Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

NASA shares photo of meteor in Nevada skies

David R. Arnott
MSNBC
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:10 UTC
Image
© Lisa Warren/NASA-JPL/APAn image provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows a meteor over Reno, Nevada on April 22, 2012.
NASA has released a photograph of a flaming meteor that unleashed a powerful sonic boom Sunday morning, rattling houses in California and Nevada when its disintegration released energy equivalent to a 5-kiloton explosion.

The former space rock entered Earth's atmosphere around 8 a.m. PT on April 22 and exploded over California's Central Valley, according to NASA, which pinpointed the location in a map posted on its website.

According to space.com, several witnesses initially thought they had experienced an earthquake.

"An event of this size might happen about once a year," said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. "But most of them occur over the ocean or an uninhabited area, so getting to see one is something special."

Comment: We've noted for several years that the amount of space debris coming in or around the planet has been on the rise. Have a look at some of these articles for more info.

The Hazard to Civilization from Fireballs and Comets
Cosmic Changes, Planetary Instability and Extreme Weather
And keep an eye on this section: Fire in the Sky, as we continue documenting these occurrences.

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Meteor

Second 'Rare' Daytime Fireball Explodes Over US This Month, Van-sized Meteor NOT part of Lyrid Shower

Eoin O'Carroll
Christian Science Monitor
Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:55 UTC
A thunderous boom accompanied by a greenish fireball hurtling across the sky shattered the morning tranquility of many residents of Nevada and northern California on Sunday.

According to the Associated Press, the unannounced pyrotechnics prompted a flood of 911 calls in both states.

"It made the shades in my room shake hard enough to slam into the window a couple times," one Reno, Nev., resident, who initially thought it was an earthquake, told the AP.

"It knocked me off my feet and was shaking the house," said a mother in Arnold, Calif., who said she heard a booming sound at about 8 a.m. "It sounded like it was next door."


Comment: Sierra Fireball Decoded - Not a Lyrid

Choice quotes from the above video:
"It happens right around April 22 every year..."
"The people who saw this were very lucky..."
"A rare daytime shooting star, no cause for alarm..."
There's an even better quote here from another 'expert' interviewed by the Wall Street Journal:
"It happened at the height of an ongoing meteor shower that happens every year. In that part of the country it's visible in the sky for several days... uhm... the Lyrid meteor shower..."
Image
...They have got to be kidding us! Oh wait, they are...

It's raining fireballs! April 2 Texas daytime fireball confirmed, another Meteor seen in Chicago Wednesday

The idea that NASA or anyone else can know in advance that a "mini-van-sized meteor" is going to explode in the sky on a particular day in a particular part of a particular country is total BS when we remember that in recent years asteroids have whizzed past Earth and their presence has only been detected at the very last minute, totally confounding all 'predictions':

Bus-sized asteroid shaves Earth with one day's notice

This is not business as usual folks, don't let them fool you by ridiculing it with X-files theme songs or 'expert views'.

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Meteor

Sierra Fireball Decoded - Not a Lyrid


Spaceweather.com
Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:38 UTC
On Sunday morning, April 22nd, just as the Lyrid meteor shower was dying down, a spectacular fireball exploded over California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. The loud explosion rattled homes from central California to Reno, Nevada, and beyond. According to Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, the source of the blast was a meteoroid about the size of a minivan.

"Elizabeth Silber at Western University has searched for infrasound signals from the explosion," says Cooke. "Infrasound is very low frequency sound which can travel great distances. There were strong signals at 2 stations, enabling a triangulation of the energy source at 37.6N, 120.5W. This is marked by a yellow flag in the map below."
Image
© Unknown
"The energy is estimated at a whopping 3.8 kilotons of TNT (about one fourth the energy of the 'Little Boy' bomb dropped on Hiroshima), so this was a big event," he continues. "I am not saying there was a 3.8 kiloton explosion on the ground in California. I am saying that the meteor possessed this amount of energy before it broke apart in the atmosphere. [The map] shows the location of the atmospheric breakup, not impact with the ground."
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Meteor

Loud boom over Northern California and Nevada thought to be from meteor

Lori Preuitt
NBCbayarea
Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:56 UTC
Image
A picture of a very active Leonid meteor shower.
The Tuolumne County sheriff's department said they are investigating the possibility that it might have been the physical impact of an overnight meteor shower. Some people in the Tahoe area said they saw what they believed to be a meteor just prior to the sound.

People who live in in Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County, Placer County, Tuolumne County, Amador County and Nevada County contacted our sister station in Sacramento. KCRA is reporting that they heard the sound just after 8:30 a.m.

A television station in Reno said they received similar calls from the city of Reno and as far away as Incline Village.

Meteorologists in California and Nevada including our own Rob Mayeda said there were meteor showers Saturday night that could have still been going on Sunday morning.
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Meteor

Witness claims to see impact of meteor in Brazil [VIDEO]

Andre Heath
The Celestial Convergence
Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
At approximately 23:20pm on April 21, a meteor was seen passing over the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, from southwest to northeast, according to recent reports of people who saw the fireball, probably lasting over 10 seconds and very bright.

