Fire in the SkyS


Comet 2

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Cosmic Catastrophe, Drones and Social Hysteria

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:20 UTC
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The meteorite that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, Friday 15th Feb. 2013. Almost 1,000 people were injured and many buildings damaged.
The final tally of injured people from the overhead cometary airburst in Russia last February 15th stands at 1,500. It's a miracle no one was killed. But will we be so lucky next time? The explosion above the city of Chelyabinsk was the largest since the 1908 Tunguska airburst, also in Siberia. What are we to make of the fact that this recent blast happened 12 hours before another asteroid about twice as large was scheduled to pass Earth by in 'the closest fly-by ever'?

This week hosts Joe and Niall sat down with Jason Martin and Laura Knight-Jadczyk to discuss this freak event.

But was it really a freak event, a 'coincidence', as NASA reassured us? If they didn't see this one coming, will they see others coming? In fact, there is strong evidence that, over the course of human history, repeated cometary bombardment from space has wiped the slate clean on our little planet. These cleansing events were naturally terrifying for people who lived through them. In time, the progenitors of those who survived rebuilt civilizations anew and eventually the horrors of the past were forgotten.

Running Time: 02:14:00

Download: MP3


Comment: See also SOTT's report on the Chelyabinsk airburst: Fireball explodes over Russian city: Widespread panic and structural damage, Thousand people injured

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Fireball 3

Separate daytime fireball recorded just 250km west of Chelyabinsk, 4 days before massive overhead explosion in Russia


lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 06:49 UTC

View Fireballs Russia February 2013 in a larger map
A bright fireball was filmed in the Bashkiria sky

Online video of an unusual phenomenon in the sky, filmed from the highway between Ufa and Orenburg. The the video was shot last night, February 11, 2013, near the village of Bulgakovo in the Ufa area.

"This was a bright, luminous body, visible for long distances," said Professor Ufu, RU director of the Ufa "Planetarium", Anatoly Denisov. Have not been able to determine to what meteor shower this bolide belonged. It is possible that it did not belong to any particular shower; such fireballs are sporadic...

Source

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Fireball 5

Daytime fireball breaks up over Brazil, 20 February 2013


lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:34 UTC
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© (c) 2013 LunarMeteorite*Hunter / Google Earth
Dr. Marcelo Souza, professor of physics in Campos Dos Goytacazes, called me and reported that witnesses had just seen this event from Campos Dos Goytacazes, Vitoria, and Cabo Frio, in Rio de Janeiro State, Brasil approximately 20 minutes prior. It has now been confirmed that there was a single bolide seen by many persons in north Rio de Janeiro State, Brasil.

Campos Dos Goytacazes Brasil Sentinel Allsky Network is currently checking for video capture.

Dirk Ross, LunarMeteorite*Hunter, Tokyo, Japan, Dr. Marcelo Souza, IFF-R.J. and Sentinel Allsky established the Brasil Allsky Network, the FIRST in South America, last year.

Ross says, "This event, along with the recent Russia and other large events demonstrates that Brasil needs to take the threat of an asteroid impact more seriously and expand the Brasil Allsky Network nationwide for detection".

Ross is hoping that Sao Paulo State will soon establish the second network.

Comment: A local TV report on this daytime fireball sighting in Brazil:



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Fireball

Florida fireballs: Meteor streaks through sky in Sunshine State


Travelers Today
Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:37 UTC
Meteorite
© Wikimedia CommonsA fireball that was probably a sporadic meteor (not the one pictured) lit up the sky in Florida's East Coast on Sunday.

A meteoric fireball lit up the East Coast of Florida Sunday evening, only two days after a large meteor wreaked destruction in Russia, and a smaller fireball touched down in California.

The Florida meteor, sighted just before 6 p.m., was also tiny, experts told The Florida Times-Union.

