Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 5

Massive 'blast' felt in Chicago was not from earthquake or quarry blast - Another overhead meteor explosion?

Annemarie Mannion
Chicago Tribune
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:27 UTC
Image
People in the western suburbs who felt the earth move Monday weren't imagining it. But the cause remains a mystery.

The U.S. Geological Survey assigned the tremor that occurred about 12:35 p.m. near Countryside a preliminary magnitude of 3.7. Soon after, they downgraded the tremor to 3.2 and said it wasn't an earthquake, but likely was caused by work at a nearby quarry.

"Based on what they've looked at, we're pretty sure it's from a blast," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the Survey. "It is not an earthquake."

The website Did You Feel It?, which is operated by the agency, reported that by midafternoon more than 700 people had contacted the site to say they had, indeed, felt it. Police departments in Hinsdale, Elmhurst and elsewhere said residents called to report the tremor.
Read More...
Fireball 2

Amazing fireball caught in the sky of Japan - October 30, 2013


strangesounds.org
Fri, 01 Nov 2013 06:23 UTC
This car driver was lucky to have is camera on... He indeed recorded a long fireball traveling across the sky over Japan.


This great meteor record was caught on Oct. 30, 2013 near Yokohama, in Japan. The following picture was shot from Asahi Village in the Nagano Prefecture.

Image
© http://sonotaco.jp/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3116&sid=82158aeeb5e267abbce200972516d5fcFireball seen across Japan – October 30 2013
Read More...
Fireball

Fireball explodes over Sarajevo at 30km above the ground


klix.ba
Sat, 02 Nov 2013 13:40 UTC
Image
© AD OrionBolide entering the atmosphere photographed from Sarajevo
Multiple explosions were registered last night at 00:36:59 as bolide penetrated the atmosphere. Its fragments could have hit the ground.

The cameras of Bosnia and Hercegovina Meteorite Network run by Orion Astronomic Society and Hydrometeorological Institute in Sarajevo, located in Sarajevo, Gradačac and Pelješac, registered bolide incursion with above -9 magnitude equal to the Moon glow in the first quarter.

This is the brightest meteorite event every since the Meteorite Network commenced with its experimental activities in tracking the sky activity.

The fireball plummeted at 20 km/s speed and exploded/extinguished at about 30 km from the ground.
Read More...
Camera

ISS astronaut captures mysterious light in space - Trail from unannounced 'missile launch'? (PHOTO)

Ian O'Neill
Discovery News
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:34 UTC
Image
© Luca Parmitano
Last night, ESA/Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano posted some bizarre photos via his Twitter account from the International Space Station. A mystery rocket contrail could be seen rising above the Earth's twilight horizon.

A missile launch seen from space: an unexpected surprise! pic.twitter.com/mbWI209ELv - Luca Parmitano (@astro_luca) October 11, 2013

This oddity was all the more strange as there were no scheduled launches by NASA (due to the government shutdown) or from any U.S. commercial spaceflight company. Russia and Europe also had no scheduled launches at that time. Still, something had been fired into space.

One photograph shows the wiggly trail of a white contrail - exhaust and water vapor created by a rocket's passage through the atmosphere; odd pattern forming after being buffeted by high altitude winds. Then, in another dramatic snapshot, Parmitano posted a weird-looking cloud dominating the photograph caused by the rocket disintegrating over the Earth (pictured top).

An immense cloud forms outside the atmosphere after the disintegration pic.twitter.com/PshgE1W7CJ - Luca Parmitano (@astro_luca) October 11, 2013

Comment: Read the following articles and consider the possibility that it may be something different than "an unannounced rocket launch":
Incoming! Meteor or Comet Fragment Explodes Above Southwestern US, Prompting US Army 'Missiles' Cover-up
Reading Celestial Intentions Through the Wrong End of the Telescope: Missiles, UFOs and the Cold War
Spectacular Russian rocket launch - more evidence of comet dust loading our atmosphere
Was the West, Texas Explosion a Meteorite Impact?
Fireball explodes over Russian city: Widespread panic and structural damage, Thousand people injured
Meteorite Impacts Earth in Minden, Louisiana - Media and Government Cover It Up
Reign of Fire: Meteorites, Wildfires, Planetary Chaos and the Sixth Extinction

Read More...
Fireball 4

Fireball in Pacific Northwest sky likely landed in Pacific Ocean


Source
Thu, 31 Oct 2013 09:50 UTC
Image
© American Meteor SocietyPreliminary trajectory
A fireball in the sky above the Pacific Northwest led dozens of people to report sightings to the American Meteor Society on Wednesday. The FOX 12 newsroom started receiving reports of a bright light flashing across the sky around 6 a.m. Wednesday.

