© Exoss Citizen Science
Fire in the Sky
© J. Gresham
© YouTube/Meteors (screen capture)
© Liverpool Echo
The huge boom was heard as far and wide as Bootle and Wirral, with some New Brighton residents saying their homes shook.
One woman described how her neighbours had all peered out of their windows and left their houses to check for the source of the noise.
She said when she heard and felt the bang, she thought a car had driven into her home.
© NASA Spaceweather
We dodged a bullet today. It came within one half of the distance to the moon.
I got this notice in email from NASA about a surprise asteroid that gave us only one day of warning passing halfway between the Earth and the moon. It was the largest known asteroid to ever pass that close to Earth in observational history.
SURPRISE ASTEROID FLYBY: With little warning, on Sunday, April 15th, a "Tunguska-class" asteroid about the size of a football field flew through the Earth-Moon system. 2018 GE3 was discovered just the day before as it plunged inward from the asteroid belt. A quick-thinking amateur astronomer in Europe was able to record a video of the asteroid as it flew by.
© Temple Daily News
Robyn Skrhak took to Facebook to ask her neighbors if they knew what happened. Some people said they heard it, while others said they felt it.
Skrhak thought something hit her house, she said.
Bell County Sheriff's Department Maj. T.J. Cruz said deputies were sent at about 8:44 p.m. to the area of an apartment complex on Rogers Cemetery Road for an explosion and possible grass fire.
Comment: We doubt that two pounds of tannerite could cause a boom that would shake homes. A close-range blast shown below didn't even shake the video recorder:
© American Meteor Society (AMS) (screen capture)
Observers map: event 1336-2018
Observers map: event 1336-2018
According to Siol.net the event lasted about five seconds and was at least as bright as the moon. Meteorites may be possible.
The event was captured on video:
© University of Huelva/Prof. Jose M. Madiedo
© YouTube/ctalj3
The 39-year-old thought he was dreaming — but he was able to grab his camera and point it in the right direction.
"I was kind of tired, so what surprised me was that I had the wherewithal to kind of think to turn it on," Smith said Friday.
What he captured on video at his spot near Anzac, Alta. was what Smith thinks was a meteor.
"The biggest, brightest thing I've ever seen," he said.
In the video, the fireball can be seen moving through the sky, bright green in colour, before flashing bright white and orange in succession before flaming out. Smith said he could hear a bang while it flamed out.
Comment: Whew! That was a close one! Is this a 'shot across the bow' from Mother Nature? Perhaps next time, or in the future, we won't be so lucky. Here's a few recent near misses: