Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 4

'Green flash' spotted in the skies above Nottinghamshire, UK

Joseph Locker
Nottinghamshire Live
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 11:36 UTC
Fireball - stock image
Stock image
A mystery 'green flash' was spotted over Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire on Tuesday afternoon.

Dozens of people took to social media to talk about the unidentified flying object in the sky between 4pm and 5pm.

"I've just seen a bright light streak across the sky going Northwards in Beeston," said one user on the Beeston Updated page. "It wasn't a firework or aircraft."

Debbie Pickard, of Ilkeston in Derbyshire, said she saw "three flashes of green light" as she looked out of her office window during the evening on January 8.

The 37-year-old principal added: "It was as if something shot through the houses. It did not look very high and it looked like it was travelling horizontally.

"I checked the range that drones could travel, as I heard a lot of talk about it in Beeston, which is a good few miles away, so it couldn't have been that.
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Seismograph

Mystery 'sonic' booms are hitting Desert Hot Springs, Southern California, almost daily (Update)

Vince Marino
KMIR
Wed, 29 Nov 2017 13:43 UTC
Desert Hot Springs booms

A big mystery is surrounding Desert Hot Springs tonight after a series of powerful explosions has rocked the city. They shake windows and some residents describe them as small earthquakes.

The blasts began a couple of months ago and as recently as Monday night, the big booms have been shaking the foothill community.


Comment: They've been regularly heard throughout Southern California, along with many other parts of the US, off and on for some years now.


In a city of 27,000 people, no one knows what they are or where they are coming from. But they sure do hear them and feel them.

"They're like a big explosion. Totally like boom!" said Desert Hot Springs resident Regina Robinson.

Almost every evening big blasts rock several areas of the city. The Desert Hot Springs Police has received call after call. Everyone saying the same thing.

Comment: That strongly suggests something non-local, either atmospheric or deep underground. We suspect that most of these booms, particularly in an earthquake-prone areas like SOCAL, are seismic in origin.

Update:

On December 24th, Brian Blueskye of the CV Independent reported that residents of Desert Hot Springs are still hearing these baffling booms:
It's been a while since I've personally heard one, but other residents are still reporting them, often leading to discussions among the Desert Hot Springs Neighborhood Group on Facebook. People are demanding answers from Desert Hot Springs Chief of Police Dale Mondary.

Unfortunately, Mondary doesn't have any.

"Most of (the booms) don't get called into the police department at all," Mondary said. "I just notice them on social media when I'm tagged in those posts."

Mondary said he has no idea what's causing them.

"We have not been able to pinpoint a specific area," he said. "Honestly, part of it relates to our geographical location: We're surrounded by a mountain range, and the sound reverberates. People will call and say, 'I heard it right here,' or they post on social media, 'I heard it right here.' Then across the town, someone will say, 'No, I heard it from right here.' So that's obviously part of our problem. When we go and check these areas out, we find absolutely nothing-no signs of any explosives going off."


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Binoculars

Mysterious 'explosion' heard in southern Hertfordshire, UK

Chris Flanagan
Welwyn Hatfield Times
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 16:13 UTC
Mystery boom in Potters Bar, UK
© pbhistory.co.uk
Described by some as sounding like an "explosion", it was heard by residents in Cranborne Road, Southgate Road, Sunnybank Road, Oakmere and Little Heath, with one person claiming it even reached St Albans.

A police spokeswoman told the Welwyn Hatfield Times that they had received no official reports last night.

Some people claimed on social media that it may have been a sonic boom, but a Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed no operations were being held in the area last night.

Members of the public also said they had spotted a cloud of smoke near Hatfield Business Park, but it is not known whether this was anything to do with the loud bang.
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Attention

Mysterious house-shaking 'boom' cracks across northern Indiana (again)

Aimee Ambrose
Goshen News
Sun, 06 Jan 2019 15:49 UTC
Mysterious boom in northern Indiana
© Stuart Meade
Some felt their houses shake, some heard windows rattle, and many others paused in alarm or curiosity after some kind of loud sonic incident or situation or ... something ... erupted apparently in an area east and south of the Goshen Municipal Airport Saturday afternoon.

Hard to say what was heard exactly - the most common description was a "boom" - and where the noise came from as the source remained a mystery into the evening hours. Speculation played out on Facebook with thoughts the "boom" resulted from aircraft, seismic activity, a weather phenomenon or Tannerite exploding during firearms target practice outdoors.

Who knows?

What seemed clear was a massive metallic-like explosion was heard and felt around 3:30 p.m. Saturday apparently somewhere in the area of Millersburg, Benton and New Paris - communities where this "boom" seemed to have the strongest effect, according to Facebook posts.

Comment: Another unexplained boom was reported by northern Indiana residents on December 30th:

Unexplained home-shaking boom rocks residents of northern Indiana

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Alarm Clock

No word on what caused mysterious 'boom' heard, felt across northern Utah

Elle Thomas
FOX13
Sat, 05 Jan 2019 10:05 UTC
Mystery boom in Utah
© Fox13
People across northern Utah reported feeling and hearing what seemed like a sonic boom Saturday.

The boom happened around 11 a.m. and was especially felt in Ogden and surrounding cities.