AMS experts said it appears the decent-sized meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere in Washington state, traveled in an east-to-west direction and landed in the Pacific Ocean. "It went from one horizon to the other, never fading," said one witness. A report out of Tigard said it "traveled east to west across the entire visible sky - very long."

Another witness, out of Gladstone, described it as "the longest lasting shooting star I've ever seen."

There were also reported sightings in British Columbia, Alberta, Montana and Washington. Because of cloud cover in the Seattle area, there were very few reported sightings there. Experts at OMSI say a fireball is another term for a very bright meteor, generally brighter than magnitude -4, which is about the same magnitude of the planet Venus in the morning or evening sky.
Read More...
Fireball 3

Fireball seen over Portland, Oregon, 30 October 2013

Nina Mehlhaf and Jeff Thompson
KGW.com
Wed, 30 Oct 2013 10:45 UTC
Fireball
© George Varros and Dr. Peter Jenniskens/NASA/Getty ImagesIn Space - November 19: This image taken with a meteorite tracking device developed by George Varros, shows a meteorite as it enters Earth's atmosphere during the Leonid meteor shower November 19, 2002. The device, which is deployed on board a NASA DC-8, tracks and photographs meteorites.
Several people in the Portland Metro area reported seeing a fireball in the sky Wednesday morning, moving east to west.

Three different viewers contacted KGW to say they had seen it just before 6 a.m.

"I was out walking my dog this morning around 5:55 a.m. and saw what looked like someone lit a tennis ball on fire and threw it," viewer John Kisling said. "It took a couple seconds to traverse the sky."

An expert told KGW it was a piece of an asteroid burning up when it hit the atmosphere.

"Fireballs are not uncommon," said Dick Pugh of the Portland State University Meteorite Labratory. "The question is: Did it make it all the way down?"


Comment: No, the question is: why are they now common?

Read More...
Fireball 3

Meteor fireball wows spectators in Colombia, overhead explosion felt as 'small earthquake'

EvolucionGroove.COM
Youtube
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 11:38 UTC

Translated by SOTT.net

The Civil Defense Department of Meta reported the fall of a yet another unidentified object that could apparently be a meteor fireball. The site of impact may be near the town of Puerto Lopez and Guadalupe.

Jorge Diaz, director of the agency in the department, said that the luminous object was headed to Casanare and that after the impact he felt a "small earthquake" in the area. "Apparently it is a meteorite, according to information supplied by the same population of Puerto Lopez and Guadalupe."
Image

Comment: It's unlikely that it impacted the ground. The "small earthquake" people felt was probably the shockwave blast from the meteor exploding in the atmosphere.

Read More...
Fireball

27 fireballs recorded over U.S. on 26 October 2013


Spaceweather
Sun, 27 Oct 2013 09:51 UTC
Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Oct. 26, 2013, the network reported 27 fireballs.
(16 sporadics, 7 Orionids, 1 Leonis Minorid, 1 epsilon Geminid, 1 Southern Taurid, 1 xi Draconid)

Fireballs recorded over the US
© NASAIn this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies

Comment: Are you getting the feeling that the space around us is getting crowded with cosmic visitors?

Read More...
Fireball 2

Meteor sighted over Liberal, Kansas

Larry Phillips
Leader & Times
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:29 UTC
Meteor
© Leader&Times
A large, vibrant meteor lit up sky over Liberal early this morning, and one man who witnessed the meteor was impressed.

While dodging traffic turning into National Beef's north entrance at Eighth Street and U.S. Highway 54 this morning, Leader & Times Managing Editor Larry Phillips witnessed a large meteorite streaking through the sky just west of Liberal.

"Just as I was coming into town - at 65 mph - as always, two eastbound cars turned right in front of me onto Eighth Street," Phillips said. "I hit my bright lights and my brakes.

"As I passed the intersection just behind the second car turning in, I caught a large white light out of my peripheral vision in my upper right side of the windshield," he continued. "It was too large and moving too fast to be a plane, and then a large tail started developing, and I knew it was a meteor.
Read More...
Fireball 4

Meteor spotted shooting across the Colorado sky

Monique Zappa
9NEWS
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 11:00 UTC

A meteor shot across the sky Thursday morning.

Chris Peterson, who works at the Cloudbait Observatory, said after comparing two videos, he believes it began over Mead and ended over Yuma.

It traveled about 125 mi. and the height was about 28 mi. Peterson estimates the meteor's speed to about 35,000 mph.

While that sounds fast to some, it classifies the meteor as a low, slow meteor, which will most likely to drop meteorites.

Peterson also said this meteor is not part of the Orionid meteor shower, which peaked a few days ago and still has some minor activity.

This is a sporadic meteor that's unassociated with any other showers.
Read More...