Fire in the SkyS

Meteor

Flashback It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time

Alok Jha
The Guardian
Wed, 07 Dec 2005 12:00 UTC
apophis asteroid
In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace now hurtling towards Earth from outerspace. Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.

Nasa has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere.

Comment: 15 years later, they're still reporting about Apophis as if it's breaking news.

As we said at the time...

sott.net meteor fireballs


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Fireball 2

Bright meteor fireball seen from across western Mediterranean


Severe Weather Europe
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 18:39 UTC
httExtremely bright meteor
Extremely bright meteor fireball
A very bright meteor appeared in the skies over the western-central Mediterranean yesterday evening, August 16th at around 22:43 CEST. Videos indicate a very significant event.

The fireball was likely significantly brighter than the full Moon, indicating a sizeable incoming meteoroid. It was a long-duration event, lasting over 4 seconds. The meteor reached peak brightness in a series of bright flares, which appear to have resulted in fragmentation of the meteoroid - several fragments are visible towards the end of the luminous path. It appears likely that the incoming meteoroid was comparatively slow and that the event may have resulted in a meteorite fall - into the Mediterranean sea.
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Fireball 4

Flashback Back in 1944, large daytime meteor turned many heads in eastern Midwest US

Frank Boyett
The Gleaner
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 16:18 UTC
Daytime meteor - stock
© ABC NewsStock photo
A visitor from outer space streaked across the sky the morning of Aug. 18, 1944, leading some to fear the Tri-State was being bombarded by rockets from Nazi Germany.

That was just one of the outlandish theories people expressed about the meteor. Some apparently were hesitant to mention what they had seen because they didn't want to spread fear or be ridiculed.

The only Henderson County resident who came forward to The Gleaner the day the meteor fell was Hilary Baskett, who had gone to check his farm on the road to Spottsville. He was not fooled; he was pretty sure it was probably a meteor. But he was "particularly anxious" that others confirm what he had seen.

"To make it doubly interesting the celestial fireworks took place in broad daylight" about 8:15 a.m., The Gleaner reported Aug. 19. "He reported it to be a long, greenish, comet-like blaze which suddenly burst into nothingness as it seemed to near the ground."
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Meteor lights up sky, shakes homes in southwest Missouri

Wes Johnson
Springfield News-Leader
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 18:48 UTC
Daytime meteor - stock image
© meteoriteclub.com (stock image)
Ryan Johnson was heading home to Carthage Sunday afternoon when he saw something in the sky that took his breath away.

"We were heading east near Fredonia (Kansas) when a meteor fell straight down," Johnson recalled. "It looked like a big shooting star. It was long, but it was quick. Wow. I've never seen one in the daylight."

He said the meteor left a brief smoke trail but didn't appear to hit the ground.

"It was fast enough that me and my wife saw it, but our son, who was also sitting in the front seat didn't. It was pretty neat!"

The meteor created a massive shock wave and thunderous boom as it streaked above southwest Missouri. The American Meteor Society received 16 reports of a fireball seen from points in southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas, southeast Kansas and northwest Arkansas, all just moments after 5 p.m. Sunday.

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Perseids meteor shower to peak Monday night with stunning FIREBALL displays


RT
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 13:36 UTC
Perseids meteor shower
© NASA/Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron)Perseid meteor shower as seen from the International Space Station
It's that time of year again, when the spectacular Perseid meteor shower rains fire across the night sky. The days-long fireball fiesta is expected to peak this evening with an estimated 80 shooting stars per hour at its height.

Widely seen as one of the most entertaining celestial events of the year, the Perseids meteor shower is caused by meteoroids from the debris trail of the Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle which orbits the sun once every 133 years.

Those in the Northern Hemisphere will be treated to the best views, provided they can escape the light pollution from towns and cities. The moon will frustrate proceedings somewhat as a full moon is due on Thursday, meaning the sky will likely be washed out for the majority of viewers, but fear not, as the Perseids have an ace up their sleeve.

Instead of shooting stars, stargazers can hunt for bright 'fireballs' which can last up to a second rather than merely fractions of a second like their shooting star brethren.

