© Screenshot via KY3.com
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Fire in the SkyS
© NASA/Joel KowskyMeteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower, August 13, 2015.
Wednesday night, just before 10 p.m., sky-watchers from Maine to Philadelphia — and more than a few in the Lower Hudson Valley — caught a glimpse of a fireball, a meteor, burning up to dust as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The American Meteor Society keeps a map of public meteor sightings and, according to Operations Manager Mike Hankey, about 34 reports were received from across the Northeast, including one from Dobbs Ferry and another from Ardsley.
"It seemed to burn out at a low angle above the horizon," said Andrew Ploski, of Nyack. "My 9-year-old son and I were traveling back home last night after a visit with his grandmother in Yonkers. We were traveling north on the Sprain Brook Parkway near the Ardsley Road overpass. There appeared a large, very bright fireball with trail about the brightness and size of a car headlight. It streaked across my field of vision very quickly from my upper right to lower left — east to west."
Ploski was lucky, according to seasoned sky-watchers. "To see a meteor in Westchester is a little bit unusual," said Larry Faltz, president of Westchester Amateur Astronomers. "You have to be looking up at just the right moment."
Faltz explained that, when you see a fireball in the sky, you are not actually seeing a meteor but the ionization of the Earth's atmosphere as the object heads toward the ground. For that fireball effect to be visible, an object only needs to be as big as a grain of sand.
Reports came in of a large white flash in the sky around 7pm on Monday, with Twitter users across the Highlands, Aberdeenshire and Perth saying they had witnessed the phenomenon.
Some speculated the flashes and noises had been caused by a meteor. Others reported feeling buildings shake as a result of the bang.
Police Scotland said they had been unable to ascertain the cause of the noise.
The Met Office said there were no lightning or thunderstorms in the area.
© Google/AMSAmerican Meteor Society (AMS) Event#732-2016 - 'heat map' showing location of observers
The French Meteor Observation Network confirmed the phenomenon, which was spotted around 10:30am.
It said that the meteor travelled over the east of France between Reims and Nancy.
Social media was buzzing with comments from people who witnessed the fiery spectacle.
Frederick R said: "I looked out of my office window while I was on a call and clearly saw a fireball with a tail light. What struck me was that it seemed very close to the ground."
The meteor appears to have started its path above Chalons-en-Champagne, heading north-east and disappearing between Marn, Meuse and Brussels.
The phenomenon occurs when astral or comet debris travels at great speed into the earth's atmosphere.
© NASANASA image of a fireball from a past meteor shower.
The fireball, which was captured on the Geophysical Institute's All-Sky camera, flashed briefly into view and disappeared. One resident described it as a green flash with a long tail. Others said the tail also contained orange and red fragments.
It was visible for only seconds, they told the American Meteor Society, which tracks sightings.
Don Hampton of the Geophysical Institute's Poker Flat Research Range said, "It looks like a good sized meteor, but probably not a meteorite (which means it hit the ground.)"
Link to video on Facebook.
© SMART Project (screen capture)
Comment: Within the past week other meteor fireballs have been observed in the region, over southern Spain and Portugal, Morocco and southern France.
© SMART Project (screen capture)
© NASANASA image of a fireball from a past meteor shower.
OK, so first, off: Don't panic! As impacts go, this was pretty small*. After all, you didn't even hear about until weeks after it occurred. Events this size aren't too big a concern. Had it happened over a populated area it would've rattled some windows and probably terrified a lot of people, but I don't think it would've done any real damage.
For comparison, the Chelyabinsk explosion, which was strong enough to shatter windows and injure over 1000 people (due to flying glass), had an equivalent yield of 500,000 tons of TNT, 40 times the energy of this more recent impact.
The event was reported on the NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Fireball page, which lists some of the brightest such things.
Comment: Certainly, this is not the first time this has happened in this area. We can say with some certainty that a similar space rock in the very same area, was the cause of the destruction of Air France Flight 447 on June 1st 2009, as reported by Sott.net
Notice also that this chunk of space rock fell on the same day that Copenhagen had a massive overhead meteor explosion and a bit earlier in the day a meteorite killed one and injured three, in India!
© SMART Project (screen capture)
© YouTube Screen Capture
The video, posted to YouTube (see below) by Overwatch Security, features body camera footage filmed by a worker for the firm as he walked on a Victoria beach on a stormy day.
The man faces out toward the water as the suspected meteor lights up the sky and streaks down toward the water.
The lights are quickly followed by the sound of the object passing through the air toward the water.
The video's time-stamp indicates it was filmed just after 8 p.m. Jan. 27.
Comment: The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received 250 reports about a meteor fireball seen over Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany on 25th February 2016.
Over the past several days other meteor fireballs sightings in the region include: Spain, Portugal, Morocco and southern France.
NASA space data supports citizens' observations that - meteor fireball activity is increasing dramatically!