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Fire in the SkyS
NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has upgraded its estimates of a major fireball that exploded over the southeastern USA on August 28th. Lead researcher Bill Cooke says " the fireball reached a peak magnitude of -13, brighter than a Full Moon, and cast shadows on the ground. This indicates that the meteoroid had a mass of over 50 kg (110 lbs) and was about 40 cm (16 inches) in diameter. It hit the top of Earth's atmosphere traveling 23.7 km/s (53,000 mph)."
"As far as I know, this is the brightest event our network has observed in 5 years of operation," he continues. "There are reports of sonic booms reaching the ground, and data from 4 doppler radars indicate that some meteorites may have fallen along the fireball's ground track." (Note: The city in the ground track map is Cleveland, Tennessee, not Cleveland, Ohio.)
Using data from multiple cameras, Cooke has calculated a preliminary orbit for the meteoroid. The shape and dimensions of the orbit are similar those of a Jupiter-family comet. If meteorites are recovered from the Tennessee countryside, their chemical composition will tell researchers more about the origin of the fireball.
© Google Earth/lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
© Unknown
A study of its composition showed the space rock had undergone "intensive melting" before entering Earth's atmosphere and streaking over the central Russia's Chelyabinsk region in a blinding fireball, they said in a statement.
This "almost certainly" points to a near-miss with the Sun, or a collision with another body in the solar system - possibly a planet or asteroid, said study co-author Victor Sharygin from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geology and Mineralogy.
A green light "brighter than the day" and lasting three seconds was reported by pilots and witnesses on the ground. The official Twitter account of Spain's Air Traffic Control (@controladores) was the first to break the news, according to The Huffington Post.
"Various aircraft over the north of the Canary Islands just reported a bright light, lasting 3 seconds, as if it was daytime," it tweeted.
It then added: "From the descriptions given by pilots it was probably a meteorite. Even so, protocols oblige that the military be informed" Witnesses described the phenomenon as "a white light coming down, with a long tail, falling."
Javier Licandro, of the Canaries Institute of Astrophysics (IAC), told the press that it was most likely a meteoroid of the kind that broke up in the atmosphere, rather than a meteorite which survives contact with the ground.
Nevertheless, he did not discount the possibility that it was the remains of an old satellite. Licandro said that he would check the data recorded by the observatories on La Palma and Tenerife to see if they had registered the phenomenon.
Twitter was soon full of people describing what they had seen.
@German_Herrera1 wrote: "I saw it from my house in La Laguna, a green light lasting three seconds. Impressive!"
There has so far been no official explanation given.
"Various aircraft over the north of the Canary Islands just reported a bright light, lasting 3 seconds, as if it was daytime," it tweeted.
It then added: "From the descriptions given by pilots it was probably a meteorite. Even so, protocols oblige that the military be informed" Witnesses described the phenomenon as "a white light coming down, with a long tail, falling."
Javier Licandro, of the Canaries Institute of Astrophysics (IAC), told the press that it was most likely a meteoroid of the kind that broke up in the atmosphere, rather than a meteorite which survives contact with the ground.
Nevertheless, he did not discount the possibility that it was the remains of an old satellite. Licandro said that he would check the data recorded by the observatories on La Palma and Tenerife to see if they had registered the phenomenon.
Twitter was soon full of people describing what they had seen.
@German_Herrera1 wrote: "I saw it from my house in La Laguna, a green light lasting three seconds. Impressive!"
There has so far been no official explanation given.
Virginia Beach - From the Outer Banks to York County, people reported their homes shaking, things falling off the walls and even hearing odd sounds. We asked about it on the WVEC13 Facebook page and hundreds of people talked about what they experienced around 8:00 a.m.
Jennifer Goyet posted, "I was in my garage and I did not feel it BUT I heard it. Sounds like something bumped into my garage door from the wind but I looked and no wind."
"Hampton got three loud rumbles about a minute or two apart. Didn't feel like a quake but a trash truck or thunder," posted Ketie Martines.
Kimberly O'Connor Melnyk wrote, "I live 1/2 a mile from the court house in Virginia Beach. My house shook, and a few seconds later, it shook again."
"Hampton got three loud rumbles about a minute or two apart. Didn't feel like a quake but a trash truck or thunder," posted Ketie Martines.
Kimberly O'Connor Melnyk wrote, "I live 1/2 a mile from the court house in Virginia Beach. My house shook, and a few seconds later, it shook again."
A loud noise heard all around the eastern Darling Downs had southern Queenslanders scratching their heads, until the Air Force put up their hand.
