Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

Best of the Web: If not by impact, then what?

Dennis Cox
A Catastrophe of Comets
Mon, 16 May 2011 20:24 UTC
One of the large regions that tweaks my curiosity about impact events in a very big way is an area that extends from eastern New Mexico to just the other side of Odessa, and Midland, Texas.

In the image below we see a small part of that area near Vaughn, New Mexico. Using Google Earth's historical image feature, we can view the same place from about 15,000 feet, in images taken at different times of the year.

Impact 1
© Unknown
As you can see, there are numerous craters. You get a different set of colors in the late summer.

Impact 2
© Unknown
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Meteor

NASA says earth shattering boom just meteorite


DailyMail.Co.Uk
Sat, 14 May 2011 13:38 UTC
With some predicting the end of the world next Saturday, residents of Virginia Beach could be forgiven for fearing the worst when they heard a loud boom on Tuesday night.

But according to NASA scientists, the earth shattering explosion was nothing more than a meteorite exploding as it entered the earth's atmosphere.

The incident, which was loud enough to rattle homes in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk and other areas prompted a flurry of calls to 911 from concerned residents.
Image
© Alamy

Speaking to WAVY-TV, NASA scientist Joe Zawodny said the boom is most consistent with the space rock and is probably associated with a meteor shower that peaked last week.

Mr Zawodny says an object as small as a golf ball could cause such a loud bang if it was travelling fast enough.

'A sonic boom is pressure wave, and it mimics an explosion.

'They can be quite forceful, and can definitely rattle walls and windows.'
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Meteor

Stunning Video: Comet Collides With the Sun


Fox News
Fri, 13 May 2011 21:12 UTC
Now That's a close encounter.
Image
© NASA/SOHONASA captured a stunning video showing this fairly bright white comet as it dove towards the Sun -- and was never heard from again.

NASA's solar observatory captured a stunning video of a comet streaking towards the sun between Tuesday and Wednesday -- and the aftermath when it collided with the tremendous ball of plasma.

The video, captured by NASA's Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), appears to show a fireball jet out following the collision. That's not quite what happened, NASA explained. Instead, a coronal mass ejection coincidentally blasted out to the right just as the comet approaches and is vaporized by the sun.

The comet is probably part of the Kreutz family -- remnants of a single giant comet that broke up many centuries ago, and crash against its surface from time to time. It was discovered by amateur astronomer Sergey Shurpakov, the space agency said.

In this coronagraph, an opaque disk blocks the glare of the sun like an artificial eclipse, revealing faint objects that no Earth-bound telescope could possibly see. It's intended to allow scientists to view the faint structures in the sun's corona -- but it also reveals sungrazing comets like this one.
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Question

US, New Jersey: Mysterious Hole Appears in Ground in Bernards


Associated Press
Fri, 13 May 2011 14:06 UTC
Officials and experts in one New Jersey town are scratching their heads over a mysterious hole that appeared in a yard last week.

For now, it appears the small crater that splayed debris across a 100-foot area wasn't caused by a meteorite. Beyond that, it's a mystery.

Image
© AP/Bernards Police Dept.This photo provided by the Bernards Police Department shows a hole in the front yard of a home in the Basking Ridge section of the township.
"It's just really, really weird," said Jerry Vinski, director of nearby Raritan Valley Community College's planetarium, who conducted tests on the site. "We dug around and couldn't find anything. We used metal detectors because all meteors have metal in them, and we couldn't find anything, large or small."

Bernards Township Police Capt. Edward Byrnes said whatever hit the front yard in the Basking Ridge section left a crater about 18 inches deep and roughly the size of a coffee table. Rocks and soil were scattered around the yard and driveway.
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Question

Croatia: Gardeners Comet Tale


Croatian Times
Fri, 13 May 2011 12:32 UTC
Meteorite
© Europics.at

A Romanian man planting potatoes almost died when a meteorite believed to be from the tale of Halley's Comet thudded into the ground inches from where he was working.

Dumitru Zvanca, 58, said: "I heard a brief whoosh of air and then something hit the ground just to one side of me with an enormous thud. I didn't see a meteor, but I saw the small crater of earth it made and whatever had hit the ground had sunk into the earth.

"I thought there might be more so I ran inside and waited until the next day - then I went out and dug it up."

The gardener from Suharau commune, in Botosani country in northern Romania contacted geologist Sorin Grindei, from Botosani, who said: "It had fallen 50-70 centimetres into the garden. It was like a black round ball, like a pool ball.
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Attention

Comet and a CME


Space Weather
Thu, 12 May 2011 18:50 UTC
A comet dove into the sun on May 11th and seemed to trigger a massive eruption--emphasis on seemed. Watch the movie below, then scroll down for further discussion.



A comet goes in; a CME comes out. Coincidence? Probably, yes, the sequence was coincidental. The comet disintegrated as much as a million kilometers above the stellar surface. There's no known way that the wispy, vaporous remains of a relatively lightweight comet could cause a billion-ton cloud of hot plasma to fly away from the sun at 400 km/s (the observed speed of the CME). Moreover, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the eruption that did propel the CME into space. There's no comet in the field of view of this must-see movie.