Eyewitness Report
I saw just now, at 23 hrs something strange across the skies. A foreign object, whose shape could not identify. It had speed like that of a plane, but had a long flaming tail in the opposite direction of its trajectory... A man says he is facing the convent and the meteorite was in the direction of the convent He also asserts that it is in the sky for more than 40 seconds... A woman says that the comet was coming in from the southwest direction... A friend claims to have seen the impact, as it fell near the cane fields...

Lunar Meteorite Hunters [Edited for Clarity].
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Meteor

A wonderful night in April - April 21 and the 3D Lyrid Meteor Shower

Dr. Tony Phillips
Science@NASA
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:02 UTC
This weekend, NASA scientists, amateur astronomers, and an astronaut on board the International Space Station will attempt the first-ever 3D photography of meteors from Earth and space.

"The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks on April 21-22," says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "We're going to try to photograph some of these 'shooting stars' simultaneously from ground stations, from a research balloon in the stratosphere, and from the space station."


Lyrid meteors come from Comet Thatcher. Every year in late April Earth passes through a stream of debris from the old comet, which has been bringing Lyrid meteors to our planet for at least 2600 years. Specks of Thatcher's dust hit the top of atmosphere at 110,000 mph and disintegrate in a flurry of meteors. Most years, the shower produces about 15 to 20 Lyrids per hour.

This is a good year to look for Lyrids because the Moon will be new when the shower peaks. Dark skies favor sightings both from Earth and from Earth orbit.

"Even though the Lyrids are not noted for spectacular rates, the combination of a New Moon and a very favorable viewing geometry from the International Space Station (ISS) presents a unique opportunity to simultaneously image shower meteors from above and below," says Cooke.
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Meteor

New Comet - C/2012 F6 (Lemmon)

Seiichi Yoshida
Aerith Net
Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:56 UTC
Discovery Date: 23rd March 2012

Magnitude: 20.7 mag

Discoverer: A. R. Gibbs (Mount Lemmon Survey)

C/2012 F6 (Lemmon)
© Aerith NetMagnitude Graph
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-G45.
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Meteor

New Comet - P/2012 G1 (PanSTARRS)

Seiichi Yoshida
Aerith Net
Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:38 UTC
Discovery Date: April 13th 2012

Magnitude: 21.1 Mag

Discoverer: Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala)

P/2012 G1
© Aerith NetMagnitude Graph
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-H17.
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Meteor

It's raining fireballs! April 2 Texas daytime fireball confirmed, another Meteor seen in Chicago Wednesday

Steve Tracton
Washington Post
Sun, 15 Apr 2012 05:01 UTC
Image
Early last week (April 2), thousands of people in and around San Antonio, Texas reported seeing what one eyewitness described as a piece of the sun falling from the sky during full daylight.

Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, initially reported the sighting was a brilliant fireball from a meteor burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere. Later, he bowed to other expert's opinion that it was a jet contrail reflecting the glow of the setting sun - apparently based on erroneous footage (of an actual contrail) aired by a local TV station.

This week, though, the sightings were officially reinstated as, in fact, a rare fireball - at least one yard across - bright enough to be seen during daylight.

A fireball is a meteor larger and brighter than normal. The American Meteor Society offers more background:
Fireballs occur every day over all parts of the Earth. It is rare though for an individual to see more than one or two per lifetime as they can also occur during the day (when the blinding sun can obscure them), or on a cloudy night, or over the ocean where there is no one to witness them. Observing during one of the major annual meteor showers can increase your chance of seeing another bright meteor.

Comment: Nothing to see here folks! Fireballs are seen all over the world, every day, always have been, always will be! No doubt when one of them causes serious damage in an urban area, these same 'authorities on fireballs' will tell us that it happens all the time, the city that got hit was 'just unlucky'...

This reshaping of the past to fit the facts of the present is typical of a scientific mindset so hopelessly bound to the extremist uniformitarian worldview.
Uniformitarianism is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe.

~ Wikipedia
"Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia."

~ George Orwell, 1984

Comment: "March 2003", really? That's not what we heard:

Bright meteor streaks across Chicago sky, 19 January 2011

Authorities' explanations for what's going on are starting to wear very thin indeed:

Really? UK Ministry of Defence Claims RAF Jets Rushing To Intercept Private Helicopter Caused Massive Boom That Shook Homes Across England, 13 April 2012

Meteor explodes over Pennsylvania? Big boom still has Poconos buzzing, 7 April 2012

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Meteor

Meteorite hits in Siberia? Strange Sounds and Powerful explosion could be heard


RT
Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:35 UTC
irkutsk, meteorite
An image from Russia's "Vesti" Channel
An unidentified glowing object is said to have crashed down from the skies in Russia's Siberia, causing a powerful explosion. A search for the mysterious item is underway amid speculations of what on Earth it could be.

Witnesses describe seeing a bright glow covering the sky, followed by a shining object falling with a strange clanging sound and disappearing in the distance with a blast.

The unidentified object supposedly fell in the taiga forest of the Irkutsk region, 15 kilometers from the nearest village of Vitim, on Friday night. The head of the regional administration said a group of researchers has been sent to inspect the area and question witnesses.

"We will be able to say what it is, only when we see the thing itself and the place where it fell," explained head of the region Aleksandr Sergey. "The investigators, together with hunters are going there on snowmobiles."
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