"F/A-18F Super Hornets were undertaking essential 'intercept' training in the 'western airspace' of RAAF Base Amberley, which incorporates the Toowoomba region," a Defence spokesperson says.
"Regrettably the training was louder than anticipated, and some residents experienced more aircraft noise than usually occurs, when Air Force uses the western airspace...our pilots and crews need experience in a range of environments. This includes day and night flying, high and low altitude flying (below 500 feet or 150 metres) and bombing and strafing practice."
The Airforce is investigating the "disruption".
"F/A-18F Super Hornets were undertaking essential 'intercept' training in the 'western airspace' of RAAF Base Amberley, which incorporates the Toowoomba region," a Defence spokesperson says.
"Regrettably the training was louder than anticipated, and some residents experienced more aircraft noise than usually occurs, when Air Force uses the western airspace...our pilots and crews need experience in a range of environments. This includes day and night flying, high and low altitude flying (below 500 feet or 150 metres) and bombing and strafing practice."
The Airforce is investigating the "disruption".
© Joanne BuchanThe fireball was seen from Waterloo, Ontario on Monday, Aug. 19, 2013.
Multiple viewers in the neighbourhood sent in photos and video of a flaming object moving through the sky shortly before 8 p.m.
Aaron Coker was walking out of his Glen Forrest Boulevard apartment when he saw the mystery object to the south.
"I saw something coming out of the sky," he says.
"It appeared to be a plane at first. After a minute, it decided to dip down and hang in the sky for about 10 minutes without moving."
Comment: The 'expert' has no clue has true those words are!
The eyewitness doesn't think it was a plane, and we tend to agree with him. The 'expert' says it probably was a plane, but he either disregards or didn't hear the eyewitness's statement that it's stationary appearance ruled out something jet-powered. And note the reporter's parting comment about 'theorists'.
Why insinuate that calling this what it probably was, yet another comet fragment/fireball passing through the upper atmosphere, is 'conspiracy thinking' unless you're trying to deny the obvious?
Wethinks the reporter doth protest too much!
The extraordinary moment a meteor exploded in the Earth's upper atmosphere has been accidentally captured by a U.S. photographer and designer.
Michael K. Chung was photographing the 2013 Perseids Meteor Shower last week when he managed to record the rarely-seen event of a meteor breaking apart in the Earth's atmosphere.
Initially the designer thought he had photographed a meteor explosion and the debris scattering during his time lapse sequence, but in fact he captured the rocky body being 'torn apart' in the upper atmosphere.
Michael K. Chung was photographing the 2013 Perseids Meteor Shower last week when he managed to record the rarely-seen event of a meteor breaking apart in the Earth's atmosphere.
Initially the designer thought he had photographed a meteor explosion and the debris scattering during his time lapse sequence, but in fact he captured the rocky body being 'torn apart' in the upper atmosphere.
© ESAThis computer simulation depicts
the density of space junk circling the plane
the density of space junk circling the plane
The system, which is a multi-station radar, tracks satellites, meteoroids and space debris that is heading our way. The radar stations are scattered across the southern USA and can detect objects some 25,000 miles away from the Earth. The tracking devices form a crucial part of our defenses against all types of space matter likely to cause damage to the planet.
The Congressional sequester imposed automatic budget cuts meaning there just isn't the cash to run the service past October 1st. It's worrying in the extreme that the government thinks it's reasonable to shut down such a critical part of our defense system. As more and more satellites are blasted into orbit from countries around the globe it's not difficult to work out that more and more of them will eventually crash back to Earth.
Two very large fireball events occurred over Memphis, Tennessee, USA and Canberra, Australia. However, nothing or not much was said about these two sky phenomena either on the news or by authorities. We are lucky this was not another Russian situation!
Large Metor during daytime in Memphis, TN on August 14 2013
A loud boom accompagnying this meteor was reported in Missouri. According to this same witness, the booms broke her windows. Look at this link for more information.
Amazing Meteor Video Over Canberra Australia on August 13 2013
This report was submitted on this website. It occurred at 9:36pm local time (Australia), and the fireball was flying in the SSW direction with a magnitude between -10 and -15
Large Metor during daytime in Memphis, TN on August 14 2013
Amazing Meteor Video Over Canberra Australia on August 13 2013
This report was submitted on this website. It occurred at 9:36pm local time (Australia), and the fireball was flying in the SSW direction with a magnitude between -10 and -15
Comment: Interesting, less than two months ago, another fireball exploded over the same region:
Bright meteor lights up Eastern coast of Australia