Fire in the Sky

Fireball lights up the sky over London, Ontario

Sean Davidson
toronto.ctvnews.ca
Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:22 UTC

Video released by Western University shows a bright fireball that quickly lit up the sky over London, Ont., on Wednesday night during a Perseid event.

According to Peter Brown, a professor with the department of physics and astronomy at Western University, the fireball was travelling at around 60 km per second.

Brown says the object was only about the size of a loonie but because of its immense speed, it was visible with the naked eye from Earth for about 1.5 seconds.

"At this speed, the fireball has the same amount of energy as 400 times its weight in dynamite," Brown said.

"The fireball was bright, much brighter than Venus and any other object in the sky. It was comparable to a half moon," Brown added.

Nasa video of Perseid fireball over New Mexico

Kiran Moodley
The Independent, UK
Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:15 UTC

Perseid fireball over the skies of New Mexico

Video observed by the Nasa All Sky Fireball Network shows the Perseid fireball over the skies of New Mexico on the morning of August 12.

August 12 and 13 were the two days when the Perseid shower was set to peak, with a huge array of meteors visible. The meteor shower was not just visible in the US but across the world, including the UK, with stargzers in the Midlands and the North having the best view of the meteors as cloud cover meant visibility was limited across southern England and Scotland.

The Perseids this year coincided with a new moon - for the first time since 2007 - creating the ideal dark sky conditions.

The meteors reached their peak on Wednesday and Thursday night when over 100 per hour were produced.

Meteor fireball blazes through Chilean sky (VIDEOS)

Elepicentro.cl
Wed, 12 Aug 2015 18:52 UTC

This fireball was filmed in Antofagasta's sky, in Chile, yesterday, Tuesday 21th, 2015.

[ANOCHE] Meteorito visto desde el campamento Coposa en faenas mineras de Collahuasi al interior de #Iquique #UFO pic.twitter.com/J9fINXOdhu
— Cristian Nuñez Fica (@HombredeRadio) August 11, 2015

Look into the sky tonight for the year's best meteor show, Perseid

RT
Wed, 12 Aug 2015 10:00 UTC

August's annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak on Wednesday, with a special weather permit and perfect lunar conditions, coming just one day before the new moon.

Astronomers hope that the meteor shower, which falls in the middle of the week this year, is going to be really special. The celestial conditions will differ from last year's, when a bright moon faded the colors of the shooting stars.

Comment: A light show worth watching!

Loud explosion and large glowing object in the sky reported from Tamworth, Australia

Anna Moulder
blogs.abc.net.au
Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:22 UTC

City of Tamworth NSW, Australia

This morning, local Tamworth police took a number of phone calls reporting an explosion, houses shuddering and they posted the following on the Oxley Local Area Command Facebook Page:

"About 1.30 am on Tuesday 11th August 2015 Police received numerous calls from Tamworth residents in relation to a loud explosion heard in many different parts of Tamworth. Residents reported their houses seemed to shake with the noise. No-one was able to accurately describe a location for the explosion. No reports of fire were received. Police patrolled several areas of Tamworth in response to these calls however no damage was located.
The mystery appeared solved about 30 minutes later when a local taxi driver contacted Police and reported sighting a large glowing object in the sky trailing a green tail fall to earth somewhere to the south of Tamworth City. At this time, it is believed the explosion can be attributed to the unknown falling object, possibly a meteorite."

Intrigued, I sent this to our resident astronomer Astro Dave Reneke. He knew exactly what this was, a sonic boom, the result of a fireball from a meteor shower... quite rare, listen to the explanation here: Astro Dave with Anna Moulder on ABC NENW Breakfast

Large meteorite impacts Iran causing serious damage to Qazvin, numerous towns affected

Adonai
The Watchers
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 23:21 UTC

Officials in Iran have confirmed that a meteor has hit somewhere in the northern part of the country on July 30, 2015. The event happened a day before a very large fireball streaked over the sky of Argentina.