But Thomas Webber, director of the Museum of Science and History's Bryan-Gooding Planetarium, said meteors and smaller meteorites strike the Earth "every hour of every day," so they're not rare.

But Sunday's sighting, though small, was bigger than most.

"This one wasn't grain-of-sand size, which what most of them are," Webber said to The Florida Times-Union.

"When we get something a little bigger, that maybe has a silicate coating that ablates off as it travels though the atmosphere and takes some of the heat with it, they can appear much brighter and last a lot longer."
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Fireball 2

Mystery 'loud booms' felt, heard over the Midlands, South Carolina

Tony Santaella
WLTX.com
Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:11 UTC
Columbia, SC - News19 has gotten multiple reports of loud booms in Several Midlands neighborhoods.

The reports began coming in around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.

We heard from worried residents in Sumter, Wedgefield, Manning, and Bishopville. The noise was so loud that windows rattled and homes shook.

Reports also came out of Summerton, Eastover, Mayesville, and Sandy Run.

We made several calls to try and find out what caused the sounds, and the State Emergecny Management Agency says it wasn't an earthquake.

Shaw Air Force Base hasn't reported any unusual flying activity and the Lynn Douglas with the Columbia Airport says she knows of no sonic booms in the Midlands.
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Fireball 2

Chelyabinsk meteor explosion in pictures: Videos and photos from Russia

Alexander Zaytsev
say26.com
Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:14 UTC
I happen to live 300kms away from Chelyabinsk, where a large bolide exploded earlier today. Here are all the videos I could find featuring the massive explosion and its effects.

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Comet 2

Russian meteor: Hunt for debris begins, but was it a comet?


The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:32 UTC
A race for cosmic souvenirs has begun after scientists said there were still many pieces of the meteorite that fell to earth near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk last week waiting to be found. The extraterrestrial origin of 53 rock fragments collected on the frozen surface of Lake Chebarkul was confirmed during analysis conducted by the Urals Federal University in the early hours of Monday. But this is just the start of the process of gathering the debris left by the large meteorite, which exploded on entering the earth's atmosphere and hit the ground in a series of fireballs on Friday. Viktor Grokhovsky, a member of the Russian Academy of Science's meteorite committee, has been put in charge of the scientific search operation. "There are a lot more fragments to be discovered in many other places ... it's only a matter of time," he said.

The search is being concentrated at the moment around a six-metre wide hole in Lake Chebarkul, about 50 miles from Chelyabinsk, discovered by locals shortly after the meteorite hit the ground. Military divers spent much of the weekend scouring the bottom of the lake, but were hampered by poor visibility and found nothing. Analysis of the pieces recovered so far, none of which had a diameter greater than 1cm, suggests that 10% of the meteorite was made up of iron. Traces of sulphite and the mineral olivine were also present. "It was a stone meteorite that belongs to a class of ordinary chondrite meteorites," said Grokhovsky.

Link to video: Russian meteorite: first fragment finds claimed
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Fireball

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


Unexplained Things Are Out There
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00 UTC
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© Nicola Cambareri/CataniaPhoto of the Fireball that lit up southern Italy on February 19th 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.
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Question

Is this another daytime fireball streaking over Rio de Janeiro?


YouTube
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:54 UTC
Posted on YouTube by Jaspion Santana:

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Fireball 3

'Orange and red fireballs' light up night sky in Florida


Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:00 UTC
  • The bright flare was likely a sporadic meteor, the Coast Guard said
  • One resident caught the rare sight on video
Residents in south Florida spotted something in the horizon that they described 'as orange or red fireballs in the sky,' according to officials.

Amanda Mayer, of the West Palm Beach area, told reporters that she noticed the bright flare in the night sky on Sunday and thought it was somebody flashing a light.

Mayer said she hit the record button on her camera just in time to capture the rare sight.
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© NBC6What's that? Residents in South Florida spotted something in the horizon that they described 'as orange or red fireballs in the sky'
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© NBC6
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© NBC6
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