Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 5

Spectacular meteor fireball caught on camera as it blazes across Siberia

Screenshot from Youtube video
© Ruslan Sol / YouTubeScreenshot from Youtube video
A dazzling fireball has streaked over several towns in Western Siberia. Stunned locals managed to film the object as it sped by glowing yellow and green.

The event was recorded in the towns of Yugansk and Surgut on Saturday night. People gazing at the fireball and watching the videos have been guessing if that was a meteor or maybe a UFO.


Fireball 5

Fireball above US base in Greenland puzzles NASA scientist - jokes about 'Russian strike'

Geminid meteor fireball over Mojave Desert
© Wally PacholkaGeminid meteor fireball over Mojave Desert
A mysterious fireball exploding with the power of a small nuclear bomb which was detected not far from the US air base in Greenland has alerted a NASA space explorer. Another called for calm, saying it's not a Russian strike.

The curious tweet was released by Ron Baalke, a space explorer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in late July. "A fireball was detected over Greenland on July 25, 2018 by US government sensors at an altitude of 43.3 km," he wrote. The energy from the blast was estimated to be 2.1 kilotons.

Fireball 4

'Big green' meteor fireball lights up Queensland sky

Fireball over Queensland
© contributed
A big green fireball that fell through the Queensland sky last night has been spotted from as far as Cairns, to Mackay and Rockhampton.

Community social media pages lit up with posts about the meteor about 7pm.

Jason Jaques, of Mareeba in Cairns, was on his way to pick up a pizza when a flash of light caught his eye.

"It was a green fireball, it was very bright and it caught the corner of my eye," he said.

Mr Jaques' dashcam footage of him driving out of his coffee plantation is the only video footage of the meteor that has emerged so far.


Fireball 4

Meteor fireball streaks over Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne meteor fireball
© 3AW Breakfast
Melbourne motorists have been treated to an astronomic show this morning.

Starstruck 3AW Breakfast listeners clogged up the phone lines to tell Ross and John about the blue-green sight that happened shortly after 6am.

Many thought they'd seen a shooting star or space junk, but astronomer Brad Tucker, from the Australian National University, told 3AW Breakfast it was likely a meteor about 25-30cm wide.


Question

Loud boom heard, felt by some in Charleston, South Carolina

Mystery boom
© Fox24
Dozens of calls and social media posts are coming from people who say they felt an earthquake or a sonic boom in the Lowcountry sometime around 12:15 p.m. Monday.

Residents in Folly Beach, on James Island and in West Ashley all say they either heard or felt it.

"Shook the entire house," one Facebook user said.

"I'm on James Island and all of our houses shook," said another. "I was on the phone with a Folly Beach client and her place shook and now someone in West Ashley is saying the same."

Comment: A Facebook member reports the sound was heard in Augusta, Georgia, over 150 miles away.
I just got a text from a friend who heard it Augusta. That's a hell of a sonic boom



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Stunning meteor fireball flies over the Mediterranean Sea (again)

Fireball over the Mediterranean Sea
© YouTube/Meteors
On July 25, 2017, YouTube user 'Meteors' uploaded footage of a meteor flying over the Mediterranean Sea on July 23rd.

It's the second fireball captured over the Mediterranean by the SMART Project in less than a week. The third since the beginning of July.


Comment: See also:


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Meteor fireball caught on dashcam near Anchorage, Alaska

fireball
A meteor made a fly-by over Alaska at 12:43 a.m. Sunday morning, and it was all caught on dash-cam as it went streaking by!

A meteor is always a cool thing to see, but it happens so fast, that it is hard to get a good look let along a good photo or video. The sighting and flash of a meteor blazing through Earth's atmosphere usually lasts just seconds. You have to be in the right place at the right time with cameras rolling to catch one, and that was exactly the case for Philip Strumsky, who was driving on the Glenn Highway between Hiland Road and the weigh station, when he saw a flash in the sky.


Meteor

Mysterious boom heard in Nanaimo, BC, may have been 'meteor passing overhead' says professor

Mystery boom in Nanaiomo, BC
© rdn.bc.ca
There's a long list of things it wasn't, but no one can seem to figure out what it was.

A loud bang, described as an intensely close clap of thunder, was heard across the Nanaimo region Tuesday around 11:30 a.m. Hundreds of people reported hearing it, covering Nanoose to Hammond Bay to College Heights.

"Heard it and felt it near Lantzville," Jamie Penner said on Twitter, noting it was unlike the sound of blasting coming from his area in recent months. "It sounded like someone opening a big sliding door in an apartment above you."

"For me it was like a loud and quick thunder sound!," Donald Louch said.

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Bright meteor fireball recorded over Mediterranean Sea

Fireball over the Mediterranean Sea
© YouTube/Meteors
On July 17th, YouTube user 'Meteors' uploaded video of a meteor flying over the Mediterranean Sea.


The fireball was recorded by observing stations operating in the framework of the SMART Project from the astronomical observatories of Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada) and Sevilla, Spain.

Telescope

Two asteroids whizzed past Earth undetected last weekend

Artist rendering of an asteroid
© Getty ImagesAn asteroid travels close to Earth in this artist’s impression. Two tiny asteroids sneaked safely past Earth last weekend only to be discovered hours after they’d buzzed our planet.
Two tiny asteroids sneaked safely past Earth last weekend, only to be discovered hours after they'd buzzed our planet. Asteroids 2018 NX and 2018 NW zipped past our blue-green orb at distances of just 72,000 miles and 76,000 miles, respectively. That's about one-third of the distance from the Earth to the moon.

Scientists think the asteroids both stretched between about 16 feet and 50 feet in diameter. That's relatively small for near-Earth asteroids.

Astronomers at an observatory on the Palomar Mountain range in California spotted both space rocks on Sunday, according to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.