Calls and emails flowed into the Fox 13 newsroom asking what caused the boom.

Most felt it was a sonic boom caused by jets or other aircraft at Hill Air Force Base.

We checked with Hill though, and they say it wasn't them.

One resident in South Ogden says he heard and felt two separate sonic booms, but that they were different than the ones caused by jets at HAFB.

"It was like those jets except more intense," Jeff Parker said. "It was like a cross between a sonic boom and an earthquake tremor."

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Fireball

Astronomer says meteor fireball sighted over New Zealand the brightest he's ever seen - UPDATE: Space Junk reentry


tvnz.co.nz
Sat, 05 Jan 2019 15:29 UTC
fireball
© Richard Kern
A bright fireball has been spotted shooting across New Zealand skies.

Kiwis across the country have reported witnessing the event which occurred about 9pm on Saturday.

Astronomer Dr Grant Christie, who has been working in astronomy for over 50 years, told 1 NEWS he has never seen a fireball so bright.

He said it appears the fireball burned out about 100km above Earth.


Comment:

Update: According to the American Meteor Society this was not a meteor fireball but a Space Junk reentry - almost certainly the reentry of Kosmos 2430, a defunct Russian Early Warning satellite.

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Fireball 2

Bright meteor fireball captured over western Japan, 'bang and rumbling' reported


The Japan Times
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:55 UTC
Japan meteor fireball
© YouTube/KyodoNews (screen capture)
A flying fireball was seen over a wide area of western Japan early Thursday, with astronomical experts saying it may have been caused by a meteor.

Masayoshi Ueda, a 67-year-old amateur astronomer, successfully captured images of the object around 4:50 a.m. Thursday at his home in Habikino in Osaka Prefecture.

"I could not tape the sound but it flashed for a second and grew to a big fireball," Ueda said. "I was lucky because we cannot predict when and where we can see one."

Some people, including those living on the island of Shikoku, posted information about the mysterious flying object on the internet. One said, "I thought it was an earthquake as I heard a bang and rumbling," while another said, "I woke up to a very loud sound."

Hitoshi Yamaoka, associate professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, said, "We have bolides almost every day but it is very rare to hear one make a noise, only a few times a year."

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Question

Unexplained home-shaking boom rocks residents of northern Indiana

Brooke O'Daniel
WSBT
Tue, 31 Dec 2019 23:07 UTC
Mystery boom in Indiana
© WSBT
An unexplained "boom" is causing confusion across our viewing area, as we've had reports of homes shaking, a loud boom, and no visible sign as to what could have caused it.

People from Warsaw to Mishawaka and up into Michigan are describing a boom that occurred around 6:30 Sunday night.

Every person WSBT 22 talked to said it seemed like it was very close by and many of them compared it to an explosion.

"I heard a boom and it wasn't a firework, it wasn't a gunshot," said Evan Bordner, who heard the 'boom.' "It went on for a little bit. It extended out for a little bit."

It's a sound Mishawaka resident Evan Bordner describes as an explosion.
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Fireball 2

Loud boom and bright flash as meteor fireball streaks over Twin Cities

Tim Harlow
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 22:33 UTC
Twin Cities meteor
© MATTHEW SPARBY

The fireball was reported above Cambridge, in Isanti County, about 2:10 a.m.

One of the biggest meteors seen worldwide this year streaked over the north metro early Thursday, giving the night sky a light show and rattling homes with a sonic boom.

The refrigerator-sized fireball entered the stratosphere above Cambridge, Minn., in Isanti County about 2:10 a.m. and illuminated the sky with brilliant hues of blues and greens as it burned its way eastward before going dark over Harris in southern Chisago County, said Pat Branch, an observer and meteorite hunter with the American Meteor Society, which collects reports from all over the world.

It wasn't immediately clear how close the meteor came to Earth impact, but it probably was close enough to drop pea- to grape-size rocks with charred, crusted or chipped edges, Branch said. The drop zone between Harris and North Branch would be about 2 miles long and a half-mile wide, he said.

The meteor was only the second of 2018 to get close enough to Earth to drop fragments, Branch said. "It's very unusual," he said. "This is one of our biggest events of the year."


Comment: More footage of the event:

See also:

Meteor fireball lights up San Francisco Bay Area, leaves glowing 'dragon' trail

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Ornament - Red

Texada Island, Canada resident witnesses flashing ball of light, 'definitely a meteor'

Troy Landreville
mytriportnow.com
Mon, 17 Dec 2018 23:06 UTC
Fireball over Texada Island, BC - stock
© Neal Lasalle/Unsplash
Witnessing what he believed to be a meteor slice across the early night sky on Dec. 11 was a big thrill for aerospace aficionado Doby Dobrostanski.

The 75-year-old Texada Island resident was sitting in his car in the BC Ferries parking lot at the Blubber Bay terminal, when a ball of light traversed almost the half of the skyline in fewer than three seconds.

He said there was no sound.

"I spotted the meteor and in several seconds it was gone," Dobrostanski said.

This was no ordinary meteor, according to Dobrostanski, who has had his eyes fixed towards the night skies for decades.

Dobrostanski knows more than a little bit about meteors and astronomy. He said that he teaches various courses at aerospace camps on Texada Island.
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