According to Mohammad Ali Ahani, director of Qazvin Crisis Management Staff, the meteor landed in Avaj, province of Qazvin. There are reports that some pieces of the rock have hit areas in Eshtahard, Alborz Province.

Many Iranian news agencies speak of serious damage to Qazvin, which is located not too far from the state capital, Tehran. Injured or victims have not been confirmed, but such rumors are circulating on the Internet.

Reports of damage come from multiple locations.

Iranian newspapers say the meteor was very large (could be more than two meters long) because there are numerous towns affected by the impact, with shattered windows and damaged fixtures.

Comment: See also: Meteorite hits earth in Iran

Bright flashes seen in the sky and loud bangs heard in Bundaberg, Australia

Crystal Jones
The Bundaberg NewsMail
Wed, 05 Aug 2015 16:49 UTC

Police don't know what it was, and neither do Bundaberg's firies.

But Elizabeth Ottoway says something caused her house to shake at about 8.30 Tuesday night.

Ms Ottoway said she was waiting for a friend to come over when she heard a bang.

"It sounded like it could have been something big," she said.

"It shook my house.

"It was like a dull thump."

The West Bundaberg mum said she then saw what looked like a "huge fire" that looked like it was coming from town.

"I'm not sure if it goes hand-in-hand or if it was sugar cane burning or smoke from the sugar mill," she said.

Meteor explosion caught on camera in Santa Cruz, California

Marc Donahoe
You Tube
Mon, 27 Jul 2015 23:01 UTC

While shooting some timelapses, we saw a huge bright flash in the sky. It even lit up the entire ground. We looked up and saw a huge streak across the sky of burning dust.

I did the calculations and the dust fell from the sky for at least 50 frames of my timelapse. Each exposure was 15 seconds long, so that means the burning dust fell for 12.5 minutes. CRAZY!!! This was shot at Shark Fin Cove just north of Santa Cruz on July 21st, 2015 by @PermaGrinFilms.

Meteor captured streaking through Jervis Bay sky, Australia

Robert Crawford
Illawarra Mercury
Mon, 03 Aug 2015 07:30 UTC

© Maree Clout
It’s not every day you get to see, let alone photograph, bioluminescence and then throw a meteor into the equation. But that is what Vincentia photographer Maree Clout has managed to capture.

Up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's a meteor.

And let's just throw in a bit of bioluminescence for good measure.

That's exactly what Vincentia photographer Maree Clout managed to capture at Jervis Bay last Wednesday night.

Along with Corinne Le Gall, whose superb photograph of bioluminescence on display in Jervis Bay featured in Wednesday's South Coast Register, Ms Clout spent three nights last week trying to capture the natural phenomenon.

During one of her 15-second exposures Ms Clout also managed to capture a meteor among the star laden night sky.

Nasa releases images of strange shaped asteroid that passed just 4.5 million miles from Earth last weekend

Ellie Zolfagharifard
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 17:30 UTC

This collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 1999 JD6 was collected by Nasa on July 25, 2015. The images show the rotation of the asteroid, which made its closest approach on July 24 at 9:55 p.m. PDT (12:55 a.m. EDT on July 25) at a distance of 4.5 million miles - about 19 times the distance from Earth to the moon

Nasa has captured images of a peanut-shaped asteroid as it made its closest approach to Earth last weekend.

The bizarrely-shaped asteroid appears to be what is known as a contact binary, which is an asteroid with two lobes that are stuck together.

The images show the rotation of the space rock, named 1999 JD6, which made its closest approach on July 24 at 9:55 p.m. PDT (12:55 a.m. EDT on July 25).

The asteroid remained at a distance of about 4.5 million miles (7.2 million km), or about 19 times the distance from Earth to the moon.

'Radar imaging has shown that about 15 per cent of near-Earth asteroids larger than 600 feet (180 metres), including 1999 JD6, have this sort of lobed, peanut shape,' said Lance Benner, who leads Nasa's asteroid radar research program.