Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 2

Stunning meteor fireball seen in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan

Sean Martin
Express, UK
Wed, 26 Aug 2020 18:09 UTC
Fireball exploding over Iowa
© Dan B.
Residents of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan all reported seeing a bright fireball blasting through the sky on August 19. Stunned onlookers spotted the astronomical phenomenon, and headed in their droves to the website of the International Meteor Organisation (IMO) to report their sightings.

Chris said: "It came straight down on a vertical trajectory and slowed down as it approached the tops of the tree line, very bright green with bright white sparks coming off it. Amazing sighting!

Timothy added: "It was so bright that we could see it from inside the house with all the lights on.

"It lasted long enough to alert another person to turn around and look at it and they saw it for several seconds."


Comment: See also: NASA chief: Risk of asteroid impact not being taken seriously, international cooperation needed to meet cosmic threat

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Meteor fireball lights up night sky over Greece

Tasos Kokkinidis
Greek Reporter
Wed, 19 Aug 2020 00:52 UTC
Meteor fireball stock
© Navicore/Wikimedia Commons
A meteor burned up on the night skies over Greece on Tuesday evening, creating a spectacular fireball clearly visible in many parts of the country.

The scene was captured on video by a camera belonging to kopaida.gr in Livadia, central Greece. Many social media users hurried to report that they also got a glimpse of the impressive phenomenon.


Meteors are from small space debris, frequently only millimeters in size. Most meteoroids that enter the Earth's atmosphere are so small that they vaporize completely and never reach the planet's surface. When they burn up during their descent, they create a beautiful trail of light known as a meteor, sometimes called a shooting star.
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Amateur skywatcher spots 'huge green' meteor fireball over Union, Oregon

Dick Mason
La Grand Observer
Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:19 UTC
Fireball - stock image
Stock image
Crystal McClurg, an amateur astronomer since she was a child, knows what to expect when she looks up at the night sky.

At 12:50 a.m. Sunday, however, she saw the unexpected.

McClurg, looking west from her home in Union, observed an object racing across the night sky. It then appeared to crash into a mountain west of La Grande.

"It was a huge green fireball," McClurg said. "Then it turned yellow and broke apart into four or five pieces."

The Union resident, who was alone, then let her emotions get the best of her.
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Attention

Loud home-rattling boom heard across west Cornwall, UK

Charlotte Becquart
Cornwall Live
Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:06 UTC
Cornwall, UK
© Cornwall Live
A loud explosion has been reported by hundreds of people across Cornwall today.

The bang, which "sounded like a bomb", according to locals, was heard at about 9.30am in west Cornwall between the Camborne and Helston areas.

Residents said they felt vibrations that "rattled through" their homes.

Dozens of people suggested it could have been a sonic boom by a Hawk jet from RNAS Culdrose.

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Meteor fireball over the south of Spain on August 22


Meteoroides.net
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 14:06 UTC
FIREBALL
This stunning and slow meteor overflew the south of Spain on 2020 August 22 at about 4:02 local time (equivalent to 2:02 universal time). It was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at around 62,000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 95 km over the Mediterranean Sea, and ended at a height of around 27 km over the province of

The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, IAA-CSIC), which is being conducted by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN). The event was spotted from the meteor-observing stations located at Sevilla, Sierra Nevada and Calar Alto.

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Like a full moon: 2nd meteor fireball since July 2 dazzles Japan's skies

Masaobu Higashiyama
The Asahi Shimbun
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 13:44 UTC
A spectacular fireball over the Kanto region is captured by a camera set up in Yokohama by Atom teck. Inc. on the evening of Aug. 21.
© Atom teck. Inc.A spectacular fireball over the Kanto region is captured by a camera set up in Yokohama by Atom teck. Inc. on the evening of Aug. 21.
A spectacular fireball lit up the sky over the Kanto region around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 21.

Experts speculated that the meteor came in over the Pacific in Kanagawa Prefecture and fell on the southern part of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture next to Tokyo.

A camera set up in Yokohama by Atom tech. Inc., a company that develops network camera apparatus, captured the dazzling fireball in all its glory.

Daichi Fujii, a curator at the Hiratsuka City Museum, said it was as bright as a full moon.

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Fireball

Flashing meteor seen over western Croatia during Perseids


Xinhua
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 02:21 UTC
This long-time exposure photo taken on Aug. 12, 2020 shows a flashing meteor during the Perseid Meteor Shower in the starry sky above Istria County of western Croatia.

Meteor over Croatia
© Srecko Niketic/Pixsell via Xinhua
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Question

Kilkenny, Ireland residents baffled by mystery 'loud bang' heard around city

Cormac O'Shea
Irish Mirror
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 19:13 UTC
Woman lying awake insomnia
© iStock
Gardai in Kilkenny received multiple calls on Tuesday night after reports of a loud bang in the city.

Dozens of residents in the south-east county said they heard a strange loud bang around 10pm.

The noise was believed to have come from near a cathedral in the City although no damage was reported at the church - KCLR96fm reports.

Many people took to Twitter to question what the noise was while some were so concerned that they phoned the Gardai.

One person said: "I felt it too, jumped off the sofa and outside to see what happened."
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Very bright meteor fireball illuminates night sky over Shandong, China


Sott.net
Tue, 18 Aug 2020 17:25 UTC
Meteor fireball over Shandong, China
© YouTube/Ordo News (screen capture)Meteor fireball over Shandong, China
The Chinese Meteor Monitoring Organization (CMMO) runs an automated camera in Shandong Province, monitoring meteor activity above the coast of the Yellow Sea. According to Spaceweather.com on Aug. 16th, it caught the brightest fireball in years. A space rock exploded in the atmosphere over the city of Linyi, turning the midnight sky blue.

"The meteor illuminated the whole earth and shook the landscape with a loud sound," reports CMMO staff member Zhou Kun. "The flash of light, which peaked at 22:59 pm local time, was widely observed across the Shandong and Jiangsu provinces of China."

A video of the event was shared on YouTube:

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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball recorded over Toledo, Spain


Meteors
Fri, 14 Aug 2020 21:47 UTC
Meteor over Toledo
© YouTube/Meteors (screen capture)
This bright meteor overflew Spain on 2020 August 14 at about 3:10 local time (equivalent to 1:10 universal time). It was generated by a rock from a comet that hit the atmosphere at around 86,000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 107 km over the province of Toledo, and ended at a height of around 57 km. The total length travelled by the meteoroid in the atmosphere was of about 63 km.

The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, which is being conducted by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN). The event was spotted from the meteor-observing stations located at La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada (Granada), and Seville.

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