Fire in the SkyS


Comet 2

Comet Neowise, meteor, and mysterious aurora-like phenomenon called STEVE all share night sky in Manitoba, Canada

Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Business Insider
Sat, 18 Jul 2020 20:23 UTC
Comet Neowise, STEVE and a meteor
© Donna LachA meteor streaks overhead as a Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE) dances near the aurora and Comet Neowise hangs over Manitoba, Canada, July 14, 2020.
Comet Neowise — a glowing ball of space ice with two colorful tails — has starred in countless photos as it streaks through the skies across the Northern Hemisphere this week. On Tuesday, three cosmic co-stars joined it, making for an astonishing spectacle.

The image above shows a split-second meteor streaking across the sky, the green aurora shimmering over Comet Neowise, and purple ribbons dancing in a mysterious atmospheric phenomenon called Strong Thermal Emissions Velocity Enhancement (STEVE).

The shot was one of nearly 600 that photographer and farmer Donna Lach snapped on Tuesday night near her farm in Manitoba, Canada. Lach volunteers for a citizen science project called Aurorasaurus, funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation, which first discovered STEVE in 2016.

The aurora appears when charged particles from the sun interact with oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere, but STEVE's origins are still a mystery.
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Fireball 4

Meteor fireball streaks across the sky breaking up over West Texas - UPDATE: Rocket re-entry

Matthew Alvarez
cbs7.com
Sat, 18 Jul 2020 13:14 UTC
FIREBALL
The bright, falling objects were reportedly seen from the Big Bend area to Lubbock

Did you see the brilliant celestial show that was put on early Saturday morning?

What appeared to be a meteor breaking up right above West Texas caused many bright objects to streak across the night's sky!

There were several videos and photos posted to social media leaving many people baffled and stunned about what they had witnessed.


Comment:

Update: According to the American Meteor Society this is not a meteor fireball, but the re-entry of a Russian rocket SL-4 that launched the Cosmos 2542 satellite on November 25, 2019 from Plesetsk Missile and Space Complex in Russia.

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Fireball 5

Meteor fireball blazes over California


Sott.net
Sat, 18 Jul 2020 06:53 UTC
California meteor fireball
© YouTube/AMS American Meteor Society (screen capture)
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 14 reports (3475-2020) about a meteor fireball seen over CA and NV on Friday, July 17th 2020 around 11:01 UT.

A video by David A was uploaded to the AMS website.

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Fireball 5

Bright meteor fireball flashes over Michigan


Sott.net
Fri, 17 Jul 2020 07:17 UTC
Michigan meteor fireball
© YouTube/AMS American Meteor Society (screen capture)
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 24 reports (event 3408-2020) about a meteor fireball seen over IN, MI, OH, Ontario and PA on Wednesday, July 15th 2020 around 05:41 UT.

A video by Pete M. was uploaded to the AMS website.

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Comet

Comet NEOWISE and meteor fireball seen in Trinidad skies

Kym Kemp
Redheaded Blackbelt
Wed, 15 Jul 2020 18:44 UTC
Comet NEOWISE and a meteor over Trinidad
© David WilsonComet NEOWISE aka C/2020 F3 in the skies over Trinidad to the right and in the left center is a small meteor.
A shiny celestial beauty, Comet Neowise, which began showing in the night skies earlier this month will appear again tonight in the Humboldt heavens. Start checking about 9:30 p.m. for the best viewing. Then the comet will set about 12:43 a.m., but for those early risers (or those willing to stay up for hours), it will appear again about 2:44 a.m. Look for the frozen ball of gases, rocks and dust under the Big Dipper to the northwest.

If you're along the coast, patchy fog could interrupt your chance to view the comet. In the Humboldt Bay area, head towards Kneeland or Berry Summit where skies should be clear.

According to photographer David Wilson who captured the image above, tonight the comet will be a little higher in the sky than shown in the photo above. "If you can stay up until it's really dark, you'll see a double tail on it," he told us. According to NASA, the glowing head and tail is formed from gasses and dust released when the comet is heated up as it passes our sun.
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Fireball 5

Largest meteorite discovered after sitting for decades in garden in Germany


Deutsche Welle
Wed, 15 Jul 2020 03:09 UTC
The out-of-this-world find is being hailed as a "scientific sensation." The meteorite was first dug up in 1989 and sat in a garden for decades before the homeowner shared his unusual rock with researchers.
Meteorite, Blaubeuren
© Deutsche Welle
Researchers announced Wednesday the discovery of the largest-known meteorite to have landed in Germany.

The unusual find had been sitting for years in a garden in the southwestern German town of Blaubeuren, according to a statement from the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

"The find has a mass of 30.26 kilograms [66.7 pounds], which makes it the largest stone meteorite ever found in Germany," meteorite expert Dieter Heinlein said.

DLR posted a video of researchers cutting into the boulder encasing the meteorite on Twitter, saying there was an "unbelievable story" behind the discovery.
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Fireball 4

Exceptionally bright meteor fireball in the skies of southwest and central Florida

Phil Fernandez
Naples Daily News
Wed, 15 Jul 2020 19:17 UTC
fireball
Did you see the fireball in the skies of Southwest and Central Florida Tuesday night?

For weeks, there's been hardly anything reported in Florida to the American Meteor Society, but suddenly at 9 p.m. it had a flurry of sightings.

The reports largely covered a triangle from Naples through Sanibel and Sarasota to Tampa Bay and across the I-4 corridor through Polk County to Leesburg, Sanford and DeLand.

Experts have ruled out both the Comet NEOWISE, which was supposed to be potentially seen later this week, and the upcoming Perseids.

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Fireball 4

Sydney skywatchers report stunning green meteor streaking across night sky

Alex Chapman
7 News
Mon, 13 Jul 2020 05:23 UTC
Meteor over Sydney Australia
© 7News
A meteor has been spotted roaring over New South Wales.

Pictures captured on the Central Coast show a ball of light burning with a green tinge.

Others filmed the event streaking through sky over the Sydney CBD.


Social media was alight with Sydneysiders sharing pictures and videos of the meteor.

"Did anyone just see a meteor or something go down over Sydney just now?" one person asked.

"Looked like a fireball. Looked green to me."
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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball over Seville, Spain

Meteors
YouTube
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 10:06 UTC
FIREBALL
This meteor overflew the south of Spain on 2020 July 3 at about 3:49 local time (equivalent to 1:49 universal time). It was generated by a rock from a comet that hit the atmosphere at around 69,000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 87 km over the province of Seville, and ended at a height of around 52 km. The total length travelled by the meteoroid in the atmosphere was of about 67 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 Sevilla, Calar Alto (Almería), La Sagra (Granada) and Sierra Nevada (Granada).

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Meteor

Source of early-morning boom that echoed in Aspen, Colorado remains mystery


The Aspen Times
Fri, 26 Jun 2020 18:12 UTC
Mystery boom in Aspen, CO
© The Aspen Times
The source of a loud bang or explosion that was heard around the Aspen area early Friday morning remains a mystery as officials from different agencies have not been able to track down where it originated.

Fire and police officials checked around looking for a source of the sound early in the morning and could not locate anything that might be the source, an Aspen Police and Fire Department official said Friday morning. They thought it might have been a transformer of some kind because it was louder than a gunshot.

A Holy Cross Energy spokesperson said they were not aware of any transformer damage or a disruption of service Friday morning in the Aspen area.

Many people reported hearing the loud sound echoing in the upper valley. Police and fire officials said it was not the Smuggler Mine cannon that is shot off on Fourth of July at 6 a.m. each year by the owners.
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