Fireball spotted in the skies of southern Italy - February 19, 2013

A few minutes ago, at 19:18, a bright fireball was spotted in the skies of southern Italy. The first reports Strait from Messina reported a fireball on the Ionian Sea , with director from north to south, greenish and very bright magnitude.

We are awaiting further reports that allow us to understand the scope of the sighting.

After what happened in Russia, where a real asteroid 17 meters caused 1,500 wounded, This term is much more common.

A fireball , or meteor meteoroid scientifically defined, is a piece of rock the size of a small stone, which enters our atmosphere at very high speeds, which in certain circumstances may be more than the 260,000 km / h. The vision of these bodies is characterized by a ball of fire falling from the sky quickly, leaving behind a trail of light lasting a few seconds, and that only in very rare cases assumes a hazard similar to what happened in the region of Chelyabinsk.

Can take various colors from white to red, green to orange. In certain circumstances may even explode, creating spectacular light flashes (called flares) and / or change color, creating a memorable show for lucky observers. These phenomena fact can not be predicted, and being often have unpredictable occasional observers entirely. There are also very rare circumstances where the cars also produce a roar caused by the explosion, like distant thunder.

Not very bright meteors can be observed in any night of the year, provided that we are in a dark place and away from light pollution. The trail becomes visible as the friction with air molecules heat them up to incandescence, creating light.

Burning generally at an altitude of 80 km in our ionosphere and when they take a very high brightness is defined as " fireballs ", a term commonly used by fans but not accepted by the scientific community, which does not classify these objects according to their brightness. Not all meteors are associated with real swarms, and in this case we are talking about meteors sporadic , random specks of dust in the solar system that orbit around the Sun, and that may end up in an unpredictable way on the path of our planet.

Yet, most of the meteoroids that reach the ground, and then take the name of meteorites belong to this category.

Probably this is because these fragments belonged to asteroids now disintegrated, while swarms represent the remains of ancient periodic comets that travel through the solar system. We are facing an increasingly frequent event or is the result of normal? Without a doubt the phenomenon of meteors has fascinated observers of the sky since the dawn of time, and every day the Earth's atmosphere receives milgiaia of rocky bodies, the size of grains of sand and rocks a little older, who are attracted by 'gravitational pull of the Earth.

So that we may draw a more complete picture, you need to provide some basic guidelines, such as the exact date and time, location, and the brightness of the event, the trajectory, morphology, color, duration, persistence of 'any trail, any flare or explosions heard.

The observation of large fireballs should be always referred to collection centers or to groups astrophiles closer, in order to provide valuable elements for their study.

Source: Meteo Web