Bonus: The bright comet pictured above had a dim companion. Can you find it?

Comment: Unfortunately, Space Weather's commentator does not take into account the idea that there is an electrical discharge phenomena taking place here which can easily explain why the eruption began before the physical arrival of the comet. If a comet in the far reaches of the solar system can induce Solar discharge events - which is part of the Electric Universe theory - then certainly, a discharge event can begin to manifest as the comet approaches.

From our recent review of Planet-X, Comets and Earth Changes by J.M. McCanney, we understand solar discharge events as follows:
Basically, electrons' movement is slightly retarded in the Sun's corona, with solar flares hurling out an excess number of protons. The excess protons in the solar wind creates a separation of charge throughout the entire solar system - a giant capacitor with a positively charged, doughnut-shaped nebular cloud of dust and gases stretching to the far reaches of the solar system, and the negatively charged the surface of the Sun. An electrical potential exists between these two poles and any object moving through plasma regions of varying charge density will become charged, depending on its size and relative velocity. When new bodies (e.g., comets) enter this plasma region from outer space, they ignite and begin to discharge the solar capacitor.
Given the electrical nature of the Sun and comets, there is likely more than just "coincidence" at play here.

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Hardhat

US: Officials Believe Meteorite Hit Basking Ridge Lawn

Linda Sadlouskos
Basking Ridge Patch
Wed, 11 May 2011 17:01 UTC
Township officials believe a small meteorite impacted the front lawn of a township home last Friday morning at about 11:35 a.m., creating a trench and spewing dirt and debris on the lawn, driveway and street near the residence.

The residents were not home at the time, members of the Township Committee said when discussing the event at Tuesday night's meeting, although police later said the homeowner was on the property, but heard nothing. No one was injured, Township Mayor John Malay and other officials said.

The address of the home has not been released. However, Township Committeeman John Carpenter said the home is in the southern end of the township.

a trench created on township lawn
© Bernards Township PoliceA trench created on a township lawn believed to have been created by a small meteorite. No One was injured, officials said.
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Question

Best of the Web: Virginia, US: 'Unnerving' rumble felt across Hampton Roads remains a mystery

Kristin Davis
The Virginian-Pilot
Thu, 12 May 2011 11:30 UTC
We may only ever know it as The Night the Earth Rattled.

The seconds-long reverberation at approximately 7:20 p.m. Tuesday sent neighbors to porches, piqued slumbering pets and launched a thousand theories. But nobody can say for sure what it was - not police or seismologists or meteorologists or NASA or Oceana Naval Air Station or the Virginia National Guard.

"No clue," said Scott Mohr, a spokesman for Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

People reported feeling it from Suffolk to Newport News to the Eastern Shore and beyond. The intensity of the grumble was perhaps greatest in Virginia Beach, where five calls came in to 911 and firefighters set out in search of the source of an explosion.

None was found, said Lori Stiles, communications operations manager for the city. She felt it, too, from her home in Dam Neck, a sensation like that of an approaching storm that caused the house to creak.


View Loud Boom on 05/10/11 in a larger map
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Meteor

Virginia, US: Meteor Likely Caused Mysterious Boom

Lori Crouch
WAVY.com
Wed, 11 May 2011 18:10 UTC
Virginia Beach is a city full of sound. Waves crash at the Oceanfront and fighter jets scream overhead. However, a boom Tuesday night caught hundreds of normally unfazed residents from Virginia Beach to the Eastern Shore completely off-guard.

"It shook my house," said one man.

"It almost felt like an earthquake and then I had to think about it. We're in Virginia Beach we don't get earthquakes," said Pam Trotter.

10 On Your Side called the military, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Energy. Turns out the answer may be found out of this world.

"It's most consistent with a meteor coming into the Earth's atmosphere and creating a large sonic boom," said NASA scientist Dr. Joe Zawodny.

Dr. Zawodny said sonic booms are not uncommon. Two years ago, hundreds of people across the region heard a similar boom most likely caused by a meteor.
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Meteor

Fireball or UFO photographed in Scotland?

Jason McClellan
OpenMinds
Wed, 11 May 2011 11:16 UTC
A picture of a UFO was taken yesterday by a photographer in Melrose, Scotland. The photographer, who asked to remain anonymous, supplied the UFO photo to the Border Telegraph. He described the object in the picture as "moving pretty fast at around 45 degrees towards the sky - as you can see by the close up it appears to have a tail showing the direction." The Border Telegraph contacted both the Met Office (the UK's national weather service) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to see if either group could shed any light on the UFO in question. The Met Office had no record of a weather balloon in the area, and the MOD declined to comment.

Image
© Border TelegraphUFO in Scotland. Zoomed image in lower left.
Fireball UFOs certainly aren't a new phenomenon, and they have been seen all around the world. While meteorites and other debris entering Earth's atmosphere can account for some of the observed fireball objects, some of these UFOs reportedly display unusual behavior like directional changes, shape-shifting, and color changes.

The cameraman who photographed the fireball in Scotland doesn't know what he saw, but he told the Border Telegraph, "It was probably nothing, but I still don't understand what could explain something like that in the sky."
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