"...[T]he Perseids are rich in bright meteors and fireballs, so it will still be worth going out in the early morning to catch some of nature's fireworks," NASA says.
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Flash of light seen in sky above southwest Victoria, Australia was meteor falling to earth

Katrina Lovell
The Standard
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:45 UTC
Fireball over SW Victoria, AUS
© The Standard/Tracey Reid
A meteorite which was seen in the skies above the south-west last night was spotted from as far away as Hamilton and Portland.

Security camera footage of the bright light falling to earth was captured by Tracey Reid's home CCTV in Horsham at 8.27pm, but it was seen and heard by people in Hamilton and Portland.

Astronomical Society of Victoria president Russ Cockman said it was "definitely a fireball meteor" based on its peak brightness and then the way it faded.

"Sometimes small pieces survive passage through the atmosphere and land, to be found by meteorite hunters," Mr Cockman said.

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Meteor fireball seen by several Southeast US coastal residents


Sott.net
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 03:48 UTC
Fireball over SE US
© Screenshot via YouTube/ AMS American Meteor Society
On July 27, 2019, the American Meteor Society received 24 reports of a meteor over Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolina and Virginia. Jeff H. recorded footage of the fireball on his doorbell camera:

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Fireball

Bright meteor fireball lights up night sky in Almeria, Spain

Cathy Elelman
Euro Weekly
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 02:08 UTC
Fireball over Almeria, Spain
© Screenshot via YouTube/Meteors
A ball of fire created by a rock from an asteroid lit up the sky over Almeria when it entered the atmosphere at a speed of some 72,000 kilometres per hours over the Mediterranean in front of the provincial coastline.

It was so bright it could be seen up to 400 kilometres away.

The stunning phenomenon just after 4am on Thursday morning was recorded on external cameras in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from meteor-observing stations at the Calar Alto Observatory in the Filabres mountains, as well as in Sierra Nevada and Seville.

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Fireball 5

Another asteroid impact on Jupiter as astronomers capture footage of flash


RT
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 15:17 UTC
jupiter asteroid impact
A stargazer landed the shot of a lifetime on Wednesday after he captured extremely rare footage of a mysterious flash of light on Jupiter, which may have been an elusive meteor explosion.

Texas astrophotographer Ethan Chappel captured the incredible sight while he was filming the planet, and said the event on Jupiter's southern equatorial belt "looks awfully like an impact flash." A bright spot can be seen appearing out of nowhere before it quickly fades away.


"After I checked the video and saw the flash, my mind started racing! I urgently felt the need to share it with people who would find the results useful," Chappel told ScienceAlert.

Astronomer Jonti Horner said he had "never seen anything like that before," and described the flash as "just totally breathtaking."

"A lot of the time these things will go unnoticed and unobserved," he explained. "Half of them will happen on the far side of the planet. So there's a lot of things working against seeing these events."


Comment: It's not "extremely rare." It's not even "rare."

It USED to be, before 1994, when Comet Shoemaker-Levy broke up and impacted Jupiter.

Since then, comets/asteroids have been observed hitting Jupiter on a number of occasions... Notably, this most recent one occurred almost 25 years to the day that Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter in mid-1994.

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Bright nighttime flash seen over the Big Island, Hawaii last week was a meteor


Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 12:05 UTC
Meteor over HI
© ATLAS
A bright flash that illuminated the sky the night of July 24 was caused by a rock, estimated to be between the size of a softball and basketball, entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The University of Hawaii's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System program on Mauna Loa caught an image of the meteor that briefly lit the sky brighter than a full moon.

According to a UH news release, the ATLAS program, located at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility on Mauna Loa, searches for hazardous asteroids, and its all-sky weather-monitoring camera captured an image of the meteor during routine monitoring of the night sky.

"They are scientifically interesting and visually spectacular but pose no threat whatsoever," said ATLAS principal investigator Larry Denneau. "These occur over Hawaii Island maybe once every few months, and around the world there are dozens per night."


Comment: The statement that these meteors 'pose no threat whatsoever' isn't entirely true. See:
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