after nine I saw a huge meteor above Heerlen," says Martijn Dassen. "A very fierce fireball that pulled a track behind. I did not hear any noise, but the sky lighted up. The fireball seemed to break in two before disappearing from my field of view behind the APG building."

The fragmenting meteor fireball was captured by the Leiden Observatory telescope.

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Fireball 4

Green meteor fireball spotted over Montgomery, Alabama

Andrew J. Yawn
Montgomery Advertiser
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 16:53 UTC
Green Meteor
© Andrew Yawn/Montgomery AdvertiserA home security system catches a glimpse of a piece of a comet that burned bright across the South Monday night.
Was it a dragon? A sign of the apocalypse? A warning shot from North Korea?

No, that bright, green fireball seen streaking over Montgomery early Tuesday morning was just your average piece of celestial space rock burning up in the atmosphere, according to Bill Cooke with the NASA Meteor Environment Office.

Cooke said the fireball was a fragment of a comet measuring about 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Igniting as it hurtled into the atmosphere about 54 miles above Highway 84 in Conecuh County, the fireball flew well over the speed limit at approximately 83,000 mph.

It was spotted by three NASA cameras located in Georgia and North Carolina at approximately 3 a.m., but perhaps the best footage was captured by one Montgomery resident's doorbell camera. Posted on Facebook Tuesday morning and shared with the Montgomery Advertiser, the video shows the comet briefly and brilliantly blazing by Alabama's capital, obviously late for something.
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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball fragments over Maryland and Pennsylvania

Mike Hankey
American Meteor Society
Sun, 17 Sep 2017 21:38 UTC
AMS Event #3210-2017
© AMSWitness Location and first estimated ground trajectory – AMS Event #3210-2017
The AMS has received over 125 reports so far about of a fireball event seen above Maryland and Pennsylvania on September 17th, 2017 around 00:59am EDT (04:59 Universal Time). The fireball was seen primarily from Maryland and Pennsylvania but was also seen from New York, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts.

Eight witnesses near the Mason Dixon Line reported delayed boom sounds a few moments after the fall.

AMS Operations Manager Mike Hankey has been testing a new Raspberry PI based fireball camera system in his front yard for several months and this is certainly the best fireball video he has captured to date. The camera system is comprised of 6 cameras each pointing in a different direction. The light from the fireball was actually recorded on 5 of the 6 cameras. 2 cameras with slightly overlapping fields of view directly caught the meteor.

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Fireball

Very bright daytime meteor fireball explodes over Mauritius and Reunion Island


Sott.net
Sun, 17 Sep 2017 05:52 UTC
Meteor fireball explodes over Mauritius and Reunion
© YouTube/TéléPlus (screen capture)
A very bright meteor fireball exploded over Mauritius and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, September 14, 2017 around 18.00 pm local time.

A facebook report said, "I saw it was in Grand Bay. A meteor that enter Mauritius skies. A like a firework in full speed at about 6: 07 pm today." Some observers say the phenomenon was accompanied by a loud noise. After fragmenting the bolide left a smoky trail.

According to Thierry, a Reunion Island resident, "I saw a kind of ball passing in the sky, it lasted about 7 seconds, with a very straight trajectory ... It was multicolored in fact, it was a large ball of mauve color, blue , with a white, yellow streak." About four minutes after seeing this phenomenon, Thierry describes hearing an explosion before experiencing a tremor.

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Fireball 2

Two bright meteor fireballs recorded over Spain on consecutive nights


Sott.net
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 05:52 UTC
Meteor fireball over Spain
© YouTube/Meteors (screen capture)
Two bright meteor fireballs were recorded over Spain on consecutive nights by the SMART Project framework.

The first meteor fireball was recorded on the night of 11 September 2017 at 1:26 local time (23:26 universal time on September 10) and began at a height of about 80 km and ended at an altitude of around 30 km. It was recorded by the SMART Project framework from the astronomical observatories of La Hita (Toledo, Spain), Sevilla and Huelva.

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